vkbo/novelWriter v1.0rc1

Version 1.0 RC 1

on GitHub

Release Notes

This is the first release candidate for the upcoming release of novelWriter 1.0.

Since the fifth beta release about four weeks ago, not much has been changed in novelWriter. A few minor tweaks have been made to the GUI.

A number of features and tools are now automatically switched off when there is no project or document open for those features to act upon. Previously, this was a bit inconsistent, although no serious bugs have been reported or encountered.

Most of the minor changes in this release should not be noticeable to most users. However, there are a couple of noticeable changes.

Typewriter Mode

The "Typewriter Mode" of the editor has been improved. Essentially, this feature is a sort of smart scroll. It tries to keep the cursor stationary in the vertical direction, and will try to scroll the document up when the cursor skips to a new line while typing (or down in case of backspaces). This is similar to the way a typewriter scrolls the paper when hitting the return key. It improves the writing experience as the current active line will stay at the same eye heightlevel on the screen.

Previously, the feature would lock the cursor to a given vertical position defined by the user. Now, instead, the cursor will remain stationary in the vertical direction at any position the user sets it to by mouse click or keyboard navigation. The user can define a minimum distance from the top where this feature is activated. These changes makes it more flexible in terms of where the
focus is in the editor. The feature can be controlled from the main Preferences.

Switching Syntax Theme

It is now possible to switch syntax highlighting theme without restarting novelWriter. Previously, changing the theme would only half-way update the document, header and footer background and text colours. The new settings would not be fully applied until the application was shut down and started again, thus making it a bit tedious to look through syntax themes to find the
one you want.

Switching main GUI theme still requires a restart.

Detailed Changelog

Installation

• A new setup option setup.py xdg-install will install the desktop integration (icons, mime and launcher) using the OS' xdg-utils. This is a more standardised way of installing these elements, and replaces the previous launcher option. PR #484.

Bugfixes

• The Details Panel below the Outline Tree View was not cleared when a project was closed, and whatever was listed there was still present if a new project was opened. The panel is now reset when a project is closed. Issue #490, PR #491.

User Interface

• The Typewriter Mode feature has been improved to keep the cursor stationary at any point in the editor viewport as long as the cursor is at a user-defined minimum distance from the top of the viewport. The mouse, arrow and page keys do not trigger a reposition. The new behaviour is similar to that of the Gutenberg editor in WordPress. PR #482.
• The document editor and viewer are now properly updated when the user switches syntax theme. There is no longer a need to restart novelWriter first to apply the changes. PR #487.
• Some minor GUI changes include: don't run the background word counter when there is no document open, make the split panels of the Build Novel Project tool non-collapsible, and set the initial column widths of tree views to more sensible values. PR #489.
• Block various menu actions, like split and merge documents, project backup, inserts, etc, when there is no project open. None of these being active caused any errors as these actions were all handled by the various tools, but they shouldn't even trigger when there is no project or document to perform the action on. PR #492.
• Clarify the message of the Close Project and Exit novelWriter dialogs. Previously, it may have seemed to some users that clicking "No" would allow the closing to procede without saving changes. This is not true as changes are saved automatically when editing a project. The dialog text should now make this clearer. Issue #494, PR #495.

Other Changes

• The index cache file meta/tagsIndex.json now has line breaks and indents. This makes it easier to version control if the user really wants to track this file. PR #483.
• The format of the meta data at the top of document files has been changed to be easier to parse, and easier to extend with new settings. It is also more human-readable in cases where the user opens a document file with other software. PR #486.
• Remove the ToC.json file and improve the ToC.txt file. There latter now has additional information and the format has been improved slightly to be easier to parse if read by an external program or script. PR #493.

Code Improvements

• There has been some clean-up of comments and docstrings, as well as optimisation and merging of a few functions that were implemented in multiple places. PR #485.
• Move some of the constants defined in various other classes into the appropriate constants classes, and make all constants upper case variables. PR #489.