go back

So from desktop, open your document, and go to "File -> Download -> Markdown":

But once you've done that, open Ellipsus, click the "+" icon in the bottom menu, and select "Import Markdown".

Part 2: Getting that 'App-like' Experience

Open Ellipsus in your mobile browser of choice. You might get a prompt to "Install Ellipsus", but if not, just open the main browser menu. You should have an option for "Save/Add to Home screen", "Download Web App", or something similar. Select that option, and you'll get an Ellipsus icon on your home screen. Now when you open Ellipsus via this shortcut, it will open in a dedicated 'window' as if it were a native app—and without the clutter of the browser's address/tool bars!

Caveat: On my previous phone, I experienced some significant lag while typing via Firefox for Android. To get around this, I used Chrome instead for running the web app. (boo, hiss). Happy to report though that on my new phone, the lag is completely gone in Firefox! But yeah, your mileage may vary.

Part 3: Establishing Your Workflow in Ellipsus

If like me, your work is primarily longer, multi-chapter fics, the ability to export those chapters for posting to AO3 is probably very important to you... The big caveat to the exporting features in Ellipsis is that they will export the entire document. There's no way to say, "Export everything under the "Chapter X" heading.

So there's two workarounds here:

Create a folder for each story, and create each chapter as a separate document in that folder, or

Create one document for each story, and create each chapter as a "draft"within that document.

I use method #2, because I think it makes navigating between chapters a little faster, but you do you.

Consider that true appeal of drafts is the ability to merge changes into the main document. But if you're creating your chapters as drafts within a single document, this won't quite work because the merger won't know where to place this completely different 'draft' within the main document—it will think you want to replace the content of the main document entirely:

If your draft contains only the content for a single chapter, but your main document contains the rest of your story, the merger will want to remove all the other parts of your story, and also just have like... a really wonky diff check in general.

As a method #2 person: once I've finished/published a chapter, I copy and paste the content of the chapter into the main document, then delete the relevant draft. If the ability to just merge drafts into the main document as intended is important to you, then method #1 would probably suit your needs better.

Part 4: Collaborating & The Export to AO3 Feature

Just as with Google docs, you can invite collaborators to your documents, or share a link for viewing. By highlighting sections of text, you and your collaborators can also add comments:

When sharing/exporting a document or draft, you'll have the option to export to AO3:

When your AO3 account is connected, the "Export to AO3" feature will display a list of your existing works. You can choose to edit or add a chapter to one of them, or post a new work entirely.

Whatever your choice, the exporter will copy the document HTML to your clipboard and open a tab straight to the publishing form on AO3. Paste the HTML, add your tags, summary, and any author's notes, and you're ready to post!

Part 5: The Future

Ellipsus is a bit of a fledgling compared to most writing software out there and has a pretty limited feature set. However, development is pretty active, updates come out regularly, and you can also vote on (or make your own) feature suggestions!