Release 2.1 RC 1

[vkbo]

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 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

Bugfixes

• Fixed an issue where closing modal dialogs would close their parent. Issue Closing font dialog closes build tool on Mac #1494. PR Fix MacOS release for 2.1b1 #1496.
• The log output no longer prints an error message if the project does not have anything in its custom dictionary. PR Don't error on missing user dictionary #1495.

Usability

• novelWriter will no longer try to restore full screen mode if full screen was activated when it was last closed. This never worked right anyway. PR Drop saving fullscreen flag #1498.
• There are several usability updates for the Build Settings tool. Please check the PR for details. Some key changes are that the build dialogs are now children of the main GUI, so they can be moved freely from each other. The Selection page has been given a new look that should hopefully make it easier to understand, and the side bar for the tool has been redesigned. A few labels have also been changed to be easier to understand. Issue Build Settings improvements #1497. PR Improve build settings tool #1499.
• The alert and message boxes have been reimplemented with the full feature set of the Qt message box dialog instead of using the quick access functions with limited functionality. PR Improve alert boxes #1501.
• A project's spell check dictionary can now be set directly from the Tools menu. Issue Set spell check language from status bar #1260. PR Refactor handling of spell checking #1508.
• The document details dialog box now shows a document's creation and update date if that has been set. Issue Add last edit time to documents #1423. PR Update the file info dialog box #1510.
• Moving the mouse wheel on any area within the border of the text editor or viewer will now scroll the document. Issue Allow touchpad scrolling in text margins #1425. PR Forward all scroll events in text area widgets to parent #1511.

Code Improvements

• A new shared data instance now owns the Gui Theme, the Project class and holds a link to the main Gui instance as well. This new class also handles message and alert boxes. The project instance is now destroyed and recreated between each project close/open cycle. This should guard better from project to project data leakage. PRs Clean up core structure #1502 and Replace the project.clear() approach #1504.
• The spell checker instance has been moved to the new shared data instance where it is destroyed and recreated together with the project instance. This blocks against bleed-through of the user's custom dictionary. PR Refactor handling of spell checking #1508.
• Text hash (SHA1) and creation and update time stamps are now added to the document file's meta data section. The hash is used to detect file changes outside of novelWriter while documents are open. The old checker has been deleted. Issue Add last edit time to documents #1423. PR Add hash and dates to document meta data #1509.

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This discussion was created from the release Release 2.1 RC 1.