Finis Help
Finis features, with the steps and the keys.
14
Getting Started
Finis is made for long texts: novels, essays, theses. A project is a folder of Markdown files; Finis adds order, working information and a page made for writing at length.
The Project
The sidebar is the project: every row is a file or a folder on disk, in the order you decide.
Virgil
Ask your book, reread, draft a synopsis or a variant in the inspector’s Virgil tab (⌥⌘A).
Writing
The page is Markdown, but quiet: you write, Finis shows the shape of the text and hides almost every symbol.
Writing Modes
Two ways to stay with the sentence: the typewriter keeps your line in the middle, focus dims the rest. Use them together or alone.
Seeing the Whole
Four ways to look at the project: choose them in the group of icons at the top right, or with ⌘1, ⌘2, ⌘3 and ⌘4.
Status, Tags and Notes
Each document’s working information lives in the inspector (⌥⌘I): it helps you write, but stays out of the text and the book.
Finding
A word in the document or in the whole project, or a document by its name.
Reviewing
Suggestions, comments and versions: reread without losing anything, alone or with someone reading for you.
Counts and Goals
How much you’ve written, how much is left, how much you write each day.
Exporting the Book
From project to book in one step: Word for publishers, PDF to send or print, ePub for readers.
Keeping Your Work Safe
Finis saves on its own, never overwrites what changes elsewhere, and keeps copies of everything.
Page and Appearance
Typeface, line width, spacing and the color of the paper: all in Settings (⌘,).
Keyboard Shortcuts
Every command is in the menus; these are the ones with a key.
The same features on iPad, with touch, the keyboard and Apple Pencil.
Getting Started
Finis is made for long texts: novels, essays, theses. A project is a folder of Markdown files; Finis adds the order, the working information and a page made for writing at length.
Writing
Tap the page and write. The text is Markdown, but it doesn’t show: the marks fade back, headings and italics look as in a book. The column keeps a comfortable reading width, with the iPad upright, sideways or beside another app.
Organizing
On the left, the sidebar: the project’s folders and documents, in their order. A tap opens a document on the page. The button at the top left opens and closes it; as on the Mac, a project opens with the page alone, unless you turn off Sidebar hidden when opening in Settings. Upright, the sidebar closes by itself when you choose.
Virgil
Virgil, in the inspector (⌥⌘A), asks the book, rereads, drafts synopses and variants with an artificial intelligence service of your choice. In Settings › Virgil, connect DeepSeek, OpenAI, Anthropic, Google Gemini or Grok (xAI) with Verify and Save: the API key stays in this iPad’s Keychain. There you also choose a model for each task.
The Page
Aa shapes the text: bold and italic, headings, quotes, lists, links, footnotes and comments. The typeface, size, line spacing, line width and appearance (light, sepia or dark) are in Settings.
With a Keyboard
With a keyboard attached, Finis has the Mac’s shortcuts. Hold ⌘ to see them all, or open the menu bar.
Exporting
Export Book… (the share icon at the top, or ⇧⌘E) puts the book’s documents together, in the order of the sidebar, as Word, a manuscript PDF for publishers, a book PDF, ePub, HTML or Markdown.
Keeping Your Work Safe
Every day and at every close, Finis copies the project into a backup on this iPad, kept apart, and keeps the last 14 daily ones, 8 weekly ones and the last of each month. File › Back Up Now makes one right away; Restore from Backup… reopens a copy as a new project, next to the open one, without touching it.
Trial and Unlock
You can try Finis free for 14 days, with every feature. Then you unlock it with a single purchase, no subscription, valid on Mac and iPad with the same Apple Account: Restore Purchases finds it on another device.