Fidus Writer 3.6 released with document templates

It has been half a year since we released Fidus Writer 3.5, and 3.6 is really feature packed. Let’s look at some of the main additions.

Hosted accounts

After many years of running a test server at https://app.fiduswriter.org we have now decided that Fidus Writer has reached a level where we can charge for hosting and we have launched https://www.fiduswriter.com as a replacement which offers a paid option for those who need more than 5 documents. We do regular backups and maintain the server and you do not have to worry about setting up your own server. We start with a price of 7 Euros/month and will develop from there over time. Fidus Writer itself stays open source and as long as development is funded, Fidus Writer will continue to improve. Signing up for a paid account is one way for individuals to support Fidus Writer.

Editor improvements and stability

There are a number of improvements within the editor itself. For example, tables and figures/images can now be set to only occupy part of the page width (25%, 50% or 100%) and they can be right and left aligned and tables can be set to adjust cell width automatically based on content rather than have an even split. There is also a document navigator that allows you to quickly jump to sections further down in the document.

We have collaborated with teams in three different countries who tested the 3.6 release to make sure it is of production level standard and it covers the functionality our core users expect. That’s also why we would like you to test the current release at https://www.fiduswriter.com and let us know what more you would wish for in the next release.

In Fidus Writer 3.6, the document navigator can help to quickly move around in a document.

Administration improvements

Unless you run your own server are likely not aware of the Fidus Writer administration interface. If you do run your own server you will notice a number of improvements there. Two of the most important additions in Fidus Writer 3.6 are:

  • An interface to send messages to currently connected users. If you need to shut down the server, you can send all connected users a message such as “This server will need to reboot in 10 minutes. All your work will be saved automatically.” You can also see how many users are connected at any given moment.
  • document template editor that allows administrators to create simple and complex templates for documents, specifying what sections a document needs in what order, what parts the user can change, which sections need to spellchecked in which languages, what kind of help text is displayed next to which section, that there needs to be a table of contents in a particular place, etc. . The template editor lets you define exactly what each document contains and you can connect DOCX/ODT export files to it as well as CSS styles. You could for example create a template that matches a particular journal article format with the sections that the journal allows. Or you could use it for something entirely different. The interface to create templates is extremely easy as it’s all done through drag-and-drop. This is what it looks like with the default article template loaded:
The document template editor allows for complex document structure with custom metadata.

If the document template editor sounds interesting to you and you are not self-hosting – please be patient. We hope to add the template designer into the user facing pages in a future release so that also our hosted users can make use of document template.

If you want to support Fidus Writer, we are happy to take your donation or if you think that your organization might want to collaborate on a future release or on features that you would like to see in Fidus Writer, feel free to contact us!

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