Guides/Feature Workflows

Printing and Saving PDFs

Print any planning view — or save it as a PDF — as a clean document

One Print button for every view ↓What you get on the page ↓Printing a view vs. exporting your book ↓Tips and pitfalls ↓

One Print button for every view

Nearly every view can be printed — the Write editor itself (it prints the chapter you're working on), the Notebook (it prints the note you have open), the Analysis reports (Beats, Copy Editor's Read), the Structure views (Outline, Beat Cards, Thread Health, Characters, Locations, Timeline), the Package tools (Submission Kit, Comparable Titles), and the marketing tools (Blurbs, KDP Metadata, Trope Tags). The Story Bible is the exception: it is a downloadable PDF from the Structure sidebar — Download Story Bible, below Timeline — rather than a view you print.

Open the view you want and click the Print button in the top toolbar, just to the right of Export Book — or use File → Print, or press ⌘P (Ctrl+P on Windows). The button prints whatever view you're currently on. In the Write editor it prints the active chapter — its heading and every scene in order — so you can proof a chapter on paper or save it as a quick PDF. In the Notebook it prints the open note — its title, tags, and body — so you can take research or planning notes with you on paper or as a PDF. This is a quick proof: it lays out clean, readable prose but does not apply your style template's formatting (fonts, drop caps, ornaments, running heads). For a chapter that looks like the finished book, export it as a PDF instead — see “Printing a view vs. exporting your book” below.

Want a PDF instead of paper? Print is the way. Your operating system's print dialog includes a Save as PDF option (the PDF dropdown on macOS, “Microsoft Print to PDF” on Windows) — so the same button gives you both a printout and a shareable file.

What you get on the page

Each view prints as a clean, light, paginated document — not a screenshot of the app. Report views become a readable document of their findings; rosters like Characters and Locations print as profile sheets and reference tables; the Outline and Beat Cards print as a structured beat sheet.

The printout reflects the view as it stands right now, so anything you've filtered or the analysis you've run is what shows up: Beats prints the pacing and beats currently in view, and the Copy Editor's Read prints exactly the read you're looking at.

Printing a view vs. exporting your book

Print is for the views and reports — the thinking around your manuscript — and for proofing a single chapter from the Write editor on paper. To produce the manuscript itself as a finished file, use Export Book, which renders your chapters to EPUB, PDF, or DOCX with full typographic control and your chosen style template. Two different jobs: Print captures what you're looking at right now; Export Book produces the styled book.

This is the key difference for chapter printing: the Write editor's Print button is a quick proof and intentionally skips style-template formatting, so it's fast and predictable. When you want a chapter that matches the finished book — your template's fonts, drop caps, ornaments, and running heads — use Export Book and select just that one chapter (deselect the rest) before exporting to PDF. Same single chapter, but rendered with the full style template.

A favorite workflow: print Beats or the Outline, then redline the structure by hand away from the screen. Run analysis again when you're back, and the views refresh to match your revisions.

Tips and pitfalls

Run analysis first for the Analysis views: The Analysis reports print what your last analysis produced. If a view is still on its empty state telling you to run analysis, its printout will be empty too — run analysis, then print.
The Print button follows the active view: There's one Print button, and it prints whatever you're looking at. Switch to the view you want before printing; it's disabled on views that can't be printed.
Manuscript print is a quick proof, not styled output: Printing from the Write editor gives you a fast, clean read of the active chapter — but it does not apply your style template (fonts, drop caps, ornaments, running heads). If you want a chapter that looks like the finished book, skip Print and use Export Book with only that chapter selected, exported to PDF.
Save as PDF lives in the print dialog: There's no separate “Export PDF” button for views — and that's deliberate, so the PDF always matches the printout exactly. Choose Save as PDF in your OS print dialog.

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