Changelog

Fixes

• Keyboard Shortcuts is in the action bar again. In 1.0.2 the entry was registered only while a piece was open, so searching ⌘K for it from the library — the one place the ? button lives — answered “No matching actions”.

Using the same writing on a second Mac

• Settings → Library → Use Existing Folder… points Dispatch at writing that is already on disk — a Dropbox or iCloud folder that synced down to another Mac before Dispatch was installed there. Nothing is copied, moved or deleted on either side, and pointing it back leaves both folders as they were.
• Previously the only option was Move…, which refuses a folder that already has files in it — correctly, since completing that move would mean deleting what is already there. That made a second machine impossible to set up: the folder it needed to use was never empty.

Keyboard

• A ? in the bottom-left corner of the library lists every key Dispatch listens for. Also in the action bar as Keyboard Shortcuts.

Opening files that aren’t in your library

• Dispatch opens .md, .markdown and .txt files from anywhere. Double-click one in Finder, use Open With, or drag it onto the Dispatch icon in the Dock. Edits save back to the file where it is.
• To make Dispatch the default for a file type: Finder → Get Info → Open With → Change All. In 1.0 this appeared to work and then did nothing — the app declared no document types, so there was nothing for the choice to attach to, and opening a file launched Dispatch without loading it.
• Tags, goals, status and starring are turned off for a file outside your library. Those are stored in the file itself, and Dispatch does not add them to a file it did not create. The rest of the editor works normally.
• A file that already has its own frontmatter is shown and saved whole, exactly as written.
• Opening several files at once shows the first. Any that aren’t shown are named on screen rather than dropped silently.

The app is called Dispatch

• Renamed from Writer. Your settings, your licence and your writing all carry over; the app adopts an existing library folder where it stands rather than starting empty.
• New icon.

Licence and purchase

• Trial and licence checks gate editing, publishing, printing and formatted copy. Reading is never gated.
• Licence keys are issued through Polar; the Buy button opens the Polar checkout. The app now talks to the network, so the “No network. Ever.” claim no longer holds.
• Keys are signed; the app carries the public half of the keypair.
• Bundle id is com.broodingjay.dispatch. Existing preferences carry over.

Writing and layout

• Images render inline in the editor and on paper, and resize by dragging the right edge.
• Manual page breaks.
• Printing uses the font you write in.
• A4 joins Letter and the page view as a third layout; paper size is one number.
• Body and heading typefaces are set separately, with more of both to choose from.
• Centred text, a selection bar, and slash commands.
• Pagination holds at any zoom; typography is measured in points.
• The list-item spacing slider works in Letter view.

Accessibility

• Reduce Motion is respected: with it on, nothing animates.
• Increase Contrast is respected: secondary text and separators darken.
• Sheets take the keyboard when they open, so you can type straight away.

Library

• Files are named after their titles.
• Starring, with starred pieces marked and STARRED on the front page.
• Topics are browsable; tags merge; pieces can be marked Done.
• An archive for drafts that were never going to be published.
• The front page size is adjustable — up to five featured pieces and five below them.

Fixes

• Markdown syntax no longer reappears under the caret.
• Images no longer vanish on the first keystroke, and their filenames no longer contain parentheses.
• A heading that contains emphasis stays a heading.
• Publishing that opens nothing is no longer recorded as published, and images that would publish broken are caught first.
• Nothing is lost when the file under an open piece disappears.
• A blank line between bullets no longer splits one list into several when publishing.
• The spacing setting reaches list items separated by blank lines.
• A missing library is reported, not invented; a transcript is no longer swallowed as frontmatter.
• No default publish destinations ship; when there are none, the app offers a way forward.
• Contrast ratios that failed WCAG AA are fixed, measured rather than eyeballed.
• Archive is rebound off ⌘E.
• Three quadratic paths reachable from a supplied file are gone, and emphasis on smart punctuation and image height are bounded.

Build

• Universal binary, a real deployment target, and signing that fails loudly.
• Updates are checked over a signed feed, and an update is verified before it is unpacked.
• Update checks send nothing about your Mac.