Updates

What has changed on Writer's Grove, newest first.

Writing and Revising modes, spelling you can teach, markdown as you type

Version 1.1.9 · October 4, 2026

Releases 1.1.0 to 1.1.9.

  • Markdown converts as you type it on a keyboard: **bold**, *italic*, _italic_, ~~strike~~, a word in backticks, # to ### for headings, > for a quote and three backticks then Enter for a code block. One undo puts the marks back. The Help page lists them.
  • The editor has two modes, switched above the editor to the left of the branch controls and remembered on your account. Writing mode marks nothing. Revising mode checks spelling as you pause and marks possible misspellings with a wavy underline, in the chapter and in its notes.
  • Spelling is checked by WritersGrove's own word list, so you can teach it. Right-click a marked word (press and hold it on a phone), or press Ctrl and period inside it, for up to five suggestions, Ignore, and Add to my dictionary, Add to this series or Add to this book. Replacing a word is an ordinary edit you can undo.
  • Three dictionaries: your own on the Account page, a series dictionary on Edit Series and a book dictionary on Edit Book, each a list you can add to and remove from. Names and invented words added once are never marked again where they apply.
  • An Issues panel under the editor, opened from the count in the footer, lists the marked words, steps through them with Previous and Next, and shows the dictionary words in force for the chapter.
  • Edit Series and New Series have a Spelling choice for English series: American, British with -ise or -ize spellings, Canadian or Australian. The editor checks against that list.
  • The editor takes the series language, so a series in Spanish is checked in Spanish by the browser's own checker, which stays on for every language other than English. Word lists for other languages are not available yet; the Issues panel says so.
  • The "Distraction free mode" button above the editor is gone; the expand button in the footer is the one control for the full-window mode.
  • Fixes from testing: a word in backticks is readable in the editor on the dark page, the editor footer no longer breaks its labels mid-word when the spelling count is long, the suggestions menu no longer closes by itself on the first right-click, a chapter scheduled without a date is told so right under the date field, and the dialog about an unsaved local draft is read with its question by a screen reader. Links that open a new tab now say so to a screen reader, a contest badge has a visible border, the book dashboard row's Save button shows the keyboard focus ring, closing the error dialog after a refused Publish or Delete puts focus back on the button, and Escape in the spelling menu no longer also leaves the full-window mode. On a narrow phone the dictionary's Add button stays inside its card, and the editor footer no longer shows a stray dot where the goal would be. A book or series put back to draft right after a chapter was published stays a draft: the notice that would have gone to followers is dropped instead of bringing the book back.

Writing tools: chapter order, publish now or schedule, a footer with your word goal

Version 1.0.173 · October 3, 2026

Release 1.0.173.

  • Write in the header now opens your Writing tab, where your series cards lead to their dashboards. Your public profile is the last tab in the row.
  • Chapters can be moved up and down on the book dashboard with the arrows beside each one. The page says where the chapter landed.
  • The Save as draft checkbox and the Public on field are replaced by one selector with three segments: Draft, Publish and Schedule. Schedule shows the date and time field, and its picker can now be seen on the dark page. The mature, AI and Trigger warnings flags sit in the same box, and the content warnings search shows only while Trigger warnings is ticked. The same selector sits on every chapter row of the book dashboard, so a chapter can be drafted, published or scheduled from there.
  • A question mark beside New Branch explains what branches are, what Main is and what Make Main does, and the Help page has a Branches topic.
  • The editor's status bar is now the footer of the writing area: the auto-save switch and whether the chapter is saved in your browser and on the server on the left, the word count and your chapter word goal on the right.
  • Set a chapter word goal on a series from Edit Series. It applies to every chapter in the series and only you see it.
  • Distraction free mode fills the window with the writing area. The button above the editor and the expand button in the footer both turn it on and off, and Escape leaves it.
  • The writing area can be popped out into its own window, with the branch controls at the top and the footer at the bottom. Bring it back from either window.
  • The outline around a book card on the series dashboard is no longer cut off at the top.
  • A new series or a new book starts as a draft; there is no draft checkbox to tick on those forms any more, since nothing can be read until it has chapters. The series and book forms now show the content warnings search only when you tick Trigger warnings, the same way the chapter form does.
  • A book or a series cannot be published while it has no chapters; the form or the Publish button says so. Publishing a chapter, from its form, its dashboard row or a scheduled date arriving, now publishes its book and its series with it, so a reader can always reach a public chapter.
  • The New Series form no longer asks for a status: a new series starts as Ongoing, and the status is set on Edit Series once there is something to say about it. Genre and Language sit side by side on that form.
  • In the author tab row, Premium now comes before Stats.
  • A Goals tab: a word goal for each day of the week, shown as the words you have written so far over the goal with how far along you are, or Rest. Page back through earlier weeks, and look back over any range, from today to a custom span of dates, in a table. Choose whether a day counts every word you add (words written) or the words you kept after deleting; the page explains both. The Profile tab shows your public profile under its own heading.
  • Each row on a book dashboard shows the chapter's word count and, when the series has a chapter word goal, whether it has reached it. The editor footer shows the goal only once one is set.
  • Where to Buy addresses now show on your author profile, and a series or a book can carry its own three addresses from its edit form. A page uses the book's, else the series's, else your profile's; the Help page explains.
  • Ten small fixes from testing: the plan dialog's unselected amount field is hidden, red and small buttons keep readable text when focused, Make Main is readable, focus stays in the branch controls after a delete, the plan and tier dialogs no longer read an old error while saving, a double press of New Branch makes one branch, the claim page keeps "Username claimed!", the maintenance page hides the tab row, tall dialogs fit a phone's visible window, and the schedule plans account select stays in its card on narrow screens.

A dialog's message scrolls into view

Version 1.0.162 · September 30, 2026

Releases 1.0.153 to 1.0.162.

  • When a dialog is taller than the window and a send is refused, the dialog now scrolls so the message saying why can be seen, on a phone as well as on a desktop. Before, the message could arrive below the visible part of the Delete Account, Change Username and schedule plan dialogs.
  • A refusal that is about one field in a dialog (an empty name, a bad email address) now shows its message under that field, so on a phone the keyboard that opens for the field no longer covers it.

Tab stays inside a dialog while a form sends

Version 1.0.152 · September 30, 2026

Release 1.0.152.

  • When a dialog's form is sending and its message line holds keyboard focus, Tab now moves to the dialog's next control instead of leaving the dialog for the page behind it. The sign-in dialog after a refused send is where this showed.

Dialogs read their message

Version 1.0.151 · September 30, 2026

Release 1.0.151.

  • The error, confirm and prompt dialogs, and the branch delete confirmation in the chapter editor, now name their message as their description, so a screen reader reads the question or the error when the dialog opens instead of only its title.
  • On the book dashboard, the "Public on" date label for each chapter reads "Public on for " in a screen reader's browse mode instead of running the two words together.

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