Preparo - Spectral Docs

Markdown editor for manuscript preparation and publishing

Quick Start

Open Preparo in your browser
Create a new project (book or article)
Import a document or start writing in the editor
Structure your manuscript into chapters
Configure metadata and export to EPUB, DOCX, or PDF

Interface

Preparo uses a three-panel layout:

Panel	Purpose
Projects (left)	Create and manage your projects
Documents (center)	List and organize your manuscript files, import/export
Editor (right)	WYSIWYG Markdown editor with navigator and toolbar

Project Types

Type	Description
Book	Multi-document manuscript with chapters, frontmatter and backmatter
Article	Single-document project with a simplified interface

Importing Documents

Click the Import button in the Documents panel to convert files into Markdown:

Supported formats: DOCX, EPUB, PDF, HTML, ODT, LaTeX, and more
Files are converted via Pandoc and stored locally
After import, use Split by H1 (✂) to separate a large document into individual chapters

Each split chapter receives only the footnotes it references, with automatic renumbering.

The Editor

Preparo features a WYSIWYG Markdown editor based on Milkdown, with full Pandoc Markdown support.

The toolbar provides quick access to formatting:

Text: Bold, italic, underline, strikethrough, superscript, small caps
Structure: Headings (H1–H6), blockquotes, bullet and ordered lists
Insert: Images, footnotes, citations, bibliography block
Code: Inline code, code blocks

Footnotes

Insert footnotes with the toolbar button. Preparo manages footnote numbering automatically:

References are inserted at the cursor position
Definitions are added at the end of the document
Numbering updates automatically when footnotes are added or removed

Navigator

The Navigator panel (in the editor sidebar) provides three tabs:

TOC — Table of contents generated from headings
Blocks — Document structure overview (headings, paragraphs, lists, images)
Styles — Active formatting styles at the cursor position

Pandoc Extensions

The editor supports Pandoc-specific Markdown syntax:

Bracketed spans: [text]{.class #id key="value"}
Fenced divs: ::: {.class} blocks
Superscript: ^superscript^
Heading attributes: # Heading {#id .class epub:type=chapter}
Smart typography: Automatic curly quotes, em dashes, ellipsis

Document Types

Each document in a book project can be assigned a type that maps to EPUB structural semantics:

Frontmatter

Preface, foreword, introduction, title page, copyright page, dedication, table of contents, etc.

Bodymatter

Chapters, parts.

Backmatter

Bibliography, appendix, afterword, glossary, index, etc.

Document types are used to:

Generate structured filenames for export (e.g., 00-preface.md, 02-chapter-1.md)
Automatically apply epub:type attributes for EPUB compliance
Order documents correctly in the exported manuscript

Bibliography & Citations

Preparo integrates with Zotero for bibliography management when connected to Spectral Cloud.

Connecting to Zotero

Log in via Spectral Cloud Portal
Store your Zotero API key in the Portal settings
Link a Zotero collection to your project

Working with Citations

Open the Bibliography panel to browse your references
Double-click an item to insert a citation ([@citekey]) at the cursor
Citations render as formatted badges in the editor (Chicago Author-Date style)
Click a citation badge to edit its fields (title, authors, date, etc.)

Bibliography Block

Insert a {{bibliography}} placeholder to render a dynamic bibliography in your document. The bibliography collects all cited references across all project documents.

Sync

Local changes to references are automatically pushed to Zotero
Remote changes are pulled every 60 seconds
Conflict resolution is based on modification timestamps
Cross-chapter citation formatting (ibid., op. cit.) is fully supported

Project Configuration

Open the project configuration panel to manage metadata and export settings.

Metadata (YAML)

Book metadata is stored as YAML and passed to Pandoc during export:

title: "My Book Title"
author: "Author Name"
lang: fr
publisher: "Publisher"
isbn-print: "978-..."
rights: "© 2026 Author Name"

EPUB Settings

Setting	Description
Table of Contents	Enable/disable automatic TOC generation
TOC Depth	Number of heading levels to include (1–5, default 2)
TOC Title	Custom title for the table of contents
Nav Reorder	Reorder nav.xhtml for EPUB 3 compliance

Exporting

Preparo supports multiple export formats from the Documents panel.

EPUB

EPUB 2 and EPUB 3 are exported via separate buttons
Chapters are assembled in the order defined by document types and position
Images, fonts, and CSS templates are embedded automatically
The {{bibliography}} placeholder is resolved before export
If a title page document exists, Pandoc’s auto-generated title page is disabled

Other Formats

Format	Description
DOCX	Microsoft Word document
ODT	OpenDocument text
PDF	PDF via LaTeX
HTML	Standalone HTML page

Multi-chapter exports use --file-scope to isolate footnote numbering per chapter.

Templates

Upload CSS stylesheets and CSL citation styles in the Templates tab of the Documents panel. Templates are automatically filtered by EPUB version during export.

Auto-Save

Preparo automatically saves your work to the browser’s local storage (IndexedDB):

Changes are saved after a short delay (1 second by default)
A status indicator shows the current state: saving, saved, or error
Use Export/Import in project settings to back up your data

Supported Markdown

The editor handles the following Markdown syntax:

# Heading 1 through ###### Heading 6
**bold**, *italic*, ***bold italic***
~~strikethrough~~, ^superscript^
[underline]{.underline}, [small caps]{.smallcaps}
> blockquote
- bullet list, 1. ordered list
![alt](image.jpg) — images with captions
| table | syntax | — Markdown tables
[^1]: footnote — footnotes with auto-numbering
[@citekey] — Pandoc citations
[text]{.class} — bracketed spans
::: {.class} — fenced divs
# Heading {#id .class epub:type=chapter} — heading attributes

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