I built FINAL|FINAL out of years of frustration with existing writing tools for academics. Some tools out there had one or more of these features, but no app had all of them:
- An clear outline of the document which allows you to re-organize sections or zoom in on them.
- Built-in support for citations and bibliographies with Zotero, including the ability to export to Word with “live” Zotero markers so you can continue to prepare the final manuscript for publication there.
- Versioning that has both automatic updates and the ability to save named versions of the document at any time, and which allows you to easily restore all or part of the ducument from any backup.
- WYSIWYG editing without the surprises that you get when working in Word. In FINAL|FINAL you can switch seemlessly between formatted text or raw markdown without loosing your place, or giving up any features.
- Tasks and annotations that can appear inline, as pop-ups, or completely hidden from the main document, and which can always be accessed from a dedicated sidebar.
- Status markers, word counts, and writing goals to easily track what still needs to be done.
- A configurable focus mode that lets you choose which distractions to hide while writing.
- Easy theming so you can customize every aspect of how it looks to suit your personal preferences.
FINAL|FINAL was built for academics, but it should be just as useful for longform fiction projects, screenplays, or technical documentation, any project where you need to keep track of your context while you focus on what you write.
- Download the latest zip from GitHub Releases
- Unzip to extract
FINAL|FINAL.app - Move the app to
/Applications(optional) - Double-click to open
The app is signed and notarized with a Developer ID certificate, so macOS will allow it to open without any workarounds.
Although most of the core features (listed above) are already implemented, FINAL|FINAL is still alpha software and should be used with caution.
- Inserting images, tables, and mathematical formulas is not yet supported
- Exporting PDFs with bi-directional text, or mathematical formulas is not yet supported
FINAL|FINAL works fine out-of-the-box, but there are a couple of features that require external tools, and they require some setup.
The citation management plugin works with Zotero, a free open-source project used by thousands of people. You need to have this installed and running, for citation functions to work with FINAL|FINAL.
Better BibTeX is a Zotero plugin that allows FINAL|FINAL to talk with Zotero and also for FINAL|FINAL documents to talk with the engine that lets you export to Word or PDF.
Better BibTeX requires some setup:
-
In the main Zotero settings, under
Advanced, checkAllow other applications on this computer to communicate with Zotero. -
Zotero 7 only: In the Better BibTeX section of your Zotero settings, ensure that
Automatically pin citation key after X secondsis set to1. This is not needed in Zotero 8, where citation keys are pinned automatically. -
Restart Zotero after installing Better BibTeX.
Pandoc, another popular free, open source project, is required for the advanced export functions. (Plain markdown exort works just fine without it.)
There is a package installer at pandoc’s download page. If you later want to uninstall the package, you can do so by downloading this script and running it with perl uninstall-pandoc.pl.
Alternatively, you can install pandoc using Homebrew:
brew install pandoc
Grammar checking can use the free version of Language Tool out-of-the box, but if you want enhanced grammar checking you need to sign up for the premium version and get an API key.
- Create a project — Use File → New Project to start writing
- Start typing — Your work saves automatically to the project
- Organize with headings — Use # for H1, ## for H2, and so on
- Navigate — Click sections in the sidebar to jump to them
Each heading becomes a section in the sidebar. Use # for H1, ## for H2, and so on. Or use the / command while typing to change a header, or drag-and-drop the sections in the sidebar to reorganize your document.
You can double-click a section to zoom in, or click once to jump to that section.
Right-click sections to:
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Set a status (Next, Writing, Waiting, Review, Final)
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Add word goals with progress tracking. Can set minimum, maximum, or approximate (+/- %5) goals.
Press ⌘/ to toggle between WYSIWYG and source view. Source mode shows raw markdown for precise editing.
Use /cite to enter a citation from Zotero. A bibliography section will be created automatically.
Use /task, /comment, or /reference to add annotations. Tasks have check boxes that can be checked-off. To avoid surprises everything shows inline to begin with, but I recommend setting comments and references to “collapsed” via the “eye” menu in the top right corner of the annotations panel. This will still show them with a pop-up tool tip.
Press ⌘⇧F to enter focus mode for distraction-free writing. By default, focus mode enters full screen, hides both sidebars, the toolbar, and the status bar, and dims everything except the paragraph you're editing.
You can customize which elements are affected in Preferences → Focus:
- Hide Outline Sidebar — hides the left sidebar
- Hide Annotation Panel — hides the right sidebar and collapses annotations
- Hide Toolbar — hides the window toolbar
- Hide Status Bar — hides the bottom status bar
- Paragraph Highlighting — dims all paragraphs except the one you're editing
All settings are on by default. Changes take effect the next time you enter focus mode.
Press ⌘⇧S to save a named version. Access all versions with ⌘⌥V (or the “Version History” menu option, to compare or restore previous drafts.
Open the preferences to change the fonts, colors, and paragraph spacing. You can save your favorite configuration for re-use.
Use /footnote to insert a footnote. Footnotes appear at the end of the document and are numbered automatically.
Built-in spell check works out of the box. For enhanced grammar and style checking, connect to LanguageTool (free or premium) in the preferences.
A selection toolbar appears when you highlight text, and the Format menu provides quick access to formatting options. The status bar at the bottom shows word count and document statistics.
Export your work to Markdown, Word (.docx), or PDF. Word export preserves Zotero citation markers for further editing. Advanced export requires Pandoc.
We'd love to hear from you!
Feedback or bug reports can be submitted to the project's github issues page.
FINAL|FINAL was built by P. Kerim Friedman with the help of Claude Code, and inspiration from a number of open source projects.