Glossary

The work

Work

Your whole project: the text, the world of the story and its dates. It's saved in a single .exar file on your computer (Create your first work).

Book

Each volume of a work. A work can have several books that share the same world (A series: several books in one work).

Series

All the books of a work together (The series at a glance).

Manuscript

The list of the books, chapters and other documents in the work (A tour of the window).

Document

Each piece of the manuscript: a chapter, a scene, a prologue, a note. Its type says whether it goes into the book or is just for you (Chapters, parts and documents: organizing the work).

Workshop

The documents that are just for you: notes, sheets, references and folders. They're in the manuscript, but they aren't exported (Annotations and footnotes).

Annotation

A comment attached to a piece of the text, which doesn't go into the book (Annotations and footnotes).

Rail

The narrow columns of icons on either side of the window. The one on the left switches from writing to reading, to the map or to the chronology; the one on the right opens the entities panel (A tour of the window).

Ribbon

The strip of tabs and buttons at the top of the window (A tour of the window).

Montage

Your book drawn as a strip of chapters below the page, so you can see at a glance each one's status, who narrates it and when it takes place, and move them around (The context panel while you write).

Visual style

The look of the window: the paper, the colors and the ornaments. There are twelve to choose from, and none of them changes your text (Visual styles).

Paragraph type palette

What each paragraph style—Text, Title, Subtitle, Section, Epigraph—applies when you choose it: font, size, color, bold, italics and line spacing. It's yours and applies to all your works (The editor: writing and formatting).

Base font

The default font of a work: text you didn't give any style to is shown and exported in it (The editor: writing and formatting).

The world of the story

Entity

Each character, place, object, organization or event in your story (Characters, places, objects and organizations).

Sheet

Everything you know about an entity: its description, its properties, its portrait, its relationships and its dates (Sheets: the properties of each entity).

Alias

Another name the text uses for an entity: a nickname, a title, a first name (Aliases: one character, many names).

Mention

Each place in the text where an entity is named. Exaratio recognizes them and underlines them (Where everyone appears: mentions and occurrences).

Category

A group you define to organize your entities, such as “Harbor folk” (Your own categories).

Relationship

A link between two entities, such as “sister of” or “works for”, which can begin and end in time (Relationships between entities).

Context panel

The panel on the right while you write: who is in the scene and the sheet of whoever you name (The context panel while you write).

Time

Chronology

The view with your story's timelines and everything that happens on them (Timelines and the chronology).

Timeline

A sequence of dates on which you place your story. A work can have several, for example one for the present and another for memories (Timelines and the chronology).

Calendar

The way a timeline counts time: a historical one, like the Gregorian, or one of your world's own (Historical calendars and your own calendars).

Anchor

An instant you know in two calendars. With it, Exaratio knows what date it is in each one (Historical calendars and your own calendars).

Validity

The stretch of time during which something holds true in the story: when a character is born, when a place is founded, when it disappears; also when a trait or a bond holds true (Timelines and the chronology).

Date

To set a date at a point in the text, to say when the scene takes place. It shows up as a band in the margin (Dating scenes: time inside the text).

Fact

A statement about your story that some characters know and others don't. In your world it can be true, a version, a rumor or a lie (Who knows what, and since when).

Continuity warning

What Exaratio points out to you when something you noted down doesn't fit (Continuity warnings and how to resolve them).

Publish and read

Reader

The view that shows your work the way whoever reads it will see it. It's also how Exaratio opens without an active license (Read your work as your reader will).

Export

To take your work out of Exaratio in another format: PDF, EPUB, Word, Kindle, RTF or Markdown (Export: formats and options).

Cover

What wraps your book: the front cover at the front, the back cover at the back and the spine between them. You design them in the same editor as the title page, the first page inside (The cover and the title page).

Your account and your computer

License

Your right to use Exaratio to write. You can see it in My Library, on exaratio.com (Your licenses and your computers).

License title

The .xrtl file that proves your license. You download it from My Library (Your licenses and your computers).

Activate

To link your license to a computer so you can write on it (Your licenses and your computers).

Release

To remove your license from a computer so you can use it on another one (Your licenses and your computers).

Author signature

The mark Exaratio puts on every work you save: it says whose it is and whether anyone changed it (Your work is yours: what happens to your works if…).

Module

A signed .xrtm file that dresses up your writing —the sound of the keys, themes, papers, ambiences, typefaces— or that brings a calendar for your works (Additional languages and modules).

Assistant

An artificial intelligence, like Claude, that you connect to Exaratio so it can work on your works (Connect your AI assistant to Exaratio).

Token

The key you give your assistant so it can make changes to your works (Connect your AI assistant to Exaratio).