What's new
Release notes, newest first. The full technical changelog is also inside the app, under Help & About > What's new. Anyone who downloads before December 1, 2026 gets every update free.
0.9.6 — A Progress page
October 12, 2026
- New Progress page: track every chapter stage by stage (Outline, First draft, Edit, Revision, Beta read, Copyedit, Proofread). Colour-coded statuses, "ready to start" fills in on its own, and a next-step note for each chapter.
- Rename, add, remove and reorder stages, or switch to a detailed set of thirteen.
- Progress is saved per manuscript and isn't touched when you erase snapshots.
0.9.5 — Sprint alarm and a word of the day
October 12, 2026
- Choose your sprint alarm: any of your Mac's alert sounds, played once to five times, or no sound.
- When time is up, the WordCairn window comes to the front (even over your writing app) and shows your result.
- Fixed: a sprint is now recorded the moment it ends, even if you were on another page.
- New word of the day on opening, with pronunciation and definition. It works offline and you can turn it off.
0.9.4 — Security hardening and fixes
October 11, 2026
- Tighter security: the local server now refuses requests from web pages on other sites, and the app only loads its own content. Your data still never leaves your Mac.
- Chapter file patterns must stay inside your manuscript folder.
- Fixed: the mini counter opens again after you close it.
- Scrivener projects are now listed among the supported formats, and Feedback reaches us reliably again.
0.9.3 — Chapter lengths your way
October 11, 2026
- The Overview's chapter lengths can be shown as bars, distance from your target, or a gauge for each chapter.
0.9.0 – 0.9.2 — WordCairn, Help & About, scheduled jobs
October 9–11, 2026
- The app is now called WordCairn.
- Challenge setup lives inside Daily Challenge, and a project switcher lets you move between books.
- Save exports straight into your manuscript folder. Turn on a nightly snapshot and an evening reminder from Settings.
- One Help & About page, with a Coming next tab of planned ideas.
0.8.x — Sprints, reports, a mini counter and Scrivener
October 7–8, 2026
- Sprints with live word counts and a pace log, on their own page.
- Progress reports in Markdown, past challenges you can compare, and an always-on-top mini counter.
- Scrivener projects, and editable history (correct a day, add a day you missed).
- Amethyst and Lagoon themes.
0.5.0 – 0.7.0 — More formats, autosave, planning
October 2–7, 2026
- Reads Word, OpenDocument, Rich Text, plain text, HTML and LaTeX as well as Markdown.
- Autosave, written-versus-cut tracking, a warning when a chapter suddenly shrinks, and exports of your history.
- Plan around real life: days off, words logged by hand, a cushion, and an evening reminder.
- In-app Feedback form. Paper, Rosa and Night themes.
0.1.0 – 0.4.x — The beginning
October 2, 2026
- Overview, chapters, daily challenge, snapshots, export and history.
- A one-command launcher, a standalone Mac app with its own icon, the Cobalt and Juniper themes, and a Help page.
WordCairn