Hey, everyone! Over the past few months, a lot of small fixes and improvements have been accumulating in our backlog and we wanted to take care of as many of them as we could before we start working on the larger new features planned as part of the Kickstarter. So this update is made of many small changes throughout the application, along with some bug fixes, reliability work and some groundwork for the desktop version. Hope you enjoy!
Release Highlights
Links Anywhere on a Token’s Outline
A Link no longer has to start or end at the middle of a side, so you can spread several Links along the same side and lay out your Board the way you want. When you draw a new Link, the target’s outline and its four default anchor points appear as you get close. Near the outline, the Link’s end sticks to it and slides along it. Near a default anchor point, it snaps to it.
A Simpler Color Picker
No more Confirm button: pick a color and carry on. Clicking outside the picker or pressing Escape keeps the color and closes it. On phones, tapping outside or pressing Back keeps the color too. Revert puts the previous color back while the picker is open, and Ctrl + Z undoes it once it’s closed.
Redesigned Discord Sign-In
We’ve redesigned how signing in with Discord works, following Discord’s latest recommendations and best practices. If you use Discord to sign in, you’ll be asked to sign in again once, the first time you open Alkemion Studio after this update. Your account and Modules stay exactly as they were.
Under the Hood
- Reliability and efficiency improvements: We’ve reworked how your changes are saved in the background, with many small improvements to make saving lighter and more efficient.
- Groundwork for the desktop version: A good part of this release prepares the desktop version of Alkemion Studio. None of it changes the web version, but the same code will power both.
New Features
- Widget Group shortcut icon: A Widget Group with a Node shortcut now shows a small icon after its title that opens the Node. The toolbar button shows when a shortcut is set and names its Node. You can hide the icon from Token Settings > Behavior > Show shortcut icon.
- F2 to rename: F2 now renames the focused row in the Content Tree: Pages, folders, Nodes, Maps and Timelines.
- Descriptions in Import from text: Import from text in Random Tables can now read a description for each item, written after a separator (“;” by default, and you can change it). A live count shows how many items will be imported and how many lines are skipped.
- Page background in Print Preview: A new Page background switch in Print Preview’s settings lets you make a printer-friendly PDF of your Module. When it’s off, the page style’s background and texture are left out, and dark page styles switch to dark ink, so you get plain white pages that are easy to print and your text stays easy to read.
Improvements
Undo and Redo
- More actions now support Undo: Hide in Page, Hide Header, renaming a Page from the Content Tree, adding Tags to a Map or Timeline from the Node Tree, renaming Widgets, Maps and Timelines from the Node Tree, and setting or clearing a Widget Group’s Node shortcut.
- Changing a block’s title can now be undone, whether you do it from its header, its Block tab or the Content Tree, and so can renaming a Map or Timeline from the Editor’s inspector.
- Print Preview now has its own Undo and Redo, so you can undo page break changes without leaving the preview. Clear manual breaks is now a single Undo step.
- Undo and Redo buttons are now available in the Map Editor toolbar on desktop. Deleting a point of interest can be undone too.
- Renaming a Node from its Timeline reference can now be undone in the full-screen Timeline Editor.
- Locking or unlocking several tokens from the Node Tree is now a single Undo step.
Board and Editor
- Easier scrolling in Content Cards: long Content Cards now have a scroll bar that stays easy to grab at any zoom level. You can also scroll with the mouse wheel over it, or with the Up and Down keys when the card is selected.
- Escape now cancels an inline rename everywhere: Node Tree and Content Tree rows, tokens, Timeline lanes and markers, points of interest, and the Lobby.
- If your browser blocks the print window, Print Preview now tells you.
Maps and Timelines
- Naming a new Timeline event now happens in place.
- Delete POI and Delete Marker now delete right away, without a confirmation, since both can be undone. This works the same from a point of interest’s window and from its menu.
- Delete Lane is now disabled on a Timeline’s last lane, with a tooltip explaining why.
Library and Templates
- Template cards now count every asset (Nodes, Widgets, Anchors, Maps and Timelines), with “1 asset” or “N assets”.
- Templates from a Collection Library now show their author, asset count and type.
Sharing, Lobby and Collections
- When a reader signs in from a shared Module, they now come back to that Module instead of landing in the Lobby.
- A Tag Collection’s card now shows when updates are available.
- Turning a Collection back into a folder now explains that its Modules stay in that folder.
- Cookie settings: Change your cookie choice at any time from Settings > Cookies, which reopens the cookie banner.
Bug Fixes
General
- The warning shown when a Module is open in several browser tabs now appears in every additional tab.
- When the Editor tour ends, the paused Board tour now resumes right away instead of waiting for the next time you open the Editor.
Board, Tokens and Links
- A fast drag starting on an empty part of the Board no longer moves a token it passes over.
- The Board’s Action History now switches back to the Board’s actions when you return from the Editor.
- Removed Unlock Tokens from the selection menu, where it had no effect since locked tokens can’t be selected.
- Add Tags from a Node Tree row now works on Nodes whose tokens are all locked.
- Add as Node in the add dialog now creates a Node of the type you chose.
- Change icon color is now only offered in toolbars where Token Settings also offer Icon color.
- Your own SVG images in Icon Widgets now follow the widget’s size, flip and opacity settings.
- Diamond Node Tokens no longer offer a Show name option, since they don’t display a name, and now show a single tag overlay.
- Clearing the title of an Anchor to an external link now shows its URL, instead of an empty heading.
- In the Node Table, pressing Escape in a tag field now gives focus back to the table, so a second Escape closes it.
- Board Views can no longer be created while a full-screen window is open, whatever the way you create them.
Editor and Pages
- Copying a Map or Timeline block from the Root Page to another Page now gives the copy its own settings and keeps Hide Header, Hide in Page and page breaks.
- Insert Mention no longer lists the Root Page, matching the @ menu.
- The slash command menu’s Featured Image option is now only offered in a Node’s text, where it applies.
- Typing in a nested task list item no longer shows an error in the browser’s dev console.
- When an image in a Page can’t be displayed, its placeholder icon now uses the Page style’s text color, like the icons around it.
- Exports now leave out hidden blocks, like Print Preview does.
- Undoing the deletion of several blocks from a Page now puts each one back in its place.
- The confirmation for Delete Text Blocks in the Content Tree now says how many text blocks you’re about to delete.
Maps and Timelines
- Board shortcuts are now paused while the Timeline Editor is open in full screen, so your keys only act on the Timeline.
- Find Point of Interest now finds a point of interest by the name it displays, including the name of its linked Node.
- Undoing the deletion of a point of interest now puts it back in its place in the list.
- The Editor toolbar no longer appears on the Node preview of a Map point of interest.
- Change Map Image and Add as Map are now only offered where they work.
Library, Templates and Random Tables
- The Template window now shows uploaded featured images.
- Random Table searches using both “no image” and “no description” filters now apply both, and nested tables keep their order.
- The Category filter in the Template selector now matches keywords whatever their capitalization.
- Add as Random Node from Community Tables now closes the Library, like it does from your own tables.
- Deleting a link to a shared image now also removes it from your Collection Libraries.
- Image search now handles symbols, slashes and common words like “the” or “of”.
Tags and Collections
- Leaving or deleting a Tag Collection now updates the Module right away. Edit and Delete are only offered on collections you own, and you’ll see a message if a delete can’t be completed.
- Importing a component Template now keeps the Module’s existing Tag Collection subscriptions.
- New Tags imported from a Tag Collection now keep their linked icon colors.
- Dismiss All in the notification bell now marks Tag Collection updates as seen, so they don’t come back.
- In the Tag Collection import window, the Save button’s tooltip now refers to Tags.
Lobby
- The Edited dates in the Lobby now update while the Lobby stays open.
- Searching inside an empty folder now shows “No results”, and opening a folder from search results clears the search.
- Add to Collection in the Lobby now lists standalone Modules only, as it does on the Board.
- The mouse wheel now scrolls the Move to Folder list, wherever the pointer is.
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