Version 2026.2 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.

Note that 2026.2 Beta 2 and newer upgrades a project on first load, so it can no longer be opened in an older version of novelWriter. 2026.2 Beta 1 and newer also updates the main config file, but leaves the old one in place, so this is not blocking older versions but be aware that the config changes do not pass between the old and new config files once the new config file exists.

Detailed Changelog

Bugfixes

• Fixed a bug in the updated drag and drop implementation in the project tree from the Beta 1 release. The tree no longer allowed an item to be dropped on top of another to make it a child of the item. Issue Faulty dragging & dropping elements in the project tree #2953. PR Fix drag and drop and new project index #2954.

Improvements

• Improved dialogue highlighting for single-quoted dialogue when the text included apostrophes. Discussed in Additional Editor-Only Highlighting Options #2633. PR Improve single quote dialogue regex #2956.
• Updated the new project builder so it doesn't claim the index is broken the first time it is opened. It is only "broken" in the sense that it is missing the first time. The index is now built when the project is created, so the warning no longer appears. Issue Index broken in new projects #2952. PR Fix drag and drop and new project index #2954.

Documentation

• Removed broken link and associated instructions on the dictionary install page. PR Remove broken link in dictionary docs #2951.

---

This discussion was created from the release Version 2026.2 RC 1.

[instancezero]

Two questions:

1. Can I assume, based on the Beta 1 changelog, that my custom theme will need to be regenerated?
2. In terms of upgrading the project, do you have any information on how the file formats have changed?

I might have a little work to to to keep up. ;)

[vkbo]

Ah, yes, you will. The updated documentation is not published yet, but you can see the coming docs here: https://github.com/vkbo/novelWriter/blob/main/docs/source/more/customise.rst

Basically, the theme files need to be renamed to .toml and all values wrapped in quotes. Otherwise the format itself is the same, but there are a few new colour keys as well, and a bunch have been renamed to camelCase keys to match the internal Qt colour roles. (The old config format made everything lower case on write, which was a bit annoying.)

[instancezero]

Perfect. I admit not knowing about the more folder! That change should be easy, my theme generator uses camelCase.

Also just so I'm clear, the project file format is still 1.5?

[vkbo]

Yes, the project xml is still 1.5, but moved to rev 7, which adds a few new settings for the writing goal feature and index rebuild tracking. But no breaking changes. I bump rev when I add new settings that would just be ignored if you opened the project in an older version that used an earlier rev of 1.5.

The document files have switched to .md file extension with standard toml headers though, changed from .nwd extension with a custom header format. These are converted when the project is opened, but with a warning that the change is irreversible.