Importing your work

If your story already lives in a Word document, a Markdown or plain-text file, a PullAtlas backup, a NovelCrafter export, a World Anvil world, or a vault of markdown notes (Obsidian and kin), you can move it into PullAtlas and pick up where you left off. Import always creates a new private project; existing projects are never touched.

How to import

1. Open Import

   From the Library, choose Bring in an existing project. The same door is on the first-run welcome and in Export & Backup.

2. Drop a file

   Drop the file or folder (or browse for it) and PullAtlas works out what it is: a PullAtlas backup (.json), a manuscript (Word .docx, Markdown, or TXT), a NovelCrafter export, a saved World Anvil export page (.html), or a vault of markdown notes. No format pickers to get wrong.

3. Review and confirm

   The preview shows exactly what the import will create: the project title, every chapter with its word count, and any warnings. Nothing is created until you confirm, and the preview’s numbers are the import’s numbers, because both run the same code.

Splitting into chapters

A manuscript comes in as chapters, not one enormous block. In a Word document, chapter titles in Word’s heading styles mark the breaks (heading styles in any language work), and a manuscript without heading styles still splits on bold, centered title lines. In Markdown, ## headings become chapters (a leading # heading becomes the project title). In plain text, lines like “Chapter 1” or “Part II” mark the breaks. Scene divider lines (***, * * *, or ---) become real scenes inside the chapter. You can always add or reorder chapters afterwards in the Outline view. A very large book (long serials included) arrives in chapter batches automatically; if the connection drops mid-import, dropping the same file again picks up exactly where it stopped.

What comes across

Paragraphs, bold and italic emphasis, and scene breaks carry over from Word and Markdown alike. PullAtlas keeps prose formatting simple on purpose, so the import stays clean and predictable rather than dragging in stray styling from a word processor. What a Word document carries beyond prose does not make the trip: footnotes, comments, images, and tables stay behind, tracked changes are applied on the way in, and the preview says exactly what was left out before you confirm. Text files that are not UTF-8 (older Word exports, usually) are detected and decoded rather than arriving full of broken quotes.

After importing

Once your prose is in, the rest of the workspace comes alive: build your Atlas as you go, or let the AI help you get started, see How the AI works.

Started writing here first? A vault, NovelCrafter, or World Anvil import can also merge into a book you already have: pick the book in the import preview, and PullAtlas matches imported entries to your existing Atlas by name and alias. You choose what each match does — enrich the existing entry (filling only what it leaves empty; nothing you wrote is ever overwritten), create it as new, or leave it out. Merging brings the bible only; chapters stay with the file.

What you can import

Import your own work, or work you have the rights to hold and edit. Everything you import stays private to your account, like everything else you write here.