Category: bibisco tips and tricks

What’s New in bibisco Novel Writing Software 3.0?

What’s New in bibisco Novel Writing Software 3.0?

Hello, writers!

I’m thrilled to share the exciting news of bibisco’s latest release, version 3.0! It’s been an incredible journey, and I want to express my heartfelt gratitude to all the writers who have contributed their ideas and suggestions to make bibisco even more amazing and useful.

Thank you so much for your invaluable input, and please don’t hesitate to keep sending me your proposals at info@bibisco.com. While I may not be able to implement every single suggestion, I assure you that I’ll carefully read and evaluate each one.

Now, let’s dive into what’s new in bibisco novel writing software 3.0!

Groups

Many of you have asked me for this feature, and finally, here it is! You now can manage groups of characters, locations, objects, and narrative strands related to each other: a family, a team, a gang, or a group of friends. Or even characters with similar characteristics, such as wizards, warriors, elves, dwarves, orcs, dragons, fairies, etc.

groups management
bibisco’s novel writing software groups management

In each group, it is possible to associate a color and a profile picture, and there is a space to enter the description indicating the characteristics, goals, values, norms, structure, roles, rituals, traditions, and so on.

bibisco Novel Writing Software 3.0 - group's description
Group’s description

All the character cards, locations, items, and storylines have labels showing which group they belong to. This makes it super easy to see group members at a glance. You can even filter and only check out the members of a specific group. This is especially handy in novels with many characters, locations, and objects.

bibisco Novel Writing Software 3.0 - characters section
bibisco novel writing software character’s section

Oh, and scenes and chapters have labels too! They show which groups the characters, locations, objects, and narrative strands in them belong to.

So, with group management, you’ll have a neat, organized, and visually appealing way to handle your story elements, especially if they are numerous.

Customized questions for character interviews

Are you missing the most crucial question for your character while going through all the interview questions? Are you crafting a fantasy or dystopian world where characters possess unique powers, and you want specific questions about these powers to appear in the interview?

No worries! Starting today, you can enrich character interviews with questions created by you.

custom questions
bibisco’s custom questions

Customized questions let you dig deeper into your character’s unique qualities and powers, making them stand out in the story. Plus, these personalized questions allow you to explore all the nitty-gritty details of your fictional world, so readers can get a feel for how everything works.

Read mode

Here’s another highly requested feature from many of you. While it’s crucial to have the text broken down into individual scenes during the planning and writing stages, it’s important to be able to read a chapter or the entire novel continuously during the revision phase.

Now, you can revise the novel without navigating between scenes with the “Read chapter” button in the specific chapter section or the “Read novel” button in the entire chapters section.

bibisco Novel Writing Software 3.0 - read mode
bibisco’s read mode

You can also use a dropdown menu to jump to a specific chapter, and, best of all, you can read your novel in full-screen mode!

And what if you notice something you don’t like during the revision phase and want to change? It’s as easy as it can be! Just double-click on the part of the text you want to modify, and bibisco will open the corresponding scene for editing, highlighting the chosen paragraph.

Mind maps

This version significantly enhances the Mind Maps functionality (previously known as Relations in version 2.4). Here’s the lowdown:

  1. Unlimited Mind Maps: You can now create as many mind maps as your heart desires. No more limits, just let your thoughts flow!
  2. Colors and Cool Shapes: Get ready to jazz up your maps! You can choose your own colors for the elements, and I’ve even added some fresh new shapes to spice things up.
  3. Fancy Arrows: Arrows just got a makeover! You can now pick their colors to match your style. Plus, we’ve introduced bidirectional arrows and cool dashed arrows for those extra special connections.

These updates give you more freedom, creativity, and customization options for your mind maps.
And you can do things like this:

bibisco Novel Writing Software 3.0 - mind map
bibisco novel writing software mind map

Ukrainian translation

Thanks to the awesome help of volunteers, bibisco is now available in Ukrainian, giving more writers a chance to enjoy it in their native language.

I’m grateful for the hard work and dedication of our volunteer community, whose efforts have expanded the reach of bibisco and made it accessible to even more people around the world.

Conclusion

What’s new in bibisco novel writing software 3.0? With the invaluable input from our community of writers, I’ve introduced exciting features such as Groups, Customized Questions for Character Interviews, Read Mode, and enhanced Mind Maps. These additions empower writers to bring depth and richness to their characters, easily explore their fictional worlds, and revise their work seamlessly.

I’m immensely grateful for the support and contributions of the bibisco community, whose feedback and ideas have shaped bibisco into the novel writing software it is today.

So, don’t wait any longer, download it now and let your imagination soar. Happy writing!

What’s new in bibisco 2.4?

What’s new in bibisco 2.4?

Hello writers! I am very excited to announce the release of the new version of bibisco, the 2.4!

As always, I want to thank all the writers who have given me ideas and suggestions to make bibisco even more beautiful and helpful.

Thank you very much, and please continue to send me your proposals at info@bibisco.com. We will probably not implement all of them, but we will certainly read and evaluate them carefully.

And now let’s take a look at what’s new!

Tree menu

bibisco's vertical tree menu | bibisco blog useful resources by your novel writing software
bibisco’s vertical tree menu

This is the biggest innovation of this version. The horizontal menu has been replaced with a vertical tree menu.

The new menu allows you to move between the innermost sections of bibisco with fewer clicks and also provides a general outline of the project.

Setting the font size of the User Interface

bibisco's zoom level | bibisco blog useful resources by your novel writing software
bibisco’s zoom level

This is one of the features that writers requested the most: the ability to increase the font size of the entire application, not just the font within the text editor.

Now you can choose whether to work at the standard size or with dimensions enlarged to 115% or 130%.

Additional fonts: Baskerville, Garamond, Georgia, Palatino

bibisco's new fonts | bibisco blog useful resources by your novel writing software
bibisco’s new fonts

There are some fonts particularly loved by you writers: Baskerville, Garamond, Georgia, Palatino.

From today you can also use them in your favorite novel writing software (Supporters Edition only).

Setting line spacing e paragraph spacing

Setting line spacing and paragraph spacing | bibisco blog useful resources by your novel writing software
Setting line spacing and paragraph spacing

The possibilities of formatting the text written with bibisco are enriched.

From this new version it is also possible to set line spacing and paragraph spacing.

Setting the scenes’ separator on export

Setting scenes' separator | bibisco blog useful resources by your novel writing software
Setting scenes’ separator

Not everyone likes to separate scenes with a white line. From today it is possible to separate the scenes also with three dots (…) or three asterisks (***).

Setting the title format and position on export

bibisco's chapter title format | bibisco blog useful resources by your novel writing software
bibisco’s chapter title format

Also for the format of the chapterstitle, from this version there is more choice for writers, who can choose between:

  • Number & Title (example: 4. Andrea meets Valentina)
  • Only number (example: 4.)
  • Only title (example: Andrea meets Valentina)
  • “Chapter” & Number (example: Chapter 4)

Writers can also choose the position of the title: left or center.

Windows Installer

In addition to the portable version (a zip file to unpack) from this version, by popular demand of many users, it is possible to install bibisco with a traditional installer for Windows.

Supporters edition features are available for 30-day trial on Community Edition

30-day Supporters Edition trial included in Community Edition | bibisco blog useful resources by your novel writing software
30-day Supporters Edition trial included in Community Edition

I think the Supporters Edition features are so great that I have decided to let Community Edition users try them for 30 days as well.

They will find them irresistible!

Conclusion

Thanks to the suggestions of many writers, here is the new version of bibisco!

I hope you like it and, above all, it can help you write beautiful stories even better.

So, download and try the new version bibisco!

PS: If you need information about the update from a previous version read here.

Are you ready to let someone read your novel?

Are you ready to let someone read your novel?

So you finally managed to finish your book.

Good job! It’s not easy, it takes a lot of work, dedication and courage.

And now are you ready to let someone read your novel?

When should I submit my book?

There is no rule for determining the right time to submit your book to someone.

You certainly don’t have to wait for your novel to be perfect, because that will never happen.

After you’ve reviewed what you’ve written several times and let a few days pass between one review and the next, it’s time to be brave and let the world know about your novel.

Who should read my books first?

You have to choose the right people to submit your book to.

The right person doesn’t have to be the one you love, your partner, or even your father or mother. Just because they love you, they don’t express an objective opinion. Or if they express a negative opinion it could ruin your relationship.

So you should submit your book to a friend (preferably a regular reader) who will be able to tell you honestly if they liked your book or not. And if you’re so lucky to have a writer friend, they’ll also be able to give you some technical advice.

An absolutely necessary part of a writer’s equipment, almost as necessary as talent, is the ability to stand up under punishment, both the punishment the world hands out and the punishment he inflicts upon himself.

Irwin Shaw

Export your novel from bibisco novel writing software

If you have used bibisco novel writing software, you have several format for exporting your novel and let the world read it:

  • PDF
  • DOCX
  • TXT
  • EPUB

Export your novel in PDF, DOCX, TXT

Are you ready to let someone read your novel?
Export in PDF
bibisco blog | useful resources by your novel writing software
Export in PDF

When you export your novel in PDF, DOCX and TXT you have to fill in the author name (yes, that’s you!) and the directory where bibisco will export your novel.

You can also choose whether to export the entire novel or, if you are still in the process of reviewing, only a part of it.

Starting from bibisco 2.3, you can choose to export:

  • Novel and project
  • Only novel
  • Only project
  • Chapter
  • Character
  • Location
  • Object
  • Note
  • Architecture
  • Narrative strands
  • Timeline

Export in EPUB

When you export to EPUB you have the possibility to indicate all the information that will be present in your novel in ebook format:

  • Author
  • Publisher
  • Copyright
  • Rights
  • ISBN
  • Website
Are you ready to let someone read your novel?
Export in EPUB
bibisco blog | useful resources by your novel writing software
Export in EPUB

Furthermore bibisco allows you to associate the cover image of your ebook.

Conclusion

You have finished your novel and now you are ready to have someone read it.

It is an exciting and scary moment at the same time: now everyone out there can read the story you’ve been working on all this time.

But you can’t stop now: export your novel from bibisco to PDF, DOCX, EPUB and keep your fingers crossed!

What’s new in bibisco 2.3?

What’s new in bibisco 2.3?

A new version of bibisco is here. So, let’s take a look at what’s new in bibisco 2.3!

Before diving into the new features of our favorite novel writing software, I would like to point out two things that are particularly important to me:

  • All the new features come from suggestions and ideas from users. So if you have new ideas for features you would like to see implemented write to info@bibisco.com. I will certainly evaluate them!
  • When the new version was announced, I received many messages of congratulations and affection. This is the greatest satisfaction for me.

OK, let’s get started!

Profile image management

In this version of bibisco (Supporters Edition only), it’s possible to associate a profile picture to characters, places and objects.

What's new in bibisco 2.3?Characters' profile picture
bibisco blog | useful resources by your novel writing software
Characters’ profile picture

The profile picture will always be visible when working on a character, location or object.

What's new in bibisco 2.3?
Main character's section
bibisco blog | useful resources by your novel writing software
Main character’s section

Events

I think this new feature (Supporters Edition only) is particularly interesting. It allows us to associate events with characters, locations, objects or the setting.

What's new in bibisco 2.3?
Character's event
bibisco blog | useful resources by your novel writing software
Character’s event

We can trace the important events in a character‘s life; his birth, the beginning of high school, the move to another city. For a location, we can instead trace the events that are important for our novel; the construction of a skyscraper, an earthquake, a riot. The same thing can be done for an object: the date of its invention, the first time it was used. Of course, this feature is very useful when applied to the setting, especially if we are writing a historical novel.

All created events are integrated into the timeline. In this way, it’s possible to have a global vision of all the important events of the novel; both those described in the scenes and those not.

Prologue, epilogue and parts of the project

It’s now possible (Supporters Edition only) to manage prologue and epilogue.

What's new in bibisco 2.3?
Parts management
bibisco blog | useful resources by your novel writing software
Parts management

And we can divide our novel in parts.

Unlimited notes

This is certainly the most requested feature by users!

From this version of bibisco (Supporters Edition only), you can add unlimited notes in the new Notes section.

What's new in bibisco 2.3?
Notes section
bibisco blog | useful resources by your novel writing software
Notes section

For each note it is possible to associate, in addition to the text, unlimited notes.

Export selection

Sometimes we want to export just a chapter or a character sheet instead of the whole novel. With version 2.3 (Supporters Edition only) of bibisco it’s now possible.

What's new in bibisco 2.3?
Export selection
bibisco blog | useful resources by your novel writing software
Export selection

You can export:

  • Novel and project
  • Only novel
  • Only project
  • Chapter
  • Character
  • Location
  • Object
  • Note
  • Architecture
  • Narrative strands
  • Timeline

Objects’ analysis

The analysis section has been expanded (Supporters Edition only) with the objectsanalysis as well.

What's new in bibisco 2.3?
Objects' analysis
bibisco blog | useful resources by your novel writing software
Objects’ analysis

Timeline: export and day of week

Version 2.3 of bibisco also presents interesting new features for the Timeline.

It’s now possible to export the Timeline to PDF, DOCX and TXT.

Timeline
bibisco blog | useful resources by your novel writing software
Timeline

In addition, the day of the week is also shown in the timeline.

Automatic backup

The new automatic backup function makes backups of the project you are working on at regular intervals and each time you exit the project.

By default, bibisco:

  • makes an automatic backup each time you exit the project, both when you close bibisco and exit the project without closing bibisco.
  • makes an automatic backup if there are any changes in the project and 2 hours have passed since the last backup.
  • keeps a maximum of 10 backup files for a single project in the backup directory. When the maximum number of backups is exceeded, the oldest backup file is deleted.

You can always change these defaults from the settings:

Automatic backup settings
Automatic backup settings

The automatic backup feature increases safety in bibisco project management. To learn more about this topic take a look here.

Direct navigation between scenes and character interview’s sections

Some users have complained that it’s a bit cumbersome to switch from one scene to another. Or from one section of the character interview to another.

Direct navigation between scenes
Direct navigation between scenes

Starting from this version of bibisco, it’s possible the direct navigation between one scene and the next and between the various sections of the character’s interview.

Slovenian translation

Thanks to Tatjana Prelog, bibisco is now available also in Slovenian!

Slovenian translation
Slovenian translation

Minor changes

And finally, here are some minor changes in the new version:

  • In English version introduced the singular they in place of the form he/she.
  • Add words to the dictionary also for Windows and Linux.
  • Increased the scenes’ area in the detail of the chapter

Conclusion

After a year of work, here is the new version of bibisco 2.3.

It has been a long journey but I’m really happy because I think bibisco can help writers even better to write their novel.

So what are you waiting for? Download and try the new version bibisco!

PS: If you need information about the update from a previous version read here.

Best practices for securely managing bibisco projects

Best practices for securely managing bibisco projects

What are the best practices for securely managing bibisco projects?

This is one of the questions that bibisco users ask me most, so in this post, updated to version 2.3 of bibisco, we will analyze how bibisco stores projects and the safest way to manage them.

Let’s start from the beginning: bibisco is a desktop application, just like Microsoft Word or LibreOffice, and it stores all the data on your computer.

Therefore, there are no copies of your work on the web: neither at bibisco.com nor at Gumroad, the e-commerce platform that distributes bibisco.

In this way, only you have a copy of your work and you can even work without an internet connection.

OK, but… where does bibisco save my projects?

bibisco projects’ directory

bibisco stores all the data in the projects’ directory that you choose at the first execution of bibisco:

Projects' directory selection
Best practices for securely managing bibisco projects
bibisco blog | useful resources by your novel writing software
Projects’ directory selection

If the directory you have chosen already contains projects, they will be automatically imported.

This feature is particularly useful when you update bibisco: you have to download the new version, unzip it, and choose the directory you were working on as the projects’ directory: that’s it!

You can always change the location of your projects’ directory from the settings:

bibisco settings menu
Best practices for securely managing bibisco projects
bibisco blog | useful resources by your novel writing software
bibisco settings menu
Projects' directory selection
Best practices for securely managing bibisco projects
bibisco blog | useful resources by your novel writing software
Projects’ directory selection

The right location, the right name

It’s very important to choose the right location and the right name for the bibisco projects’ directory.

The projects’ directory should have a well recognizable name, for example bibisco-projects, and should be located in a location where we usually store the files we produce, for example in the Documents directory.

For this reason, you should absolutely avoid choosing the desktop or the download directory as the projects’ directory.

The main risk of choosing a wrong name and a wrong position is, after some time, no longer recognizing the directory as a bibisco project directory and therefore deleting it, risking losing all the work.

Projects’ directory structure

The projects directory has this structure:

Projects' directory structure
Best practices for securely managing bibisco projects
bibisco blog | useful resources by your novel writing software
Projects’ directory structure

and it has 4 main elements.

1) Projects’ directory (purple arrow)

It’s the projects’ directory you choose.

2) _internal_bibisco2_projects_db_ (green arrow)

It’s the parent directory of all projects.

3) Specific project directory (blue arrow)

It’s the specific project directory that contains:

  • a JSON file (cyan arrow) that is the project file.
  • images directory (black arrow) that contains the images of the project.
Specific project's directory
Best practices for securely managing bibisco projects
bibisco blog | useful resources by your novel writing software
Specific project’s directory

4) Backup (red arrow)

This directory was used in older versions of bibisco (up to 2.2) to make automatic backups of all projects every time bibisco was run. Since version 2.3 it is no longer used.

How bibisco helps you securely managing your projects: auto save and auto backup

bibisco has two features that help you secure your work: auto save and auto backup.

1) Auto save

The auto-save feature activates every time you open the text editor or relationship diagram and automatically saves your work every 60 seconds.

You can disable the auto save from text editor settings:

bibisco text editor's settings
Best practices for securely managing bibisco projects
bibisco blog | useful resources by your novel writing software
bibisco text editor’s settings
Disable auto save
bibisco blog | useful resources by your novel writing software
Disable auto save

2) Auto backup

The automatic backup function makes backups of the project you are working on at regular intervals and each time you exit the project.

You choose the directory in which bibisco stores the automatic backups at the first execution of bibisco:

Automatic backups' directory selection
bibisco blog | useful resources by your novel writing software
Automatic backups’ directory selection

By default, bibisco:

  • makes an automatic backup each time you exit the project, both when you close bibisco and exit the project without closing bibisco.
  • makes an automatic backup if there are any changes in the project and 2 hours have passed since the last backup.
  • keeps a maximum of 10 backup files for a single project in the backup directory. When the maximum number of backups is exceeded, the oldest backup file is deleted.

You can always change these defaults from the settings:

bibisco settings menu
bibisco blog | useful resources by your novel writing software
bibisco settings menu
Change automatic backup defaults
Best practices for securely managing bibisco projects
bibisco blog | useful resources by your novel writing software
Change automatic backup defaults

bibisco makes backups by exporting the project as an archive. Each archive file has a significant name:

bibisco archive files
Best practices for securely managing bibisco projects
bibisco blog | useful resources by your novel writing software
bibisco archive files
  • title of the project (orange line)
  • identifier of the project (pink line)
  • timestamp of backup in the form YEAR_MONTH_DAY_HOURS_MINUTES_SECONDS (yellow line).

What can YOU do to securely managing your projects: store backups outside your computer!

Even if we think that it can never happen to us, unfortunately, accidents happen.

Our computer can be stolen, it can fall from our hands and crash on the ground, we can pour coffee over it and make it unusable, the hard drive can corrupt and become unreadable.

So, what can we do to avoid the loss of our work?

We have to store the backups outside of our computer, regularly copying them from the backup folder of our computer to an external hard drive or USB key.

Save your projects and backups on a cloud drive

A very effective way to securely managing your projects is to save them on a cloud drive.

In this way you have an automatic backup in secure storage and also you have the possibility to work on your project from different computers.

To save your projects on a cloud drive, for example, Dropbox or Google Drive, you simply have to choose as projects’ directory and automatic backups’ directory, directories on your computer that are synchronized with your cloud drive.

Conclusion

Now that you’ve learned what are the best practices for securely managing bibisco projects, you can focus on creating your great novel.

Therefore, happy writing with bibisco!

Does your novel writing software analyze your novel?

Does your novel writing software analyze your novel?

Do you know how many times your characters meet each other? Do you know where the main character meets his lover for the first time?

This is the novel analysis and it’s really useful to have a clear vision of how our novel is structured.

So, does your novel writing software helps you to analyze your novel?

Novel analysis with bibisco

When I designed bibisco, I first wanted to include the features for the study of the character and the definition of their conflict.

But then I wanted to insert a feature that I have not found in other novel planning software: the tools to analyze the novel.

Let’s take a look at the analytics features offered by bibisco.

Chapters’ length

Does your novel writing software analyze your novel? - bibisco's chapters length analysis
bibisco blog | useful resources by your novel writing software
bibisco’s chapters’ length analysis

In this analysis, it’s possible to observe the length of each chapter and compare it with the others.

You can analyze if the length of the chapters is homogeneous in the novel and if there are chapters that are much longer or much shorter than the others.

Characters’ distribution

Does your novel writing software analyze your novel? - bibisco's characters' distribution analysis
bibisco blog | useful resources by your novel writing software
bibisco’s characters’ distribution analysis

This analysis is particularly appreciated by users of bibisco, because it allows analyzing the presence of the characters within the novel.

It also allows observing the distribution of the presence of the characters between the chapters.

Some characters may be present only at the beginning of the novel, others only at the end. Generally, the protagonists have a constant presence throughout the novel. If a character doesn’t show up for half a novel, that becomes immediately apparent.

Furthermore, through this analysis, it is possible to find out at a glance when two characters are present in the same chapter.

Locations and Narrative Strands’ distribution

In addition to the distribution of the characters, bibisco also allows us to analyze the distribution of locations.

bibisco's locations' distribution analysis
bibisco blog | useful resources by your novel writing software
bibisco’s locations’ distribution analysis

And the distribution of narrative strands.

bibisco's narrative strands' distribution analysis
bibisco blog | useful resources by your novel writing software
bibisco’s narrative strands’ distribution analysis

Characters’ list of appearances

bibisco's characters' list of appearances
bibisco blog | useful resources by your novel writing software
bibisco’s characters’ list of appearances

This analysis, for each character, provides the list of all their appearances in the novel in chronological order.

For each apparition you can find:

  • date and time of the apparition
  • location
  • scene
  • chapter

This is extremely useful for ensuring consistency (How can this character be in Dublin when he was in Sydney an hour earlier?), especially for very long novels with a lot of characters.

Use of points of view

Does your novel writing software analyze your novel? - bibisco's use of points of view
bibisco blog | useful resources by your novel writing software
bibisco’s use of points of view

In this analysis, the writer can study the use of points of view in the novel.

Was the use consistent? From the point of view of which characters was the story told?

This knowledge is particularly important because every story changes according to the point of view of the teller.

Tag your scene and bibisco do the magic

bibisco automatically generates the analyses illustrated in this article.

The writer simply has to tag each scene with the characters that appear, the location and time in which it takes place, the point of view used, the narrative strand to which it belongs.

bibisco's scene tags
bibisco blog | useful resources by your novel writing software
bibisco’s scene tags

Conclusion

A good novel writing software must help the writer not only to write the novel but also to analyze it.

bibisco offers deep analysis and at-a-glance infographics detail about chapters’ length and how characters, locations, points of view and narrative strands are distributed chronologically and across chapters.

This means you can easily see where things happen in your novel.

Such information could be invaluable for preventing inconsistencies and, ultimately, understand the structure of your novel.

Best practices for securely managing bibisco projects (version 2.0 to 2.2)

Best practices for securely managing bibisco projects (version 2.0 to 2.2)

Please note! This post is related to old versions of bibisco (from 2.0 to 2.2). Recent versions are covered here.

What are the best practices for securely managing bibisco projects?

This is one of the questions that bibisco users ask me most, so in this post, we will analyze how bibisco stores projects and the safest way to manage them.

Let’s start from the beginning: bibisco is a desktop application, just like Microsoft Word or LibreOffice, and it stores all the data on your computer.

Therefore, there are no copies of your work on the web: neither at bibisco.com nor at Gumroad, the e-commerce platform that distributes bibisco.

In this way, only you have a copy of your work and you can even work without an internet connection.

OK, but… where does bibisco save my projects?

bibisco projects’ directory

bibisco stores all the data in the projects’ directory that you choose at the first execution of bibisco:

Projects' directory selection
bibisco blog | useful resources by your novel writing software
Projects’ directory selection

If the directory you have chosen already contains projects, they will be automatically imported.

This feature is particularly useful when you update bibisco: you have to download the new version, unzip it, and choose the directory you were working on as the projects’ directory: that’s it!

You can always change the location of your projects’ directory from the settings:

bibisco settings menu
bibisco blog | useful resources by your novel writing software
bibisco settings menu
Projects' directory selection
bibisco blog | useful resources by your novel writing software
Projects’ directory selection

The right location, the right name

It’s very important to choose the right location and the right name for the bibisco projects’ directory.

The projects’ directory should have a well recognizable name, for example bibisco-projects, and should be located in a location where we usually store the files we produce, for example in the Documents directory.

For this reason, you should absolutely avoid choosing the desktop or the download directory as the projects’ directory.

The main risk of choosing a wrong name and a wrong position is, after some time, no longer recognizing the directory as a bibisco project directory and therefore deleting it, risking losing all the work.

Projects’ directory structure

The projects directory has this structure:

Projects' directory structure
bibisco blog | useful resources by your novel writing software
Projects’ directory structure

and it has 4 main elements.

1) Projects’ directory (purple arrow)

It’s the projects’ directory you choose.

2) _internal_bibisco2_projects_db_ (green arrow)

It’s the parent directory of all projects.

3) Specific project directory (blue arrow)

It’s the specific project directory that contains:

  • a JSON file (cyan arrow) that is the project file.
  • images directory (black arrow) that contains the images of the project.
Specific project's directory
bibisco blog | useful resources by your novel writing software
Specific project’s directory

4) Backup (red arrow)

It’s the backup directory where, every time bibisco starts, every project is exported as an archive (file with extension .bibisco2).

Backup directory structure
bibisco blog | useful resources by your novel writing software
Backup directory structure

Each archive file has a significant name:

  • title of the project (orange line)
  • identifier of the project (pink line)
  • timestamp of backup in the form YEAR_MONTH_DAY_HOURS_MINUTES_SECONDS (yellow line).

How bibisco helps you securely managing your projects: auto-save and auto-backup

bibisco has two features that help you secure your work: auto-save and auto-backup.

The auto-save feature activates every time you open the text editor or relationship diagram and automatically saves your work every 60 seconds.

Every time bibisco starts, the auto-backup feature export every project in the projects’ directory as an archive (file with extension .bibisco2) and put it in the backup subdirectory.

What can YOU do to securely managing your projects: make regular backups!

Even if we think that it can never happen to us, unfortunately, accidents happen: our computer can be stolen, it can fall from our hands and crash on the ground, we can pour coffee over it and make it unusable, the hard drive can corrupt and become unreadable.

So, what can we do to avoid the loss of our work?

We have to make regular backups of our novel, exporting it as archive or in docx format, and store them outside of our computer: on an external hard-disk or on a USB stick.

Best practices for securely managing bibisco projects: export your project as archive or DOCX.
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Export your project as archive or DOCX.

Save your projects on a cloud drive

A very effective way to securely managing your projects is to save them on a cloud drive.

In this way you have an automatic backup in secure storage and also you have the possibility to work on your project from different computers.

To save your projects on a cloud drive, for example, Dropbox or Google Drive, you simply have to choose as projects’ directory, a directory on your computer that is synchronized with your cloud drive.

Conclusion

Now that you’ve learned what are the best practices for securely managing bibisco projects, you can focus on creating your great novel.

Therefore, happy writing with bibisco!