Export

Exports produce offline versions of your work for print, pitching, and social media. They are separate from publishing: publishing puts the interactive work online for readers, while an export renders it into a conventional file you can download and share anywhere.

Export formats

Exports run as background jobs: you queue them, keep working, and download the file when the job completes.

Queueing exports from the works list

The quickest way to export several works at once is from My Works:

The Exports screen

The full Exports screen ("Export your works to PDF, PowerPoint, Video, or an Archive (.zip)") adds per-format options, presets, and job management. Open it from the user menu (your avatar in the top-right corner) → Exports; it lists the jobs you queued from the works list, too. The ← Works link left of the title takes you back to your works list (the Import pages have the same link).

Creating an export

Under Create New Export, pick a work from the Select Work dropdown, which lists all your works by title (or enable "Batch export (queue one job per selected work)" and tick several works), then choose a format. A dialog opens with format-specific options:

PDF options

PowerPoint options

Video options

Before you start, the dialog shows an estimated size ("~ a few MB" up to "~ several hundred MB+") and warns when a combination — such as 4K at 60 fps — will be very large and slow. Click Start Export to queue the job.

Presets

Recurring setups can be saved as one-click presets. Three are built in:

• Email-friendly PDF — low quality, no metadata, links enabled
• 16:9 deck + notes — widescreen PowerPoint with speaker notes
• 1080p social clip — 1080p / 30 fps video with audio

Type a name into "Save these options as…" inside any export dialog to add your own; custom presets can be deleted with their × button.

Archive export

The Archive (.zip) format is different from the presentation formats above: instead of rendering the work for readers, it packages the work itself for transfer and backup. One archive contains:

• The work's manifest covering all page formats — chapters, pages, panels, speech bubbles, hotspots, characters, extras, variables, and settings (including the preload setting)
• Every asset file — originals plus all generated variants (responsive sizes, optimized versions, video renditions, posters); nothing is re-transcoded on import
• The audio of every speech bubble — uploaded voice lines and generated TTS output per language, files included, so the imported copy speaks as the original does
• Your asset library folders and all translations
• Every paywall rule — live rules and inactive drafts alike, with prices, tiers, age limit, and preview count. On import they arrive disabled, so nothing is sold on the target before you have reviewed it (see Importing a work archive).

The archive's manifest.json uses the short friendly panel ids (ch1-p022) instead of the CMS's internal database ids, and every asset reference points at its file inside the zip (assets/<asset-id>/w1280.webp). An unzipped archive is therefore a complete, playable bundle: put the folder on any static web server and load manifest.json in the PanelWave Player by URL.

Archives are queued from the works-list bulk export or from the Archive (.zip) card on the Exports screen — without an options dialog, for one work or in batch mode — and appear as normal jobs with a download link. Import one on any PanelWave system — another account, another server, or the same one to duplicate a work — via Import Archive.

Tracking jobs and downloading

The Export Jobs list shows every job with filters for status (Queued, Processing, Completed, Failed) and type (PDF, PowerPoint, Video, Archive). While one or more jobs are running, a floating Active Exports panel stays in the corner of the screen and updates progress live.

Each job card shows the work title, format, when it was created, a status badge, and — while processing — a progress bar with the current step. Depending on status you can:

• Download — completed jobs show the file size and a green Download button. The file is named after the work and the export time, for example TARMAC-Pilot_2026-09-30_18-45.zip (letters, digits and hyphens only; the time is Central European time). Jobs created before 2026-09-30 keep the name export.<ext>.
• Retry — failed jobs show the error message. If the export service is unavailable when you start an export, the job fails right away with that reason — it no longer waits in Queued or counts against your limit of 5 running exports. A bulk export from the works list then shows one summary message; Retry re-queues after a short cancellable countdown, and "Retry with options…" reopens the export dialog prefilled with that job's settings so you can adjust before retrying.
• Cancel — stop a queued or processing job.
• Details — expand the card for the job ID, timestamps, and processing time.

Export limits

You can run up to 5 exports at the same time and 50 per day; a job beyond that is refused with a message saying which limit was hit. Works that became read-only because your team is over its plan limit can still be exported (and archived) — only editing is blocked.

What gets exported

Exports render the work's current state at the time the job runs; hidden layers are skipped. Content that is hidden from readers stays hidden in exports too — for example, extras marked Draft (hidden from readers) are excluded, exactly as they are from the published manifest.

PDF and PowerPoint

Every panel gets its own PDF page or slide, drawn from its visible layers bottom to top:

• Artwork — every visible image layer, whether it was uploaded, placed from the library, or created by Page Import. In PowerPoint the images are embedded in the deck, so it opens offline.
• Text layers — in the work's default language.
• Speech bubbles — as simple text boxes at the bubble's position, in the default language and prefixed with the speaking character's name ("Mara: Run!"). Balloon shapes and tails are not drawn.

Video

The video export plays the work panel by panel:

• A panel with a visible video layer contributes that clip (the topmost one, if there are several); any other panel contributes its topmost visible image as a still. See Video Panels.
• Each panel is on screen for its Display Duration (see Panel duration and video length); without one, a video panel runs for its clip's length and a still for 5 seconds (always between 0.5 and 120 seconds). A clip shorter than its panel loops, a longer one is cut.
• Every segment is fitted into the chosen resolution without distortion (letterboxed where the aspect ratios differ).
• The clips' own sound is not carried over. With Include panel audio on, the video gets a soundtrack from the work's audio instead (below).

Soundtrack

With Include panel audio (voice-over, sound effects, music) on, the video carries the audio a reader would hear while moving through the panels at the video's pace:

The role toggles narrow the mix:

• Voice-over — voice-over tracks.
• Sound effects — sound effects, including UI sounds.
• Music & ambience — music and ambience, plus every track and audio layer without a role.

Also good to know:

• Panel audio that only plays under a condition (visibleIf) is skipped — an export has no reader variables to evaluate.
• Files that are missing or can't be decoded are skipped (the export job records a warning for each). If nothing playable is left, the video is exported silent — audio never makes an export fail.
• Before 27 September 2026 this option was called Include audio narration and laid the work's first audio asset under the whole video. Saved presets and queued jobs keep working and now get the panel-audio mix.

The interactive manifest itself (the panelwave.json file that drives the PanelWave Player) is not produced here — it is built and deployed by the publish flow, where each release's manifest can also be downloaded as JSON from the release history.

Related pages