A B-Maker project is one portable .bmaker file. The manuscript tree holds the real structure. Collections, boards, the Idea Map, and analytics give you different views of the same project instead of creating parallel copies of the manuscript.
1. Start with a project, not configuration
On first launch you can open the built-in guide or a demo project to see a finished structure. For your own work, however, the minimum setup is simply a project plus the first chapter or article.
Do not fill every field, card, or planning view in advance. Writing an article? Create the article. Writing a book? Create the first chapter. B-Maker is designed so the process can become more structured later.
A useful rule: if a tool is not solving a real problem yet, you do not need to use it.
2. Treat the manuscript tree as the source of truth
The main tree answers one basic question: what does the work contain, and in what order? Chapters, sections, and nested parts belong here.
For article series, it can be useful to separate active work from archive material. Keep current pieces in a Drafts branch and move completed work to an organizational folder such as Published. That organizational branch can stay in the project without becoming part of the exported book.
Avoid building a second “master structure” in a spreadsheet or board. Other views are most useful when they sit on top of the actual manuscript structure rather than compete with it.
3. Write one section — or read the full manuscript
For normal work, open the chapter or article you need and write. When you need to feel the rhythm of the larger text, use the full-manuscript view: chapters and nested sections appear as one continuous reading flow while remaining separate project sections underneath.
This lets you edit a large work as a whole without turning it into one enormous document.
4. Change your working focus, not the book structure
Manual collections and saved searches are useful for temporary slices of work. Examples include “chapters to revise,” “scenes with this character,” or “everything still marked as draft.”
The underlying manuscript does not move. You change what you are looking at today, not the order of the book itself.
When you need a visual status overview, use the manuscript board. It is another view of the same project elements.
More detail: collections vs saved searches · manuscript tree vs board.
5. Use the Idea Map for thinking, not mandatory planning
The Idea Map becomes useful when the linear tree is no longer enough. You can place notes, chapters, scenes, characters, plotlines, images, and planning cards on freeform boards, connect them, and keep several boards inside the same project.
The important part is that the map belongs to the writing project. Ideas do not have to live in another app: a note or group can later become a real manuscript section.
For a simple piece, you may never need the map. It becomes valuable when there are more relationships than you want to keep in your head.
6. Add characters, plot, and planning only when the story needs them
For fiction, B-Maker can track characters, relationships, arc points, plotlines, locations, and planning cards. Those planning entities can stay linked to scenes and manuscript sections.
This helps a complex project, but it should not become a questionnaire you must complete before writing. Start with the text, then add as much structure as the work actually needs.
See the workflow: characters and plot without a separate spreadsheet.
7. Use versions instead of files named final-2
When a section needs a significant rewrite, create another version. Versions can be named, duplicated, compared, locked, and selected as current.
A practical boundary works well: make small corrections in the current version; create a new version for a structural experiment, major rewrite, or AI-assisted revision. Then the comparison represents meaningful alternatives rather than every corrected comma.
Comments can belong to the whole text or to specific passages. Locking a finished version is useful when you no longer want accidental edits.
More detail: a version and a backup are not the same thing.
8. Treat AI as an optional tool, not the owner of the manuscript
B-Maker works without AI. If you connect it, use AI for bounded tasks: analysis, alternative wording, shortening, expansion, or another explicit transformation.
For substantial changes, keep the original and accept the AI result as a separate version. Compare what changed, then decide what becomes the current text.
The API key is stored outside the book file. The project remains usable without AI for normal writing, organization, revision, and export.
More detail: why AI exists inside B-Maker · AI together with versions.
9. Check the text before calling it finished
Analytics show manuscript size, reading time, and other writing-oriented metrics. Checks can surface repetition, long sentences, draft markers, empty sections, mixed alphabets, typography issues, and other signals worth reviewing.
Do not optimize for a perfect score. The checks are more useful as a list of places that deserve a human look before publication.
10. See the book before exporting it
The full preview lets you inspect current section versions as one book, including the cover, illustrations, hidden headings, and explicit page breaks. Working sections can remain in the project while staying out of the final output.
This is a useful final step before export: look at the whole result first, then create the deliverable files.
More detail: preview vs export.
11. Prepare a publishing package, not only a document
The publishing area can collect positioning, blurb, synopsis or proposal structure, author information, rights, and an AI-use declaration. A readiness checklist shows what is still missing.
You can export the whole project or a selected branch. B-Maker supports DOCX, EPUB, PDF, TXT, and Markdown, so an individual article inside a larger archive can still become its own final output.
See the workflow: from draft to publication.
12. Keep backups as a separate habit
The .bmaker file stays under your control. You can keep it on your computer, move it to another machine, and back it up using your normal storage process. B-Maker also includes manual backups, history, restore, and integrity checks.
Versions protect you from a bad text edit. Backups protect the project itself. You want both layers.
Three simple workflows
One article
Project → article → write → checks → preview → export. You can ignore the rest.
A long book
Manuscript tree → chapters and scenes → optional characters, plot, and Idea Map → versions for major rewrites → analytics → publishing package → export.
An article series that becomes a book
Write articles as separate items, move completed pieces into an organizational archive branch, and use collections for thematic views. When enough material exists, build the book structure inside the same project. See turning articles into a book.
Where to go next
If you prefer workflows over feature descriptions, open the B-Maker stories. If you are deciding between tools, use the B-Maker comparisons. The project page contains the platform overview and downloads.
Start with the text.
Create one chapter or one article. If five minutes later you are still configuring the system instead of writing, you started in the wrong place.