Search your book. Ask it a question.
One search for the whole manuscript. Type a name and every place it appears shows up as you type. Ask a question, like “What colour is the seaplane?” or “Where does Ruth first appear?”, and the answer comes straight from your own sentences, with the passage one click away. It runs on your device, with no AI.
Try it
Search a sample book right here.
Type a name, or tap a question. Then click any result to open the chapter at that exact line.
Results update as you type. Questions answer when they end with a question mark or when you press Enter.
Try asking
Or search a name
Runs on this device. Nothing leaves the computer, and every line is from the book.
A working demo on a short sample book. In the app it searches your whole manuscript the same way. Press / to jump to the box.
Ways in
Always one keystroke away.
You never have to hunt for it. Search your book is on the first screen you see every morning and on every page after that.
My Day
A big Search your book bar right under the morning greeting.
My Books
The same bar across the top, above the page you’re writing.
The dock
A search button at the top of the round buttons down the right edge, on every page.
/
From anywhere you aren’t typing. Ctrl/⌘ Shift S works too.
The command palette
Ctrl/⌘ K: “Search your book” is the first action, and anything you type offers “Search your book for…”.
From First Mate
Click a word in the overused-words report and it searches the book for it.
Your voice
Tap the mic in the search box and say a name or a question.
The Studio panel
The Ask tab sits first in the panel beside the page, with your recent questions.
Find
Every mention, as you type.
Results as you type. Every place a word or name appears shows up while you’re still typing, grouped by chapter, with the word highlighted and a count for each chapter.
Straight to the line. Click a result and the chapter opens with that exact sentence highlighted, even when it runs across italics.
See the whole book at a glance. A strip of bars shows where a name appears across every chapter, with the first and last chapter it turns up in. Click a bar to jump to that chapter’s first mention.
Your Source of Truth, right there. If the name has a Source of Truth card (a character, place, ship or thing), the card shows up with the answer.
Before you type, it suggests questions about your book, the people and places it found in it, and your recent searches.
Good for
- Checking a surname, a scar or an eye colour before you write it again
- Finding every scene set in one place
- Seeing when a character drops out of the story for ten chapters
- Finding the chapter you need when you only remember one line
- Tracking a pet word or phrase you lean on too much
Ask
Ask it a question. It answers from your pages.
Search your book understands the questions writers actually ask about their own manuscripts, and answers with the book’s own sentences, never made-up ones.
Detail questions
“What colour is the seaplane?” · “How old is Jack?” · “When did the storm come?” · “Where did they fly?” · “Who runs the counter?”
The answer itself (blue, twelve years old, Tuesday, Nassau, Marisol), highlighted in the passage it came from. If the next sentence carries on with “He”, “She” or “It”, it reads that too.
First and last
“Where does Marisol first appear?” · “Where does the letter last appear?”
The first or last mention, quoted, with the chapter named and linked.
How many times
“How many times is Ruth mentioned?”
A count, how many chapters it spans, and the chapter where it comes up most.
Every time
“Every mention of the letter” · “List every time Jack appears”
Every mention, in book order, each one a link.
Anything else
“Why does Ruth keep the jacket?”
The most relevant passages, ranked. Flip between Book order and Best match, up to 20 passages.
Questions answer on their own once they end with a question mark. For a plain word, press Enter or choose Ask the book to get answers instead of a list of mentions.
Continuity
It notices when your book disagrees with itself.
What colour is the seaplane?
red or blue? Your book gives 2 different answers.
⚑ Worth checking: continuity
Long books drift. An eye colour changes, a boat gets renamed, a character is twelve in one chapter and eleven in the next.
When your book gives more than one answer to a question, Search your book lists each answer with where it appears and flags it as worth checking, so you can decide which one is right and fix the other.
Pair it with your Source of Truth and First Mate, which also catches near-miss names like “Caloway” for “Calloway”.
Links
Answers you can click straight into.
Every answer is a link
The chapter names, the quoted passage, each result card and every bar in the chapter strip open the chapter with the sentence highlighted.
Copy a link to a passage
Each result has a copy-link button. Paste it into your notes, an email to yourself or a bookmark, and it opens the right book and chapter at that sentence.
Open it beside your work
Ctrl/⌘-click any result to open the passage in a new tab. The second tab is read-only while the first is open, so the two can never overwrite each other.
Private
On your device, and quick.
No AI, nothing sent. Search your book reads your chapters on your own computer or phone. Nothing leaves the device, and the footer of every search says so. It works with no internet.
Fast on long books. A 108,000-word test book answers a question in about a tenth of a second.
Honest about what it is. It answers with what’s on the page. It can find “a red Grumman Goose”, but it can’t work out something your book never says, or summarise in its own words. For that, the optional AI assistant can read a chapter with you, using your own AI.
Search your book vs the AI assistant
- Search your book: on your device, free, instant, answers from your sentences
- Ask about my chapter (AI): optional, uses your own AI, can explain and summarise, about 3¢ a question
Questions
About Search your book.
Does Search your book use AI?
No. It runs entirely on your device and answers with your book’s own sentences. Nothing is sent anywhere, and it works offline.
What kinds of questions can I ask?
Detail questions (what colour, how old, when, where, who), first and last appearances, how many times something is mentioned, every mention in book order, and open questions, which get the most relevant passages.
Will it find a name when I misspell it?
It searches for what you type. To catch a name spelled two ways in the book itself, run a consistency review in First Mate.
Can I search by voice?
Yes. Tap the mic in the search box and say a name or a question.
How do I open it?
Use the big bar on My Day or My Books, the search button on the dock, the / key, Ctrl/⌘ Shift S, or the command palette (Ctrl/⌘ K).
Does it search photo captions too?
Photos has its own search, which covers each photo’s name, caption, description, credit and tags.
Your whole book, one question away.
Search your book comes with Salt of the Page: own it for $150, or stay current for $10 a month.