Verso 1.4.0

Changes since 1.3.2, the last release. 1.3.3 was never released, so its sync fixes ship here.

New

• Fill in a book from a note. Add book has a new "Fill in from a note…" button. Pick any note in the vault, and Verso copies its title, author and total pages into the form. You finish the rest by hand.

  • Page counts can be numbers (pages: 237) or text (pages: "256"). A count of 0, or anything that isn't a number, is left blank.
  • An author list is joined with commas. Wikilinks such as [[Adela Yarbro Collins]] become plain names.
  • Title case and name case apply, the same as when you type.
  • If the note has no author, Verso warns you but lets you continue. Title and pages are still required.
  • It's a one-time copy. The book isn't linked to the note.

• Settings → Import from a note. Choose which properties Verso reads. The defaults are title, author and pages. Capitals don't matter, so Author finds author. If your notes use Total Pages, enter that.

• Days off. Mark dates with no reading, such as travel. Add them from the dashboard's "Days off" link, the "Add days off" command, or the "Add days off" button on a book. Upcoming days off are listed under the dashboard title; click the list to see or remove them.

  • Choose All books or one book.
  • Verso asks whether finish dates should change. No keeps them and spreads the pages over the remaining reading days. Yes moves each finish date later by the reading days lost. Before you save, it shows what each choice does to every affected book.
  • If the days off cover every reading day a book has left before its finish date, that book's finish date moves later whichever you choose. Keeping it would leave no day to read on.
  • Books you add or start later skip all-book days off automatically. If days off fall inside a new book's dates, Add book and Start reading say so: "Your days off (Oct 22 – Oct 27 · Travel) take 5 reading days from this book, leaving 2." A button moves the finish date later to give those days back.
  • Removing days off spreads the pages again but doesn't move finish dates back.
  • A book's days off appear on its page.

• Pages left today in the status bar. On desktop, the status bar shows "12 pages left today". It's hidden once today's reading is done. Click it to open the dashboard. Phones have no status bar, so it doesn't appear there.

• Cards say why there's no reading today. A book with nothing to check off today now shows the reason on its dashboard card: "Day off today (Travel)", "Not a reading day · reads weekdays", or "Nothing scheduled today", with the date of the next reading.

• Log reading on a day with nothing scheduled. Found time to read on a day off or a non-reading day? Click "Log reading" on the book's card. The usual "Pages read" box opens, starting at your next unread page. Verso records the pages as today's reading and spreads the rest over your remaining reading days, so they get a little lighter. Finish dates and days off stay as they are. Uncheck the reading to undo it.

• Up next. When you finish a book, the finished screen lists your planned books with a Start button for each. Books with a due date come first, soonest first.

Fixed

• Syncing between devices no longer loses reading. Verso keeps all its data in one file. When two devices both saved before a sync tool had caught up, one device's copy replaced the other's. Readings logged on that other device disappeared, and books deleted there could come back. Verso now merges the two copies instead of letting one replace the other:

  • Readings logged on either device are kept. If both devices logged the same pages, they become one reading, so pages aren't counted twice.
  • When a book or collection was edited on both devices, the later edit wins.
  • A deleted book or collection stays deleted, and so does an unchecked reading.
  • Schedules are recalculated after the merge.

• Sync conflict copies are merged automatically. When two devices change Verso's data at the same time, Syncthing saves the second version as a "sync-conflict" file, and Dropbox saves a "conflicted copy". Verso now merges these in at startup and whenever Obsidian regains focus. It then moves them into a merged-conflicts folder inside Verso's plugin folder and shows "Verso merged reading changes from another device."

• Verso checks for a newer copy before saving. If another device's changes arrived after Verso last loaded its data, Verso merges them before saving instead of overwriting them.

• Title case keeps the capitals you type. Words typed in all capitals or mixed case, such as "YHWH", "NT" or "McDonald", now stay as typed. A short ending after an apostrophe stays lowercase, so "Israel's" no longer becomes "Israel'S". This also applies to author names.

• The last book is no longer hidden behind Obsidian's bar on phones. Obsidian's floating navigation bar covered the bottom of Verso's views, so the last book on the dashboard couldn't be seen in full. Every Verso view now leaves room for the bar at the bottom.

Upgrading

• Nothing about existing books or schedules changes. Your data isn't converted. Verso adds a little bookkeeping to its data file the next time it saves: when each book was last edited, and a list of recent deletions.
• If you sync, update every device. A device still on 1.3.2 can still overwrite newer data. Any conflict copy that results is merged once a device running 1.4.0 sees it. A 1.3.2 device also ignores days off, so its schedules would still put reading on those dates. On mobile, fully close and reopen Obsidian after updating.
• Existing titles aren't changed. To fix a title that was mis-capitalized before, edit it and save.
• Going back to 1.3.2 is possible. It ignores the new bookkeeping, but it also ignores days off.

Known limits

• All-book days off are saved with Verso's other settings. If two devices change settings at the same time, the later change wins, so days off added on the other device could be lost. Days off for one book are saved with the book and merge like any other book edit.
• Books deleted before 1.4.0 have no deletion record, so an older copy from another device can still bring one back. Delete it again and it stays deleted.
• Deletions are remembered for 180 days. A device that has been away longer than that could bring back a book deleted in the meantime.
• Verso recognizes Syncthing's and Dropbox's conflict copies. Other sync tools, such as iCloud, name their duplicates differently. With those, Verso still checks for a newer copy before saving, but doesn't merge the duplicate.
• The merged-conflicts folder isn't emptied automatically. The files in it are safe to delete.