Well, it’s back to school season and we have some World Anvil updates for you guys! These upgrades are based on feedback we’ve been collecting from YOU GUYS – both from our annual Forge the Future survey, and from reading feedback and feature requests you’ve sent us!

And, of course, a  huge thank you to our team, who gather your feedback, design, test and optimize these awesome upgrades for you guys! ❤️

What’s new in this round of World Anvil updates?

Here’s a round up of the changes we’ve made in this latest update:

  • Upgraded Quick Create button and process
  • Upgraded Quick Edit process
  • Streamlined Article management
  • Upgraded secrets
  • Upgraded options from search
  • Small but helpful optimizations to: the side bar menu, Timelines, Game Master abilities, Quick Notes, To Do list
  • … and some bug fixes too!

(As always, our most updated source of help for World Anvil is our LEARN section! If it’s been a while since this blog was published, check there for the latest updates!)

⚒️ New Combi-Create button!

The first of our World Anvil updates is our new create button at the bottom right. It’s now a COMBI-Create button! The Chevron side is where you can create new categories, maps, etc. just like before. It just looks snazzier…

But the +Hammer create button? Well, that’s where the party is…

🔨 New +Hammer Quick Create Process!

We got a bunch of feedback from you guys on our quick article creation process, so we’ve given it an overhaul! It’s faster and requires with fewer clicks, and you get more options (if you want them)! Here’s how the new process goes:

  1. Click on the Green hammer, and a model window will appear!
  2. Select the template you want
  3. Add a title (and whatever you want to)!

…and you’re done! It autosaves immediately, and you’ll see a green confirmation flag on the bottom left whenever it saves. When you’re done writing, you can either “Go to Full Edit”, “Create another” or just the X in the top right to go back to what you were working on. But you’ll notice from the picture below there are more options too!

You can keep it simple and just add a header and a few bullet points (you know, Agile Worldbuilding style). But you can do a whole bunch more from this quick create screen too (if you want to!)

  • Change the icon! You can click on the icon next to the title and change it! Just search and select your new fave. I can personally guarantee that pizza, cheese, dinosaurs and space-cats are now all possible. You’re welcome. 😉
  • Recategorize your article: click the “In: ▶” above the title and choose your parent article or category! By default, your article will be uncategorized on creation.
  • Add tags: click the round tag icon under the title to add your tags
  • Add a cover image by dragging and dropping it on the top part of the window
  • For some templates (like the character template), you can drag and drop a portrait image. (Soon you’ll be able to choose from your existing images as well)
  • Add sidebar content on the right hand side (under the Character portrait in the above image)
  • Change Privacy, Published status and add subscriber groups! Click the padlock icon to reveal sliders for article status. If your article is set to private, a round “people” icon appears, allowing you to select subscriber groups who can see this article!
  • Add storyteller seeds (Guild Only) under Advanced options. You can also choose to make your storytellers seeds visible to anyone who can see the article.
  • Copy URL, Mention link and Block link: click the three dots are the top right of the window to reveal these options! Perfect for linking your new article straight into what you’ve been working on.

✏️ New Quick Edit

You know that gorgeous, shiny new modal window for creating articles I was just telling you about? Well, it’s also the new quick edit, so you’ll have access to all those options from quick edit too! Quick Edit can be reached from both Article Management (sidebar) and Search (sidebar or Ctrl+K).

📝Streamlined Article management

We heard from you guys, and ran some stats, and the jury’s verdict is in: no one was using the direct quick edit option in the Article Management system. It was just taking up space.

So as part of these World Anvil updates, you’ll now go directly to quick edit when you click on an article title! And you can still go directly to full edit by clicking the wrench icon. That also means we’ve been able to streamline the article management interface a bit more.

🤫Secrets are now more prominent… and there’s a good reason for it!

Secrets have been moved out of the Advanced Tools on the left sidebar menu. They’re now just above Advanced Tools on the left hand menu, represented by the padlock icon.

Secrets are also even quicker and easier to create now.

  1. Open secrets from the left sidebar menu
  2. Click on the create button
  3. New secrets creation modal window appears! 

secrets model window

You’ll also be able to edit your secrets from the side panel:

  1. Open secrets from the left sidebar menu
  2. Select the secret you want to edit from the list
  3. A new quick edit modal window will allow you to edit or update a secret AS you work on your articles, timelines, maps, etc!

If you saw our earlier release, we’ve also made secrets reveal-able to everyone. This means, when the moment is right in your RPG campaign, or at the climax of your book launch, you can reveal critical secrets to the world! That’s why we’ve made them more accessible – we’ve already seen you using more of them. A note that grandmasters and above can also style secrets.

Not sure how secrets work? Read the LEARN guide to secrets or check out our workflow for keeping secrets in your World Anvil world! 

🔎 World Anvil updates for Search panel

We’ve also upgraded our search panel! Whenever you click the search icon at the top left, or use Ctrl+K, you’ll be able to search your active world.

As before, you’ll see the “continue working” before you search for anything, helping you quickly navigate between your most recent work. Clicking on an article title now takes you to shiny new quick edit window.

Based on your feedback, we’ve also optimized all the icons that appear on mouseover! From left to right, the are now:

  • Preview: upgraded from “quick view”
  • Full Edit: no change
  • Copy URL: copies the URL of the entity (new!)
  • Copy [entity] link: the same as the previous “Copy BBCode link”
  • Copy [entity] Block: the same as the previous “Copy BBCode Block”
  • View in World: no change

🍫 Sidebar menu changes

As mentioned above, we’ve brought secrets up on the side menu, and rejigged things so the most used things are higher up. An important one for For Game Masters: we’ve removed the duplicate link to Campaigns that was in the sidebar, as you can already move between Worlds, Campaigns and RPG Characters from the entity switcher at the top of the interface!

⏳Timelines changes

Following your feedback, events and eras are now quicker to create! We’ve also separated the creation of events from the creation of eras using the button bar at the bottom of the screen. Aaaaaaand we’ve streamlined the interface a bit for while you’re filling in your events, too! The more advanced options are tucked under an accordion and out of the way… but still there if you need them!

🎲Game Master upgrades

Storytellers can now see their players’ secret journals and statblocks. Previously, private journals and statblocks could only be seen by the player. So now you can pass secret notes to your GM via your journals and stat block! 😀 

🎵 Upgraded pinned notebook

Did you know you can pin your notebook to your interface? Yup, since our update earlier this year, you can pin your notebook to your interface as a nifty yellow button, allowing you to write in your notebook on the fly, or even store bits of CSS and BBCode in there (if you want to). If you want to do that,

  1. Click the up-chevron on the new Create combi-button
  2. Hover over “Note”
  3. …and click the push pin icon that appears!

You’ll get a yellow button of your very own.

Anyway, we’ve upgraded the style of the notes pop up, so it’s slicker and prettier. Even more reason to pin those to your interface! 😀

✅MOAR SPACE for your ever-growing ToDo lists!

We’ve also upgraded and optimized your ToDo list panel, so there’s even more space for that list of articles you’re definitely going to publish one of these days…

(By the way, you can also pin the ToDo list in the same way as the notebook! Just click the Double Chevron in the bottom right, and scroll down for the ToDo list!)

Is there more coming? 👀

We’re committed to improving World Anvil every day, and we’ll be here for you if you need help with any of the new upgrades. In fact, we have a very juicy one coming out later this month… and if you’re part of our beta tester group – our Alchemists Council, you may already have seen it!

If not, make sure you’re subscribed to the blog, or our socials (Instagram, Bluesky, Facebook, Youtube, Twitter) , so you don’t miss it when it goes public!

And of course, we read and consider Every. Single. Feature. Request. I’m not kidding. We discuss them all. You can submit one here (just check to see if it’s already been submitted first!). And if you find any bugs, you can always report them here and our devs will do their very best to help! Just search first to see if it has already been reported!