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Fidus Writer

@fiduswriter.openbiblio.social.ap.brid.gy

semantic open source collaborative academic writing tool. https://www.fiduswriter.org 🌉 bridged from ⁂ https://openbiblio.social/@fiduswriter, follow @ap.brid.gy to interact

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Fidus Writer@fiduswriter.openbiblio.social.ap.brid.gy · 2d ago

And another upcoming 5.0 feature - Grammar checker that runs in the browser. So your unencrypted texts don't need to leave your computer. Test it out here: https://fiduswriter.github.io/LingoTweaker/ Also - do you happen to know the language #Guarani? Please contact us! We need your help.

LingoTweaker demo — grammar checking in WebAssembly

A ProseMirror editor with the LingoTweaker engine running fully in the browser via WebAssembly.

fiduswriter.github.io

Fidus Writer@fiduswriter.openbiblio.social.ap.brid.gy · 3mo ago

Responsible LLM usage - is that even possible? I have created a plugin and here are some of my thoughts on shaping it to encourage more responsible LLM usage. https://www.fiduswriter.org/2026/07/08/the-fidus-writer-large-language-model-plugin-is-this-responsible-ai-usage/

The Fidus Writer Large Language Model Plugin – is this responsible AI usage?

One of the features we have been asked about most frequently in the last 3.5 years since ChatGPT came out has been to add an AI writing feature. Replacing human academics with AIs that write long texts containing made-up references, arguing for or against anything, must be one of the worst possible inventions from the perspective of someone trying to evaluate high school or college essays. In addition, there is the questionable practice of major US tech companies who have used the entire world’s written literature, with or without regard to copyright, to create their Large Language Models (LLMs) without permission from anyone. And now they try to market it as their own proprietary technology that no one else is supposed to be able to copy or otherwise reproduce. If that weren’t enough, there is an enormous amount of data centers being built, mostly in the US, likely even to run AI models for military purposes. These drive up electricity costs for the general public, which already suffers from a country with a very fragile social safety net and an infrastructure that hasn’t been maintained properly for decades as resources were diverted to war efforts abroad and lowering taxes for top earners instead. This raises questions about whether buying AI services from a country currently in trade disputes with much of the world serves the interests of its own population. All these points (and others) are arguments for using less AI and not making LLM-based features available in an academic editor such as Fidus Writer. The Luddites may have a point when it comes to AI. Nevertheless, we can see that LLMs also can be used for something positive. Rather than generating entirely new text based on nothing, LLMs can for examoke help find inconsistencies in arguments or improve wording. This is especially helpful when writing in a non-native language. It can also help academics reword their arguments into a language understandable by non-academics. Various companies and reseacrhers (mainly outside the US) have developed open-weights models many of which one can already run on one’s own infrastructure. While hardware requirements still exceed what an average laptop can handle, the research done by several research groups, especially in China but also in the EU and other places, has helped massively in lowering computing requirements — and with that, energy usage. It is now entirely possible to run reasonably good LLMs on the server of a smaller European university in full compliance with all GDPR rules and without excessive electricity usage. No one can prevent people with access to the internet from using LLMs to assist with writing. And given the above-mentioned positive aspects, in many cases it’s not a good idea to stop them either. But what we can do with an editor such as Fidus Writer is make it easier to use LLMs as a legitimate writing aid, rather than enabling the invention of new texts without any basis in reality. ## How we provide access to LLM features in our plugin Our plugin allows users to select either a few paragraphs or the entire document and ask a pre-configured LLM for assistance. The user formulates the prompt and specifies how to receive the response. The options are: * to preview each proposed change as a temporary suggestion that must be approved before becoming part of the document (disappears on browser reload) * to insert proposed changes as tracked changes * to automatically merge LLM-proposed changes into the text * to add comments to each paragraph with proposed changes * to analyze the entire article and create a single unified global comment None of the options allows the LLM to generate entirely new text unrelated to what the user has written. Additionally, any text snippets generated by LLMs are marked as such in the document source. Currently, this information is not actively used, but it could enable AI-usage analysis in your texts later on. The server operator can configure an LLM via the server configuration file; alternatively, each user can specify their preferred server and model in their user settings. Our plugin communicates with the OpenAI-compatible API, which many other providers have adopted. For example, you can create an account on OpenRouter and try out many of the open-weights models available there. The quality of many LLMs is now so high that you don’t always need the most powerful model for every task. Consider what type of model you really need. Using a less powerful model for simpler tasks benefits both the user economically and the environment through reduced energy consumption. And if you still don’t want to use LLMs, that is a perfectly acceptable choice. All LLM features in Fidus Writer remain in an optional plugin that you can enable or ignore. It will be available starting with Fidus Writer 5.0, likely to be released toward the end of 2026.

fiduswriter.org

Fidus Writer@fiduswriter.openbiblio.social.ap.brid.gy · last yr.

Fidus Writer 4.0 has been released - full announcement: https://www.fiduswriter.org/2025/04/05/fidus-writer-4-0-a-decades-largest-update-brings-powerful-import-export-features-and-accessibility/ Try it out on https://www.fiduswriter.com

Fidus Writer 4.0: A Decade’s Largest Update Brings Powerful Import/Export Features and Accessibility

We are thrilled to announce the release of **Fidus Writer 4.0** , the most significant update to our collaborative academic writing platform in nearly a decade! Originally planned as version 3.12, this release grew into a major milestone packed with transformative features, accessibility enhancements, and technical upgrades. After rigorous testing and refinements (now at version 4.0.5), Fidus Writer 4.0 is ready to elevate your writing experience. A lot of the work that went into Fidus Writer 4.0 was sponsored by the **European Union/NLnet Foundation**. * * * ### **What’s New in Fidus Writer 4.0?** #### **1. Enhanced Export and Import Capabilities** Fidus Writer now supports a wider array of formats, making it easier to integrate with academic workflows: * **Tracked Changes in ODT/DOCX** : Export and import documents with tracked changes, perfect for collaborative editing. * **Pandoc Integration** : Import/export lesser-used formats via the new Pandoc filters, expanding compatibility. * **Book Exports** : Generate JATS XML (BITS XML), ODT, and DOCX files for entire books, ideal for publishers and long-form projects. * **MathML in JATS XML** : Improved accessibility and standards compliance for mathematical content. #### **2. Accessibility First** We’ve prioritized inclusivity and usability: * **Keyboard Navigation** : Navigate menus, dialogs, and the editor entirely via keyboard. * **ARIA Tags & Visual Shortcuts**: Screen-reader-friendly interfaces and on-screen keyboard shortcut hints. * **Color Contrast Adjustments** : Updated color schemes for better readability, validated through accessibility reviews. #### **3. Collaboration Upgrades** * **Django Channels** : Replaced Tornado with Django Channels for real-time collaboration, improving stability and scalability. This allows for running multiple Fidus Writer processes of the same installation on one server for improved performance. * **User Invites** : Streamlined invite process with sequential email handling and better error recovery. #### **4. Modernized Infrastructure** * **Rspack & Biome**: Switched from Webpack to Rspack and adopted Biome for faster builds and modern linting. * **Dependency Updates** : Upgraded to Django 5.1.7, MathLive 0.104.0, and other critical security/performance patches. #### **5. Documentation and Security** * Comprehensive documentation updates and security audits (thanks to support from **NLnet**). * Improved test coverage and debugging tools, including video capture for troubleshooting. * * * ### **Under the Hood** * **Real-Time System Overhaul** : Migrated to Django Channels for websockets, enabling future real-time features. * **Performance Tweaks** : Memory optimizations, faster data table rendering, and reduced latency. * **Developer Experience** : Simplified codebase structure, updated linters, and GitHub Actions improvements. * * * ### **Upgrade Now!** The easiest way to install Fidus Writer 4.0 on your server is via Ubuntu Snap. If you enable automatic updates, your server installation should have been updated already. You can also install Fidus Writer from the Python Packaging Index or run it via docker. You can even download the sources directly from the repository. * * * ### Help us improve! The code doing the import and export from and to ODT and DOCX is really complex and there are likely many files that still are not imported or exported correctly. You will help us a lot by emailing such files to us so that we can improve our filters. Explain in an email what part isn’t working the way you expected it to and send it along with the file to mail@fiduswriter.com. * * * ### **Thank You!** This release was made possible by our dedicated community, contributors, and support from **NLnet**. Your feedback and testing have been invaluable. Have questions or spot an issue? Visit our forum or open a ticket on GitHub. **Here’s to the next decade of collaborative writing!** — The Fidus Writer Team **Follow Us** : Mastodon | Facebook

fiduswriter.org