The manuscript
Files you can still read in ten years.
The book is a directory. Folders are parts, filename prefixes set reading order, and metadata is YAML frontmatter at the top of each file. Every change is an ordinary git commit. Nothing needs Byline to open it, and nothing about the record depends on us continuing to exist.
Working in it
Views for the whole book
Write, outline, corkboard, focus and split. The outline is a table of
status, word counts and targets you edit in place. Typewriter scrolling keeps
the line you are typing near the middle without fighting you when you scroll
by hand.
Structure you can move
Drag a chapter or move it with a keystroke; siblings renumber and git
records the rename. Notes and cut material live beside the manuscript and stay
out of the compiled document.
Links between chapters
Reference another chapter by name and it resolves. Each chapter shows what
links to it. In the printed document a link becomes its label, because a
printed page has nothing to click.
Search that crosses works
Regex, scoped by folder, facet or work. Replace with a preview and an
automatic snapshot. One search across every project in the
repository.
A pinned reference
Hold a chapter or a research note open, read-only, while the main pane
moves. Read-only on purpose: a second editor invites editing the thing you are
consulting.
History per file
Every commit with its diff, and restore. The restore is itself
snapshotted, so changing your mind again costs nothing.