Writing Studio
Version 4.0.0 · Desktop only
Writing Studio turns Obsidian into a dedicated environment for serious nonfiction work — from your first research notes to a finished, exported manuscript. It bundles a project binder, writing modes, focus and typography tools, sprint timer, progress tracking, manuscript export, and WordPress publishing into a single plugin. A built-in sidebar file explorer lets you browse, preview, and pull content from anywhere in your vault without leaving your draft.
Contents
Features
Writing Binder — Your project's folder tree, rendered as a manuscript. The binder reads your folders directly, so files created, renamed, or moved anywhere — even outside Obsidian — always appear correctly, with no import or scan step. Drag chapters into order, set per-document status and word count goals, and exclude documents from compile with a right-click.
Outline — Give each section a one-paragraph synopsis, the claim it makes, and the Outline view lays the whole project out as an editable table: synopsis, status, and words against goal, section by section, with part totals. Copy it out as an annotated table of contents for a book proposal.
Project Manager — Create projects from six templates (blank, book, article series, blog collection, journal article, magazine article), set a total word count goal, and switch between projects from the Launcher.
Compile Preview — Concatenate all binder documents in order and render them as a finished manuscript in a split pane, without exporting.
Writing Modes — Switch between Draft (distraction-free), Edit (full tooling), and Review (read-only) modes from the status bar, command palette, context menu, or Launcher.
Focus Mode — Dim everything except the paragraph or sentence you are writing. Configurable dim level, font size override, sidebar collapse, and typewriter scroll.
Typography Mode — Apply a curated font, constrained line length, and controlled line height to the editor. Fourteen font options including iA Writer fonts, Google Fonts, and custom system fonts.
Sprint Timer — Run timed writing sessions with a draggable floating overlay. Set duration, word goal, and scope (file or project). Quick-start presets (10 m, 15 m, 25 m) available from the Launcher.
Progress Tracking — Live word counts in the status bar and Launcher, session delta tracking, per-document and per-project word count goals with inline progress banners, and a 30-day writing log with streak tracking.
Export Engine — Export to Manuscript (HTML), PDF, Word (.docx), RTF, HTML, Markdown, and EPUB. Manuscript format produces industry-standard layout with no external tools; other formats require Pandoc.
Sources, Citations & Footnotes — Any note with a citekey property is a source, including literature notes from Zotero Integration or the Citations plugin. Cite with [@smith2020, p. 12] or a wikilink to the source note, and every export carries the citations and a works-cited page in Chicago author-date or notes style. Footnotes now survive every format. An Add source form and an Insert citation picker mean nobody has to type a citation key by hand.
WordPress Publishing — Publish directly to WordPress from Obsidian. Set post title, status, categories, tags, excerpt, and scheduled date. Supports multiple sites with per-site credentials and connection testing.
Folder Sidebar Explorer — Browse any vault folder in a sidebar panel. Search by name or file content, preview Markdown files and images inline, and insert selected text directly into the active editor.
Language support
Writing Studio is available in the following languages in addition to English:
- Arabic
- Bengali
- Brazilian Portuguese
- Chinese (Simplified)
- French
- German
- Hindi
- Japanese
- Korean
- Russian
- Spanish
To change the language: Open Settings → General in Obsidian, scroll to Language, and select your preferred language from the list. Restart Obsidian for the change to take effect. Writing Studio will display in the selected language if it is supported.
Found a translation error or missing text? Please open an issue on GitHub — Submit a bug report or enhancement request — and include the language, the location in the plugin where the text appears, and what it currently says. We will address it in the next release.
Writing Studio Launcher
The Launcher is your home base in Writing Studio — a sidebar panel that shows your active project, progress toward your goals, and one-click access to every major feature.
By default Writing Studio launches automatically when Obsidian loads — the Launcher opens and your last session's writing mode and typography are restored. To disable this, turn off Open on startup in Settings → General: Obsidian then opens clean, with no Writing Studio status bar items or restored modes, and the studio stays dormant until you launch it yourself. Launching it manually restores your last session state the same way.
This is the beginning of the README. Read the rest at the original. Read the full README ↗
