Version 2.8 Beta 1

[vkbo]

Release Notes

This is a beta release 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 take frequent backups.

Detailed Changelog

Bugfixes

• The editor now properly supports 4 byte Unicode characters without breaking the syntax highlighting and spell checker. Issue Some character scripts like cuneiform breaks text editing #2449. PR Fix 4 byte Unicode support in editor #2451.
• Fixed a bug in the font matching code where the style name property for the font was set, preventing Qt from picking a proper styled font. Issue Editor uses faux italics/bold #2502. PR Fix font matching style bug #2503.
• Spell check dictionaries in the main menu are now updated when new dictionaries are installed using the add dictionaries tool. Contributed by @Reproog. Issue Spellcheck dictionary in toolbar only available after restarting the application #2558. PR Dynamically update spell check dictionaries in the menu #2562.
• Fixed an issue where the Novel Tree panel heading would be greyed out if there was only one Novel root folder. Issue Novel panel title greyed out #2482. PR Fix dimmed novel selector #2556.

Features

• Current line highlighting has been added and can be enabled in Preferences. Issue Add the ability to higlight current line where cursor is #1321. PR Add current line highlight #2405.
• The Status and Importance labels can now use theme colours in addition to a user defined custom colour. The settings for these labels have also been made clearer. Issues It's unclear what some buttons mean in the project settings #2357, Use theme colours for status icons #2366 and Color of status tags reset to black after theme changed #2452. PRs Allow theme colours for status and importance labels #2400 and Fix colour reset bug for status labels #2461.
• Markdown style highlighting tags are now supported in the editor. Issue Add Markdown highlighting format #1894. PR Add markdown-style highlight #2412.
• Synopsis/short comments, story comments, and story notes can now be used multiple times under a heading. The text is just appended as a new paragraph each time the annotated comment type is encountered. Issue Allow multiple notes of same type in a document #2483. PR Allow repeated named comments #2543.

Improvements

• You can now press Ctrl+T and Ctrl+Shift+T when in Focus Mode to exit the Focus Mode automatically and switch to the Project Tree or Outline View. Issue Allow switching to Outline mode from Focus Mode? #1294. PR Expose tree and outline shortcuts in Focus Mode #2479.
• When creating a new document from a template, the first title of the template document is replaced with the label text set for the new document. Issue Template Title Sync #2238. PR Use label for template title #2477.
• When the app is performing a potentially bulky and time consuming task, a small progress bar will appear at the top of the status bar to show the progress of the task. It is currently used when the index is rebuilt and when processing multiple documents in the Project Tree. Issue Add progress bar for multi-item actions #2243. PR Add progress bar for bulky tasks #2478.
• The auto-replace feature in the editor is now better at detecting opening and closing quotes when used in relation to markdown style markup. Issue Wrong dialog opening quote used when dialog is italicized #2488. PR Improve auto-replace quotes with markup #2489.
• The application window is now blocked from resizing itself to a size larger than the screen when opened on a smaller screen than it was previously opened on. Like for instance when it was connected to an external screen from a laptop. Issue Retain unmaximized window state for next start. #2354. PR Block main GUI from getting larger than screen #2369.
• Improved the CSS styling of HTML manuscript documents. Issue Add "viewport" to HTML export #2358. PR Make HTML output more consistent #2404.
• Trailing spaces are no longer highlighted in the editor with an error underline. Multiple spaces between words still are. Issue Improve redundant space highlight #2501. PR Drop highlighting trailing spaces #2505.
• The rebuild index dialog is no longer showed if the index is rebuilt due to index structure changes when a project is opened for the first time in a newer version of novelWriter. This was confusing to some users who thought the dialog indicated an error. Issue Improve rebuild index dialog #2513. PR Stop showing index rebuild dialog on upgrades #2537.
• A switch on the Manuscript Build Settings dialog now allows for automatic preview of the build when Apply or Save is clicked. Issue Testing the Apply/Close/Save buttons in Manuscript Build Settings Dialog #2486. PR Updates to buttons and manuscript build #2553.
• Formatting and handling of Story Comments and Story Notes have been improved, and they can be filtered separately in the viewer panel. PR Improve story comments handling #2421.

User Interface

• The GUI and syntax themes have been merged into a single theme, which means there are no longer separate settings for the general GUI and the document colour theme. Issue Merge GUI and syntax themes to a single theme #2335. PR Add light/dark theme switching and merge syntax and GUI theme #2373.
• There are now two GUI theme settings in Preferences, one for light and one for dark mode. A new button on the sidebar allows you to switch between them, or it can be set to auto mode that follows the operating system's light/dark mode. Issues Add a light/dark theme switcher #1173 and Theme toggle does not update all colors of "Build Manuscript" #2487. PRs Add light/dark theme switching and merge syntax and GUI theme #2373 and Manuscript theme update fix #2545.
• More themeable settings have been added. The document active flag, the theme base colour, and the new GUI accent colour (if Qt version is high enough) is now available. Issue Add more settings in theme for project and base colours #2382. PR Add more theme fields #2384.
• The highlighting colour for special white spaces, like non-breaking spaces, can now be set in the theme. Previously it used the emphasis colour. Issue Add syntax colour entry for white space #2547. PR Add syntax colour for whitespace #2548.
• The Welcome dialog background now follows the theme colours. Issue Welcome screen to follow theme color #2379. PR Improve welcome dialog and add more theme colour options #2380.
• The dialog buttons now use icons from the selected theme, not from the host OS. Issues Consistent dialog buttons #2498, Button theme fixes and improvements #2551 and Fix push button icon size #2561. PRs Standardise push buttons #2544, Minor fixes #2546, Updates to buttons and manuscript build #2553, Fix button colour bug #2557 and Update button and icon scale #2563.
• Added semantic categories for icon colours which can be defined in the colour theme. PR Make icon colours themable #2549.
• Primer Dark and Primer Light themes added by @HeyMyian. Issue New theme suggestion for 2.8: Primer #2376. PRs Add Primer themes #2377 and Primer themes update #2419.
• Horizon, Otium, Paragon, Selenium, Sepia, Sultana, Vivid, Warpgate, and Waterlily themes added by @HeyMyian. Issue Accessibility color themes #2407. PR Add new themes #2495.
• Aura, B2T Garden, B2T Suburb, B4T Classic-O, B4T Modern-C, Everforest, New Moon, Full Moon, Nord, Nordlicht, Castle, Chernozem, Chalky Soil, Floral, Ruby themes added by @HeyMyian. PR Add more themes #2450.
• Blue Streak themes added. PR Add "Blue Streak" themes #2388.
• LCARS theme added. PR Add LCARS theme #2399.
• Espresso and Noctis themes added. PR Add Espresso and Noctis themes #2422.
• Various improvements to existing and new themes by @vkbo. PRs Make some minor tweaks to themes and update docs #2396, Make some minor changes to themes #2418, Update default themes #2475 and Update themes #2481.
• Various improvements to existing and new themes by @HeyMyian. PRs Themes and fixes #2506 and Update themes #2494.

Packaging

• The license info for novelWriter has been updated to include GPL-3.0-or-later, Apache-2.0, and CC-BY-4.0. Issue Update license field in pyproject.toml file #2444. PR Add all used licenses #2446.
• Updated Debian package build and added Qt6 plugin for WebP images as a dependency. PR Update deb build and release 2.8 Alpha 1 for Launchpad #2401.

Documentation

• Added some info on how to get around the line heigh issue in the editor in the Tips & Tricks section of the documentation. Issue Add info on line height and possible solutions to docs #2559. PR Add to docs tips & tricks #2564.
• Fixed some typos in the documentation. PR Fix typos in docs #2542.

Code Maintenance

• Improved linting and added more mapped Qt constants. PR Minor refactoring and linting #2536.
• Added test coverage of the theme files to ensure they are up to date. PR Improve theme testing and format of theme files #2378.
• Updated credits and license information of icon themes. PR Update icon credits info #2474.
• Some fields have been dropped from icon and colour themes. PRs Remove theme description field #2466 and Change theme meta settings #2423.
• Changed a few default settings in config, added automatic rebuild of the index in new projects, and fixed tests. PR Change some defaults and fix index of new projects #2395.
• Added test coverage and support for Python 3.14. PR Update CI/CD #2538.
• Improved logging formatting by stripping HTML content. PR Clean up log messages from dialogs #2402.
• Cleaned up and improved pkgutils CLI tool. PR Clean up pkgutils.py #2541.
• The project now uses UV as the primary dependency handling tool for development. PR Add UV tooling #2540.
• Fixed the run_tests helper script for HighDPI monitors. PR Fix tests on HighDPI screens #2496.

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This discussion was created from the release Version 2.8 Beta 1.