Sable Markdown Writer 1.0.0

Sable Markdown Writer 1.0 is here. It's everything from the four 1.0 betas, plus three new things for the writing desk and a new theme. If you're coming from 0.10.1, this is the biggest update yet: Scrivener import, a sample project, export layouts, a goal with a deadline, numbered lists that count themselves, VoiceOver and keyboard support throughout, and a desk that steps back while you write.

New since the last beta

• The desk fades while you type. After a few seconds of steady typing, the writing desk fades almost away, in place, so the page never shifts. Move the mouse or click and it's back at once. A pause to think doesn't bring it back. It never fades with VoiceOver or Full Keyboard Access on. Turn it off in Settings → General → Writing desk, or with View → Fade Writing Desk While Typing.
• Categories are real folders. A category on the desk (School, Work, Hobbies…) is now an ordinary folder at the top of your writing folder, so Finder, iCloud, and your other Macs see the same grouping Sable does. Dragging a file or folder onto a category's heading moves it inside, and dragging it onto Folders or Files moves it back out. Turn into Regular Folder keeps the folder and everything in it and only stops it being a category, and Reveal in Finder shows it.
• Make things inside a category, and fold any heading. Hover a category's heading for a small + with New Markdown File and New Folder. Categories hold files as well as folders now. The Fiction Projects, Folders, and Files headings fold with a click, like a category, and stay folded until you open them.
• A new theme: Cosmic. Deep indigo space, seen out of focus, with a slow haze of blue, plum, and violet and a few soft drifting lights behind the words. The haze and lights share one switch in Writing Style and hold still under Reduce Motion.

New in 1.0, if you're coming from 0.10.1

• Bring a book over from Scrivener. File → Import Scrivener Project… reads a Scrivener 3 or Scrivener 2 project and makes a new Fiction Project from it, after a preview where you choose where each part goes. Chapters, scenes, character and location sheets, synopses, notes, footnotes, and comments come across. Sable only reads the Scrivener project and never changes it.
• A sample project to look around in. Help → Open Sample Project opens Northwatch, a short finished story with scene tags, character and location cards, an outline, and a snapshot to compare. Sable puts a copy in your Documents folder, so change anything you like.
• Open any Markdown file, with or without a writing folder. A writing folder is optional now, and a file opened from Finder just opens. File → Open Fiction Project… (⇧⌘O) opens a project from anywhere on your Mac, and Settings → General can make Sable your default app for Markdown, only if you choose.
• Choose how an export is laid out. The Export sheet's Layout section sets heading and title page alignment, font and size, line spacing, margins, page numbers, and a running header for PDF and Word. Each Fiction Project remembers its own.
• A goal with a deadline, only if you want one. For something like 50,000 words in November, turn on Track a goal with a deadline in Settings → General. Sable shows where an even pace would have you and what today needs, in plain numbers. There are no streaks, badges, or notifications.
• Numbered lists count themselves. Add, delete, paste, or indent an item and the list renumbers right away.
• Smaller undo steps, and undo that keeps working. A pause, Return, or moving the caret starts a new step, and ⌘Z no longer stops working after a pause in typing.
• Notes to yourself don't count as words. Text inside <!-- --> is left out of every count, and every count in Sable follows the same rule, so the footer and the Manuscript tab agree.
• Works with VoiceOver, the keyboard, and your display settings. Every control has a spoken name, things you could only drag have keyboard equivalents, and Escape closes every sheet. Increase Contrast, Reduce Transparency, and Reduce Motion are all respected, and dimmed text is easier to read in every theme.
• Help → Report a Bug… opens a bug report on GitHub with your words filled in. Sable sends nothing itself.
• More themes and more. Starfall and Mist join the writing themes. The Files tab has Recent Projects, the desk can show a Recent tab, more Markdown file types open, and switching between Reading Mode and editing keeps your place.

Good to know

• If you used categories in a beta, they lived only in Sable's settings. A note above the desk offers to turn them into folders. Make Folders… shows what it will make and how many items go in each, saves a snapshot of every file that moves, and moves nothing until you confirm. Not Now leaves everything as it is.
• If you keep notes in your chapters, your word counts go down by the words in them. Days already in your writing record keep their numbers.
• Reading Mode and exports don't lay footnotes out yet; they show the [^1] marks and the footnote text as typed.
• Scrivener 2 projects are read from public descriptions of that older format and are less tested. The import report says so, and it's worth comparing the result against the original.
• Sable isn't notarized by Apple yet, so a fresh download needs Open Anyway in System Settings → Privacy & Security the first time; the README's Install section walks through it.

Release notes written by Claude Code.

Community build: not notarized by Apple. On first launch, macOS may require approval in System Settings → Privacy & Security → Open Anyway. Update downloads are verified with Sable Markdown Writer’s Sparkle signing key.