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The editor

This page covers what's on screen around your text: the menus, the toolbar, the gutters that read your lines as you write, and the status bar.

The editor's menu bar: Ilena, Work, Edit, Tools, Help

Five menus, top left:

MenuHolds
IlenaAbout, Settings, Invoicing (greyed out — there's no in-app billing yet), Logout.
WorkClose, Save, Export, History — for the work currently open.
EditUndo, Redo, Cut, Copy, Paste, Delete, Select All, Mark.
ToolsWorkspace (Cmd/Ctrl+O), Dictionary (Cmd/Ctrl+D).
HelpKeyboard Shortcuts, Terms of Use, Privacy Policy, AI Transparency, How to get support. Documentation and Tutorials are listed but not available yet.

Toolbar​

The editor toolbar: close, save, and history icons, the line-type dropdown, mark, bold, italic, underline, strikethrough, undo, and redo

Left to right: Close, Save, History, the line type dropdown, Mark, Bold/Italic/Underline/Strikethrough, then Undo/Redo. At the far right of the window, separate from this cluster, sit Settings (the gear) and Documentation (not available yet).

Every one of these also lives in a menu above — the toolbar is a shortcut to the same actions, not a different set of them.

Line types​

Each line has a type, chosen from the toolbar dropdown:

TypeLooks likeUse for
VerseStandard body textYour actual lyrics — the default, and the only type read by the gutters below.
TitleLarge, boldSong or section titles.
IndicationItalicStage directions, performance notes.
LegalSmallCredits, copyright, fine print.

The gutters​

Two verse lines in the canvas, each with a feet count on the left and an emotion label on the right

While you're on a verse line, Ilena analyses it a beat after you stop typing:

  • Left gutter — feet. The syllable count for that line.
  • Right gutter — emotion. The dominant emotion Ilena reads in that line.

Both are a guide, not a verdict — treat them as a signal to check your meter or your emotional arc at a glance, not as ground truth. Only verse lines are analysed; title, indication, and legal lines show nothing in either gutter.

Status bar​

The status bar showing the current line and column, word count, verse count, mean feet, range, and the work's title

Along the bottom, with a work open: your cursor's line and column, the word count, the number of verses, and the mean and range of feet across them, plus the open work's name. Cursor position, word count, and feet stats can each be turned off from Ilena → Settings if you don't want them on screen.

Marking text​

Marking is a temporary highlight for the current editing session — useful for keeping a line in view while you work on the rest of the piece.

  1. Select the text you want to mark.
  2. Choose Edit → Mark, or the Mark button in the toolbar.

Every occurrence of that exact text in the current work is highlighted in yellow. The toolbar's Mark button shows as active while your cursor sits in marked text.

A mark is not saved and does not export. It never reaches the server — reload the page or reopen the work and it's gone, and it will never appear in an exported PDF even if it's still visible on screen right now. See Export for what does and doesn't carry into the file you download.

Saving​

Ilena does not autosave — you control every version.

  • Save — Cmd/Ctrl+S, Work → Save, or the toolbar button.
  • Unsaved indicator — the browser tab title is prefixed with * while the work differs from its last saved version.
  • Closing with unsaved changes — a dialog offers Discard or Save & Close. Dismissing it leaves the work open and unchanged.

Every save creates a new version — see History & Versions.

Undo and redo​

Standard undo and redo work inside the canvas, stacked for the current editing session — closing and reopening a work starts a fresh history.

Next: suggestions as you write​

The canvas can also suggest how a line might continue, in two different ways. See Inspiration to turn them on and understand how each one works.