Ann | 14 November 2016

FieldWorks 8.3.1 Beta is now available for download.

This version of FieldWorks contains a model change, therefore, projects opened in it will no longer work with previous versions (including the Alpha 3). If you use Send/Receive, all collaborators must upgrade if any of them do. Please make a backup of your data in your previous version of FieldWorks before installing this one, and make sure you can tell what version of FieldWorks made the backup. (For instance, you may choose to have subfolders within your Backups folder, one for each version of FieldWorks, such as FW 8.2, FW 8.3.0 Alpha 3, FW 8.3.)
Note that FW 8.3.0 Alpha 3 did not include a model change relative to FW 8.2.8, and there had not been one since FW 8.0.4. Thus, projects created in any version between 8.0.4 and 8.3.0 Alpha 3 could all be opened by any of those versions.

The main focus of FieldWorks 8.3 has been improving the ability to configure your dictionary and publish it to the web.
The primary new features in FieldWorks 8.3 are:

  • One-button upload to Webonary. Once you have an account at webonary.org, it is now as easy as configuring your credentials, choosing what you want to publish, and clicking a button, to upload your data to Webonary. To upload a newer version of your data, just click that button again.
  • New fields
    • Enhanced Etymology cluster: is now explicit about the difference between Source Language and Bibliographic Source. Also includes enhanced comment and note fields. Languages can be expressed as list items (new list in the Lists area) or free-form.
    • Dialect Labels (entry and sense): a new list field to allow you to annotate headwords and senses as to which dialect they occur in. Set up the list of dialects and their abbreviations in the Lists area.
    • Extended Note: a special kind of note that allows you to include example sentences as part of the note. The whole note (including examples) can be displayed in its own paragraph.
    • Publish In fields for Pictures and Pronunciation.
    • Restrictions field now allows embedded writing systems.
  • New version of the Configure Dictionary functionality, featuring:
    • WYSIWYG dictionary previews. Now the Dictionary view is showing you (nearly) exactly what you will see on Webonary.
    • A preview pane right in the Configure Dictionary dialog.
    • A highlight button so you can see what content is affected by the node you are configuring.
    • The ability to enter Unicode values in the Before/After boxes.
    • Enhanced ability to duplicate and rename nodes.
    • All-around better reliability and consistency for all configuration nodes, and a foundation that will allow the developers to add features much more easily than was possible before this version.
    • Enhanced ability to manage custom configurations and link them to publications.
    • Built-in shared configuration for some of the nodes.
    • Separate nodes for Minor Entries that are Variants versus Complex Forms (and for Main Entries that are Complex Forms, in stem-based views). ((In the Alpha and Beta 1 versions, these need to be configured separately from each other and from the Main Entry. In the future, it will be possible to indicate whether they should share another node’s configuration or be configured separately.)
    • Better connection between Reversal Indexes and Publications.
    • Publication menu in Reversal Index view.
    • New “unidirectional” lexical relation that allows you to display the link on only one of the linked entries.
    • New “unspecified” Complex Form Type and Variant Type, to prevent confusion over items that are non-obvious complex forms.
    • Stem-based view is now called Lexeme-based view.
    • Abbreviation and Reverse Abbreviation have now been swapped in Variant Types list.
    • When an entry has more than one item with the same complex form type, the type is only shown once, with all the forms after it.
  • New configuration possibilities:
    • Option for Senses to be displayed in separate paragraphs allows choice of whether the option applies to the first sense or not.
    • Subsenses can be configured separately from Senses.
    • More choices for Sense and Subsense numbering.
    • Examples and Notes can be displayed in separate paragraphs.
    • Names of nodes in Reversal configuration have been adjusted.
    • New default styles available to configure the reversal index differently from the main dictionary.
    • New node “Gloss or Summary Definition”, to more easily configure a reference that could point at either a Sense or an Entry.
    • Pictures can now have the Headword or Gloss of their sense as the caption.
    • A “References Section” that allows you to group several configuration nodes so formatting can be applied to the group as a whole.
    • Improvements to the default configurations (spacing and punctuation).
  • Hybrid view: A new default configuration that is a cross between root-based and stem-based views. This view is based on the work of Bartholomew & Schoenhals’ Bilingual Dictionaries for Indigenous Languages1 Some of the key features of this layout include:
    • Information of greater interest to the language community comes first in the entry; information for academic linguists is last.
    • Complex forms are presented as main entries (like stem-based views), but it also includes “minor subentries”, to show minimal information about the complex form right in the main entry (like root-based views). There is an emphasis on clearly delineating the different kinds of information in the entry.

1Bartholomew, Doris A. and Louise C. Schoenhals, Bilingual Dictionaries for Indigenous Languages. Instituto Lingüístico de Verano, México, D.F., 1983.

Bugs fixed since 8.3.0 Alpha3

  • LT-10904, LT-10579 Allow user to decide whether SFM import creates new entries for missing link targets.
  • LT-12305 Lay out embedded bidi elements on a “per field” basis, not treating sequences as a single run.
  • LT-12569 Add “Pronunciation-Media File” as a column in Browse views.
  • LT-15138 Don’t create duplicate cross references on import, if source file had them on both entries.
  • LT-15705 Honor name/abbreviation custom list display setting in slice.
  • LT-16909 Add Media Files to Pronunciation in Reversals.
  • LT-16934 Bring back the custom line break character.
  • LT-17019 Fix crash in Lexicon Edit while using English (Audio).
  • LT-17264 Writing System Abbreviations now obey the Writing System Abbreviation style.
  • LT-17384 Reversal export now produces results in the same order when run more than once.
  • LT-17441 Maintain order of subentries from SFM import.
  • LT-17449 Disallow empty Complex Form Type.
  • LT-17507 Fix Fontinfo overrides for all Writing Systems.
  • LT-17564 Correct Bulk Editing Morph Type producing bad data.
  • LT-17574 Update to GeckoFX 45 for improved bidi display.
  • LT-17611 Fix suffix letter header problem in export to Pathway.
  • LT-17615 Increase timeout value when uploading to Webonary.
  • LT-17669 Embedded writing systems now get color from their own default style, instead of the surrounding writing systems.
  • LT-17719 Allow choosing a paragraph style for Main Entry, so there can be separate styles for LTR and RTL.
  • LT-17720 Make “At Least” and “Exactly” line spacing the same for now.
  • LT-17785 Upload to Webonary doesn’t display the correct counts.
  • LT-17801 Letter headers weren’t showing if Headword column was sorted on a specific writing system, rather than “default”.
  • LT-17846 Automatically refresh previews.
  • LT-17864 Reversals were showing nothing if nothing referenced the main reversal.
  • LT-6248 Reversal Entries entered in Subsenses now appear in the Reversals column of Entries in Lexicon Edit or Browse.
  • Added French translations of most new UI strings.
  • Updated Spanish localization.

Bugs fixed since 8.2.8

  • LT-13041 LT-13041 Variant Comments can now be viewed/edited in Bulk Edit.
  • LT-17340 Option to attach audio files now includes .mp4.
  • No longer necessary to “Insert Reversal Index”. They automatically exist for all analysis languages.
  • LT-4443 Make Sense columns in Browse views show Subsenses along with Senses.
  • LT-17208 Activate spell checking in Bulk Edit Reversal Entries.
  • LT-15989 Don’t print letter headings when dictionary is sorted on something other than the Headword.
  • LT-17385 Fix a yellow box error when parsing with the XAmple parser and showing details.
  • Various other parser fixes.
  • LT-14995, LT-14996 Fix spacing in semantic domain worksheets.
  • LT-11388 Fix writing system problem with “Find Example Sentence” in a vernacular writing system that isn’t currently the primary one.
  • Enhance the HTML export of interlinear texts.