The Toolbar

The toolbar sits at the top of your writing area. From here you can format text, organize your manuscript, and access features like snapshots (saved copies of your entire manuscript), Scene Drafts, and export.

Zoom

The zoom button is on the far left. It adjusts how large the text appears on screen (from 75% to 200%). You can click the zoom percentage number and type a custom value, or pick from the list: 75%, 90%, 100%, 125%, 150%, or 200%. You can also hold Ctrl and scroll your mouse wheel to zoom in or out.

Formatting

The core formatting buttons are always visible:

Bold (Ctrl+B)
Italic (Ctrl+I)
Underline (Ctrl+U)
Highlight (Ctrl+Shift+H): applies a yellow highlight marker

Note: On Mac, use Cmd instead of Ctrl for all keyboard shortcuts in this article (for example, Cmd+B for bold, Cmd+Z for undo).

Text Types & Structure

More formatting options appear when your window is wide enough. If the window is too narrow to show them all, they'll be tucked into a "More" dropdown menu:

Paragraph style: Normal text (Ctrl+Alt+0), Heading 1 (Ctrl+Alt+1), Heading 2 (Ctrl+Alt+2)
Lists: Bullet list (Ctrl+Shift+8), Numbered list (Ctrl+Shift+7)
Indentation: Indent (Tab), Unindent (Shift+Tab)
Alignment: Left, Center, Right
Horizontal line: Adds a divider line across the page
Breaks: Scene break splits your text into two scenes (Ctrl+Shift+Enter). Chapter break starts a new chapter at your cursor (Ctrl+Shift+Alt+Enter; this shortcut is a handful, so the toolbar button is usually easier). You can undo either break right away with Ctrl+Z (Cmd+Z on Mac).
Insert Image: Adds an image to your manuscript
Add comment (Ctrl+Alt+M): Attaches a margin note to the selected text. See Comments & Pinned Notes

Tip: When formatting is applied, the matching button lights up. For example, if your cursor is sitting in bold text, the Bold button will look pressed.

Undo & Redo

Undo (Ctrl+Z) and Redo (Ctrl+Y) work just like they do in any word processor. If there are no more text changes to undo, Ctrl+Z will reverse your last big change instead (like putting a split scene or chapter back together).

Management Buttons

On the right side of the toolbar, you'll find:

Scene Drafts: Save and restore snapshots of individual scenes (only visible when viewing a single scene)
Import: Import a manuscript from .docx, .epub, .rtf (Rich Text, including Scrivener compiles), .md (Markdown), or .txt
Export: Export your manuscript to .docx, .pdf, .epub, .md, .txt, and more
Versions: Save and view snapshots of your entire book. (Scene Drafts save copies of individual scenes; Versions save a snapshot of the whole book.)
Settings: Adjust canvas width (how wide the writing area is), paragraph view (how your paragraphs are spaced and indented), scene dividers (the visual separators between scenes), chapter numbers, spellcheck, and more
Flowstate: Start a focused writing session that keeps you moving forward (you won't be able to go back and edit what you already wrote, so you stay in the flow)

If your window is narrow, some of these buttons (except Settings and Flowstate) will be tucked into the three-dot button on the right side of the toolbar to save space.

Find & Replace

Press Ctrl+F (or Ctrl+H) to open Find & Replace. A search bar will appear below the toolbar with:

A search field with match counter ("3 of 12")
A case-match button: when turned on, searching for "The" will only find "The" and skip "the" or "THE". When turned off, it finds all of them regardless of capitalization.
Previous/Next buttons to jump between matches (Shift+Enter / Enter)
Replace and Replace All buttons: Replace All affects whatever you're currently looking at (a single scene, a chapter, or the whole book). You can undo replacements with Ctrl+Z.

Press Escape to close the search bar and clear any highlighted matches.

Note: While you're in a Flowstate writing session, Replace and Replace All are turned off. You can still search and jump between matches, but you'll need to pause Flowstate or wait for the editing break that follows each writing sprint before you can replace text.