Editor-facing changes

• New tab-based layout for the Manage Stories screen so you can more easily find your Drafts and Archived Stories
• Tabbed screens (like Settings and Manage Stories) now remember which tab you were on
• Prevent tabbed screens from briefly showing un-tabbed content when the page is first loaded
• Minor changes to some help text

Editor-facing changes

• Redesigned Story settings sidebar
• Improved error messages shown when trying to approve a Story without first choosing a Section
• Added error message when editing a Story if you chose the ‘All Editions until… ‘ inclusion rule but don’t select a date
• Updated styling of Story and Edition editors so they more accurately match what the reader sees on the front-end
• Added error message when choosing an Accent colour to prevent choosing a colour that would result in inadequate contrast

Editor-facing changes

• Diary Date block controls now appear in the sidebar so you can preview the block while you’re editing it.
• You can now import events from a public iCal feed and display them in Diary Date blocks. These will stay in sync with your calendar so you don’t need to worry about updating your past newsletter if something gets rescheduled.
• Wording changes in some parts of the Story UI that referred to “published” instead of “approved”.
• Fixed an error that would occur when new users tried to view their newsletter before any Editions had been published

Reader-facing changes

• Visual improvements to the header
• The Edition publish date is now displayed below the Edition title if the title itself isn’t a date
• Minor visual improvements to the Diary Date block
• Improved the message shown on the Archive page if no Editions have yet been published

Editor-facing changes

• Fix invalid link suggestions appearing when adding a link or button
• Fix button labels in the Edition editor

Editor-facing changes

• Prevent undismissable update notification in the dashboard

Reader-facing changes

• Improved behaviour of group filters to make them more intuitive. Now, if only one group is active, clicking on it will reset back to all filters being active so it’s no longer possible to hide all group-specific stories.
• Removed now redundant ‘Show all’ filter button
• Updated some icons
• Other minor visual improvements

Reader-facing changes

• Multiple, stacked Diary Date blocks now group together so they don’t take up so much space
• New icon and other minor design improvements for Diary Date blocks
• New icons for Table of Contents and Group Filters

Editor-facing changes

• Prevent inclusion of old Term Dates block when creating a new Edition

Reader-facing changes

• Improved compatibility and reliability when subscribing to the Term Dates calendar feed
• Improved helper text, noting limitations of Google Calendar

Editor-facing changes

• Redesigned, simplified to use Settings page
• You can now crop your logo directly on the settings page
• Term dates are now integrated into the main Settings page
• Brand new Term and Inset Day system that makes it far faster and easier to input your dates

Reader-facing changes

• Redesigned Term Dates module that now shows terms and inset days combined into a single, chronological timeline

Editor-facing changes

• Shiny new icons in the editor dashboard
• Changes to help text in some areas
• Various other minor UI improvements

Reader-facing changes

• Minor cosmetic tweaks to the way groups are displayed on Stories

Fixes

• Prevent the ‘All Groups’ filter from appearing twice in some cases

Fixes

• The Story Settings panel is now shown correctly

Fixes

• The correct version number is now shown at the bottom of the editor menu

Welcome to the first phase of our redesign of Ecko’s editor dashboard. This update contains a number of major visual changes, but for the most part Ecko functions just as it did before.

Editor-facing changes

• Redesigned editor dashboard
• More consistent, standardised UI across the Manage Stories, Manage Editions, Groups and Sections pages
• Redesigned editor menu makes it easier to find your way around
• If you manage multiple newsletters, you can now easily switch between them from the main menu
• New Ecko menu at the top of the editor menu lets you quickly access common tasks
• Added user menu to the bottom of the editor menu to quickly access user-related tasks
• Redesigned login and password reset pages
• You can now save stories as drafts. These appear in the “Drafts” section on the Manage Stories page and won’t be added to an edition until you approve them
• The “Publish” button on the Edit Stories page is now labelled “Approve” to make it clear that it won’t immediately make the story visible to readers (until it’s added to an Edition)
• “Year Groups” are now referred to as simply “Groups”
• Improved “Assign to Groups” panel in the Edit Story sidebar. You can now simply tick specific groups to assign a story to them, or leave them all un-ticked if it doesn’t apply to any specific group
• You can now enable/disable the group filter from Stories > Groups
• You can now customise the heading of the ‘Filter by Group’ widget
• You can now drag and drop to change the order the groups appear
• You can now assign an optional ‘Short name’ to groups, if your group names seem to long for the Filter by Group widget
• New quick-access toolbar lets you quickly jump over to the editor dashboard when you’re viewing a newsletter while logged in as an editor
• Access Ecko’s Chat GPT-powered AI alt text generator from the link below the “Alternative Text” field in the Image block
• Plus many more behind-the-scenes improvements in preparation for exciting new features coming to Ecko soon

Editor-facing changes

• You can now add Tables to stories
• You can now add Quotes to stories
• You can now add Separators to stories

Editor-facing changes

• With a Term Dates block selected in an Edition, you can click the new Edit (pencil) button in the toolbar to quickly jump to the Term Dates settings page

Reader-facing changes

• The Term Dates block is no longer displayed with a “No term dates available” message. If no term dates have been entered, the Term Dates block is now omitted entirely

Editor-facing changes

• Implemented refreshed Ecko branding
• Minor look and feel improvements to the dashboard

Editor-facing changes

• You can now easily add PDF files to a story by simply dragging the file from your computer into the editor. Alternatively, add a PDF File block, then select the file from your computer
• With a PDF File block selected, you can toggle the preview image, download button and file information display on or off
• The “Coming soon” label has been removed from the Dismissible toggle