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Your first vault

A vault is a folder on your computer that holds your writing: every document, the pictures in your documents, and the history of your changes. φ Poiesis asks you for a vault the first time it opens. After that, you can start writing.

Write's Home, where a vault opens: the chapter to continue, the project in progress, recent pieces and research, and today's figures beside the month Write's Home, where a vault opens: the chapter to continue, the project in progress, recent pieces and research, and today's figures beside the month

Create your first vault​

  1. Open Poiesis. The Welcome screen offers Create a vault and Open a folder.
  2. Choose Create a vault. Your system's folder picker opens.
  3. Pick a folder, or make a new one, such as Documents/Writing.
  4. If macOS asks whether Poiesis may use files in that folder, click Allow.

Poiesis opens the vault on the Home screen of Write, the mode for your manuscripts.

To use a folder you already have, choose Open a folder instead. The steps are the same.

  • If the folder is already a vault, Poiesis opens it as it is.
  • If it is any other folder, Poiesis makes it a vault. Poiesis adds the files it needs and does not change the files that are already there.

What's in a new vault​

A new vault has two documents to start from:

  • Welcome to φ is a short guide. It is under Pieces in Write.
  • The Grey Morning is a sample project. It has two chapters, a cover, an epigraph, footnotes and a scene break. Open it from Projects in the sidebar. Then click Export under it to see how Poiesis lays out a book.

You can read them, keep them, or move them to the Trash at any time.

If Poiesis can't see your folder​

φ can't read this folder. macOS asks once whether Poiesis may use a vault that is in Documents, Desktop, Downloads or iCloud Drive. If the answer was no, Poiesis shows this message. It does not show an empty vault. To fix it:

  1. Click Allow access….
  2. Choose the vault's folder.

Your documents appear again. You can also give access in System Settings → Privacy & Security → Files and Folders.

This folder isn't there any more. Poiesis shows this message when the folder was moved or renamed, or when it is on a drive that isn't connected.

Write your first page​

  1. In Write, choose Pieces in the sidebar. A piece is writing that is not in a project.
  2. Click the + at the top of the list (New piece), or press ⌘N.
  3. Type a title.
  4. Click the page below the title and write.

There is no save button. Poiesis saves as you type. To save at once, press ⌘S.

⌘N (File → New Document) makes a different kind of document in each part of Poiesis:

Where you areWhat ⌘N makes
In a projectA new chapter (or poem, or essay, depending on the kind of project) at the end
Anywhere else in WriteA new piece
In NotesA new note, in the folder you're looking at
In JournalA new note, in Notes

Try a few things​

  • Select some text. The formatting toolbar appears: bold, italic, underline, heading, link, Highlight & comment and Comment (no highlight). More tools, at the end of the toolbar, opens the other tools, including Look up word. See The editor.
  • Type / at the start of a line. The block menu opens: headings, lists, quotes, scene breaks, epigraphs and more. See Formatting & blocks.
  • Type [[ to link to another document by its name. See Links & the graph.
  • Start a project. Click New project under Projects in the sidebar. See Projects.

Open another vault​

You can have several vaults, for example one for each book.

  1. Click the vault's name at the top of the sidebar. A menu lists your vaults.
  2. Choose a vault, Open another vault… or New vault….

From the keyboard, press ⌥⌘O (File → Switch Vault…). See Vaults.

A vault is an ordinary folder. Any backup you already use protects it: Time Machine, a synced folder, or a copy on an external drive.

See also​