Statistics and Targets
Open the Library (choose the project's name above the contents, or press ⌥⌘0) and choose All statistics, or choose today's progress under the page or the ribbon above it. The Library's Home page shows this week and the year at a glance.
Targets and sessions
Set a Manuscript target and a Session target in the Targets card and choose Save Targets. Targets are saved with the project and sync to your other devices.
A session counts the net words you've added to the manuscript: cutting 500 words counts as −500. A new session starts each day, or when you choose New Session on the This session card. Each device keeps its own session.
Only the manuscript counts, not notes, research, front matter or alternates. To count everything, turn on Count notes and research as well as the manuscript.
What the cards show
| Card | Shows |
|---|---|
| Manuscript | Words to go, and a projected finish date at your recent pace |
| This session | Words written and cut this session, beside the net count |
| Today, Streak | Words written and cut today, your streak of writing days, and your best day |
| Writing activity | A year of writing days. With a session target, the darkest squares are days you met it. |
| By chapter | Each chapter's length against its target |
| Status | How much of the manuscript is at each status, by documents and words |
| Dialogue and narration | How much of each chapter is speech |
| Speeches by character | In a screenplay or a play, in its place: the running time (about a page a minute) and each character's speeches and words of dialogue, most first |
| Readability | Flesch Reading Ease, Flesch–Kincaid, Gunning Fog and Coleman–Liau, overall and by chapter |
| Sentence length | The range of sentence lengths, and how much each chapter varies them |
| By person | In a shared project, each writer's words (see Write with Others) |
| Sprints | Your recent sprints, with your average and best rate (see Writing Sprints) |
| Writing record | How the book was written, to export (below) |
| Word frequency | Your most-used words, per 1,000 words |
| Targets | The targets, what counts, and the daily reminder |
Readability scores describe how easy the text is to read, not how good it is.
Word frequency
Common words such as "the" and "said" are hidden unless you turn on Common words. Group word forms counts walk, walked and walking together. Control-click a word to search the manuscript for it. Choose Export CSV… to open the list in a spreadsheet.
Writing record
The Writing record card writes out how the book was written, from the project's own logs: the words written and cut on each writing day, month by month, and by device (by person on a shared project); every checkpoint with the manuscript's words at that moment and a fingerprint of its history; and this device's sprints. Export it as a PDF, as Markdown, or as a CSV of the days.
It's something to show when you're asked to prove that a manuscript grew over months: each save logs the day's words on the device that wrote them, and a checkpoint's fingerprint can be checked by anyone who holds the project. It describes the writing; it doesn't judge it.