panovel 0.51
A script to make a novel out of markdown files with the help of pandoc
License: MIT
Requires Python: >=3.6
Keywords: pandoc novel writing text conversion

# Panovel

  - [Introduction](#introduction)
  - [How does this work?](#how-does-this-work)
  - [Installation](#installation)
  - [Starting a new project](#starting-a-new-project)
  - [The command line interface](#the-command-line-interface)
  - [Formating](#formating)
  - [Configuration](#configuration)
  - [Building the books](#building-the-books)
  - [List of styles](#list-of-styles)
  - [Filter](#filter)

## Introduction

The purpose of this little project is to make the process of producing a
novel targeting different formats easier and more streamlined.

You just write the book in markdown, a very basic and easy to use markup
language. You don’t need a word processor for this, every editor will
do. Then you just edit the metadata.yaml file with the options you want
to use and execute the script. Voila: You have produced your book as an
eBook and a pdf, ready to be printed\! The main advantage of this method
is, that you don’t have to maintain different files for different
formats.

## How does this work?

This project is a wrapper around [pandoc](http://pandoc.org/index.html).
It automates many steps that would be needed to convert the files
manually and provides an example metadata.yaml file for easy
configuration. In addition it provides many filters for pandoc to style
some special elements.

## Installation

### Prerequisites

Before you can use this template, you need some programs installed on
your computer:

1.  Python 3.6 or higher: You can get [python
    here](https://www.python.org/).

2.  Pandoc: You can download [pandoc
    here](http://pandoc.org/index.html).

3.  A latex distribution: If you want a pdf in addition to an epub, you
    need to install a latex engine. Depending on your operating system,
    this are some popular choices:

      - Windows: [MiKTeX](https://miktex.org/download). I recommend the
        full webinstall. It is very big and takes quite some time, but
        you don’t need to install any packages yourself this way.

      - MacOS: [MacTeX](https://tug.org/mactex/)

      - Linux: [TeXLive](http://www.tug.org/texlive/) via the package
        manager

    **Additional packages for latex:** If you didn’t choose a complete
    latex distribution, you may have to install some additional packages
    in them. All of these distributions have a package manager you can
    use to download the needed packages. This template needs these three
    packages:

      - koma-script
      - verse
      - titletoc

    Pandoc needs some packages too. You can find the list in pandocs
    documentation (depending on the distribution, most or all could be
    installed already).

4.  Kindlegen: If you want to convert your book for amazons kindle, you
    need this little tool from amazon. You can get it
    [here](https://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?docId=1000765211).

### Installing this script

Now you need to install this script itself. Open the console and enter:

    pip3 install panovel

**How to open the command prompt on windows**: There are many ways to
open the console on windows. Instead of the command prompt, you can use
Powershell, if you like. The ways to access Powershell are mostly the
same. Here are a few examples:

  - Press the windows key and x. Now the power menu pops open. Select
    the command prompt from it.
  - In the file explorer, enter `cmd` in the adressbar
  - In the file explorer shift - right click on a folder and select
    `Open command window here`
  - In the file explorer click on the `file` menu item and select `Open
    command prompt`. You can even add this command to the menu toolbar
    with the right click option menu for more convinient use.

## Starting a new project

Panovel can create a project folder for you, which includes anything you
need to get started with your new project. Open the console in the
folder you want to create your new project folder in. Then enter the
following into the console:

    panovel your_project_name

Per default, this creates a basic metadata.yaml file. If you need all
available options, you can instead enter:

    panovel your_project_name -c

Of course you can always create the full metadata file later, by opening
the console in the project folder and entering:

    panovel -c

### Structure

All markdown files in the folder are used to create the book. You can
therefor either have your book in just one file or in different files.
All files are joined alphabetically or you can specify the exact
sequence in the metadata file. In addition you can specify the files
containing the front- and backmatter.

The image folder holds all images used, for example the cover for the
epub/mobi file.

## The command line interface

Panovel has a small list of additional options available for more
advanced uses. Enter

    panovel -h

in the console, to see all options available.

## Formating

### Usage

Markdown is used to format the book. You can use all functionality
provided by [pandocs
markdown](http://pandoc.org/MANUAL.html#pandocs-markdown). But while
markdown excels at light markup, sometimes you need special formatting.
Poems, epigraphs etc. are good examples. To make formatting these
elements easy, this template comes with an easy to use syntax for many
such elements. Each of this styles comes with one or more filters, which
formats these elements according to the output format.

The syntax is very easy:

    ~~~{.type .option key=value}
    The content that should be styled.
    ~~~

Types and simple options are preceded by a dot, attributes consist of a
name and a value. These options are separated by a simple space. If the
value of an attribute contains spaces, you need to surround it with
quotation marks.

For example, this is how you would implement a poem:

    ~~~{.poem author="William Shakespeare" title="Sonnet 18"}
    Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
    Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
    Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
    And summer's lease hath all too short a date:

    Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
    And often is his gold complexion dimmed,
    And every fair from fair sometime declines,
    By chance, or nature's changing course untrimmed:

    But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
    Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st,
    Nor shall death brag thou wand'rest in his shade,
    When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st,

    |       So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
    |       So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
    ~~~

You can find a [description of all the provided styles](#list-of-styles)
at the end of this documentation.

### Some additional Tips

You can use html style comments in your source files. But not inside
other style elements. Such a comment looks like this:

    <!-- This is a comment. -->

You can add a curly bracket with “.unnumbered” or “-” inside it at the
end of a heading, to exclude it from the automatic numbering, if you
chose to use that.

    # Example Heading{.unnumbered}
    # Example Heading{-}

## Configuration

You configure how your novel is build through the “metadata.yaml” file.
It consists of fields you enter your data into. Each field starts with
its name and a colon. Your data comes behind the colon. Many fields have
example values - just overwrite them.

Some fields are lists and can take multiple values. List items begin in
the next line, indented and preceded by a dash. Just orientate yourself
on the examples.

Lines beginning with a ‘\#’ are comments. They mostly explain what the
field controls. Sometimes the actual field is commented out, which means
it is ignored. That is an easy way to enable a feature. Just remove the
‘\#’.

The metadata file should be rather self explanatory. There are only a
couple of things you have to add to make it work:

  - The title of the book
  - The author
  - The path to kindlegen, if you want to convert for kindle

If you have frontmatter and/or backmatter in seperate files, remember to
add the filenames to the corresponding field.

## Building the books

On windows you can simply use the provided bat file. Just double click
it and your book is build. Otherwise the script is invoked from the
command line. Just enter:

    panovel

### For advanced users

panovel accepts command line arguments. These overwrite the
corresponding settings in the metadata.yaml. Just invoke it with the -h
argument to see the options available.

## List of styles

Below you find a description of each type provided with the template and
which filter is used to render it. If no filter is given, it is named
like the style. Some styles have options how they should look in the
rendered book. You can change these in the metadata.yaml file.

### align

Needs a second qualifier, one of ‘.center’, ‘.right’ or ‘.left’.

Text gets aligned accordingly inside the block.

### copyrights

You need your copyrights surrounded by this style to be recognized
properly.

### dedication

You need your dedication surrounded by this style to be recognized
properly.

### epigraph

Adds an epigraph.

**Attributes:**

  - author  
    The author of the epigraph

### new\_scene

This style is an exception to all others. To make a new scene, just
enter three ‘\*’ on one line surrounded by blank lines. Please note,
that this overrides one default markdown command for a horizontal line.
Just use `---` for horizontal lines.

**Example:**

    The last paragraph in the old scene.

    * * *

    The first paragraph in the new scene.

**Render Options:**

  - default  
    A new scene is marked by blank space
  - text  
    A new scene is marked by the text given, defaults to `* * *`
  - fleuron  
    A new scene is marked by an image. You need to provide an image in
    the options

### noindent

The paragraph is not indented.

### poem

Styles the content as a poem. There are three render options for this
style, each just formatting the poem slightly different.

**Render Options:**

  - bottom  
    Title and author are positioned on the bottom right of the poem
  - one-line  
    As above, but title and author appear on one line
  - top  
    This filter inserts the title at the top of the poem

**Options:**

  - altverse  
    This option indents every other line in a stanza
  - top  
    Positions the title on the top, regardless of the render option used
  - bottom  
    Positions the title on the bottom, regardless of the render option
    used
  - one-line  
    Positions author and title in one line on the bottom, regardless of
    the render option used
  - noversewidth  
    Per default the filter calculates the best position for the poem. If
    you don’t want this, use this option

**Attributes:**

  - author  
    The author of the poem
  - title  
    The title of the poem
  - poemlines  
    Needs a number. Adds a line number every number of lines
  - versewidth  
    Needs a line of the poem, used to position the poem. Normally this
    is calculated automatically, use this, if you want to set it
    manually

### quote

Styles the content as a quote. Of course markdown has its own syntax for
quotes. You only need this style, if you want to include an author
and/or a title.

There are three render options for this style, each just formating the
quote slightly different.

**Render Options:**

  - bottom  
    Title and author are positioned on the bottom right of the quote
  - one-line  
    As above, but title and author appear on one line
  - top  
    This filter inserts the title at the top of the quote

**Options:**

  - top  
    Positions the title on the top, regardless of the render option used
  - bottom  
    Positions the title on the bottom, regardless of the render option
    used
  - one-line  
    Positions author and title in one line on the bottom, regardless of
    the render option used

**Attributes:**

  - author  
    The author of the quote
  - title  
    The title of the quote

## Filter

Here are some additional filters, not used for styling elements.

### epub\_remove\_fm\_head

This filter is used for a technical issue. Just keep it active.

### header\_fleuron

Adds an image beneath each heading. You need to provide an image in the
options.

### remove\_comments

You can use html comments to annotate your text. This filter removes
this comments from the output.

### remove\_images

Removes all images from the output.