AnnexText – Manual

1. Overview

AnnexText is the word processor of the AnnexCREATE suite: a slim, paragraph-based editor for text documents in its own .axtext container format (SwiftUI, macOS 14+). It is aimed at freelancers, the self-employed and small agencies who want to quickly capture minutes, cover letters, concepts and notes and hand them on as DOCX, ODT or PDF.

Core benefits:

• Deliberately simple writing without a ribbon – outline, editor and inspector in a single window.
• Paragraph styles instead of free inline formatting: six styles that apply per paragraph.
• Export to common office formats (DOCX, ODT, PDF) and an identical print/PDF rendering path.
• Clean integration with the other Annex apps via the Annex clipboard and the shared asset library.
• Document-wide find & replace as well as headers/footers with page numbers.

AnnexText is part of the AnnexCREATE suite ("Creative OS"): all apps share a design system, a document container format, local data storage (offline-first) and MCP automation. The modular integration lets you reuse your texts where you need them – for example in AnnexOffice or AnnexPublish.

2. Installation & activation

AnnexText is obtained and managed via AnnexHub:

• Download & updates: AnnexHub is the central place for apps, updates and licenses.
• License activation: the license is activated centrally via AnnexHub (AnnexLicenseKit); offline activation is possible.
• Offline operation: AnnexText is offline-first. The app runs without a server connection; all documents stay local on your Mac.

3. Basic workflow

The typical flow from launch to a finished document:

1. Launch: open AnnexText from AnnexHub or open an existing .axtext file (File ▸ Open…, ⌘O).
2. Start a document: add a new paragraph with the toolbar button "Add paragraph" and start writing.
3. Set the title: enter the document title in the inspector on the right.
4. Structure: choose a style per paragraph (Title, Heading 1, Heading 2, Body, Quote, Bullet) – directly in the editor or in the inspector.
5. Navigate: use the outline in the sidebar to select and jump to paragraphs.
6. Prepare the print output (optional): enable header/footer and page numbers in the inspector.
7. Save & share: save as .axtext (⌘S) and export as DOCX, ODT or PDF or print (⌘P) when needed.

4. Core features

4.1 Workspace & menu bar

AnnexText uses the suite's three-column design: outline and asset library in the left sidebar, editor in the middle, inspector on the right. The title bar is transparent, the app header (AppBrandedHeader) holds the toolbar buttons, and the appearance is themeable (light/dark/system, persisted via the ThemeManager).

Real macOS menu items (wired via WindowActions):

• File ▸ Open… – ⌘O
• File ▸ Save – ⌘S
• File ▸ Save As… – ⌘⇧S
• File ▸ Export… – no shortcut
• File ▸ Print… – ⌘P
• Edit ▸ Find… – ⌘F
• Edit ▸ Find and Replace… – ⌥⌘F
• Edit ▸ Find Next – ⌘G
• Edit ▸ Find Previous – ⇧⌘G
• AnnexText ▸ Settings… – ⌘,

Undo and the remaining Edit commands stay at the system default.

4.2 Writing: paragraphs & styles

A document is a sequence of individually editable paragraphs with six styles (ParagraphStyle): Title, Heading 1, Heading 2, Body, Quote, Bullet. You choose the style per paragraph directly in the editor or in the inspector. There is deliberately no inline formatting (no bold/italic within a paragraph) and no images, tables or footnotes – styles apply per paragraph.

4.3 Outline & inspector

• Outline (sidebar): one entry per paragraph with a style icon and a text preview. A click selects the paragraph for editor and inspector.
• Inspector (right): the style of the selected paragraph, word and character count per paragraph, an editable document title and document metrics (paragraphs, words, pages). You also delete paragraphs here (at least one paragraph always remains).

4.4 Find & replace

The find bar (TextFindBar) sits above the editor and searches the whole document across all paragraphs:

• Find – Edit ▸ Find… (⌘F): multiple matches per paragraph, a match indicator ("2 of 5" / "No matches").
• Find and Replace – Edit ▸ Find and Replace… (⌥⌘F): replace one at a time and "Replace All", a case-sensitivity option.
• Find Next – ⌘G and Find Previous – ⇧⌘G: forward/back match navigation with wrap-around; the matching paragraph is selected and scrolled into view.

4.5 Headers, footers & page numbers

In the inspector section Header & Footer you set a header and a footer text per document. Page numbers can be switched on – in the format "Page X" or just "X". Header, footer and page number each have one position option (left/center/right); an active page number is appended to the footer text. Output happens in the shared print/PDF rendering path (TextPrintLayout), drawn in the page margins – pagination stays unchanged. Older .axtext files without these fields load with defaults (everything off).

4.6 Managing documents & autosave

AnnexText creates, opens and saves .axtext files (File ▸ …). With a known file location ⌘S saves directly, otherwise "Save As" (⌘⇧S) appears. Autosave saves pending changes silently at the known location on a 30-second timer when the setting is enabled (autosaveEnabled, configurable interval). The app quits when the last window closes.

4.7 Export & print

Via the export dialog (File ▸ Export… or the toolbar button "Export") you produce real files, not placeholders:

• DOCX (DOCXExportService): a real Office Open XML ZIP with paragraph styles (Title, Heading 1/2, Quote, numbered list).
• ODT (ODTExportService): a real OpenDocument Text ZIP including styles.xml and a correct mimetype file.
• PDF (TextPDFExportService): renders over the same path as printing – PDF and print output are identical.

Printing (File ▸ Print…, ⌘P) uses a DIN-A4 page layout with margins and paragraph flow across pages, over the suite-wide AnnexPrintable interface (AnnexPrintSheet/AnnexPrintOperation). The page count is shown in the inspector. Note: headers/footers are not yet emitted in DOCX/ODT exports (field-based formats).

4.8 Asset integration & Annex clipboard

• Asset library (AssetLibraryView from AnnexAssetKit) sits in the sidebar. Dragging an asset into the editor inserts a visible file reference as a quote paragraph (the document model does not support inline images).
• Annex clipboard (TextInteropService): "Copy all text" copies the document's body text; "Paste from Annex clipboard" appends text as a new paragraph. The text fallback of other Annex apps is accepted too.

5. Formats & interoperability

• Native format .axtext: an Annex container (AnnexDocument from AnnexCoreKit) holding the title, paragraphs and header/footer settings as a JSON snapshot (text.json). Opening and saving are fully implemented; snapshots from before v0.2 (without header/footer fields) load with defaults.
• Export: DOCX (Office Open XML), ODT (OpenDocument Text), PDF – real files in each case.
• Import: .axtext only. Importing foreign formats (e.g. DOCX/ODT) is not implemented.
• Suite interop: text exchange over the Annex clipboard (AnnexInteropKit, PasteboardItem.text with text fallback); asset references from AnnexAssetKit via drag & drop.
• Central search (AnnexHub): when saving, the document is written best-effort into the shared version index (SharedVersionIndexStore) – with a deterministic document ID derived from the file path – and thus shows up in the AnnexHub search.
• iCloud/sync: not wired. All files are purely local.

6. MCP operation

The MCP host runs in AnnexHub and speaks JSON-RPC 2.0 over STDIO; it is started from AnnexHub. This makes AnnexText's actions reachable for AI agents and automation.

Suite-wide tools (for all apps): list_apps, open_app, open_document, get_active_document, get_license_status, search_assets.

App-specific tools for AnnexText (registered in the MCPToolRegistry):

• text.create_document – creates a real .axtext document as a file; without path it is placed collision-free under ~/Documents/AnnexText/<Title>.axtext, and the response contains the actual path.
• text.add_paragraph – adds a paragraph (text, style) to an existing .axtext and saves the file (a real file change).
• text.open_document – opens a .axtext document in AnnexText.

Skills (suite-wide): suite.discover, brandkit.apply.

Document creation, paragraph editing and opening are fully automatable via this interface.

7. Diagnostics & privacy

AnnexText logs errors and actions locally via AnnexDiagnosticsKit into rotating JSON log files under ~/Library/Logs/AnnexCREATE/AnnexText/, mirrored to os_log (subsystem com.annexcreative.annextext), with a PII filter. Diagnostics are enabled by default during development and can be switched off in the settings (Privacy); nothing is transmitted. Telemetry is wired in the app init (TelemetryClient.shared.configure) and runs strictly on opt-in (off by default). All data – documents, logs, settings – stays on your Mac.

8. FAQ

Does AnnexText need an internet connection? No. The app is offline-first and runs without a server connection. License activation is also possible offline.

Can I open Word or OpenOffice files? Importing foreign formats (DOCX/ODT) is not yet implemented. You can, however, export as DOCX, ODT and PDF and paste text via the clipboard.

Where do I find my log files? Under ~/Library/Logs/AnnexCREATE/AnnexText/. Diagnostics are enabled by default during development and can be switched off in the settings.

Why is there no bold/italic in the text? AnnexText is deliberately paragraph-based: styles apply per paragraph, not within one. Inline formatting, images, tables and footnotes are not part of the document model.

How does autosave work? When the setting is enabled and a file location is known, AnnexText saves pending changes silently every 30 seconds. The interval is configurable.

Is my data transmitted anywhere? No. Diagnostics and telemetry are PII-filtered; diagnostics stay local, telemetry only on opt-in. There is no cloud sync – all files stay local.

Which languages is the interface available in? German, English, Spanish, French and Italian via the suite-wide L10n catalogs.