Release Notes
This is a release candidate of the next release version, and is intended for testing purposes. Please be careful when using this version on live writing projects, and make sure you make frequent backups.
From this release on, Debian packages will be provided for Ubuntu and Debian users. A new PPA has also been created. Adding this will allow users to install and update novelWriter automatically on Ubuntu and Debian.
Release 1.5 introduces a new project file format, which has been given a file format version 1.3. The project file and index is updated automatically when you open the project, which means you can no longer open it in an older version of novelWriter.
You may also have to make a handful of changes in your novel documents as novelWriter will not make any automated changes to your actual text. However, the changes are minimal and in any case only affects the way your manuscript looks like when exported via the Build Novel Project tool. The details are described below.
Novel Document Layouts
The main change in this release is the significant simplification of document layouts. Previously, there were seven different layouts available for novel documents, in addition to the one layout for project notes. The original intention of these layouts were partially to define some default formatting behaviour when exporting your project, and partially as a way to indicate whether a specific document was a partition, chapter or scene.
With this release, all the seven layouts for novel documents have been merged into a single layout called simply "Novel Document". The other layout, "Project Note", remains unchanged. The functionality provided by the various novel layouts have been implemented in other ways, and a few new formatting codes have been added to accommodate the formatting functionality lost with the removal of the layouts. They are all available in the Format and Insert menu.
The changes you need to make to your project should be limited to altering a handful of titles and maybe insert a page break code here and there. The only title formats you need to update are those for the main novel title and for your unnumbered chapters, if you have any.
Novel titles need to be altered from # Novel Title to #! Novel Title and unnumbered chapters from ## Chapter Name or ## *Chapter Name to ##! Chapter Name. That is all. For inserting page breaks, you can add a single line with the command [NEW PAGE] where you want the break to be inserted. As before, page breaks are automatically inserted in front of all partition and chapter titles.
You will find these changes described in more detail in the documentation in the "Format 1.3 Changes" section.
GUI Changes
Due to the above changes, the GUI has been altered a bit. The main changes are in the project tree. These changes are also reflected in the details panel below the project tree, and to a lesser extent in the Outline tab.
The layouts were previously a way to indicate the purpose of a specific novel document, like whether it was a chapter or scene. With these layouts gone, the distinction is instead indicated by other visual means.
The project index will now record the level of the first header of your document, and select a different icon for documents with a partition, chapter or scene header. These are colour coded as green, red, and blue respectively. The project notes have also received a new icon, with a yellow colour code. Due to this change, the grey icon themes have been removed.
In addition, novel documents with a partition or chapter header will have the document label viewed as bold and underlined. This feature can be disabled in Preferences if you want a cleaner look in the project tree.
Other Changes
Several improvements have been made to the project index, which means the index will be automatically rebuilt when you open a project for the first time in the new version. You will get a notification about this.
The ODT export tool has also been improved. The code that writes out text paragraphs has been rewritten and now conforms more closely to the Open Document standard. Most of these improvements will not be noticeable to you as a user, but you may notice that the exported document will now allow multiple consecutive spaces. Previously, two spaces, or more, would be concatenated into a single space in the exported document.
The internal spell check tool has been removed. If you want spell checking, you must install the Spell Enchant tool. The internal spell checker was only ever added because the Python package for Spell Enchant was not available on 64-bit Windows. This was corrected over a year ago. The main issue with the internal spell checker was that it only included English, and the large dictionary files had to be shipped with novelWriter.
Finally, a PDF version of the documentation should now be shipped with your install package. If it is available, a "User Manual (PDF)" option should be visible in the Help menu. This should give you access to the documentation also when you don't have an active internet connection.
These Release Notes also include the changes from 1.5 Beta 1 and Beta 2.
Detailed Changelog
Bugfixes
- Fixed a bug where the setting for how often the word counter is run was not saved between sessions. PR #882.
- Fix an issue where the information on the Project Details dialog would not be updated if the Qt library had cached the dialog since last time it was opened. Issue #842. PR #883.
Features
- The internal spell checker has been removed. It was only ever added for use on Windows as the PyEnchant tool was no longer maintained and not available for 64-bit Windows. This is no longer the case. Having two alternative spell checkers complicated the code a great deal, and the internal spell checker also required full word lists to be distributed with novelWriter. PR #875.
- Added a setting in Preferences to change how the word count on the status bar is calculated. The new setting allows the project notes to be filetred out, leaving only the word count for novel files. Feature request #857. PR #882.
Installation and Packaging
- The command line command for starting novelWriter after running the standard setup has been made lower case. PR #873.
- A PDF version of the documentation can now be built from the main setup script and is by default distributed with the install packages. The PDF manual can be opened from the Help menu. This is a more accessible solution to looking up the documentation without an internet connection. The old method depended on the Qt Assistant being installed. PRs #873 and #879.
- The setup script can now build standard
.debpackages for Debian and Ubuntu. Issue #866. PRs #876 and #879. - The icons for novelWriter have been updated and rearranged, and the installation of these simplified a bit. PR #879.
- The setup script can now build packages for deployment on the Ubuntu PPA (Launchpad). PR #880.
Internationalisation
- The US English and Nowregian translation files have been updated. PR #884.
Documentation