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How to Customize the Editor

The Aa button on the right of the window sets how the editor looks while you work: its font, text size and line spacing, with switches for spell check and smart quotes. Your exported e-book and print-ready PDF stay as your book’s styles make them.

How to change how the editor looks

How to change how the editor looks

  1. Click Aa (Change the Editor’s Font, Font Size, and Settings) in the side menu at the far right of the window.

  2. Change any setting. The editor shows it at once.

  3. Click Apply to keep it. Cancel puts everything back.

Setting What it does
Font FamilyThe editor’s font. Starts as Charis SIL. The mark beside it warns when a font lacks bold, italic or small caps.
Text SizeHow big the editor’s text is, from XS (where it starts) to XL.
Line SpacingThe space between the editor’s lines, from 1×. Starts at 1.75×.
Smart QuotesCurls quotes as you type. On to start. See smart quotes.
Spell CheckUnderlines misspelled words in the editor. Off to start.

Font Family, Text Size, Line Spacing and Spell Check change only the editor. Your book keeps the font, size and spacing set in body text. Smart Quotes is different: the quotes you type are part of your book, so they print and export as typed.

These settings are Lacuna’s, not the book’s: every book you open on this computer uses them. Restore to Default puts back the settings Lacuna starts with. The preview has its own Aa (Font settings), which changes only the e-reader preview.

How to turn on spell check

  1. Click Aa and turn on Spell Check.

  2. Click Apply. As you type, words the spell checker doesn’t know are underlined.

The underlines are only in the editor: they never reach your book.

How to use smart quotes

Smart quotes are the curly quotation marks and apostrophes of a typeset book (“ ” ‘ ’). An opening quote curls toward the words it opens and a closing quote curls back, so a reader sees at a glance where speech starts and stops. The straight quotes on your keyboard (” ’) come from the typewriter, and in a printed book they look like a mistake.

Lacuna curls your quotes for you as you type, and it can change every quote already in your book at once.

How to turn smart quotes on or off

  1. Click Aa, turn Smart Quotes on or off and click Apply.

  2. Click your Title Page in the sidebar, then click back to your section. The editor uses the new setting from then on.

The switch changes only the quotes you type from then on. To change the ones already in your book, change every quote at once.

How to change every quote in your book

  1. Choose Edit › Convert Straight Quotes to Smart Quotes…, or Edit › Replace Smart Quotes with Straight Quotes… to go the other way.

  2. Choose all quotes, only double quotes or only single quotes, then click Convert (or Replace).

The text of every section changes, footnotes and endnotes included, and apostrophes come out right (’90s, rock ’n’ roll). Changed your mind? Choose Edit › Undo, or press Ctrl/Cmd+Shift+Z⌘ Cmd+⇧ Shift+ZCtrl+Shift+Z.

Questions

How do I change the font size?

For the editor only, click Aa and choose a Text Size. To change the size of your book’s text, set its body text size.

How do I change the line spacing?

For the editor only, click Aa and set Line Spacing. For your book’s lines, set Line Spacing in body text.

Does Lacuna have spell check?

Yes. Click Aa, turn on Spell Check and click Apply.

How do I stop two hyphens turning into a dash?

Press Backspace on Windows and Linux, Delete on a MacDeleteBackspace right after the dash appears, and your two hyphens come back (the same works for a quote that curled). To stop words breaking with a hyphen at the end of a line, see justification and hyphenation.

How do I quote several paragraphs in a row?

Start each paragraph with an opening quote and close only the last one, the way books print it. Lacuna curls each paragraph’s opening quote the right way, as you type and when it changes every quote.