Welcome to OceanBoard

OceanBoard is a beautiful, powerful creative writing tool designed for authors, worldbuilders, and storytellers. It helps you organize your characters, locations, episodes, and creative content with an intuitive markdown editor and smart file management.

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Local-First

Everything is stored locally in your browser. No accounts, no cloud, no tracking.

Quick Start

Get started with OceanBoard in just a few steps:

1

Create a Series

Click the + button in the sidebar to create your first series. Think of series as your main projects or story collections.

2

Add Seasons

Right-click your series and select Add Season. Seasons help organize different parts of your story or project phases.

3

Create Files

Right-click a season and add episodes or special files. Start writing in the beautiful markdown editor!

Interface Overview

OceanBoard's interface is designed to be intuitive and distraction-free:

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Sidebar

Navigate between series, seasons, and files. Drag to reorder, right-click for options.

tab

Tab Bar

Keep multiple files open. Click tabs to switch, close button to dismiss.

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Editor

Split-view markdown editor. Write on the left, see formatted preview on the right.

settings

Settings

Customize font size, line height, word wrap, and more. Access via settings icon.

Interface Overview

The OceanBoard interface layout

Series & Seasons

OceanBoard uses a hierarchical structure to organize your creative work:

Series - Your main project or story collection
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Seasons - Chapters, volumes, or story arcs
arrow_downward
Files - Episodes, characters, locations, etc.
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Tip: You can export entire seasons or individual files to share or backup your work.

File Types

OceanBoard supports regular episodes and special file types:

EP

Episode

Regular story files, chapters, or writing entries

C

Character

Character profiles, descriptions, and development notes

O

Object

Important items, artifacts, or props in your story

SC

Scene

Locations, settings, or environment descriptions

A

Abstract

Concepts, themes, or abstract ideas

AT

Attribute

Dictionary files for linking mentions across files

Special Files

Special files (Characters, Objects, Scenes, etc.) automatically get a file-id template on creation. This ID allows you to reference them from other files. 

$ file-id = "protagonist1"

# Character Name
Description of your character...

The first line contains the file-id (hidden in preview). You can customize or remove it.

File-ID Rules:

  • Maximum 24 characters
  • Alphanumeric only (letters and numbers)
  • Must be unique across all files
  • Used for mentions and linking

Attributes & Mentions

Link files together using mentions. There are two ways to create mentions:

Natural Mention

The character.protagonist1 entered the room.

Shows a confirmation bubble: "Link to character.protagonist1?"

Direct Mention

The @character.protagonist1 entered the room.

Instant link, no confirmation. Preview shows only "protagonist1"

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Click mentions to navigate directly to the referenced file and line!

Markdown Editor

OceanBoard uses markdown for formatting. Here are the basics:

# Heading 1 →

Heading 1

**bold text** → bold text
*italic text* → italic text
[link](url) → link
- list item → • list item

Import & Export

OceanBoard offers flexible import and export options:

folder

Full Workspace

Import & Export all series, seasons, files, and settings as one ZIP file

description

Single File

Import & Export individual files with metadata (right-click file)

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Season

Import & Export all files from a single season (right-click season)

image

Media File

Import & Export Images, Videos & Audios!

backup

Backup Regularly: Export your workspace periodically to keep your work safe!

Settings

Customize your writing experience in the settings panel:

format_size
Font Size

Adjust editor and preview text size (12-24px)

height
Line Height

Control spacing between lines (1.2-2.0)

wrap_text
Word Wrap

Toggle automatic line wrapping in editor

numbers
Line Numbers

Display the number line (like an code editor) in editor

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Auto-Save time

When will your work be cached and auto-saved? 5s? 15s? instantly?

File Linking

Create connections between files using the attribute system:

  1. Create an Attribute file to act as your dictionary
  2. Define keys that map to file-ids and line numbers
  3. Reference these keys from any file using mentions
  4. Click mentions to navigate instantly to the target location
File Linking Workflow

How file linking works in OceanBoard

Workflows

Here are some recommended workflows for different use cases:

Novel Writing

Create a series for your novel, seasons for parts/acts, episodes for chapters. Use character and scene files for reference.

Worldbuilding

Organize by theme (Geography, History, Culture). Use attribute files to link related concepts across your world.

Screenplay

Series for the project, seasons for acts, episodes for scenes. Character files for cast, object files for props.