Danielle Foré has published the note of July 2023 on the news that have arrived or will arrive at elementary OS. In this case, everything published is already available, and users of v7.0 or later can receive anything new by going to the AppCenter and choosing the option to update all, if it hasn't already been done. Among what Foré tells us, the improvements in the Mail application and those of the login and lock screen stand out.
La Mail app now uses the File Chooser Portal when selecting attachments and the Backtround & Autostart portal so that you can control their autostart behavior in Settings/Applications/Startup. On the other hand, Mail also does a better job of handling changes to Internet connections and can check for messages in the background even if it's not started automatically.
What's new in July for elementary OS
In the sidebar, the Files and Spam folders are better detected and appear at the top. Furthermore, it is now possible to rename folders by right-clicking on them and choosing "Rename Folder", and an issue where some accounts without any archive folders were showing their inbox in Archive of all mailboxes has been resolved.
Calendar it also now uses File Chooser Portal when importing and exporting calendar files, the animations when switching between months have been updated to match the direction of the buttons, and now uses the system accent color instead of its own. As for Tasks, fixed an issue where some tasks could show up in duplicate, as well as another in dark mode. Both Calendar and Tasks now use the Background & Autostart portal and their behavior can be controlled from settings.
Lock screen and Settings
elementary OS had the goal of respecting all system settings and improve accessibility on login screen (Login) and lock. Now works better with mouse, keyboard, and trackpad settings, including better keyboard layer management. The accent color is also all over the place, not just on the user card, and can go with solid color wallpapers. The settings for text size and fonts, cursor size, night light and others are also respected. To complete the package, there is now the ability to show the cursor, the screen reader can be activated with a keyboard shortcut, and it better remembers screen reader settings.
In the Settings app, the sound and dock and panel sections have been redesigned to be more responsive and look better on smaller and larger screens than standard, and label descriptions have been improved. The dock and panel section now has checkboxes for extra indicators like Accessibility and Caps and Num lock.
La Behavior tab Keyboard Settings has received a major update with the addition of several new settings for things like key bounce, slow, and sticky. Slider values are now displayed on the drag instead of in a separate widget. Additionally, app developers can now link directly to custom shortcut settings.
Other improvements
The July newsletter also tells us about these improvements:
- Fixed an issue in Files where folder contents would sometimes be incorrect until the folder was updated.
- Fixed an issue where Picture-in-Picture windows could be unintentionally hidden and made sure parent dialog windows dim and untie more accurately.
- The sound indicator has been updated to use circular buttons and should no longer resize when skipping tracks. Mute should no longer affect monitor sources, and the microphone icons have been subtly updated. Also, the accessibility indicator now shows the correct text size at startup.
Source: elementary OS blog.