Daigo Writer User Manual

1 Basic Usage
2 Syncing & Encryption
3 Licenses

Daigo Writer is a minimalist writing tool that will be particularly useful when you decide to buy a syncing subscription. It is a so-called “Progressive Web App” (PWA). That means that you can use it in the browser as a web page and on some operating systems and browsers also install it as an offline app.

Data is stored offline on your machine in unencrypted form. Once you activate syncing, data will also be stored in end-to-end encrypted from on Daigosoft’s servers and will be synced with other devices you’ve set up for syncing.

1 Basic Usage

1.1 Main View

When you start writer, you’ll be greeted with a sheet of paper that says “Chapter 1” or similar. You can now start writing on your first novel.

You may use the following shortcuts, where Mod stands for the Command key on macOS and the Control key on all other platforms.

Mod+B: bold text
Mod+I: italic text
Mod+1…Mod+3: switch between documents
Mod+Alt+1…Mod+Alt+6: heading style 1…6
Mod+Shift+L: align text left
Mod+Shift+R: align text right
Mod+Shift+E: align text center
Mod+S: export to Word format (local download)
Mod+Shift+S: export to plaintext (local download)
Mod+;: settings view

Clicking on the menu bar icon on top of the document opens the chapter and document selection window.

You have three document slots. Clicking on one of the buttons labeled 1, 2, and 3 switches to the respective document slot.

Within each document, you can have arbitrary many chapters. Press the “+” button to create a new chapter. Click on the chapter heading to select the chapter as current document for editing. Click on the “-” button to delete the currently selected chapter. This action cannot be undone.

You may make chapters inactive by clicking on the eye icon, which then turns into red crossed circle. Clicking it again makes the chapter active again. When a chapter is inactive, it will not be included by the export functions.

Below the chapter list you will find three icons symbolizing Export to Word, Export to Plaintext, Settings, and the Help menu. Click the respective icon for the function.

1.3 Exporting

The export functions always export the whole book except for the chapters that are marked as inactive.

Export to Word generates a Word-compatible file, which you can then download by clicking the Download button. The file will be downloaded to your browsers default download folder.

Export to Plaintext generates a unicode UTF-8 plaintext file, which is downloaded to the browser’s default download folder as well.

1.4 Settings

The Settings view contains the global syncing credentials and a few miscellaneous settings.

1.4.1 Your Online Credentials

If you decide to buy a syncing subscription for writer, you will receive a Daigo User ID and a Subscription Token. Enter these in the respective fields. To activate syncing you also need to press the Set Password button. This will open a password dialog to enter a password. Note down your credentials including the sync password and store them in a safe place. You may enter these three credentials – Daigo User ID, Subscription Token, and Sync Password – on as many machines and browsers you wish to enable syncing of the three document slots between those devices and browsers. (Web apps work “per browser” so when you switch browsers the app will work like on a fresh start unless syncing is active.)

When your credentials are correct, the LED light next to Status will illuminate green. If there is an error, which usually occurs when the credentials are incorrect, then the LED light will be red. If the LED light is not lit, you haven’t entered all necessary credentials yet or your device is offline.

Force Upload: When syncing is enabled and you are online, pressing this button will override any versions on the Daigo Writer server with the current version of your document. This operation is lossy, stored remote versions cannot be recovered. You should only use the Force Upload option if you encounter sync problems and are sure the current version of all three documents are complete.
Download Credentials: This button will download your Daigo User ID, Subscription Token, and Sync Password in plaintext in your browser’s download folder. Use this only on a secure device. For higher security, it might make sense to not use this option and instead enter your credentials on another device by hand.

1.4.2 Editor Settings

The following settings are stored locally and can be changed per device:

Writing Area Width: Use the slider to adjust the width of the writing area.
Editor Font: You may choose between the Crimson Pro and the Courier font.
Base Font Size: Use the slider to adjust the base font size to your liking.
Smart Quotation Marks: When this option is active, quotation marks in text loaded and pasted, as well as during writing, will substitute simple quotation marks with typographically correct ones.
Quotation Mark Type: Use the menu to choose between English, German, French, and French inverted quotation marks. Use the button row to switch between single and double quotes as primary quotation marks. If the style is double, a quotation within a quotation will use single quotes, and, vice versa, if the style is single, quotations within a quotation will use double quotes. Continuation quotation marks are supported provided paragraph formatting is consistent, though these are rarely used in contemporary writing.
Use high contrast theme: When activated, all text and dialogs are displayed with high contrast.

1.5 Help

The help window gives a short overview of the available keyboard commands. We will add more commands and functions as the app evolves.

1.6 Automatic Theming

Daigo Writer uses the browser’s preferences for dark and light themes. These are usually determined by the operating system’s theme settings. If you want to switch from light to a dark theme, for example, you need to change this settings in your operating system and, if needed, also in your browser’s settings.

2 Syncing & Encryption

2.1 About Online Syncing

You may buy a Subscription Token for online syncing at daigosoft.com. Syncing stores your encrypted texts on European servers satisfying strict GDPR requirements. Since your texts are end-to-end encrypted with the sync password you’ve chosen, nobody can decrypt them without that password. Be sure to either use a long passphrase or a long enough random password, however, since many common passwords are easy to guess. Bear in mind that anyone who possesses your Sync Password and Subscription Token can not only download and decrypt your texts, they can also delete your texts or alter them. So it is important to keep that information secure. We recommend writing down or printing your credentials. If you lose your sync password, your local texts remain unencrypted and you can access them. However, you will no longer be able to access remote copies with the syncing feature.

2.2 Encryption

Daigo Writer uses the following end-to-end encryption and remote storage system: When the user enters a sync password, it is hashed using the Argon2 algorithm with a fixed salt, and the resulting key is stored together with the password in unencrypted form in the local browser settings. That means that if your device is compromised, your password and encrypted remote documents are also compromised.

To store the three documents and miscellaneous information remotely, Daigo Writer first uses the Subscription Token to access a remote server and obtain credentials for an S3 server located in Sweden. Your client app then encrypts the documents with your local key using XChaCha20-Poly1305 as encryption method. It then uploads the encrypted documents to the Swedish S3 Server using the previously obtained client credentials.

When an app syncs documents, it downloads the corresponding documents from the slots for your user and decrypts them with the key stored locally on your device. If that fails, a Decrypt Error is signalled in the settings. If it succeeds, then a complex version check is performed to determine whether the remote version is more recent and whether there are version conflicts, and updates the documents accordingly.

3 Licenses

3.1 End User License

The following licensing terms are between Daigosoft (Erich H. Rast, also referred to as “we”) and the end user who uses Daigo Writer (short “user”).

The Daigo Writer Progressive Web App (PWA) is free for use with local storage. To enable online syncing, the user must purchase a Subscription Token from Daigosoft and enter it together with the user’s Daigo ID in the web app’s settings.
In order to be permitted to use Daigo Writer, the user must agree to and adhere to Daigosoft’s Terms of Service, which lay out common conditions for the acceptable use of our infrastructure.
The software is provided “as is” without any absolute guarantees regarding uptime or data delivery, though we will act with professional diligence. Specifically for Daigo Writer, the user is reminded that local storage of PWAs is very fragile: Browser cache refreshing and cookie deletion will cause data loss. Daigosoft recommends to the user to make frequent manual backups of their texts both in local usage and when online syncing is active.
Grounds for termination of this software license. Daigosoft maintains the right to terminate a user’s license to use Daigo Writer in the following cases: Violations of the conditions laid out in this licensing document, malicious use of the app and associated infrastructure such as reverse engineering the app (except for the purpose of finding bugs, conducting responsible security research and where otherwise allowed by law), giving away copies of associated licensing keys (“subscription tokens”) to others without authorization, attacking the app or Daigosoft’s infrastructure, trying to obtain other users’ data, and otherwise intentionally disrupting Daigo Writer’s functionality or Daigosoft’s websites, servers, and services as well as any third party servers used for the functioning of Daigo Writer such as S3 servers.
Daigosoft acknowledges the responsibility to monitor the security of the app and associated services, provide security updates for identified vulnerabilities, and responsibly disclose security incidents. Daigo Writer uses end-to-end encryption. Unencrypted metadata that occurs on our servers (such as IP numbers and connection times) is only collected insofar as it is needed to maintain the product’s service and its quality. We adhere to the GDPR data protection regulations of the European Union.

3.2 Third Party Licenses

Daigo Writer uses some open-source libraries. We’d like to thank all authors for making these available! Click here for a complete list of all open-source libraries used, their licenses, and their attribution details.