Version 2026.3 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.

See the website for complete Release Notes.

Detailed Changelog

Bugfixes

• Fixed a bug where rebuilding the project index triggered a re-highlight of the open document for each tag updated. By @vkbo. Issue Rebuilding index triggers a re-highlight per tag #3092. PR Stop a rehighlight on each tag of an index rebuild #3093.
• Fixed a bug where a project backup that failed while writing the archive left a broken zip file behind. The incomplete archive is now deleted. By @vkbo. PR Fix flaky test and broken backup #3111.

Features

• The Outline panel has been redesigned from scratch as a new Story View panel, starting with a tree-like outline. Synopsis text wraps over multiple lines, and each entry shows how far into the story it lands, for tracking pacing. Comments and references can be shown as icons, with new dedicated icons for point-of-view and focus characters. Further options include showing document status, inactive partitions, and word counts with sub-headings included. Documents can be opened with a middle or double click, or with a keyboard shortcut. By @vkbo. Issues Multi-line synopsis display in outline view #1465, Redesign the Outline View as a model/view panel #2286, Add pacing tracking #3012, New outline improvements #3087 and Allow opening documents from new outline view #3100. PRs Redesign the story outline #2961, Outline improvements #3058, Key handling, outline icons, and icon padding #3062, Outline improvements #3088 and Improvements to outline and RTL support #3103.
• Added basic right-to-left support. A new project setting lays out text right-to-left, and a new Preferences option forces a right-to-left interface, which otherwise follows the selected translation. The editor lays out each paragraph in its own direction, while the viewer, manuscript preview and all export formats follow the project direction, with right-to-left books binding on the right. By @vkbo. Issue Add basic RTL support #3097. PRs Add basic RTL support #3098, Extend pasting formatted text into editor #3101 and Improvements to outline and RTL support #3103.
• Added basic single-level list support, using * for bullet lists and #. for numbered lists. The editor continues a list when Enter is pressed, and new toolbar buttons and menu entries have been added for lists, as well as for left, centre and right alignment. Lists pasted as formatted text are converted to Markdown lists. By @vkbo. Issues Add basic list support #1460 and Allow pasting lists #3099. PRs Add basic Markdown list support #3075 and Extend pasting formatted text into editor #3101.
• Added support for Markdown style links on the form [text](url), and for file:// links. A new link button, menu entry and dialog have been added to the editor, and URLs dropped into the editor are formatted as links. By @vkbo. Issue Allow file:/// inline links and setting link text #3025. PR Add markdown link format and support for file links #3028.
• Improved handling of copied projects and backups. When a copy of a project is detected in the recent projects list, the user is asked whether to treat it as a separate project. Opening a backup asks whether to restore it or keep it as a separate copy. Projects now contain a manifest file marking them as a project, backup or template. By @vkbo. Issues Improve duplicate project handling (backup) #2737 and Ask the user before merging recent project entries #3047. PRs Improve duplicate project handling and restore from backup #3085 and Don't mention internal project id in user dialogs #3086.
• Added gutter and double-sided page settings to ODT and DOCX manuscripts. Double-sided pages mirror the margins for book binding and enable a separate even page header format. The heading page break setting now has "No Break", "Any Page" and "Odd Page" options, allowing chapters to start on odd pages. By @vkbo. Issues Add gutter settings for Manuscript Build #2976 and [Feat] Add manuscript setting for chapter on odd pages #3070. PRs Add page gutter to ODT and DocX manuscripts #3068 and Add odd page breaks for manuscript ODT and DocX output #3102.
• Added a manuscript build option to insert the document's status label below each heading. By @vkbo. Issue Expose file properties to file contents #2958. PR Add a manuscript status label to headings #3104.
• Added a "Uses" column to the tag panels below the viewer, counting how many headings reference each tag. By @vkbo. Issue Allow tag tracking from Project Notes #1686. PR Show tag usage count #3091.
• The project tree pane can now be hidden by clicking the sidebar button of the tree view already showing, or by pressing Shift+F8. By @vkbo. Issue Feature: Enable project tree panel to be hidden #3023. PR Add hide tree pane toggle feature #3072.
• Added a Preferences option to enforce Unix line endings for all project files. By @vkbo. Issue [Improve] Option to select line endings in nW files #3055. PR Add Unix line endings setting #3090.

Improvements

• The Novel View can optionally include sub-headings in each heading's word count. By @vkbo. Issue Include total words in project and novel view #962. PR Outline improvements #3088.
• Footnote keys are now tracked in the project index, ensuring new keys never collide with existing ones. By @vkbo. PR Key handling, outline icons, and icon padding #3062.

User Interface

• Removed the Novel Details tool, as its information is now mostly available elsewhere. By @vkbo. Issue Drop the Novel Details panel #3043. PR Drop Novel Details tool #3044.
• Removed the Remix Icons theme, as its licence is no longer GPL compatible, and replaced the FontAwesome theme with Microsoft's Fluent UI icons in regular and filled styles. The Lucide icons have been updated to version 1.49.0, and padded to match the size of the Material icons. By @vkbo. Issues Drop Remix Icons for 26.3 #3051 and Drop FontAwesome and maybe add other themes #3069. PRs Icons update #3045, Remove Remix Icons #3059, Key handling, outline icons, and icon padding #3062 and Add Fluent UI icons and remvove FontAwesome icons #3071.

Accessibility

• Added missing accessible text to a large number of widgets, mostly reusing their existing labels, as tooltips are not exposed to screen readers. By @vkbo. PR Accessibility improvements #3089.

Internationalisation

• Urdu translation of the project export strings added by Ahmad. PR Add Urdu project export file, fix English UK #3110.

Other Changes

• The editor and viewer have been moved into a shared wrapper class, as a first step towards unifying them. By @vkbo. PR Move editor and viewer into their own wrapper class #3082.
• Simplified the caching of icons, with no expected functional impact. By @vkbo. PR Improve icon caching #3063.

Packaging

• Moved the PyPI release to a workflow, and removed the Launchpad release code and the scripts for local builds. By @vkbo. PR Clean up packaging tools #3037.

Code Maintenance

• Added type annotations to all tests. By @vkbo. PR Add type annotations to tests #3083.
• Fixed minor test coverage and typing issues. By @vkbo. PR Fix minor coverage and typing issues #3094.

Downloads

Debian and Wheel packages are no longer added to the GitHub release. They can be downloaded from:

• Debian/Ubuntu/Mint: https://broadcasts.cloudsmith.com/saga-soft/testing
• Wheel: https://pypi.org/project/novelWriter

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This discussion was created from the release Version 2026.3 Beta 1.