Using Marginalia on a phone

Marginalia has a layout made for phones. You write, edit and regenerate parts, read and tweak lorebooks and manage your models from the phone browser, but the phone layout is not a copy of the desktop one: it is simpler, a few things are missing and not every extension works in it. This page lists the differences.

For reading a book on a phone, there is also the viewer, which is made for it.

When the phone layout is used

Marginalia looks at the width of the browser window when the page loads. Narrower than 768 pixels gives you the phone layout, anything wider the normal workspace.

Tablets and phones in landscape mode are usually wider than 768 pixels and get the desktop layout.
The layout is not switched while you work. If you turn the phone or tablet on its side, or resize the window, the layout stays as it was until you reload the page. So to get the larger desktop layout on a tablet or a turned phone, turn it and reload; to go back to the phone layout, turn it back and reload again.
A narrow desktop browser window gets the phone layout too, which is handy to try it.

Like the desktop, the phone layout can be added to the home screen like an app (Install app / Add to Home Screen in the browser menu).

The workspace

The tabs on the left are replaced by a drawer. Tap the menu button in the top bar to open it, tap a tab to switch to it. The tab you are on fills the whole screen and its name is shown in the top bar.

The phone workspace with the drawer open

The drawer has the same tabs as the desktop - Books, Lorebooks, Settings, Protocols, Inference Providers, Agents (only for users who may use agents), Resources and Trash - and the Language selector, Change Password and Logout at the bottom. Extensions may add buttons, but only to the places they know on the phone, see Extensions.

While the Settings tab has unsaved changes, the drawer is locked as on the desktop: save or discard first.

Books

The book list is one column. Above it are the name filter, the tag filter and the sort buttons (Last Modified, Created, Name; tap the active one again to reverse the order), then Add Book, the magnifier (the advanced search: tags to include and exclude, dates, number of parts and text) and refresh. Each book has buttons: the star makes it a favorite, Move to folder puts it into a folder, the pencil opens it and the trash deletes it (into the Trash).

The list shows one folder at a time, as on the desktop: the path of the folder you are in as buttons to go back on, the check box Include subfolders, then the folders above the books (tap one to go in; it shows how many books are beneath it) and, at the top level, the virtual Favorites folder. The name and tag filters search the current folder, or everything below it with Include subfolders. Add Book and the imports put the new book into the folder you are in. The folder you are in is remembered.

A folder can't be made, renamed or deleted on the phone, and there is no Organise window or mass change; do that on a computer. The language of a book can be inherited from a folder here too, and the Prompts tab shows where each value comes from.

Lorebooks

The phone shows a reduced lorebook editor. You can pick a lorebook, enable or disable it and its entries, and edit the content of an entry. Everything else is shown as text only: name, order, tags, filtering and insertion mode, negative tags and note. You cannot create, delete, import or export lorebooks, or add entries. Use the desktop for that, see Lorebooks.

The same reduced editor is used in the Lorebook tab of a book. When the lorebook of the book has sub lorebooks, the box Shown lorebook under it switches the tab to any of them, and back, without changing the lorebook of the book.

The button next to the Enabled check box opens Search and replace for the entries of the lorebook, see Entries.

Search and replace of a lorebook on a phone

Settings, protocols, providers, resources, trash

Settings are the same as on the desktop, only laid out in a narrow column. The one thing missing is Import Backup as New Book. To bring a backup file back on the phone, create a book, use Import Backup in its Backups tab and restore it there, or import it as a new book on the desktop.
Protocols and Inference Providers list each entry as text with the edit and delete buttons next to it. The editing dialogs are the desktop ones.
Resources is the desktop tab, not adapted to the phone.
Trash shows each deleted object as a card (name, type, when it was deleted). The explanation of the trash is behind the i button. Restoring works as described in Trash.

The inference providers on a phone, with the info button of a shared provider

The book window

Opening a book shows it full screen. The close button is the ✕ in the top corner, and the tabs - About, Prompts, Lorebook, Story, Branch view, Backups - are one row you scroll sideways. They do the same as on the desktop (see Books), with their fields in one column.

The story

The story tab is one column of parts. The differences from the story editor:

The outline (and the tabs extensions add next to it, such as the Author's Note) is in a drawer. Open it with the button at the top left.
The Summaries button and the settings menu (⚙, with Change Styles For Text, Search and replace, Import from archive, Mass delete and Export story) are in the top bar, not at the bottom.
The + button for a new part is at the bottom.
Annotations: the Annotations tab is in the drawer next to the outline; a tap on an underlined passage opens its note; Annotate part and Annotate with AI are in the menu of the part, Annotate selection in the menu of a long press on the selected text.
Search and replace opens the same window as on the desktop, with the fields and buttons below each other:
A part is only its text under one small line with two icons. The first is the part's menu (edit, regenerate, swipe, branch, history, show prompt, images, summary, delete); the second opens a popup with what the desktop shows in the column on the right of a part: the ids, model, protocol, tokens, words and the turn details.
History in the menu of a part opens the version history as a full screen page: the versions are cards above the selected version, with the same actions as on the desktop.
Statistics is in the settings menu of the story (the statistics of the book) and a button in the header of the list of books (all books). The window is a full screen page; its calendar shows the last 16 weeks (a year on the desktop), see Writing statistics.
The summaries overview keeps a fixed width and scrolls sideways.

What is missing

Missing on the phone	Where to do it
Admin: users, database backups, cleanup, installing extensions	Desktop layout, logged in as an administrator.
Creating, deleting, importing and exporting lorebooks, adding lorebook entries, changing the settings of an entry	Desktop layout, Lorebooks.
Import Backup as New Book in Settings	Desktop layout, or Import Backup in the Backups tab of a new book.

Everything not in this list works the same as on the desktop: generating, editing, regenerating, swiping and branching parts, summaries and meta summaries, book prompts, the branch tree, book backups, export, resources and the trash.

Administrators

An administrator on a phone is a normal user: there is no Admin button. The administrator tasks have to be done in the desktop layout, that is in a window wider than 768 pixels (reload the page after widening it).

Extensions

The phone layout has its own classes, so an extension has to support it explicitly. The extensions that come with Marginalia:

Extension	On the phone
Arc Outline	Works. The Arcs tab is in the outline drawer.
Author's Note	Works. The note is in the outline drawer of the story.
Beta Readers	Works. The Beta Readers tab is in the outline drawer; the room for the conversation is small, landscape is easier.
Chapter Marker	Works. Chapter titles are in the outline drawer.
Character Tracker	Works. The Characters tab is in the outline drawer.
Converter	Works. The Converter tab is in the outline drawer; the range of the chat is chosen with two taps, see On a phone.
Instruction Exporter	Works. Export instructions is in the settings menu of the story.
Manga Generator	Works. Manga Generator is in the settings menu of the story; its window is large, so landscape is easier.
Reviewer	Works. Its items are in the menu of a part, its settings in Settings → Extension Settings.
Side Query	Not available. The side chat is only added to the desktop story editor.
Lore Generator	Not available. The generator button is only added to the desktop lorebook editor.
Lorebook VCS	Not available. The revision history is only added to the desktop lorebook editor.

Extensions from other sources may behave differently or add nothing at all on the phone; they appear where their author made them work. If an extension seems to be missing, check it in the desktop layout. How an extension supports the phone is described in the developer manual.

Tips

Writing long text on a phone is easier in landscape mode. The layout stays the phone one after the turn, until you reload the page.
If you need something that is missing on the phone, turn the phone on its side and reload, or open Marginalia in a wider window; your books and settings are the same everywhere.
To reach Marginalia from a phone it has to run as a server: the desktop app listens on your computer only.