New in Ellipsus: September 2024

Normally, we do our product round-ups on a quarterly basis. But this month was exceptional (in lots of ways! 🫠), so we're giving September its own post.

Written by

• Kate Donahue

Publish date: 04/10/2024

Get help while getting started

We welcomed a lot(!) of new writers in September. As we expand our reach, there's a higher chance that new sign-ups are less familiar with us and our product vision. So education, delivered at the right time, is essential.

We've taken the following steps to help first-time writers feel a little more comfortable in Ellipsus.

• A new onboarding survey: Instead of jumping right into the product, we give writers space to adjust their settings and let us know how they're planning to use Ellipsus (i.e., solo or with others).
• An onboarding guide: Previously, new sign-ups ended up in the dashboard. Now, we start them in a document that quickly covers the ins and outs of Ellipsus.

Do more in your dashboard

A dashboard redesign has been a long time coming. The cards were chonky (especially on mobile!) and took up valuable real estate on the screen without offering much additional value.

In addition to shrinking the cards, we've added a few additional bells and whistles to make them more useful.

• Sort docs and folders: Sort documents and folder based on their name, when they were created, or when they were last edited.
• Add descriptions to folders: Describe the purpose of each folder (or subfolder) or your overarching project.
• Check your doc's link-sharing settings: See if a document can be viewed by anyone with the link, or is only visible to collaborators.
• View collaborators: See the avatars and total number of collaborators on a document.
• Spot the number of unmerged drafts: View the total number of active (i.e., unmerged) drafts.

We've also improved folder functionality, making it easier to navigate folders in fewer clicks. When you exit a document, you'll go to its parent folder (or, if it isn't in a folder, back to My work or Shared with me.)

Stay up to date on your docs

In September, we spent time refining where and when we send notifications so that it's easy to follow changes in your documents.

• Get push notifications delivered to your device: Now you can enable push notifications for your web or mobile browser. Just like with our other notifications, you can choose exactly which notification types you receive (i.e., document invites, new comments, comment replies).
• Get notified when any collaborator comments: We've updated the logic behind our comment notifications so that anyone collaborating on a doc will receive comment notifications on drafts. (If you find this too noisy, you can always choose to update your email and push notification settings.)

Other quality-of-life improvements

Work with eight new fonts

Based on your feedback, we've added a few new sans serif (Raleway, Montserrat), serif (Baskervville, Merriweather, EB Garamond), monospaced (Roboto Mono), and handwritten (Caveat) fonts. If you're looking to add some additional flair to your document—or want to temporarily silence your inner editor—there's even a redacted font you can use.

Format faster on mobile

We've adjusted the position of the mobile formatting bar, so that iOS and Android users can enjoy a more consistent experience. Now, you'll find it pinned to the top of the editor.

Let your readers switch between dark and light modes

You love our dark mode, and we thought your readers might too! We've added a light/dark toggle to view-only links, so readers can pick their preferred theme.

Understand when docs are private

If link-sharing isn't enabled, only invited collaborators will be able to view a document. Originally, clicking on a private link led to a 404 message—scary! Instead, we now show a much friendlier 403 message. (Seeing this for your docs? Check that you're logged in.)

See when work syncs

Syncing and performance are always top of mind. We've tweaked our sync indicator to be easier to understand. After discovering that it was too subtle, we made sure that error states were easier to spot and act on. (As it turns out, the sync indicator is a bit too noisy now, so look out for even more improvements in October!)

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