Morrow 2.0.0

Morrow 2.0.0 is the same app on a new foundation. Electron is gone: Morrow is now built with Tauri, with everything behind the window written in Rust. It is a fraction of the size, opens quicker and uses far less memory. There is a first Android app, plugins, Obsidian Bases and a reading mode, along with fixes for nearly everything reported since 1.4.0.

Why Tauri, and why now

The move to Tauri has been going on behind the scenes since the very first release. I had more experience with Electron and wanted to get Morrow into your hands, so that is what 1.x shipped on. With your feedback, and a much clearer idea of what Morrow needs to be, moving the backend to Rust became a lot easier. This is the release where it lands.

Your vaults are untouched. Pages are still plain Markdown files in a folder you choose, and 2.0.0 opens the same folders 1.x did, with your settings and sync pairings carried over.

Highlights

• Smaller, quicker, lighter. Morrow uses the web view your system already has instead of carrying its own browser. The download is a fraction of what it was, and it starts faster and uses far less memory.
• Morrow on Android. A first Android app, built from the same code, is on the release page as an APK. Open a folder that is already on your phone, or copy a vault from your computer over sync. It is early, so expect rough edges and tell me about them.
• Plugins. JavaScript in your vault's .morrow/plugins folder can add commands, slash menu items and more. PLUGINS.md shows how to write one. (#19)
• Obsidian Bases. A base block shows the pages it finds as a table, cards or a list.
• Reading mode. Read and scroll a page with nothing editable, so a phone's keyboard never pops up while you scroll. Use the book button in the top bar, or Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + E.
• A more helpful assistant. Highlight some text and ask about it, and the assistant changes just that without touching the rest of the page. (#20)
• Paste a link, choose what it becomes. A menu after pasting offers to embed a YouTube video, show a picture, or play a video from your computer.
• Reminders at a time of your own on any date in a page.
• A Full width for pages that uses the whole window, beside Standard and Wide.
• Select, Multi-select and Link properties on pages outside a database.
• Long pages open faster. A page is drawn once instead of twice, and pages full of formulas open in about half the time.
• Typing stays smooth on long pages, and Linux now draws pages on the graphics card with smooth scrolling.
• Sync warns you when the other device runs a different version of Morrow, and pairing shows this device's address for networks where the two can't find each other.
• Orange is the default accent colour, and the graph shows subpages and leaves out unlinked pages by default.
• Turn off On this page for a single page from its menu, and hide Import from the sidebar.
• Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + H puts on the colour you picked last instead of always yellow.
• Turn into shows a tick beside what a block already is.

Fixes

• Lists and pictures inside tables no longer disappear after a restart. (#18)
• Splitting a tab asks which page to show on the new side instead of showing the same page twice. (#17)
• Menus are no longer cut off at the top or bottom of the window. They move back onto the screen and show whole when there is room.
• Find in page finds words inside lists, toggles, callouts, columns and tables.
• The empty line at the bottom of every page that could not be deleted is gone. Click below the last block to start a new one.
• > and a space makes the line the toggle's title instead of an empty toggle with the text inside, and # on a toggle makes a toggle heading.
• The heading buttons work on a toggle's title.
• A date in a page no longer turns into a struck through link after a restart when an old note for that day is in the trash.
• The drag handle on a table sits beside its header row.
• Pictures come along when blocks picked in the margin are copied to other apps.
• A page deleted for good takes its history, and the pictures it held, with it.
• The Colour option no longer shows on pictures.
• The sidebar's button reads Show sidebar while it is hidden.

On a phone

These came from the first days of testing the Android app:

• The top bar sits below the status bar, and the page stays clear of the navigation bar, the notch and the keyboard.
• The arrow beside a page in the sidebar folds it instead of opening the page, and a row's buttons show without hovering.
• The sidebar opens without stuttering, and taps no longer flash blue.
• The review page fits the screen.
• Turned on its side, the sidebar scrolls as one list and covers and titles are shorter, so there is room to read.
• Sync settings and pairings are kept between launches, and a phone is found on networks that hide its interfaces.

Things to know when coming from 1.x

• Assistant keys saved by 1.x can't be read by 2.0.0. Enter your key once more in Settings.
• Clicking a notification no longer opens its page.
• On macOS, PDF export goes through the print dialog, and saving a canvas as a picture is not available yet.
• The MCP server needs Node.js installed and on your PATH.
• Formulas no longer carry a hidden copy for screen readers. It made pages with a lot of maths slow to open.
• The Android APK is signed with Morrow's own key and is not on Google Play, so Android asks once before it lets your browser or file manager install it.

Thank you to everyone who kept testing and sending such detailed reports. They are the reason this move was possible.