The Manual

How to use Skarvia.

The whole studio, explained properly: every panel, every menu, every keystroke, and the reasoning underneath. Written as a book, so you can read it straight through, or searched like a reference when you need one answer at eleven at night.

In a hurry? The one-page help summary answers most questions in a screen.

Skarv, the Skarvia cormorant, in reading glasses
Skarv · Head of Staff

I · Getting Started

What Skarvia is, what it refuses to do, and how to get from a new account to a page you are actually writing on.

  1. 1 What Skarvia Is, and the One Thing It Will Not Do The studio model, the bright line against writing your prose, and an honest account of what the AI staff does and does not touch.
  2. 2 Your First Project and Your First Document From a new account to a page you can type on: creating a project, choosing its type, and finding your way around the binder.

II · Where Your Work Lives

Storage, autosave, versions, and what happens to your manuscript when something goes wrong.

  1. 3 Where Your Work Lives: Storage, Autosave, and Versions Skarvia writes real files into your own Dropbox, Google Drive, or a folder on your machine. What it writes, when it syncs, and how to get an earlier draft back.
  2. 4 Connecting Dropbox The authorisation handoff, the app folder Skarvia is sandboxed into, how the paths you type translate, and every way the connection can break.
  3. 5 Connecting Google Drive The authorisation handoff, why Skarvia can only ever see the files it created, the My Drive folder layout, and the reconnect prompt that catches people out.
  4. 6 Saving to a Folder on Your Own Machine Pointing a document at a folder on this computer: which browsers can do it, the folders yours will refuse, what gets written, and the re-authorise click after a restart.
  5. 7 Versions: Checkpoints, Named Saves, and Restoring The two kinds of version Skarvia keeps, how far back each one goes, what restoring does to the document on screen, and where the copies in your own cloud .versions/ folder come from.
  6. 8 When Sync Goes Wrong Every storage state the status bar can show you, what each one means for your work, and the exact fix: reconnecting a lapsed provider, clearing an occupied path, and recovering unsaved text your browser kept.

III · The Editor

The writing surface: elements, keyboard, find and replace, focus mode, and the status bar.

  1. 9 A Tour of the Editor The document bar, the ribbon tabs, the navigator, the manuscript, the findings rail and the status bar: what lives where, what changes with your format, and what the warnings mean.
  2. 10 The Keyboard Every shortcut Skarvia binds, grouped by what you are doing: the ones that work everywhere, the element numbers that change with your format, and the ones you type rather than press.
  3. 11 Find and Replace Searching the document you have open, stepping through the matches, replacing one or all of them, and the character rename that find and replace should never be used for.
  4. 12 Focus Mode, Typewriter Scrolling, and the View Tab Every control on the View tab: stripping the screen back to the manuscript, keeping the cursor at a fixed height, dark mode, zoom, and a second document open beside the draft.
  5. 13 Word Counts, Page Counts, and Daily Goals What each number in the status bar counts, why three kinds of page can disagree, and how the daily goal decides what “today” means.
  6. 14 Footnotes, Images, and Tables The word-processor features a novel gets, where each one lives in the Insert tab, and exactly which exports carry it.

IV · Formats

Novel, screenplay, stage play, audio drama, and video script layout, and what each one does differently.

  1. 15 Writing a Novel One continuous draft, how Skarvia recognises your chapters, what to do when it does not, and why the page count on screen is an estimate.

Index

Every term the manual covers, in the words you would look it up under.

  • +H button 15
  • .versions folder 7
  • 250 words per page 1315
  • 3 by 3 table 14
  • 5 MB 14
  • 66,000 words 13
  • Aa 11
  • add a picture 14
  • add a row 14
  • AI writing 1
  • alt text 14
  • app folder 4
  • Apps/Skarvia 4
  • asterisks 15
  • audio drama 2
  • authorise 4
  • auto-headings 1215
  • autosave 3
  • back matter 15
  • binder 2
  • browser find instead 11
  • browser folder access 6
  • bullet list shortcut 10
  • buttons greyed out 9
  • cannot format 9
  • cannot open this folder 36
  • change a character name 11
  • change alt text 14
  • change the theme 12
  • chapter headings 15
  • chapter not detected 15
  • chapter word counts 13
  • chapters 15
  • chapters folder 515
  • character name autocomplete 10
  • checkpoint 7
  • checkpoints 3
  • choose a folder 6
  • Chrome Edge Brave 6
  • click to re-authorize 68
  • close the find bar 11
  • Cmd 1 switches my browser tab 10
  • Cmd F 11
  • conflict backup 378
  • connect Dropbox 4
  • connect Google Drive 5
  • contains system files 6
  • counts as 10 checks 13
  • create a project 2
  • Ctrl F 11
  • Ctrl instead of Command 10
  • CUT TO: 10
  • daily goal 913
  • dark mode 12
  • delete a footnote 14
  • Desktop folder blocked 36
  • did I lose my work 8
  • disconnect Dropbox 4
  • disconnect Google Drive 5
  • disconnected 458
  • distraction free 12
  • document too long to import 13
  • Documents folder 6
  • does Cmd S do anything 10
  • does Skarvia write for me 1
  • does the count include deletions 13
  • Downloads folder 6
  • drive.file 5
  • Dropbox 34
  • Edit Table 14
  • element shortcuts 10
  • em dash 10
  • em dash symbol 14
  • endnote 14
  • epilogue 15
  • Escape 910
  • Exit focus 12
  • find 11
  • find and replace 11
  • findings rail 9
  • first-line indent 15
  • focus mode 12
  • folder path 4
  • folder permission 6
  • folders in the binder 15
  • footnote 14
  • footnote marker will not go away 14
  • footnote missing from PDF 14
  • front matter 15
  • full screen 12
  • go back to an earlier draft 7
  • goal did not save 13
  • goal stuck at 0 13
  • Google Drive 35
  • HEIC will not upload 14
  • hide the toolbar 12
  • hotkeys 10
  • how do I add a footnote 14
  • how do I get out of focus mode 12
  • how do I leave the manuscript 910
  • how far back does history go 7
  • how long is my script 13
  • how many pages 13
  • how many words 13
  • how often does it sync 4
  • I lost my changes 7
  • image not in my Dropbox 14
  • image too large 14
  • insert a table 14
  • insert an image 14
  • Insert tab missing 914
  • INT. EXT. shortcut 10
  • keep the cursor centred 12
  • key bindings 10
  • keyboard shortcuts 10
  • keyboard trap 10
  • line spacing 15
  • local folder 6
  • make the text bigger 12
  • manuscript pages 121315
  • match case 11
  • match counter 11
  • merge rows 10
  • my chapter is missing from the outline 15
  • My Drive 5
  • my work is not reaching Dropbox 8
  • name a version 7
  • name already taken 8
  • navigator 915
  • never saved 8
  • new document 2
  • night mode 12
  • no Insert tab in screenplay 14
  • no matches 11
  • no Reference checkbox 12
  • no Script tab 9
  • no Versions menu 7
  • not syncing 8
  • notes at the end 14
  • novel 215
  • OAuth 45
  • occupied 48
  • offline 8
  • one file per chapter 15
  • open a file already in Drive 5
  • outline rail 15
  • outline sidebar 9
  • Page 4 of 31 913
  • page break 1415
  • page count 13
  • page count wrong 15
  • page too wide 12
  • parts 15
  • parts and seasons 2
  • permission error 5
  • photo in my novel 14
  • PNG JPG GIF WebP 14
  • pre-restore backup 7
  • project types 2
  • prologue 15
  • promote to heading 15
  • punch list 9
  • reading rate 13
  • reconnect Dropbox 48
  • reconnect Google Drive 58
  • redo 10
  • reference pane 12
  • regular expressions 11
  • rename a character 11
  • renamed document old file 6
  • reorder documents 2
  • replace 11
  • replace all 11
  • Replace greyed out 11
  • restore a draft 37
  • restore them 8
  • retrying 8
  • reviewer cannot replace 11
  • revision stars 7
  • revoke access 45
  • ribbon 9
  • ribbon tabs 9
  • runtime 13
  • Safari cannot save locally 6
  • save failed 8
  • save on my computer 6
  • save to this computer 36
  • save version 7
  • scene break 1415
  • screenplay 2
  • search 11
  • search a document 11
  • search across paragraphs 11
  • search my whole project 11
  • series 2
  • session count 913
  • set a daily goal 13
  • settings did not follow to another computer 12
  • shortcuts 10
  • sign up 2
  • Skarvia folder 5
  • skarvia.json 3
  • smart quotes 10
  • special characters 14
  • split screen 12
  • stage play 2
  • status bar 9
  • stopped saving 8
  • storage 3
  • storage chip 89
  • strikethrough 10
  • stuck in the editor 9
  • sync failed 8
  • sync frequency 4
  • system files 3
  • Tab changes the element 10
  • Tab does not indent 10
  • table columns width 14
  • table headings do not repeat 14
  • teleprompter keys 10
  • That setting did not save 12
  • the bright line 1
  • the staff 1
  • the Studio 2
  • timecode 12
  • toolbar 9
  • two documents side by side 12
  • two page counts 9
  • two page counts disagree 13
  • two Untitled documents 68
  • two-column script 12
  • typeface 15
  • typewriter scrolling 12
  • undo a restore 7
  • undo replace all 11
  • unsaved changes 8
  • version history 37
  • versions 37
  • video script 2
  • View tab 12
  • what is Skarvia 1
  • where are my files 4
  • where is the word count 913
  • who it is for 1
  • whole word search 11
  • why can't Skarvia see my existing files 5
  • wildcards 11
  • Windows shortcuts 10
  • word count 13
  • word target 13
  • words per chapter 13
  • words per minute 13
  • write a novel 15
  • writing offline 6
  • zero retention 3
  • zero retention versions 7
  • zoom 12

A chapter a day, until it is finished

The manual is being written as Skarvia moves toward beta. If something you needed was not here, tell us and it goes to the front of the queue.

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