Release Notes for Blockpad 1.8.0

January 2026

Summary

• Document features
• Spreadsheet features
• Improved PDF exporting
• Copy, cut, and paste improvements
• New built-in functions and units
• Other features
• Account management
• Bug fixes

Document features

• Added option to continue page numbers across frames.
• Added Page Numbers tool to Write menu for easier access. It remains in the Properties window as well.
• Page number references to other frames are now shown properly, both in tables of contents and in other cross references.
• If a page number format other than 1, 2, 3, ... is chosen, the page count is now shown in the same format as the page numbers themselves.
• Added options to number pages "down, then over" and "over, then down", as well as to add additional numbers for page columns.
• It is now possible to set left and right indent to extend into the page margins. To set this up, set Left Indent or Right Indent properties to negative numbers in the Properties window. Indent on each side is still constrained by the edge of page.
• Refined behavior of tab stop dragging in rulers.
• Added Alt Text property for images and drawings.
• Improved insert options when running Table of Contents tool.
• Added option whether or not to include frame titles in tables of contents (available as field in Table of Contents tool as well as through optional input to Headings function).
• Added headings within multiline cells and textboxes to tables of contents and Navigation Tree.
• When multiline cells wrap across pages, they are now extended to the bottom of the page area inside the margins.

Spreadsheet features

• When cutting and pasting cells, formulas outside the moved range are now adjusted to point to the updated cell references. In addition, as in other spreadsheet software, cut and pasted cells update references internally within the moved cells, while references to other cells are kept the same.
• Added Wrap Text property to table and spreadsheet value cells.
• When cells in an embedded table are selected, the left ruler is now sized to show the row numbers adequately, as has already been the case for spreadsheets.
• Improved left ruler to show reduced-size row numbers in spreadsheets and table when zoomed out.
• When printing spreadsheets, the full grid of page columns is now printed across the used range of the spreadsheet; and fixed an issue where page columns to the right of the leftmost sometimes did not print.

Improved PDF exporting

• Implemented links (both internal cross references and external URLs) in exported PDFs.
• Added ability to save PDF/UA-compliant tagged PDFs.
• Added heading navigation outlines to exported PDFs, pulling from headings in exported pages.
• Added more options when saving to PDF, including whether to open the newly saved PDF in the default viewer program or not.
• Fixed issue with control characters appearing in whitespace in exported PDFs.
• Fixed UI for Save to PDF and Print tools on web app and Mac app to allow scrolling if there are many frames in a file.
• When choosing page ranges when saving to PDF and printing, top-level blocks are now listed with the block title to be easier to identify.

Copy, cut, and paste improvements

• Improved cut and paste in spreadsheets (see under Spreadsheet features above).
• Improved copying and pasting from outside Blockpad, including handling of new lines, images, preservation of text whitespace, and some formatting.
• Added Copy equations in Word format setting, for copying and pasting Blockpad equations to Microsoft Word in Word-format equations. When this is off, equations are copied as inline images of the equations instead. The setting is in the App menu > Settings, Options tab.

New built-in functions and units

• Added Sequence function.
• Added Arabic function.
• Added SignificantFigureDigits function.
• Added units station ft (shown as 0+00 ft), metric chainage (shown as 0+000 m ), and pci.

Other features

• Improved Insert Chart tool. Same as before, insert the chart first, then edit it to select data and functions to plot.
• Added support for imaginary numbers in Show Steps.
• Added support for math layout with NthRoot function.
• Added more aggressive unit cancellation before taking exponent of numbers.
• Added automatic rounding of unit exponents if they are very close to a whole number.
• Changed selection highlight for images and embedded drawings to show only outline when hovering.
• Improved rendering of borders to show sharp corners.
• Improved priority units area of the Value Format tool.
• Added separate Text field (along with Address) when inserting and editing a hyperlink.
• Added Edit Inside Hyperlink tool, available when right clicking a hyperlink.
• Ctrl+PageUp and Ctrl+PageDown can now navigate across top-level block tabs, in addition to frame tabs as was already possible.
• In notebooks, when typing Enter, Backspace, or Delete an empty caret point, all content below the caret is now adjusted up or down.
• Refreshed About window.
• Added filter to Properties window.
• Added built-in Getting Started walkthrough file.
• Added built-in PDF user manual.
• Added more options to Help menu.
• Added basic IME input support for Japanese, Chinese, Korean, etc. text input.
• Added IBM Plex Sans, IBM Plex Serif, IBM Plex Math, and IBM Plex Mono fonts as built-in fonts.
• Set IBM Plex Mono as new font for monospace text (for script frames, etc.), and set IBM Plex Sans as font for formula and related value inputs.
• Added default document font setting.
• Added apostrophe (') as an option as a grouping symbol in Value Format.
• Added All borders option to border editor.

Account management

• Simplified and clarified account indicator in toolbar.
• Added license check-in for updated floating license system.

Bug fixes

• Fixed issue, in inline math programs, where an if statement ending in an assignment could show "unexpected error" message.
• Fixed issue with decimal point not appearing with Show Steps for some value format options.
• Fixed issue with grouping symbols shown in math layout with CrossProduct and DotProduct functions.
• Fixed issue with math layout with non-calculating operators.
• Fixed issue with subscripts not appearing properly (appearing with underscore) in equations in blocks defined with show formula off and show identifier on.
• Fixed issue with element ids for headings and paragraphs being copied and pasted, which was resulting in cross reference links being misdirected.
• Fixed issue with rotating rectangles and circles with the Rotate Objects tool.
• Fixed issues with multiline cells spanning pages.
• Fixed issue with floating point numbers in determination of end bound of linear series.
• Fixed issue with leading and trailing spaces in value cells not being saved correctly.
• Fixed issue with temp files not being cleaned up, or being locked and preventing writing, when saving files over a Windows network file share.
• Fixed several bugs with document layout engine crashing.
• Fixed issue where error message could appear when pressing Backspace or Delete to delete a paragraph.
• Fixed issues with typing line breaks (Shift+Enter) and layout of line breaks.
• Fixed issue with determination of dependencies between formulas when whole tables are referenced simply by name.
• Fixed issue where embedded resources and external references referenced in formulas sometimes didn't load until first formula recalculation.