Compiling

A Compilation is an export of a Manuscript to a single file. Verb form: compile.

Trove compiles entirely on your machine. Nothing goes to the cloud, nothing requires an account, no round-trip through a third-party converter.

Formats

Format	When to use
Markdown	Concatenated .md. Best for handing to another tool — Pandoc, Vellum, Atticus, an LLM.
DOCX	For editors, beta readers, and anyone who requests .docx. Word-compatible.
EPUB	For e-reader software. Self-published authors compile to EPUB.
PDF	Print-ready book layout with a choice of typographic themes and trim sizes.
Shunn	Standard manuscript format for agents and magazine submissions — the classic monospaced, double-spaced layout, with your contact block.

DOCX, EPUB, and PDF are generated by Rust code inside Trove (no Word, no Calibre needed). The Markdown export is straight file concatenation with structural separators.

Compile a Manuscript

Open the compile dialog from the Manuscript, or run Compile… from the Command Palette:

1. Pick a format.
2. Optionally limit the scope (compile just Act One, for example).
3. Configure the output — what’s available depends on the format:
   • PDF — pick a typographic theme and a trim size (novel formats through to A4).
   • Shunn — choose the variant and fill the contact block (name, address, email); Trove remembers it.
   • Title and author — pulled from the Manuscript manifest and your Profile.
   • Sticky Notes and Comments stay out of the output.
4. Click Compile and pick a save location.

That’s it. The file lands where you said.

Output structure

By default the compile walks the Manuscript Tree in order:

• Folder titles become heading levels (Act One → H1, Chapter One → H2).
• Scene titles become next-level headings.
• Scene body becomes prose.
• Front matter (status, POV, story-time) is stripped from the output.

DOCX details

• Headings map to Word’s H1–H6 styles.
• Italics and bold map directly.
• Lists, blockquotes, footnotes, tables all carry over.
• Inline references ([[Character Name]]) compile to the visible name — the bracket syntax never appears in output.

EPUB details

• One chapter per top-level Folder.
• Spine generated from the Manuscript Tree.
• Metadata (title, author, language) from the Manuscript manifest.

Importing

Coming into Trove: the Manuscripts screen can import an existing manuscript from Markdown or plain-text files, building the Scene tree from your headings. Good for moving a draft in from another tool.

Round-tripping

Trove’s Compile is one-way — you compile out, you don’t import the compiled artifact back in. If you need to round-trip through another tool (e.g. edit in Word, bring back the changes), the simplest path is:

1. Compile to Markdown.
2. Edit elsewhere (Word’s “Save as → Markdown” is not great; Pandoc round-trips well).
3. Manually copy the edits back into the matching Scenes in Trove.

That friction is intentional. Trove’s Manuscript Tree is the source of truth — auto-merging external edits is the kind of magic that loses words. If you want fine-grained external history, put your Trove root in git.