yWriter Software Tutorial

[zapato]

So I must be an idiot, but I always wrote the body of the chapter on the Description. Should I use the scenes for that?

[KMWeiland]

@zapato Honestly, I'd do whatever works for you. But if you utilize the scenes, you'll be able to access more of the organizational features the program offers.

[zapato]

@KMWeiland Well. Ywriter was something that I tried and didn´t like.. but now is just what I need. THANKS!

[KMWeiland]

@zapato Glad you've rediscovered it!

[LOLig135]

:/ umnn... how do i import dukuments, i alredy worte - u konw, like... i just want to take a brief look at the text of my scene, is this possible? thx for anwser^^ good tut

[KMWeiland]

@LOLig135 To important a document into yWriter, save it as an rtf file, then, in yWriter, click Project in the top taskbar, then click either Import Into New Project or Important Into Current Project.

[IceInMySnowCone]

Thank you :)

[MzSnowleopard]

Thank you for uploading this tutorial. Very helpful

[KMWeiland]

@MzSnowleopard You're welcome. Glad it was useful!

[NemethBooshi]

Does yWriter take up a lot of space on your computer?

[KMWeiland]

@NemethBooshi No. The program's only about 5 MB.

[ZetaSimsoy]

For me I find most of this stuff clutter, I don't need to keep track of all the scenes, points of view, items and characters because thats what the text in the story is for. Grr, I NEED MONEY TO HIER CODERS!

[KMWeiland]

@ZetaSimsoy Wouldn't be fabulous if we could each commission the perfect writing software for our own unique needs?

[ZetaSimsoy]

@KMWeiland It would be. For me this is to technical. I like the idea of a Wiki/Word Processor hybrid because it would eliminate me jumping about different applications so much and keep everything in one place.

[ZetaSimsoy]

For me yWriter is just to non-linear, I want to just type like a wordprocessor and organize my my notes, chapters, characters and wiki all into a sidebar of sorts.

[notfauxnooz]

I've been searching for a tutorial on yWriter for a long time. Thanks.

BTW: what do you use to capture your screen activity for the tutorial video?

[KMWeiland]

@notfauxnooz Glad you enjoyed it! I use CamStudio for screen captures.

[ChiefTac]

Nice!! I always wanted to write a book and with this free software its much easier to organize everything in the story. Great Tool!!

[SpiegelMaciej]

I got problem, because when i choose character to be in scene, it automaticly change to another one. I don't know why.

[KMWeiland]

@SpiegelMaciej Hmm, I'm stumped. Sounds like a glitch I've never run across before. If the problem persists, you might want to try reinstalling the program.

[Lilithly]

so great that you did this! it helped a lot! whoo i love you^^

[KMWeiland]

@Lilithly Glad you found it helpful!

[thelostgirl101]

What if you have a scene in mind but you aren't sure what chapter you want it in or want to move it to a different chapter later?

[KMWeiland]

@thelostgirl101 You can click and drag scenes to different chapters to rearrange them. Easy-peasy!

[thelostgirl101]

@KMWeiland That was a quick reply! Thanks! :)

[KMWeiland]

@thelostgirl101 My pleasure!

[Dinyctis]

Very helpful tutorial. I can't for the life of me figure out how to indent within the content window of yWriter (to start a new paragraph). Doesn't appear on the toolbar, or in the shortcuts window under help. Any ideas? I know you said you use it for outlining only though.

[Dinyctis]

As usual, I figured out how to do it after leaving the message above. For interested parties:

The software actually auto-tabs for you whenever you press enter to make a new paragraph. You can change the standard indentation via Settings > Set Paragraph Indent in the Scene Editor. Standard indent is a half-inch, I think, which is 36 points. You can also enable tabbing, under the same Settings menu. But I suspect this is largely superfluous once you realize the software auto-tabs.

[KMWeiland]

@Dinyctis Thanks for watching! You can't indent manually by clicking the Settings tab at the top of the editor window, then selecting Allow TAB in Editor Window. You can also set up an automatic ident spacing by clicking the Settings tab, select Paragraph Indent, then indicating how many spaces you want the ident to take up (between 0-50).

[honorstudent97]

So are scenes kinda like paragraphs, or a series of paragraphs?

[KMWeiland]

@honorstudent97 A scene is any section of a story (composed of a series of paragraphs) that takes place in one setting. For example, in Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol, the early scenes showed Scrooge and Cratchit at Scrooge's counting house, then Scrooge walking home to his house, then Scrooge waking up in his bedroom to meet the first ghost. The yWriter feature allows you to organize scenes so that you see all the pertinent events in your story at a glance.

[Kribzen]

Thanks :DD This really helped me out ^^ 

[KMWeiland]

@Kribzen Great! I'm so glad it was useful.

[AtheistHare]

Fantastic! A friend recently mentioned yWriter to me and found this when I started to look into it. It is so helpful to have someone go over the basics of how it is used. Thank you so much for taking the time to do this!

[KMWeiland]

@AtheistHare You're very welcome. Glad you're enjoying the benefits of this great program!

[XDETHpianist]

WHAT HAPPENED TO MARCUS !!???!! :O

[KMWeiland]

@XDETHpianist I guess you'll just have to read the book to find out!

[SimlishSammy]

Thank you! Thank you!

[JPRosito]

Thanx, I really want to use this word processor and this really helped me a lot. 5/5

[nandox42]

Thanks so much! This tutorial is really helpful!

[emilyemilyliz]

WOW, THANKS! Thanks so much. =)

[KMWeiland]

@emilyemilyliz You're very welcome.

[emilyemilyliz]

How do you use the "Text speech"?

[KMWeiland]

@emilyemilyliz Are you talking about the feature that reads your work aloud? If so, it's very handy for catching typos. Just hit the play button (fifth button from the right) in the Content tab of the Scene window.

[KeelyTurner]

Does it not work for Mac's? I can't even seen to access the site from my Mac and I've tried to download ywriter5 from other links without success. 

[KMWeiland]

@KeelyTurner Unfortunately, no, it's not available for Macs at this time. In fact, yWriter's unavailability on Apple software was the primary reason I decided to stick with Windows when I bought a new computer.

[AWickedMind]

I'm confused. Where do you write the actual chapter itself?

[KMWeiland]

@AWickedMind If you choose to write your story directly into yWriter (I don't - I prefer to use it only for outlining and write my story in Word), you can enter it in the field marked "Content" in the box that pops up when you double click on a scene.

[minipod2002]

@AWickedMind

You create chapters, and then add scenes to them. You do it scene by scene and then you have the building blocks for your chapters. This makes it really simple to move your writing around.

[AWickedMind]

Is this legit? I'm paranoid that if I download a free program I'm not familiar with and write my stories on it, it'll either a) give me a virus or b) somehow steal my work. Can anybody vouche for it? I've only got Notepad on my computer and really need a real writing program.

[KMWeiland]

@AWickedMind Thousands of writers use yWriter. I've been using it for years and have downloaded several updates with never any problem with viruses. The software saves all your writing to your computer hard drive. No one but you has access to your yWriter files.

[AWickedMind]

@KMWeiland - Thanks. I did end up downloading it and I'm very happy with it. It's so nice to have everything organized like that. I'm really glad you made this video.

[KMWeiland]

@AWickedMind My pleasure! I hope you find yWriter as useful as I have.

[MrGamejammer]

I am looking into using yWriter to help organize my brain, and really enjoyed your tutorial. But I was left wanting a bit more. I thought after taking us through the basics you would load up a completed outline (maybe from one of your own projects), and show us how you use yWriter--full blown meat and potatoes.

What would you think of recording a Part 2?

Your blog is great, btw. It's a new favorite of mine.

[KMWeiland]

@MrGamejammer Glad you're enjoying the blog! I'll look into doing a Part 2 tour through one of my completed outlines.

[ulujain]

Fantastic. I can see how yWriter would be a cure for continuity issues, something I suffer from in my writing. Thank you for the tutorial.

[DiscipleOfChrist96]

Thanks for the tutorial! Now if only I'd had this when I downloaded yWriter for my first NaNoWriMo all those years ago and promptly got lost in it. ;) But I used it last year and finished NaNo early even though I started late. I'm using yWriter5 now to write another novel in 30 days. Hey, why torture myself just once a year when I can make my brain explode any time? ;)

[MrHer0n]

Fantastic program, so easy to keep everything organized!

[tenryuu]

Pretty good tutorial you've got there. :3 I've just started using yWriter and I'm enjoying its features so far.

Are you a troper, by any chance?

[KMWeiland]

Don't think so - since I'm not sure what a troper is!

[tenryuu]

@KMWeiland Forgive me for assuming. The term MacGuffin is commonly used on TVTropes, so...

[KMWeiland]

No problem. But, no, I'm not a member of TVTropes. "MacGuffin" is just a general literary term.

[tenryuu]

@KMWeiland Yep, it is. I came across it first on TVTropes, along with stuff like Chekov's Gun. :3

[multipurpose101]

@KMWeiland so true. anyway, thanks for the tutorial. Wait...so you know Simon Haynes? Or are you just doing this to help out?

[KMWeiland]

@multipurpose101 No, I don't know Simon. I'm just a fan of his wonderful program.

[gorboy]

Does this program also actually FORMAT your text? Because that's what I'm having most trouble with. Manuscript templates on the web vary from source to source

[KMWeiland]

No, not beyond the basics of bold and italic. It's an organizational program more than anything.

[liquidapex]

You really need a mic adjustment... love the software though!

[KMWeiland]

I've updated my recording equipment since making this vid. Maybe one of these days I'll redo it. Glad you're enjoying the program!

[Kittyjoy]

Private Policy?

[BabyLioness]

can i 're-use' a character in another story instead of typing/copy pasting everything all out again? or is there a 'catalog' provided with the program?

also, you mentioned that although you use it you don't use it as the actual text editor--but it is okay to import everything straight into ywriter after everything right? do you have to re-output everything once you're done with the 'book'/story or is it again, automatic?

sorry to bother you and thank you for reading.

[KMWeiland]

The only way to transfer information from one project to the next is to copy/paste.

I'm not sure I completely understand your second question. Are you asking about importing your story into yWriter from Word (or any other word processor) and then exporting it *back* to Word?

[HalSpacejock]

You can now export all characters via the menu, then import them all into a new project. Same for items & locations.

[Rosepetals1984]

This is a really great program - I've used yWriter when working with some of my writing projects and found it very easy to use. Thanks for the tutorial - it was very well done.

[jessica8888]

LOVE this software! Makes writing SO much easier!!

[WillHally]

Thanks for the tutorial because I really need it!!

[EmeraldPlatoon92]

cool video thanks

[KMWeiland]

Yes, it was originally designed as a word processor. I use it only for outlines, because I prefer the formatting capabilities of Word. But there's no reason you couldn't write your story directly in yWriter.

[manhattanchaz]

So...can you like, actually write your story on this?

[againwithverve]

Thank you, that's very helpful!

[SomeAnonymousDude]

There's close to 3000 views on this video and 2 comments? The maker dude needs to advertise a bit. I actually found the software via a link from a manga art forum.

[kitsuneopal]

I love Y Writer!

Good tutorial!