What's New

# What's New The announcement list is at [medium.com/@polywickstudio](https://medium.com/@polywickstudio) for latest version. > **Latest Version:** v2.0.0.159. > **Note on recent fixes:** The latest fixes are mostly about getting StoryServer's "same data, different views" model right. > Notepad, PhoneBook, Calendar, Tickler, and added side views all show the same underlying outline items, but each view has its own rules for visibility, ordering, blank rows, folder membership, date membership, search scope, and editing. > Recent fixes tighten those rules so rows stay in the view where the user expects them, drag/drop and Move commands preserve visible order, Add View panes open and close without losing their layout, PhoneBook search checks the full contact set before changing the visible list, Calendar and Tickler share date-backed items correctly, and imported layouts keep their original column, folder-section, and style behavior. ### v2.0.0.159 - Released 2026 August 20th - **The classic setup program has been retired.** StoryServer now ships only as the signed Windows Installer package, so installing, repairing, and removing it all go through the standard Windows mechanism. - **Upgrading from a pre-installer-change version** is now detected during setup, which asks for the older version to be removed first so two entries cannot both claim the same program folder. Documents and personal settings are left untouched. - **Memory no longer accumulates as menus are used.** Opening the **Folder** menu, **File > Open Recent**, **File > Open Favorites**, or the outline label list left a small amount of memory behind on every open; over a long session with a large folder list this could add up. These menus are now rebuilt cleanly. - **StoryServer is now installed from a signed Windows Installer package.** It installs for all users, registers `.plw` documents, adds Start menu and desktop shortcuts, and supports repair, rollback, and unattended installation for managed rollouts. - **Saving now tells you when the database refuses a write** instead of finishing quietly. If a save or a discard cannot complete, the file is kept open with an explanation rather than closing as though the work had been stored. - **Closing a file while a spell check review is open** now ends the review instead of continuing against a file that is no longer there. - **Spell check** now follows the file it was started from, so a review keeps selecting words in that file even if another file is brought to the front. - **Cross Tab** now closes with the file it was opened from, and double-clicking a cell to drill down selects the items in that same file rather than whichever file is currently active. - **Editing a related date** now opens with the existing description, date, start and end times, and notes already filled in, instead of a blank form that discarded what was there. - **The time logger** now records elapsed time against the file it was started from, even if a different file is brought to the front while the timer runs. - **Snoozing an alarm** now snoozes that specific alarm. Previously the alarm was identified by its position in the list, so a list that had changed since the alarm appeared could result in a different alarm being snoozed. - **Alarms attached to an item** now keep the full item reference, fixing attachment for items in large files. ### v2.0.0.158 - Released 2026 August 15th - Internal builds. ### v2.0.0.157 - Released 2026 August 12th - **Column separator lines** no longer draw straight through day headings in Week and Month detail views, folder headings, or letter headings. The separators now break around the heading text instead of slicing across it. - Was marked as dangerous to download - this issue is fixed. ### v2.0.0.155 - Released 2026 August 8th - **Spell checking** is now available. Misspelt words are underlined in red as you type, and right-clicking one offers suggestions along with **Ignore Spelling** and **Add to Dictionary**. - **Magic > Spellcheck Current Notepad** and **Magic > Spellcheck All Notepads** now run a full review over a file, showing each misspelt word in the sentence it came from with **Change**, **Change All**, **Ignore**, **Ignore All**, and **Add to Dictionary**. - **Spellcheck All Notepads** now works through the notepads in the order they appear on the tab bar, switching the visible notepad and selecting each item as it goes, so the word being asked about is always on screen. An item that appears in several notepads is only asked about once. - **Tools > Options > Spelling** now turns spell checking on or off and selects the dictionary language — English, German, Spanish, or French. The choice is remembered between sessions. - **Languages with no dictionary** (Portuguese, Ukrainian, Japanese, Korean, Hebrew, Chinese) now turn spell checking off rather than checking the text against English, which would have underlined almost every word. - **Correcting a word** now keeps the formatting inside it, so a bold or coloured letter within a misspelt word stays on the matching letter instead of spreading across the whole word. - **The dictionary** now loads in the background, so clicking into a cell to edit no longer pauses while it is prepared. - **Accented words** such as `größer`, `Straße`, and `après` are now recognised instead of being reported as misspellings. - **Spelling suggestions** are now ordered by how common each word actually is, so everyday words are offered ahead of rare ones. - **Business rules using MATCH or REPLACE** now reuse their compiled search pattern instead of rebuilding it for every item, making rule-heavy files quicker to edit. - **Dependency metadata** now records the spell checker library and its dictionaries in the SBOM. ### v2.0.0.154 - Released 2026 August 8th - **Folder type-ahead** now scans the full folder list instead of only the visible rows, and opens any collapsed parents of the match, so typing a folder name reaches folders nested inside closed sections rather than skipping past them. - **Find Folder** now searches folders inside collapsed parents as well, expanding the ancestors of a hit so the matched folder is actually visible when it is selected. - **Day-view time-slot appointments** that are created by clicking an empty slot and then left blank are now discarded, instead of persisting as an empty timed span in the Week and Month views. - **Escaping out of a new time-slot appointment** now removes the placeholder row together with its appointment date/time value and folder entries, so the empty appointment does not come back the next time the file is opened. - **Calendar toolbar tooltips** now cover the detail/summary toggle, the month, day, week, and year segments of the date title, the **◄** / **►** step buttons (naming the unit the current view moves by), and **Today**. - **zlib-ng dependency metadata** now records zlib-ng 2.3.90 in the SBOM, and notes that it is linked statically into Qt and therefore ships inside `storyserver.exe`. ### v2.0.0.153 - Released 2026 August 5th - **Tall multi-line rows** can now be scrolled through by pixel steps instead of jumping from the row's top directly to the next row, making oversized notes reachable even when a single row is taller than the visible window. - **Open cell editors** now stay attached to their item while the notepad scrolls, including scrollbar thumb drags, mouse wheel scrolling, arrow scrolling, and programmatic scrolls. - **In-progress edits** are now preserved when the edited row scrolls out of view; the editor parks off-screen and returns to the row when it is scrolled back into view instead of committing or floating over unrelated rows. - **Partially visible tall-row editors** are now clipped below the column header, preventing an active editor from painting over the header or receiving clicks meant for the header area. - **Caret restoration** now belongs to the item that saved it, preventing a remembered cursor position from another row from reopening the editor at an unrelated offset or at the end of shorter text. - **Calendar Today / Go to Today** now reflects the selected day as a pressed **Today** state when already on today, while keeping the wider toolbar reservation so the date title does not jump. - **SQLite dependency metadata** now records SQLite 3.53.4 in the SBOM. ### v2.0.0.152 - Released 2026 August 4th - **Classic import on network or mapped drives** now uses a rollback journal instead of SQLite WAL, preventing imports or saves on network shares from appearing to succeed while leaving a 0-byte database file. - **Classic import text decoding** now handles Windows-1252 smart punctuation correctly, so curly quotes, dashes, ellipses, bullets, trademark symbols, and similar characters no longer import as raw control characters. - **Classic import date metadata** now keeps valid final date/time entries from trimmed time-value pools, restoring dates that could previously be dropped when the last record did not fill a full 24-byte slot. - **Classic import folder hierarchy** now preserves top-level Tickler, Appointment, and OLE sections instead of forcing those hidden/system sections under **Folders**. - **Classic import notepad sections and folder columns** now import in stable VOU order instead of randomized hash order, making repeated imports reproducible. - **Classic import folder item ordering** now deduplicates items when the same folder is shown in multiple notepad views, preventing duplicate rows in that folder's saved order. - **Classic import cleanup** now removes dateless housekeeping blanks from system date folders after import, preventing phantom blank appointment/tickler rows from being persisted. - **System date folders** no longer receive persistent blank padding rows, while user-created date folders can still be used as free-typed notepads. - **Calendar Today / Go to Today** now stays visible even when the selected date is already today, keeping the toolbar layout from shifting as dates change. - **Calendar Week and Month lists** now show ticklers before appointments, matching the expected ordering while preserving each group's existing order. - **Dragging the vertical scrollbar thumb** now closes any open cell editor before the viewport moves, preventing a floating editor from being left over unrelated rows. - **Import fidelity checks** now ignore housekeeping blanks and hidden internal folder structure where appropriate, while still catching real content, folder value, metadata, and ordering differences. ### v2.0.0.151 - Released 2026 August 1st - **Editing existing ticklers** now opens the full tickler settings dialog instead of a date-only picker, so the tickler text, date, folder, advance warning, and carry-forward settings can all be changed later. - **Tickler date edits** now preserve existing time, recurrence, and color metadata while updating the selected tickler folder and saved warning/carry-forward values. - **Moving a tickler to another tickler folder** now removes the old folder value first, preventing the item from appearing under both tickler folders. - **Add/Edit Tickler dialogs** now use the proper edit-mode title and date label when changing an existing tickler. - **Long form values** in Add/Edit form tables now wrap and grow the row height instead of being cut off with an ellipsis. - **Open dropdowns and date popups** now close when StoryServer loses focus, so a PhoneBook search combo, New/Query bar dropdown, or Add Tickler date popup no longer reappears when the app is reactivated. ### v2.0.0.150 - Released 2026 July 29th - **Add Tickler Item** now offers the full classic advance-warning and carry-forward day ranges, including 5 days, multi-week, 30/60/90/120-day choices, and **Until marked Done**. - **Tickler advance warning** is now saved and honored, so ticklers can appear in the Calendar Tickler pane before their actual date instead of ignoring the selected warning value. - **Tickler carry-forward** now widens the days a tickler appears in the Tickler pane, including carrying items forward until they are marked Done. - **Calendar-to-Tickler drag/drop** now preserves both advance-warning and carry-forward choices on the created tickler children. - **Calendar Tickler panes** now track the selected day instead of listing every tickler in the file on every day. - **Touch Ups** now save and apply font style and effect choices reliably, including clearing bold/italic/underline/strikeout, applying to open cell-editor selections, and preserving superscript/subscript. - **Touch Up edits** now save immediately after the inner Edit dialog is accepted, so closing or cancelling the Manage list no longer loses the formatting changes just made. - **Superscript and subscript** now render and edit consistently for whole-item formatting, with smaller raised/lowered text and matching behavior inside the cell editor. - **PhoneBook Search by Company** and **Search by Any Field** now use the selected search scope, rather than always searching by contact name. - **PhoneBook search** now supports **Alt+S** to focus the search box. - **PhoneBook Dial** now finds standard number fields such as Work #, Home #, Cell #, Alt #, and Fax #, with fax treated as the last fallback. - **Add by Form > Based on Last** now carries over the item name as well as folder values, selecting the copied name so typing replaces it immediately. - **Manage Notepads** now saves visibility changes made through the Edit dialog, so toggling a notepad visible or hidden no longer gets overwritten by the stale list checkbox. - **Folder > Properties** now opens more reliably on large folder trees, avoids repeated modal re-entry, and fixes parentless lookup/format controls that could appear as stray top-level widgets or trigger geometry warnings. - **Folder list building** is now much faster on large folder trees, reducing stalls in dialogs and menus that need an ordered folder list. - **Folder > Show Home Folder** now turns columns on first when needed, so the Home Folder column appears with its header and separators in Calendar appointment and Tickler panes. - **Opening or creating a file** now leaves the newly opened file as the active MDI window after Qt finishes arranging maximized children, keeping the title, Folder menu, and menu state on the right document. - **Switching back to StoryServer** no longer walks activation through every open file or repeatedly rewires paired PhoneBook/Calendar panels. - **Paired PhoneBook/Calendar panes** no longer reinsert themselves when already embedded, preserving focus and user-adjusted splitter positions during activation changes. - **File > Save** now keeps the previous immediate-write behavior by default, creating a backup checkpoint when session-save mode is disabled instead of reporting that there are never changes to save. - **Backup checkpoints** now discard failed SQLite backup files instead of keeping empty or truncated `.bak` files that could crowd out good backups. - **Don't show this alert again** settings now persist in StoryServer's INI file and handle file-path based alert keys correctly, so suppressed alerts stay suppressed across launches. - **Header filter searches** now rebuild the ad-hoc filter when the search text changes, so filtering for a new term no longer reactivates the previous search. ### v2.0.0.149 — Released 2026 July 25th - **File > Save** now commits the current editing session instead of only creating a backup checkpoint, then opens a fresh save session so later edits can still be discarded. - **Unsaved changes** now show with a trailing `*` in the file/view title, including the title mirrored into the system tray tooltip. - **Closing a file** now asks whether to save, discard, or cancel when there are unsaved changes, preventing accidental loss from closing an edited file. - **Quitting StoryServer** now checks every open file for unsaved changes before shutdown; cancelling any save prompt leaves the app open. - **Discarding changes** now rolls the file back to the last save point and starts a clean editing session, so choosing not to save really leaves the saved file unchanged. - **Folder item ordering saves** now use nested-safe database savepoints, reducing the risk of losing per-folder ordering during paste, folder assignment, or other nested edit operations. - **File save safety** now refuses to commit while an internal nested operation is still in progress, keeping half-finished edits from being folded into the saved session. - **Release builds** now keep notepad color, word-wrap, appointment-editor, and Shift-selection diagnostics behind focused debug switches, preventing routine console/log noise during normal use. ### v2.0.0.148 — Released 2026 July 24th - **Filter Criteria** now supports per-line **and/or** connectors, allowing classic grouped criteria such as `(A or B) and (C or D)` instead of only one global all/any match mode. - **Saved filters** now preserve their per-line and/or connectors and show the active named filter by its saved filter identity, so the Filter menu checkmark follows the selected saved filter reliably. - **Folder Pane Find** now highlights both the found row and the matching text while the Find dialog is open, making search hits visible even though the modal dialog has focus. - **Folder Pane Find highlights** now clear when the user clicks in the folder tree, so stale search highlighting does not linger after normal navigation resumes. - **Folder Pane Show Folder Columns** now adds every selected folder as a column, skips folders that are already visible, and persists each newly added column. - **Calendar Week/Month Detail headers** now open the selected date in Day mode when double-clicked, matching the direct drill-down behavior of calendar day cells. - **Calendar Week/Month Detail header colors** now distinguish named public holidays from weekend-highlighted days, using the same holiday precedence as the calendar grid. - **Tools > Launch** now removes old dynamic launch entries before rebuilding the submenu, preventing user-added launch items from being duplicated after menu refreshes or imports. - **System tray hover text** now mirrors the current StoryServer file/view title, including read-only status when present. - **System tray cleanup** now hides the tray icon on close, tray Exit, and language-change restart paths, preventing leftover notification-area icons after StoryServer quits. ### v2.0.0.147 — Released 2026 July 23rd - **Add by Form** now keeps **Add to active View** only on the Tools entry point, remembers the last checkbox choice, and gives the dialog's labels and buttons clearer keyboard mnemonics and roomier spacing. - **Add Tickler Item** now defaults Carry Forward to **Until marked Done** and saves the selected carry-forward value for both new ticklers and ticklers created from calendar drag/drop. - **Calendar Tickler on Top** is now stored per file/window, so changing the layout in one open file no longer changes other files or becomes the default for new files. - **Manage Notepads** now lets built-in notepads be edited for color and visibility while keeping their protected system names, order, and delete rules locked. - **Phone Form creation** now opens the field editor directly, while the built-in **Standard Phone Form** can be opened read-only for inspection. - **Gantt columns** can now be narrowed below the default width while still keeping enough space to show a bar. - **Added side views** now come from **View > Add View to Window** only; right-clicking a notepad tab no longer silently adds or removes a side view. - **Silent installers** now support Store-friendly install switches, shortcut controls, custom Start Menu group names, documented return codes, and cleaner Add/Remove Programs registration. - **Calendar Day paste** now retargets pasted appointments to the selected day while preserving their time, instead of pasting them back onto the copied-from date. - **Calendar Day to Tickler drag/drop** now opens the Add Tickler form and creates a **Tickler -** child item instead of silently moving the original date value. - **Insert Column with Gantt views** now preserves existing Gantt start/end folders, chart range, bar color, and width when another column is added. - **Holiday and weekend coloring** now refreshes on Calendar Week/Month detail day headers when holiday options or named-holiday data changes. - **PhoneBook colors after import** now remain stable when applying notepad columns, preventing imported PhoneBook views from turning black after notepad list changes. - **PhoneBook form field navigation** now stays in edit mode when using Up or Down between fields, even after field commits rebuild the contact listing. - **Add View side panels** now stack correctly beside paired PhoneBook/Calendar views during tab switches, keeping the primary view on the left and added views under the cross-view panel. - **Silent installer Defender setup** now runs headlessly in auto mode, avoiding a visible helper dialog during unattended installation. ### v2.0.0.146 — Released 2026 July 21st - **Column layouts** now show more folder columns when there is room, matching the classic width-based behavior instead of hiding columns behind a fixed three-column cap. - **Collapsed folder columns** no longer count against the visible-column cap, so narrow collapsed columns can stay visible together instead of being paged away unnecessarily. - **Release builds** now keep general debug and import tracing off by default. - **Insert Column** now makes columns visible when adding one to a view that had columns hidden, so the newly inserted column appears immediately. - **Calendar Insert Column menus** are now disabled outside Day view, preventing columns from being created in Week, Month, or Year modes where they cannot be shown. - **Deleting a column** now gives the freed width back to the item-text column, closing the empty band left where the deleted column used to be. - **Open cell editors** now resize and rewrap when column widths, column visibility, or PhoneBook splitters change, keeping the edit box aligned with the highlighted row. - **PhoneBook forms** now keep checked contacts as their own owners even when nested under another contact, preventing blank fields from displaying or writing through to the parent contact. ### v2.0.0.145 — Released 2026 July 19th - **Saved dialog window sizes and positions** are now restored consistently for Add by Form, Script Workspace, and Expression Evaluator dialogs, with restored sizes clamped to each dialog's minimum size. - **Folder unassign, move, transfer, and date-folder moves** now remove both the stored folder value and the underlying folder membership row, preventing checkmark folders from reappearing as still assigned after reload. - **Add by Form checkboxes** now save unchecked values the same way when creating or editing an item: unchecked means the folder value and membership are removed, rather than storing a separate false value. - **PhoneBook blank or erased contact rows** can now be reached with keyboard navigation for editing; arrowing through a real blank row no longer opens the new-contact form as if the user had moved past the end of the list. - **Column navigation and form diagnostics** now stay behind their debug switches, preventing low-level editor/navigation trace messages from appearing in normal release builds. For older release notes, see [Legacy Versions](/roadmap/legacy-versions).