Gixo Folio · User guide
Everything you need to write a book in Folio
Plan it, draft it, revise it and export it, chapter by chapter, with a link to each screen.
Start here
What Folio is
Folio is a studio where a whole book lives in one place: the plan and outline, the chapters, your research sources, a Story Bible of names and facts that must stay consistent, the version history and the finished files. You can plan a book with AI or import a manuscript you already have, then draft, revise and finalise it chapter by chapter, read it back, and export it as a print-ready PDF, EPUB, Word file and more.
AI is there when you want it. It can draft a chapter from your own source files, write every remaining chapter in order, continue a passage or rework a selection. Importing and editing your own words costs nothing, and a book you brought in yourself exports without a plan.
Your dashboard and library
The Folio dashboard shows the books you're working on and a set of free book tools. New book at the top lets you start a book, import a manuscript or open your library. The library at /studio is where you manage every book: filter by In Progress, Completed or Team Projects, and use a book's menu to Export, Duplicate or Archive it.
Starting a book
Pick a route based on what you already have. In the library, New book offers all three.
Getting an import to split into chapters
Use Heading 1 in Word, # headings in Markdown, or lines such as “Chapter 1”. Folio shows how many chapters and words it found, and lets you rename each chapter before you click Create book from manuscript. If the file has no headings, it becomes a single chapter. A book can hold up to 200 chapters.
If you plan with AI
- PlanDescribe the book you want to create, with an optional working title, audience and tone. Or start from a book type.
- Book planFolio proposes formats that suit your description.
- DetailsTitle, description, audience, tone and How many chapters? — up to 60.
- OutlineThree outlines to choose between. When their lengths differ they're labelled Tighter, Balanced and Most detailed. A detailed editor lets you adjust subheadings and key points. The outlines aim for the number of chapters you asked for, but the count can come back slightly different, so check it before you continue.
- Review & CreateChoose whether chapters should include illustrations and confirm the outline. Create Workspace & Open Chapter 1 creates the book and starts drafting Chapter 1, which uses one AI chapter.
The workspace
A book opens with its outline, the current chapter and four areas across the top.
| Area | What's in it |
|---|---|
| Write | The chapter you're working on, with Book progress above it: chapters written, percentage finalised, total words and your chapter allowance. |
| Organize | Structure, Sources, Workflow & voice, and Cut passages. |
| Review | Editorial, Review rounds, and Claims & canon. |
| Publish | Editions & proofs, Publishing handoff, and Connected work. |
The header shows whether your work is saved and gives you Focus and Read. The ⋮ menu holds Search book, Read book, Quick export / layout settings, Book activity, Manuscript audit, Story bible, Book settings and Archive book. Use Ctrl/Cmd+Alt+↓ and ↑ to move between chapters.
Drafting chapters
An unwritten chapter shows its brief and a word goal, marked Ready to write. Under Chapter options you can add a custom focus, extra instructions and up to three source files (PDF, Word, text or Markdown), so the chapter is written from your material rather than invented.
- Create Chapter N drafts that chapter. It usually takes a minute or two, and you don't have to wait: choose Work on another chapter or close the tab.
- Write the remaining N chapters drafts all of them on Gixo's servers, one at a time and in order, so each chapter reads the ones before it. It appears on an unwritten chapter when at least two are left. A banner tracks progress, and Stop after this chapter ends the run cleanly. It also stops when your chapter allowance runs out.
- If a chapter has been drafting for more than ten minutes, you can retry it, and you aren't charged for the attempt that didn't finish.
Worth knowing
The Story Bible keeps characters, frameworks, case studies and facts consistent across a long manuscript. You can add entries yourself or use Extract from manuscript, and every chapter Folio drafts draws on them.
The editor, properly
This is where the hours go, and it does more than the toolbar suggests. Select text to see the toolbar: formatting, headings, alignment, right-to-left text for Arabic, Hebrew and Urdu, lists, find and replace, links, tables, comments, AI image generation and Prism visuals.
Twenty-two blocks
Click + or type /. AI Write sits at the top, with 22 content blocks below it. Six are made for books: Recipe Card, Exercise / Workbook, Definition, Author's Note, Key Takeaways and Reflection Questions. The rest cover highlights, tips, warnings, notes, pull quotes, calls to action, FAQs, KPI stats, figures with captions, checklists, steps, pros and cons, comparison and pricing tables, and custom HTML. If you've selected text and the block can hold it, the block wraps your selection.
Five ways to bring AI in
They look alike but behave differently, so pick the one that fits the job. Each works with the book you're in — the title, the chapter and what's already written.
| What you want | Use |
|---|---|
| Keep going from where the chapter stops | Continue writing, Ctrl/Cmd+M. With auto-continue on, it picks up after 45 seconds without typing once the chapter has 100 words. |
| Write something new at the cursor | AI Write, from the / menu. |
| Rework a passage you've highlighted | Quick AI: rewrite, simplify, expand and more. It reads the chapter to match your tone. |
| A bigger rewrite of a selection | Power Edit, Ctrl/Cmd+P. |
| A reviewed change across the chapter | Ask Folio, from the chapter menu. It plans the edits against the saved chapter for you to review. |
Before Quick AI or Power Edit replaces your text, Folio saves a Before AI rewrite version, so you can always go back.
Reviewing a chapter
Show Review opens four tabs next to the chapter. Comments holds notes on the text. Suggestions gives advice with its rationale; nothing is changed until you act. Brand checks the chapter against your brand voice. Library opens your evidence library. Show Metrics reports on the chapter separately. Draft placeholders are highlighted in amber so none slip through to publication.
Your work is hard to lose
- Autosave runs about three seconds after you stop typing. If you type steadily, it saves anyway within thirty seconds of your first unsaved change. The header shows Saving…, Unsaved changes or Saved.
- If a save fails, Folio tries up to three times before telling you.
- A save never overwrites a newer copy of the book. If the book has changed somewhere else, Folio keeps your text on screen and asks you to reconcile.
- A copy of each chapter stays in your browser for seven days. If a save was lost, Folio offers it back, and never in place of newer work.
- Closing or refreshing the tab with unsaved changes brings up a browser warning.
- Save Snapshot, Version History and Import as New Version are in the chapter menu.
Marking a chapter done, and shortcuts
Finalize & Continue needs at least 500 words. Finalising is separate from writing, so a chapter counts as written as soon as it has prose. Shortcuts: Ctrl/Cmd+S save · Ctrl/Cmd+B bold · Ctrl/Cmd+I italic · Ctrl/Cmd+K link · Ctrl/Cmd+M continue writing · Ctrl/Cmd+P Power Edit · / insert block.
Reading it back and finishing
Read shows the book as a reader will see it: dark, light or sepia, adjustable text size, and the arrow keys to move between chapters.
- Manuscript audit checks the whole book for things that trip authors up: duplicate chapter titles, leftover placeholders, passages repeated across chapters, and Story Bible terms written inconsistently. It starts running as soon as you open it, and includes an AI pass over the whole book.
- Publish → Publishing handoff opens Publish Book, which holds what a store will ask for: ISBN, list price and currency, categories, keywords and platform, with a readiness check against them.
Getting the files out
Open ⋮ → Quick export / layout settings in the workspace, or Export from a book's menu in your library.
| Decision | What to pick |
|---|---|
| Format | Print PDF, EPUB, DOCX, SCORM (for training material), HTML or Markdown. A PDF can cover the full book, the current chapter or selected chapters. To get several formats in one download, pick any main format other than Print PDF, then add the others, PDF included. |
| Template | Three are made for books: Classic Novel (the default), Cookbook and Self-Help. The other fourteen are document templates. |
| Trim size | Defaults to 6 × 9 in, the standard trade paperback. Nine sizes in all, including 5 × 8, 5.5 × 8.5, 7 × 10, A5 and B5. |
| Front and back matter | Cover page, table of contents, copyright page, foreword, preface, introduction, dedication, acknowledgements, About the Author and Also By. |
| AI disclosure | Say how AI was used (AI-assisted, AI-generated text or images, fully AI-generated, AI-translated) and where the disclosure should appear. |
| Language | Export in the original language or another one. Your manuscript itself stays unchanged. |
Folio remembers each book's export settings. You can also export a single chapter from the chapter menu at any time.
The good bit
A manuscript you brought in yourself exports free. Folio needs a plan only to export a book it helped draft. A chapter counts as AI-drafted once Folio has written it, even if you rewrite it afterwards; editing with Quick AI, Power Edit or Continue writing doesn't count. Anyone who has held a paid Folio plan can keep exporting their books.
Audiobooks and translations
A finished book can become a narrated audiobook or an edition in another language. Both are one-time purchases priced by the length of the book, and both are in the Publish area under Audio, translation and adaptation.
| Book length | Price |
|---|---|
| Up to 50,000 words | $99 |
| 50,001–120,000 words | $179 |
| Over 120,000 words | $299 |
For an audiobook you choose from six voices — Alloy, Echo, Fable, Onyx, Nova and Shimmer — and can press play to hear each one reading your own opening lines before you buy. You get one MP3 per chapter, sequentially named, at 48 kHz / 192 kbps, with a metadata file of the title, chapters, duration and voice. An audiobook of a translated edition is narrated by a voice native to that language. Editions need a Folio plan, and Folio Pro includes one edition each billing period.
Plans and your trial
| Without a plan | Folio Author | Folio Pro | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | — | $19/month | $99/month |
| AI-drafted chapters | 2 to try, in total | 10 per billing period | 50 per billing period |
| AI planning | 20 planning runs a month, about five books | Included | Included |
| Editor AI (Continue, Quick AI, Power Edit) | — | Included | Included |
| Importing, editing, reading | Free | Included | Included |
| Exporting books you brought in | Free | Included | Included |
| Exporting books Folio helped draft | — | Included, and kept after you cancel | Included, and kept after you cancel |
| Included edition | — | — | One per billing period |
Plans are monthly only, by design: book writing comes in bursts, so subscribe while you're drafting and cancel when the book ships. Each plan is for one author, and books in a team still use your personal chapter allowance. The 14-day trial needs no card, gives you drafting, editor AI and export while it runs, and each email address gets one.
Free book tools, no account needed
These run in the browser on a file or text you already have — no sign-in, no chapters, no allowance.
| Tool | What it does |
|---|---|
| DOCX to EPUB Converter gixo.ai/tools/docx-to-epub | Turns a heading-structured Word manuscript (up to 5 MB) into a reflowable EPUB. |
| EPUB Preflight Checker gixo.ai/tools/epub-check | Checks an EPUB's structure, reading order, metadata and resources before you upload it. |
| Book Publishing Preflight gixo.ai/tools/book-publish-readiness | Checks publishing readiness, metadata, rights and front and back matter order in one pass. |
| Chapter Balance Checker gixo.ai/tools/chapter-balance-check | Compares chapter word counts and flags severe imbalance. |
| Repetition & Filler Audit gixo.ai/tools/manuscript-repetition-check | Finds repeated phrases and filler words in up to 150,000 characters of text. |
| Editorial Style Sheet Builder gixo.ai/tools/style-sheet-builder | Records your spelling, capitalisation and hyphenation decisions. |
| Free Ebook Creator gixo.ai/tools/lead-magnet-ebook-builder | Turns a cover, contents and three to eight sections into a printable ebook. |
Tips
- Turn auto-continue off before you step away — otherwise it keeps writing once you've been idle for 45 seconds.
- For a whole-book draft, open an empty chapter to find Write the remaining N chapters.
- Voice previews need a written chapter, because they read your own opening lines.
- Resolve the amber placeholders before you publish; the export dialog lists anything still outstanding.
Quick links
| Folio dashboard | gixo.ai/dashboard/folio |
| Your books | gixo.ai/studio |
| Plan a new book | gixo.ai/studio/new-book |
| All free tools | gixo.ai/tools |
| Folio plans | gixo.ai/products/books#plans |
| Start a Folio trial | gixo.ai/start-trial?product=folio |
| Help and support | gixo.ai/support |
Current as of 14 September 2026 and checked against the Folio code. If a screen doesn't match what you see, the product has moved on — tell us at gixo.ai/support and we'll update this guide.