The Manual

How to use Skarvia.

The whole studio, explained properly: every panel, every menu, every keystroke, and the reasoning underneath. Written as a book, so you can read it straight through, or searched like a reference when you need one answer at eleven at night.

In a hurry? The one-page help summary answers most questions in a screen.

Skarv, the Skarvia cormorant, in reading glasses
Skarv · Head of Staff

I · Getting Started

What Skarvia is, what it refuses to do, and how to get from a new account to a page you are actually writing on.

  1. 1 What Skarvia Is, and the One Thing It Will Not Do The studio model, the bright line against writing your prose, and an honest account of what the AI staff does and does not touch.
  2. 2 Your First Project and Your First Document From a new account to a page you can type on: creating a project, choosing its type, and finding your way around the binder.

II · Where Your Work Lives

Storage, autosave, versions, and what happens to your manuscript when something goes wrong.

  1. 3 Where Your Work Lives: Storage, Autosave, and Versions Skarvia writes real files into your own Dropbox, Google Drive, or a folder on your machine. What it writes, when it syncs, and how to get an earlier draft back.
  2. 4 Connecting Dropbox The authorisation handoff, the app folder Skarvia is sandboxed into, how the paths you type translate, and every way the connection can break.
  3. 5 Connecting Google Drive The authorisation handoff, why Skarvia can only ever see the files it created, the My Drive folder layout, and the reconnect prompt that catches people out.
  4. 6 Saving to a Folder on Your Own Machine Pointing a document at a folder on this computer: which browsers can do it, the folders yours will refuse, what gets written, and the re-authorise click after a restart.
  5. 7 Versions: Checkpoints, Named Saves, and Restoring The two kinds of version Skarvia keeps, how far back each one goes, what restoring does to the document on screen, and where the copies in your own cloud .versions/ folder come from.
  6. 8 When Sync Goes Wrong Every storage state the status bar can show you, what each one means for your work, and the exact fix: reconnecting a lapsed provider, clearing an occupied path, and recovering unsaved text your browser kept.

III · The Editor

The writing surface: elements, keyboard, find and replace, focus mode, and the status bar.

  1. 9 A Tour of the Editor The document bar, the ribbon tabs, the navigator, the manuscript, the findings rail and the status bar: what lives where, what changes with your format, and what the warnings mean.
  2. 10 The Keyboard Every shortcut Skarvia binds, grouped by what you are doing: the ones that work everywhere, the element numbers that change with your format, and the ones you type rather than press.
  3. 11 Find and Replace Searching the document you have open, stepping through the matches, replacing one or all of them, and the character rename that find and replace should never be used for.
  4. 12 Focus Mode, Typewriter Scrolling, and the View Tab Every control on the View tab: stripping the screen back to the manuscript, keeping the cursor at a fixed height, dark mode, zoom, and a second document open beside the draft.

Index

Every term the manual covers, in the words you would look it up under.

  • .versions folder 7
  • Aa 11
  • AI writing 1
  • app folder 4
  • Apps/Skarvia 4
  • audio drama 2
  • authorise 4
  • auto-headings 12
  • autosave 3
  • binder 2
  • browser find instead 11
  • browser folder access 6
  • bullet list shortcut 10
  • buttons greyed out 9
  • cannot format 9
  • cannot open this folder 36
  • change a character name 11
  • change the theme 12
  • chapters folder 5
  • character name autocomplete 10
  • checkpoint 7
  • checkpoints 3
  • choose a folder 6
  • Chrome Edge Brave 6
  • click to re-authorize 68
  • close the find bar 11
  • Cmd 1 switches my browser tab 10
  • Cmd F 11
  • conflict backup 378
  • connect Dropbox 4
  • connect Google Drive 5
  • contains system files 6
  • create a project 2
  • Ctrl F 11
  • Ctrl instead of Command 10
  • CUT TO: 10
  • daily goal 9
  • dark mode 12
  • Desktop folder blocked 36
  • did I lose my work 8
  • disconnect Dropbox 4
  • disconnect Google Drive 5
  • disconnected 458
  • distraction free 12
  • Documents folder 6
  • does Cmd S do anything 10
  • does Skarvia write for me 1
  • Downloads folder 6
  • drive.file 5
  • Dropbox 34
  • element shortcuts 10
  • em dash 10
  • Escape 910
  • Exit focus 12
  • find 11
  • find and replace 11
  • findings rail 9
  • focus mode 12
  • folder path 4
  • folder permission 6
  • full screen 12
  • go back to an earlier draft 7
  • Google Drive 35
  • hide the toolbar 12
  • hotkeys 10
  • how do I get out of focus mode 12
  • how do I leave the manuscript 910
  • how far back does history go 7
  • how often does it sync 4
  • I lost my changes 7
  • Insert tab missing 9
  • INT. EXT. shortcut 10
  • keep the cursor centred 12
  • key bindings 10
  • keyboard shortcuts 10
  • keyboard trap 10
  • local folder 6
  • make the text bigger 12
  • manuscript pages 12
  • match case 11
  • match counter 11
  • merge rows 10
  • My Drive 5
  • my work is not reaching Dropbox 8
  • name a version 7
  • name already taken 8
  • navigator 9
  • never saved 8
  • new document 2
  • night mode 12
  • no matches 11
  • no Reference checkbox 12
  • no Script tab 9
  • no Versions menu 7
  • not syncing 8
  • novel 2
  • OAuth 45
  • occupied 48
  • offline 8
  • open a file already in Drive 5
  • outline sidebar 9
  • Page 4 of 31 9
  • page too wide 12
  • parts and seasons 2
  • permission error 5
  • pre-restore backup 7
  • project types 2
  • punch list 9
  • reconnect Dropbox 48
  • reconnect Google Drive 58
  • redo 10
  • reference pane 12
  • regular expressions 11
  • rename a character 11
  • renamed document old file 6
  • reorder documents 2
  • replace 11
  • replace all 11
  • Replace greyed out 11
  • restore a draft 37
  • restore them 8
  • retrying 8
  • reviewer cannot replace 11
  • revision stars 7
  • revoke access 45
  • ribbon 9
  • ribbon tabs 9
  • Safari cannot save locally 6
  • save failed 8
  • save on my computer 6
  • save to this computer 36
  • save version 7
  • screenplay 2
  • search 11
  • search a document 11
  • search across paragraphs 11
  • search my whole project 11
  • series 2
  • session count 9
  • settings did not follow to another computer 12
  • shortcuts 10
  • sign up 2
  • Skarvia folder 5
  • skarvia.json 3
  • smart quotes 10
  • split screen 12
  • stage play 2
  • status bar 9
  • stopped saving 8
  • storage 3
  • storage chip 89
  • strikethrough 10
  • stuck in the editor 9
  • sync failed 8
  • sync frequency 4
  • system files 3
  • Tab changes the element 10
  • Tab does not indent 10
  • teleprompter keys 10
  • That setting did not save 12
  • the bright line 1
  • the staff 1
  • the Studio 2
  • timecode 12
  • toolbar 9
  • two documents side by side 12
  • two page counts 9
  • two Untitled documents 68
  • two-column script 12
  • typewriter scrolling 12
  • undo a restore 7
  • undo replace all 11
  • unsaved changes 8
  • version history 37
  • versions 37
  • video script 2
  • View tab 12
  • what is Skarvia 1
  • where are my files 4
  • where is the word count 9
  • who it is for 1
  • whole word search 11
  • why can't Skarvia see my existing files 5
  • wildcards 11
  • Windows shortcuts 10
  • writing offline 6
  • zero retention 3
  • zero retention versions 7
  • zoom 12

A chapter a day, until it is finished

The manual is being written as Skarvia moves toward beta. If something you needed was not here, tell us and it goes to the front of the queue.

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