2026.04.8711

Preview topics not in the current instance

Previously, if you wanted to preview a topic that is not part of the current help instance, you had to add it to the instance. Now, you can use the Preview anyway button in the editor notification, and Writerside will show a preview of this topic as if it was part of the current instance. You will be able to see any errors and check whether you are happy with the content and then decide if you want to add the topic to the help instance.

Search index customization

If you need a search keyword related to a topic that is not part of the topic content, you can add it using the <search-keyword> element. For example, add <search-keyword>copilot</search-keyword> in a topic about AI Assistant if you don't want to mention Copilot in the text, but you want to make sure that if people search for "Copilot" in the documentation, they will get the AI Assistant topic as a suggestion in the results.

Special characters in code blocks

If a code block contains special characters, such as <, >, or &, they should either be escaped using HTML entities (<, >, &) or the code block should use a CDATA block. Writerside now handles these cases automatically: if you type or paste code with special characters, it will be automatically wrap the whole code block with CDATA.

For more information, see XML and HTML code.

Empty TOC elements with no children

Previously, when you added an empty <toc-element> with no children, it rendered as a greyed-out TOC item with a "Will be available soon" tooltip. Now there is an explicit attribute for this behavior: wip="true". Without it, an empty TOC element with no children will render as an unclickable TOC item (no tooltip).

Floating feedback widget

The feedback widget is now always visible on the right side of the screen instead of being at the bottom of every page.

Browser search for hidden content

When using the browser search via Ctrl+F or Cmd+F, the search results now include the content in collapsed chapters and tabs. So even if some text is hidden from the reader by default, they will still be able to find it using the browser search.

Visual cues for wide tables

If a table doesn't fit the viewport, the corresponding horizontal scrollbar is usually not visible. This makes it hard to tell that a table is scrollable. There are now clickable arrows to indicate this and make it easier to scroll a wide table for readers.

Tooltips for shortcuts

On the produced help pages, readers can now hover over the shortcuts to see tooltips:

• For existing shortcuts, the tooltip tells the user they can change the layout via the switcher at the top.

• For non-existing shortcuts, the tooltip tells the user that the action doesn't have a default shortcut in the selected layout.

Other fixes and improvements

• Fixed a major memory leak.

• The language switcher is now rendered on small screens (for example, mobile phones).

• Tips are now green, notes are yellow, and warnings are red.

• Missing properties now correctly trigger errors in the editor.