Atlas is currently in its Beta release; this means that, while we feel the system is ready to be used, it's still actively under development and needs some rigorous testing. That's where you come in! Here are the most important things you need to know to get started.
Atlas (Beta Release) Is Built on Git
Atlas is built on Git, the powerful version control system that tracks every change in your content, who made it, and when it happened. What this means is that your content is secure and can be rolled back to any previous version if necessary. Git also provides the functionality for seamless collaboration tools.
Your Projects
When you sign into Atlas, the first thing you'll see is a list of all your existing projects. If you want to edit or build from an existing project, simply find and click the project in the list. To create a new project, click the New Project button to the right of the projects list.
Click the New Project button in your project list to start fresh.
If you want to start from scratch, you can define the title and description for your project and choose a project template to pre-populate your new repository with some skeleton files based on the kind of project you’re making.
You can also create a new Atlas project by importing an existing project from GitHub.
Once you select a project or create a new one, you'll be taken to the project dashboard, where you'll see a list of all files in the project, and have access to the ebook-building tools.
The Project Dashboard
The project dashboard is your landing page for each project. It lists all the files and folders in your project, specifies your active branch, and gives you quick access to the build tools (more on building below). You can also navigate from here to the Project Settings and Activity pages.
From the project dashboard, click a file in the Files pane at left to open it in the editor.
Writing and Editing
The Atlas editor has two writing modes: the Visual Editor and the Code Editor. The Visual Editor is an online authoring environment similar to a word processor, with a formatting toolbar for tagging and styling your content. Documents created in the Visual Editor are stored as HTMLBook, a specification of HTML5. The Code Editor allows you to view and edit the underlying HTML5 markup for your document. You can toggle back and forth between the Visual and Code Editors, and changes you make in either mode will immediately be reflected in the other.
While HTML5 is the default markup language for Atlas content, Atlas also supports documents written inMarkdown, AsciiDoc, and DocBook XML. All three of these formats can be edited using the Code Editor.
In both writing modes, you can navigate among your files using the Files menu to the left of the screen, create and delete files and folders, upload images, save your project (specify a custom commit message by clicking on the dropdown arrow next to the Save button), and even initiate builds.
Creating a New File
To create a new file, click the New File button at bottom of the dashboard. Give your file a name, and press Enter. You can also do this in the Files pane in the editor.
You can also organize your files into folders. To add a folder, click the New Folder button (next to the New File button). You can then click the folder name in the Files menu to open the folder and create new files within it.
Warning
You can't currently organize your files within Atlas. If you want to move existing files into a folder, you need to do that outside of Atlas using Git.
Building
When you're finished writing, it's time to build your project so you can share it with the world. Atlas lets you export your project in four different formats: PDF, EPUB, MOBI, and HTML website.
Before you build for the first time, you'll need to choose which files from your project to include and the settings you want to apply to each format; click Configure on the project dashboard.
In the Files section, simply choose files from the left-hand pane to add to the build, and drag the files into the correct order on the right. You can remove files from the build list by clicking on the minus button.
Each format has a few different configuration options. Four are common to all formats:
Create a table of contents in your output, based on your section headings.
Collect all index tags you've added and create an alphabetical index in your final format.
Apply syntax highlighting to language-specific code sections in build output.
Display or suppress Atlas comments in build output (HTMLBook only).
Finally, choose a theme for your project. You can pick from one of the available default themes, or specify your own custom theme.
Click Save, and now you can build from the dashboard.
The Builds menu on the project dashboard allows you to quickly trigger a build using your previously chosen settings.
If the build is successful, you'll get a link to download the file. If it fails, you'll get information about what went wrong (the usual culprit is markup errors).
Themes and Design
All of the Atlas output formats (PDF, EPUB, MOBI, and HTML) are powered by CSS, the standard styling language for the Web. You can write an entirely new theme using CSS that can be used for multiple projects, by multiple people, or you can just add CSS customizations for your specific project.
To apply a theme to your project, choose one of the default themes on the Configure page, or add a link to your own custom theme.
Add a design to your project on the Configure page.
Building Locally with the API
Atlas gives you the option to build locally on the command line, using our API. (Note that you'll still need an internet connection for this to work.) This is great if you prefer to work locally using your own text editor but still want to see the final output.
