Version 2.1 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.

Please check the changelog for an overview of changes. The full release notes will be added to the final release.

Detailed Changelog

Usability

• When the main window is resized, the change in size is only assigned to the editor and viewer. To resize the project tree area, its slider needs to be moved. PR Change resize behaviour of main splitter #1388.
• The default text font on MacOS is now Helvetica instead of Courier. Issue Lose the space after the period. #1463. PR Change default font on macOS #1479.
• Backup files now contain the project name again. Issue Customization of backup file name #1476. PR Improve backup feature #1484.
• The backup success dialog now displays the file size of the backup file. Issue Show file size on a successful backup #1453. PR Improve backup feature #1484.
• New root folders in the Project Tree now appear next to the root folder of the item selected when the request to make the root folder was made. Previously, it would appear at the bottom of the Project Tree. Issue New root folder location #1259. PR New root folder location #1487.

Features

• A new Manuscript Build Tool has been added. The new tool allows for detailed handling of which documents are included in a build, as well as a much better tool for formatting headers. It also allows for saving multiple build presets. PRs Add a new GUI for the Build Tool #1389 and Improve test coverage of build tools #1466. Issues Exporting only one or two documents is difficult #971, Design a new core build tool #1315 and "Toggle active all" for all documents in a folder #1448.
• Exported ODT documents now have an accessible style for scene separators. It is also possible to define page size and margin sizes from the new build tool. Issue Manuscript Export #622. PR Improve ODT build #1477.
• A proper light colour theme has been added. The default theme will usually default to light colours, but in Qt6 it will not depending on host OS settings, so creating a proper light theme is needed. This also allows for some tweaking of the colours. The contrast of the dark theme has been improved a bit as well, and a default icon theme is now selected based on the lightness of the background if an icon theme is not specified in the theme definition file. Issues Make additional theme colours customisable #1472 and Define the light theme #1473. PR Theme updates #1475.
• Documents, folders and root folders can now be duplicated from the Project Tree, including all child elements. The duplicated content is stored next to the source items, and can then be moved to wherever the user wants a copy. Issue Duplicate scenes/chapters/novels #1469. PR Add duplication of files and folders #1480.
• A set of new keyboard shortcuts have been added to make some types of navigation in the Project Tree easier. Alt+Up and Alt+Down will move between sibling items in the tree, skipping child items. Alt+Left will move to the parent of the selected item without triggering the collapse of the node like the Left key does. Alt+Right does the reverse, and both expands the node and moves to the first child in one click. Issue Add keyboard shortcuts to cycle through entire chapters #1348. PRs Add project tree navigation shortcuts #1488 and Change tree nav shortcut modifier and update docs #1489.

Packaging and Installation

• Support for Python 3.7 is no longer maintained, but has not officially been dropped. It is expected to be dropped for the final release of 2.1. PR Remove lxml #1452.
• The lxml package has been removed from the source code, dropping it as a dependency of novelWriter. The standard Python xml library is used instead. The standard library is somewhat limited, which is why it wasn't originally used, but when dropping support for Python 3.7, it is now good alternative. Issue Replace lxml with standard library xml #1257. PR Remove lxml #1452.
• The setup.py file has been removed. The custom packaging utilities in the old setup.py file are now available in pkgutils.py instead. Issues Separate packaging utils from setup.py #1437 and Remove setup.py #1438. PR Split setup.py #1483.

Code Improvements

• All imports of modules are now direct imports instead of going via init files. All subfolder init files have been reduced to empty files. PR Use direct imports everywhere #1262.
• The mocking of the main config object in the test suite has been rewritten to be easier to deal with when writing tests. The new approach also removes the need to access the config object via an attribute in many classes, and is now instead accessed directly. This should give a tiny performance boost as a bonus. PR Rewrite config mocking #1447.
• The building of manuscript documents from novelWriter source text is now handled by a core builder class, thus separating it from any GUI module. Previously, this was baked into the build tool. PR Document builder class #1316.
• SVG icons have been optimised in terms of storage size and object complexity. PR Optimise all SVG icons #1456.
• The file names for the project meta data files have been simplified and references to legacy formats removed. The wordlist has been converted to a JSON file, and the session log to a JSON Lines file. All old files are renamed or converted on the fly when opening the project. PR Rename and restructure project meta files #1464.
• The core project item and tree classes have been modified to improve how items, and in particular, orphaned items are handled. These are mostly internal changes that simplifies how items are accessed in the source code. Issue Ensure projects items always have a handle #1481. PR Improve project item and tree classes #1482.
• Many of the above PRs add type annotations to classes and functions in the source code. These will be added gradually to the entire source code going forward.

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This discussion was created from the release Version 2.1 Beta 1.

[novakwh]

On Mac: in the Build Tool, either editing the default My Manuscript build or adding a new build, under Format, Font, selecting a new Font and pressing OK in the font dialog causes the Build window to simply shut down (without saving any of the changes made).

[vkbo]

Thanks for letting me know. I will investigate.

[vkbo]

Could you check if this is also the case for selecting a font in Preferences? This seems to be isolated to Mac, as I could not reproduce this on Linux.

[novakwh]

Font selection in preferences (both in general and documents) seems to work fine.

[vkbo]

I managed to reproduce it on a Mac VM. Curious. I will investigate.

By the way, did you have any issues installing the new DMG file? I had a lot of trouble. I'm not a Mac-user so I may have made a mistake.

[vkbo]

The issue has been fixed, as well as some version number issues in the DMG package plist file. The new DMG is versioned 2.1b1-post1. Please download and install the new file,

[HeyMyian]

😃 New stuff!!

Should I create a reply for each thing I notice or would you rather I gather everything in one message?

There seems to be no fallback for new icons. I'm using a custom dark theme with some custom icons and the new icons are left blank in the UI.

[vkbo]

If you have a custom icon theme, you need to add the missing icons unfortunately. There is only fallback for whole themes, not individual icons.

[vkbo]

If you find any issues that are bugs, or have some usability suggestions, feel free to open feature tickets or bug report. You can collect suggestions for specific tools or features.

It's also fine to post them here for discussion, but I can't use the discussion for tracking stuff that needs fixing.

[HeyMyian]

The build preview used to be a file written to the "cache" folder. I never used the preview feature because it was kind of a pain to exclude that file from the backups. How/where is the preview stored in 2.1?

[vkbo]

I moved it to the app data folder, which on Linux is ~/.local/share/novelwriter/cache. Each project now has a uuid associated with it, and the cache file is named build_{uuid}.json.

The project cache folder has been removed. I never liked bloating the project folder with these files either.

[HeyMyian]

Nice :D I was going to suggest allowing the deletion of the preview file, but this is even better.

[novakwh]

"By the way, did you have any issues installing the new DMG file? I had a lot of trouble. I'm not a Mac-user so I may have made a mistake." I received a number of security warnings and had to try to open it several times before the system would allow me to open it, but I guess I'm used to that with Mac.

…

On Sun, Jul 30, 2023, at 9:48 AM, Veronica Berglyd Olsen wrote: I managed to reproduce it on a Mac VM. Curious. I will investigate. By the way, did you have any issues installing the new DMG file? I had a lot of trouble. I'm not a Mac-user so I may have made a mistake. — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#1491 (reply in thread)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AFRXJBCJ3ORPJKWSBEGULLTXSZQ2DANCNFSM6AAAAAA25FGDRI>. You are receiving this because you commented.Message ID: ***@***.***>

[vkbo]

There was an issue with the version number yes, so I have uploaded a new DMG file. This one installed smoothly.

[HeyMyian]

I don't find the new Manuscript Build tool very intuitive -- usable and functional, yes. Now YMMV and maybe I'll come to love it soon. But these are my first impressions, maybe they help, maybe I'm obtuse, maybe you can also just disregard them if you have a different opinion.

Filters

My main confusion is with the "Filters" setting, because I don't understand what the orange filter icon means if it's there or not. There seem to be two overlapping functionalities: The filter icon, and on the right hand side the switches for "Document Types". Only if the respective document type is activated, are the documents in the tree able to be filtered. Filtered for what? "Included" and "Excluded" as well as the "Root Folder" switches are easy enough to understand. Although, that's yet another type of filter, this time also visually removing the unselected folders from the tree.

It doesn't help, visually speaking, that folders in the tree can't get an icon, giving them the idea that in its place is a Document of a Document Type that isn't selected with the switches. I would suggest formatting folders in the tree differently, although seeing as the UI right now is consistent with the other trees, maybe the folders could get an icon of their own? Maybe a different background color? Maybe folders should be able to get icons anyway, valid for their content? Idk. It's just a source of my feeling of "what is going on here".

Left hand side tabs: The "Options" heading looks a bit like an inactive tab, not a headline. I might or might have not tried a couple of times to click on it 😶. "Preferences" uses different tabs, any reason they aren't reused here?

Headings

With "Headings" I understand these are multi-line textareas now instead of the single-line input fields to edit the headings. I'm not trained in UI design or UX, but intuitively, I would simply swap the input fields out for textareas, and the "Edit" button for the two buttons "Insert" and "Apply" for each textarea. So instead of having stacked five input fields + one textarea, it would be five textareas. There should be enough vertical space for it?

I would also suggest to add, maybe on hover over the headline type or in brackets, the markdown symbols for each heading (##, !##, ...)

Line breaks here are carried over as // into the input field and into the final file.

Format

• "Font Size" and "Line Height" have the units pt and em respectively. Those have different visual widths, which results in the input boxes not being aligned. Maybe the units in monospace font? (Thinking of it, people might not know what kind of unit "em" is. Using "%" instead might be more intuitive.)
• "Text Options" has different line heights than the rest of the settings. I understand this is because the switches don't need as much space vertically, but it creates a visual imbalance.
• I also just see that the units in the right column are controlled by the dropdown, and not written behind the input boxes. Maybe add them anyway and they are changed on the fly based on what is selected in the dropdown.
• Selecting a "Page Size" locks in the values. Instead, the dropdown should change to "Custom" when the values are changed.

Output

In "Output", the headline "Open Document" is super ambiguous by itself. Maybe add .otf or "format".

General

Something that confused me in the old Build tool too: Some of the options in "Format" and "Output" have no effect on some of the "Output Formats" (I mean file types). Which... of course they don't, because there is no Font Size in json and no Page Size in html. I find this added to my general feeling of being flummoxed with the old tool, not knowing what certain settings did, not changing anything after my initial setup, using it only with velvet gloves on. I do think the new tool is objectively better, but I also think it could be improved still? Besides my notes with the suggestions above, I wouldn't know exactly how to get rid of that fuzzy feeling of "all of this isn't as clear as I would like, I don't know". Maybe it is me.

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Thanks for the whole thing btw, I realize there is only gripes here, not praise, but genuinely, thanks. novelWriter is the only project where I participate on GitHub because I like it so much. I like LibreOffice and Nextcloud too, but I really couldn't care less about what their folks are doing in their repos.

[HeyMyian]

I like the green arrow icon. The orange of the previously used filter icon might have had unwanted connotations (usually "warning"). Did you also change the padding of that column? For me there was more space between the active/inactive and the filter icon. I like the spacing in your screenshot more.

Perhaps a tooltip or a small text (small text like in the Preferences menu) for "Document Filters" and "Root Folders" on the right side: "default include/exclude". As I understand it, that's what these switches are primarily meant to do: automatically control the inclusion or exclusion of newly created documents.

While the "Manuscript Build Settings" window is open, the main novelWriter window is still editable - that means the project tree in the main window can be changed, and the changes aren't reflected in the build window. Duh. I think that's reasonable, but what might be useful is a context menu on the items of the build tree that allows to toggle Active/Inactive.

• As I discovered this, I was wondering if the build tool could be integrated into the main window as a sibling to the "Outline" view, i.e. not as a popup. It makes sense to me logically, because the project tree is already in that place. The "Novel Selection" dropdown could be used as build presets. But I'm brainstorming, there might be a reason why it's a popup.

The input label for "Name" on your screenshot I would suggest to change to "Build Name" for clarity.
It's a little visually noisy in that last line, things don't seem to align to the other elements above.

I like the arrows on the left menu (I think they're new now?).

What is your time scale for the full release of 2.1?

[vkbo]

Did you also change the padding of that column? For me there was more space between the active/inactive and the filter icon. I like the spacing in your screenshot more.

No, it uses the same logic as the main project tree. It is the icon size + 6 pixels.

Perhaps a tooltip or a small text (small text like in the Preferences menu) for "Document Filters" and "Root Folders" on the right side: "default include/exclude". As I understand it, that's what these switches are primarily meant to do: automatically control the inclusion or exclusion of newly created documents.

I'm not sure that helps all that much. I'm trying to not add too much text as well as everything has to be translated, and the translation tool is capped at a certain word count. I think playing with the settings will make it fairly easy to see what they do. They are also the exact same as on the old build tool.

While the "Manuscript Build Settings" window is open, the main novelWriter window is still editable - that means the project tree in the main window can be changed, and the changes aren't reflected in the build window. Duh. I think that's reasonable, but what might be useful is a context menu on the items of the build tree that allows to toggle Active/Inactive.

A refresh button may be useful. The old build tool was also allowing editing the project with the tool open, and the content was refreshed when you pressed preview or build. Here it would make more sense to have a button, or maybe hook into a signal from the main project window.

As I discovered this, I was wondering if the build tool could be integrated into the main window as a sibling to the "Outline" view, i.e. not as a popup. It makes sense to me logically, because the project tree is already in that place. The "Novel Selection" dropdown could be used as build presets. But I'm brainstorming, there might be a reason why it's a popup.

The main reason it isn't is that it isn't a "view", as in, not an alternate view of the project. I have "views" and "tools" in novelWriter. This is a tool. They are called on when needed. I plan to add more views as well.

The input label for "Name" on your screenshot I would suggest to change to "Build Name" for clarity. It's a little visually noisy in that last line, things don't seem to align to the other elements above.

I don't really know where's a good place to put it. Perhaps it would be good to add a line between the settings and the bottom section.

I like the arrows on the left menu (I think they're new now?).

Yes, I just added them as a visual indicator to separate them from the "Options" label.

What is your time scale for the full release of 2.1?

I think I need to make a Beta 2 release with these changes. Maybe this coming week if I finish the changes. Then I will need a release candidate before full release. That's when I upload the translations and wait for the translation work. I usually give that 3-4 weeks.

I have a few features to add for the release candidate, but I may just push those to release 2.2, depending on how much work they are.

[vkbo]

I tested converting each heading into an editable area, but I don't think it looks very good. The old format may require two more clicks, but it's not the part you would need to change a lot (as opposed to the Selection tab).

[vkbo]

I'm adding a feature where if you select a single item in the list of project items on the Selection tab, then press one of the buttons below the tree, and that item is a folder or document with child items, the effect of the button is applied to all child items. For a multi-select, only the selected items are affected.

I'm not sure if people will react positively or negatively to this behaviour. It should make it easier to include/exclude chapters or whole folders.

[vkbo]

I've made a number of improvements in PR #1499. They are listed there. I'll upload a snapshot to Launchpad at least, but the rest will have to wait until I make the Beta 2 release later the coming week.

[xahodo]

YAY! Another release (even when it's a beta).

Keep up the good work! Really nice improvements!

[vkbo]

I'm almost ready with a Beta 2 now. I ended up doing a lot of refactoring of the code that handles the project data. Hopefully I'll do a release again this week.