The local-first novel-writing app expands into full manuscript planning, with a visual timeline, a redesigned story Codex, goal and streak tracking, footnote support, and multi-language spellcheck.
Deckle, the local-first writing and formatting app for novelists, today announced version 1.5, its largest release since launch. The update turns Deckle into a full manuscript command center: a visual story Timeline and a redesigned story Codex for planning, plus writing goals, streak tracking, footnotes, and multi-language spellcheck for carrying a draft through to submission-ready.
Most novelists end up stitching together two or three separate tools to plan, write, and stay accountable to a deadline: a Scrivener-style binder, a timeline tool like Aeon, a story bible, and a habit tracker. Deckle 1.5 replaces all of it with one local file.
Multi-POV, dual-timeline, and research-heavy stories are hard to hold in your head. Deckle’s new swim-lane Timeline view lays every event out visually, so authors can see a story’s full chronology at a glance instead of guessing whether a subplot actually lines up. Events can be nested, tagged, and linked directly to research documents, and authors can bulk-add a project’s existing chapters and scenes straight from the draft into the Timeline in one step, instead of rebuilding it by hand.
The Codex, Deckle’s story bible for characters, locations, and lore, has been rebuilt so it bends to how each author actually organizes a cast and world, not the other way around. Statuses, badges, and entry templates are fully customizable, sections can be added, renamed, or removed per entry, and any entry can be duplicated to speed up building out a large cast or setting.
Deckle now tracks whether an author is actually on pace to hit a deadline, not just how many words they’ve typed. A redesigned stats view shows weekly progress toward a goal, a sprint timer with a completion chime and shared best-streak tracking builds writing-session habits, and typed words are tracked separately from pasted ones so progress reflects real writing, not padding.
Deckle 1.5 adds footnotes and endnotes, with export to DOCX, EPUB, and Typst-based PDF. Smart quotes and em-dashes apply automatically as authors type and carry through export, and spellcheck now covers seven languages, including Spanish. A new Standard Manuscript Format export produces submission-ready DOCX files in the format agents and publishers expect, and trim sizes now cover EU and metric standards, including BoD Pocket and A5.
Everyday friction has been sanded down across the app: keyboard-first arrow-key navigation through the Binder and Research tree, a rebuilt Outliner with custom, renamable, recolorable fields, and style presets that can be saved, shared, and bundled with fonts inside templates. Deckle also adds a native macOS application menu, Markdown import from single files and Obsidian vaults, and the option to start a new project straight from a template file.
Deckle is a local-first writing and book-formatting application for Windows and Mac. It combines manuscript organization, research management, and professional-quality EPUB, PDF, and DOCX export in a single one-time purchase, with no subscription and no cloud dependency. Every project lives as a file on the author’s own machine.
Media Contact:
hello@deckle.studio
Screenshots and brand assets available on request.