Three busy days into beta

Beta.1 arrived three days ago. Since then, Spleen has gained document locks, a completely new homepage, calmer menus, and another round of fixes.

Beta did not slow things down

Only three days ago, I was celebrating the first beta. After thirty-eight alpha releases, that felt like a good moment to stop, look around, and enjoy how far Spleen had come.

Apparently I did not stop for very long.

Today beta.4 is here, with a feature I have wanted for a long time, a completely rebuilt homepage, simpler menus, and the usual handful of small fixes. It has been a very busy few days, and I am genuinely excited about how much better Spleen feels already.

Some words should stay put

There is a point when a chapter stops being the place you are working and becomes something you want to protect. It may be finished. It may be out with a reader, or simply waiting while you move on to the next part of the book.

Spleen can now lock it.

Open a document's menu in the project sidebar and choose Lock. It will open read-only until you unlock it again. You can also lock a section, which protects everything inside it at once.

The lock covers more than typing. A locked document or section cannot be renamed, moved, archived, or deleted. Even an older tab on another device cannot quietly save over it. It still counts towards the book, appears in exports and share links, and keeps its notes, because locking something should not take it out of the work. It should only leave the words exactly where you put them.

Unlocking takes one click. This is protection from accidents, not a barrier between you and your own writing.

A new front door

The homepage has had a much bigger change. In fact, almost none of the old one is left.

I rebuilt it from top to bottom. The old feature grid has made room for the workspace itself, with notes and snapshots under a magnifying glass and Spleen open on a phone. There is also a clearer account of what happens to your writing: what you can export, where backups go, and how you can take your data with you. Those things matter more than another row of feature cards.

I am very happy with it. It finally feels less like a list of things Spleen can do and more like an invitation to sit down and write.

Smaller menus, fewer rough edges

Inside a project, the action menus are shorter too. A document menu now says Move, Share, and Lock. It does not need to repeat “document” every time when the heading has already told you what you are working with.

I also removed the one action in those menus that could not be undone. If you want to empty a section now, move its contents in reorder mode and send the empty section to Trash. It can still be restored there if you change your mind.

And, of course, a few small bugs went with it. Read-only documents no longer light up the formatting toolbar as if they were editable. The project notice no longer gets in the way of Zen Mode.

Six founding places filled

There is one more thing to celebrate: all six founding beta places have now been taken.

That was the goal when Spleen went public. Six people willing to use a young writing app for real work, tell me what feels right and what does not, and hopefully find a few of the bugs I would never discover on my own. Their feedback will help shape what Spleen becomes on the way to 1.0.

To those six writers: thank you. I am very glad you are here.

That is beta.4, only three days after beta.1.

One genuinely useful new feature, a completely new homepage, and several small places made quieter. I am proud of this one. Beta has only just started, and Spleen already feels more settled, more protective of the work inside it, and more like itself.

Have a look around and let me know what you think. And if something feels wrong, please tell me that too. That is exactly what beta is for.