Write your first document

Every Papero document starts on one screen, What are you writing? You describe your paper, pick a few settings, and Papero builds an outline you can edit. This page walks through it and through your first minutes of writing.

On a Mac, use ⌘ wherever this page says Ctrl, and ⌥ (Option) for Alt.

Start a new document

1. In the sidebar, press New. If a menu opens, choose New document. You can also press Ctrl+K and choose New.
2. Under What are you writing?, describe your paper in a sentence or two. For example: "a literature review of how microplastics affect freshwater fish, for a master’s dissertation in environmental science".

If you already have an empty Untitled document, New opens that one instead of adding another.

As you type, a hint under the box rates your description as Needs more detail, Good start or Detailed, and says what to add: your field or subject, the type of paper and the question or argument. The more Papero knows, the more focused the outline.

The chips after Try: start the description for you. Research paper, Thesis chapter and Literature review each put their name in the box, ready for your topic. If you chose another type of paper when you signed up, such as Lab report, its chip takes the third place.

Pick the style, language and outline

Under the box, one settings line shows the citation style, language and outline. Press it to open Document settings:

• Citation style: APA 7, MLA 9, Chicago, Harvard, IEEE, Vancouver, AMA 11, Nature or ACS, each with the fields it suits. More styles… opens Choose a citation style, to search all the others. You can change the style later.
• Document language: the language you write in. Papero's AI writes in it, and citations follow it where the style has that language. See Interface language.
• Outline: how the document starts.
  • From my description: Papero writes headings that fit your topic.
  • Standard sections: headings for introduction, methods, results and discussion.
  • No headings: start writing on a blank page with your description.
• Papers: a summary of the papers Papero searches for, such as how recent they are, how often they are cited and whether to include preprints. Press it to change them.

Then press Build my outline, or Start writing if you chose No headings. With From my description, Papero shows beside the button how many AI outlines you have left. While Papero works you see Building your outline. Press Cancel to go back to the screen with everything as it was.

To skip all of this, press Or start with a blank page at the bottom. Your description is kept as the document prompt.

When you start a new document from an open one, it starts with that document's Papers: settings, and its citation style when it is one of the nine above.

If you have not confirmed your email yet, your first AI outline still works. After that, Standard sections is ready instead until you confirm. See Create your account.

Write with section prompts

On a wider screen, the prompts panel on the left lists your headings under Section prompts, with a Document prompt for the whole paper at the top. If the panel is closed, open it with the panel button on the left.

1. In a section's box, type what the section should cover.
2. Press Generate draft.
3. Read the draft. Press Add to document to keep it, or Discard to drop it.

Each Heading 2 and Heading 3 gets a prompt box of its own, up to 100 in a document.

Take a suggestion

As you write, pause for a moment and Papero suggests how the sentence could go on.

• Press → or Accept to take it.
• Press Alt+→ to take the next word only.
• Press Shift+→ for a different suggestion.
• Press Esc to dismiss it, or just keep typing.

Press Ctrl+/ to ask for a suggestion at any time. The Autocomplete switch in the toolbar turns suggestions off and on. Suggestions need a confirmed email address.

Cite, rewrite and export

• Cite: put your cursor where the citation goes and press Cite in the toolbar, type @ after a space, or press Ctrl+Shift+C. Search, then press Cite on the paper you want. See Cite as you write.
• Rewrite: select text and press Rewrite, or press Ctrl+J. Pick a preset such as Paraphrase or Shorten. See Rewrite text.
• Export: press Document options (the three dots at the top right) and choose Export document…. See Export to Word.

Papero saves as you type. The top of the page shows Saving… and then Saved.

Use the Get started list and the guides

While you are new, the sidebar holds a Get started card. Press it to see five steps: Plan your document, Accept a suggestion, Cite a source, Rewrite a passage and Export to Word. Each step ticks itself when you do it, and Show me how under a step opens a short guide. Dismiss the card when you no longer need it.

The same guides open from Guides at the foot of the sidebar: Write your first document, Find and cite papers, Check your writing, Rewrite with AI and Export to Word.

Next, get to know the editor.