The editor is where you write your book. This article covers the structure it expects, how autosave and version history work, and the keyboard shortcuts that save the most time.

Book structure

Every book in Bellwether has three parts:

• Front matter. Everything before Chapter 1: half title, title page, copyright, dedication, epigraph, table of contents.
• Body. Your chapters. This is what readers read.
• Back matter. Acknowledgements, author notes, "Also by" pages, newsletter signups, review requests.

You see this structure in the chapter list on the left. Front and back matter are generated from your book metadata by default, but anything in them can be overridden per book.

Creating chapters

Click New chapter at the bottom of the chapter list, or press ⌘N. New chapters are added to Body by default. To add a section to Front or Back matter instead, right-click the relevant heading in the list and choose New page.

Chapter titles are just text fields. Click the title at the top of any chapter to rename it. Titles flow straight into the table of contents. If you leave a chapter untitled, it shows up as "Chapter 5" (or whatever number it is).

Renaming and numbering

Chapter numbers are automatic. Moving a chapter up or down renumbers everything below it. If you don't want numbers in your final book, turn them off under Format → Chapter headings.

You can switch between numeric ("Chapter 5"), worded ("Chapter Five"), or none (just the title). Part numbers work the same way.

Moving between chapters

Three options:

• Click any chapter in the left sidebar.
• Press ⌘1 to focus the chapter list, then arrow keys and Enter.
• Use ⌘K to open the command menu and type a few letters from the chapter title.

The command menu is usually fastest once you're past ten chapters.

Reordering chapters

Drag the handle on the left of any chapter row to move it. The preview shows where it will land. When you drop, chapter numbers update across the whole book, and any internal cross-references in the text ("as we saw in Chapter 4") update with them.

If a chapter has a custom title, the title is preserved regardless of number. Renumbering only touches places where the number is generated automatically.

Splitting and merging

To split a chapter, place your cursor where the split should happen and press ⌘⇧S. The cursor becomes the start of a new chapter; everything before it stays in the old one. The new chapter inherits the old one's formatting and gets a placeholder title ("New chapter") waiting for you to name it.

To merge, right-click a chapter in the list and choose Merge with previous. Titles from both chapters are kept as section headings so you don't lose them.

Autosave

Everything you type saves automatically. There is no Save button.

Autosave runs every few seconds of idle time, plus on every navigation action (switching chapters, closing the tab, navigating away). The indicator next to the book title shows the current state: Saved, Saving, or Offline.

What autosave covers

• Text edits
• Formatting changes
• Chapter reordering, splits, and merges
• Notes and comments

What it doesn't cover

• Book metadata changes in Publish (these save when you click Save)
• Cover designs in the Cover module (auto-versioned, but you commit a version explicitly)

Offline editing

If you lose connection mid-sentence, keep typing. The editor keeps writing to local storage and shows Offline next to the book title.

When you come back online, your local changes sync. Three rules:

1. If nobody else edited the book while you were offline, your changes land as-is.
2. If someone else did (a co-author, for example), you will see a conflict panel with both versions side by side. Pick which one to keep per paragraph.
3. If you cleared your browser data while offline, those changes are gone. Autosave uses IndexedDB, which is wiped when the browser storage is cleared.

The safest move for long offline sessions is to verify your local edits landed as soon as you reconnect. The indicator goes back to Saved when sync completes.

Version history

Every autosave is a restore point. Open version history from File → Version history or press ⌘⌥H.

Versions scroll back chronologically. Hover any one to see a short preview, click to see the full state. Click Restore this version to make it the current text. The version you're restoring from becomes itself a new version, so restores are never destructive.

Retention depends on your plan:

• Starter. 90 days of history.
• Pro, Studio. Unlimited history.

Named snapshots do not expire on any plan. To create one, press ⌘⌥S and give it a label like "before editor's pass." Use these for milestones. They are easier to find than scrolling through autosaves from six months ago.

Word count and page estimate

The counter at the bottom of the editor shows:

• Word count for the current chapter
• Word count for the whole book
• Page estimate (respects your trim size and formatting settings)

Click the counter to swap to character count or reading time. Reading time assumes 250 words per minute, which is average for literary fiction.

The page estimate updates live but is not exact until you run a Pre-flight check before publishing. Print page counts depend on font, size, leading, and margins, and the estimate rounds aggressively.

Importing a manuscript

If you have a draft in Word, Google Docs, or Scrivener, import it with File → Import. Supported formats:

• .docx (Word, Google Docs export)
• .scriv (Scrivener)
• .md (Markdown)
• .txt (plain text)
• .rtf

The importer detects chapter breaks from headings (Heading 1 by default, configurable per import). It preserves italics, bold, block quotes, and basic lists. It does not preserve page breaks, comments in the source doc, or tracked changes.

If the importer gets chapter detection wrong, fix it before you start editing. Edit → Restructure from headings re-runs detection with different rules.

Pasting from elsewhere

Paste works the way you would expect, but with one non-obvious behaviour. Pasting from Word or Google Docs strips inline fonts and colours by default. Formatting that matches your book's style (bold, italic, headings) is kept.

To paste something exactly, including weird formatting, use Paste as formatted (⌘⌥V). To paste as plain text, use ⌘⇧V.

Keyboard shortcuts

The essentials:

The full list, including rebindable shortcuts, lives under Settings → Shortcuts.

Common edge cases

I pasted something and lost my formatting. Press ⌘Z to undo, then re-paste with ⌘⌥V (Paste as formatted).

My chapter numbers look wrong after reordering. They should not be. If they are, refresh the page. If the problem persists, contact support with the book name; it is a bug we want to know about.

Autosave is stuck on "Saving." Check your connection first. If you are online, log out and back in. If it still hangs, your local version is fine, but a manual export (File → Export → Markdown) gives you a safe copy while support investigates.

I can't find a chapter I am sure I wrote. Search with ⌘⌥F (Find across book). If it is not there, check version history for deleted chapters. They are recoverable for the retention window of your plan.