Below are a couple of links that demonstrate the core functionality of the Giterary tool:

  • This is a link to a test document (song lyrics). Note that it is cognizant of the “path” hierarchy, treating path elements as directories, both aesthetically but also stored as such on the backend (useful for organizing documents into sane directory structures).
  • The ability to move documents with relative ease.
  • The ability to view global history(http://idkfa.com/giterary/history.php), as well as history specific to one or more files.
  • If a document is annotated, it can be read normally by keeping the mouse “out” of the document display area. However, when enabling decorations with the “Decorations” checkbox, the style will change to highlight annotations in yellow, and upon hovering over the annotations, show the annotated comments on the highlighted areas. This is to allow for external comments without necessarily disrupting readability.
  • See intuitive, helpful “diff” page, demonstrating the capabilities of the backend difference engine.
  • Building from the “diff,” you can also “cherrypick” changes (keeping some, discarding others), and use them to build a new version of your document.
  • Automatic table of contents generation
  • Directory listings to help with navigating document organizational trees.
  • Have the ability to render collections of documents, to help with the overall organization of a body of work, and to allow for easy re-ordering without changing the contents of the component documents.
  • Similar to annotation highlighting, documents can also detect dialog-looking text elements and highlight them.
  • Documents can be written and will be rendered by default in Markdown syntax, however nothing ties you to a specific format. Different syntax engines can be added, as well as default rendering can be overridden to display in alternate formats. See: Plain text, Hard-wrapped plain text
  • Document Statistics (also works on aggregated collection documents)

Other notes:

  • A nice feature, though hard to demonstrate here, is that the system supports a very powerful “offline” mode, using the ability of the backend versioning system (Git) to act as a distributed file database. A computer, external to the system and with no local installation of the Giterary tool, can clone the Giterary repository to its filesystem, make edits with a user’s favorite text editor, and push them back to the server without a) fear of losing work due to Internet connectivity, or b) having to be concerned with making edits that have to be “shoehorned” back into the main editing system.
  • All underlying technologies used are open source, free to use, require no purchase, are operating system agnostic (see: Scrivener), and as part of the Giterary tool’s core design philosophy, never puts authored content into file formats that are dependent on proprietary software to open (see: Microsoft Office).
  • A 10-second timer saves a temporary draft of your edit to the server in the event you lose connectivity. To recover the draft, either return to edit the page you were editing prior, or hit “Drafts” to see a list of unsaved drafts.
  • Basic search capabilities.