Dash for macOS Release Notes

TL;DR

Get Dash for Windows from the Microsoft Store and try it out!

Dash is finally coming to Windows. The beta is available today and it’s completely free while in beta.

What You Get

Dash for Windows gives your PC instant offline access to 140+ documentation sets, 100+ cheat sheets, and a large library of user contributed docsets.

• Instant, fuzzy search, with the results you open most ranking higher
• Docset keywords, multi-word scoping and filtering results by type
• Tabs with per-tab history, plus tab restoration
• Global hotkey and search with selected text
• Filterable table of contents and highlighted in-page search
• Dark mode
• Native x64 and ARM64 app, requires Windows 10 or newer

It’s a Beta

This is a first release, so expect rough edges. A lot of features from the Mac version are not there yet.

Download

Dash for Windows is available on the Microsoft Store. Bug reports and feedback are very much appreciated, please contact me.

TL;DR

Download Dash 8 for macOS and try it out!

Dash 8 is free for all Dash subscribers and brings AI integration capabilities along with several improvements:

AI Integration

Dash 8 introduces support for MCP (Model Context Protocol), a protocol that allows AI assistants like Claude to access your documentation directly. This means you can now ask AI tools to search through your installed docsets and get contextual help with your code.

An HTTP API has also been added, allowing you to programmatically list and search your installed docsets and get results as JSON.

Enable MCP integration in Settings > Integration.

Other Improvements

• Alfred workflow: Reworked search engine now runs in the background for more consistent behavior
• Interface: Results dropdown is now resizable
• Data management: Automatic docset updates are disabled when low data mode is enabled
• Permissions: Improved clipboard permission handling
• Various stability and performance improvements

macOS Tahoe

I’m being cautious regarding Liquid Glass and have decided to keep the current interface for now. Interface changes will be considered in a future update, based on how the macOS community responds to Liquid Glass.

Your feedback is important! Please contact me with your thoughts on Liquid Glass or any other aspects of Dash.

Download

Dash 8 is available for download and free for all existing Dash subscribers. As always, feedback and bug reports are appreciated!

TL;DR

Download Dash 7 for macOS and try it out!

Dash 7 is the latest version of Dash and comes with a general-purpose docset generator and lots of new features.

Dash 7 costs only €2 / month (billed yearly). Subscribe here.

There’s no need to worry if you purchased Dash recently, existing Dash licenses are valid in Dash 7 for 2 years since the date of purchase of the old license. Double click your license to open in Finder to add it to Dash 7.

Docset Generator and Website Copier

Dash 7 includes a general-purpose docset generator and website copier in Preferences > Downloads > Docset Generator.

You can generate docsets by copying any website for offline use, or from local HTML files.

The Website Copier is based on WKWebView and is able to scrape JavaScript-heavy websites.

You can generate docsets from the command-line as well, by exporting the docset config created in Dash.

DocC Archives and Swift Package Repository

Dash 7 is able to open DocC Archives and can generate DocC Archives for any Swift Package in Preferences > Downloads > Swift Docsets. Swift package search and discovery is powered by swiftpackageindex.com.

New Fuzzy Search Engine

Dash 7 includes a completely rewritten fuzzy search engine, which makes it easier to find the page you need, fast.

Streamlined Search Experience

• Dash 7 will now search disabled docsets when you start your search query with the docset name or keyword (e.g. searching for “css display” will search for “display” in the CSS docset even when the CSS docset is disabled)
• Docsets now appear as search results, so you can search for “css” if you want to easily activate or browse the CSS docset
• Special characters and diacritics are normalized within the search index, so it’s easier to search for entries that contain these characters
• URLs typed in the search field are detected and Dash offers to open them
• Full-text search results will now perform an in-page search when you open them

Navigate Back/Forward Using Two-Finger Swipes

You can now navigate between pages using two-finger swipe gestures.

Other Changes

• Searching the table of contents of a page using CMD+F now supports fuzzy queries
• New Rust Docsets Repo in Preferences > Downloads, based on docs.rs
• Tagged custom web searches. You can choose to include the docset keyword when setting up web searches, in Preferences > Web Search
• Full-text search can now be enabled for all docsets by default, in Preferences > Docsets > Settings
• You can now right-click links to open them in a new tab

New Pricing Model

I’ve decided to switch Dash to a subscription pricing model, as the paid upgrade pricing model is no longer a good fit.

Dash’s highest development priority is docset updates and supporting new docsets, but the paid upgrade pricing model focuses on new features. The subscription pricing model will allow me to focus more on Dash’s #1 feature: its docsets.

Download Dash 7

Dash 7 costs only €2 / month (billed yearly), and it’s free to download and try out. If you encounter any issues or need any help, contact me.

TL;DR

Download Dash 6 for macOS and try it out!

Dash 6 is the latest version of Dash and comes with a new interface design and lots of new features.

Dash 6 is a paid upgrade ($19.99). To upgrade, download Dash 6 and add your existing Dash license in Preferences > Purchase and you’ll be prompted to upgrade.

Anyone that purchased Dash after the 15th of November 2020 gets to upgrade for free.

New Interface

• The interface was updated to feel more native, especially in macOS Big Sur
• The tab bar has been completely redesigned to use a new full-width style and also hide when only one tab is open
• New button icons in the main window and preferences

Full-text Search Support

The most requested feature is here. I think I finally found a way to make full-text search fit well within Dash, alongside the results coming from the docset index.

Some highlights:

• Full-text search is opt-in. You have to manually enable it for the docsets you want, by opening the docsets in the docset browser and choosing “Enable full-text search”
  • Note: some docsets do not support full-text search. If you’d like to enable full-text search in one of these docsets, please contact me with some sample search queries where full-text search would help
  • Docset authors can choose to have full-text search enabled by default for their docsets using the DashDocSetDefaultFTSEnabled key in Info.plist
• Search time does not increase if you have full-text search enabled, but the docset’s disk usage increases by 50% on average
• Full-text search results are filtered against the main index results, so you won’t get duplicate results or have your search cluttered by irrelevant results

Search Filters

Press the button shown at the top right of search results or CTRL+F to filter your search results further, by type or docset.

Apple Silicon Support

Supporting Apple Silicon required pressing one checkbox in Xcode 12 and then spend weeks fixing all the interface issues caused by linking against the Big Sur SDK.

Other Changes

• You can now choose if you want the Light or Dark appearance, separate from your system’s settings
• The Go docset repo was updated to use pkg.go.dev and will now also grab the docs for all subpackages

Download Dash 6

Dash 6 is a paid upgrade ($19.99), but it’s free to download and try out. If you encounter any issues or need any help, contact me.

TL;DR

Download Dash 5 for macOS and try it out!

Dash 5 is the latest version of Dash and includes a lot of improvements and a completely new, streamlined search interface.

Dash 5 is a paid upgrade ($19.99). To upgrade, download Dash 5 and add your existing Dash license in Preferences > Purchase and you’ll be prompted to upgrade.

Anyone that purchased Dash after the 1st of September 2019 gets to upgrade for free.

What’s New

• New Search and Navigation Interface – The search and navigation interface was completely redesigned to be more intuitive and fast
• New Search Result Sorting and Nesting – Search result sorting and nesting were completely rethought and redone. The order of docsets in Preferences > Docsets or in your search profile will now matter a lot more, while also keeping your results uncluttered
• New Browser Engine – Dash 5 uses WKWebView, the latest browser engine from Apple. Supporting WKWebView required rewriting a huge part of Dash, some of which to JavaScript, so please make sure to report any bugs you might encounter, no matter how small
• Improved Dark Mode – The dark documentation style will now preserve colors instead of inverting them
• New Snippet Navigation – Snippets can now be bookmarked and are part of the navigation history. Don’t like snippets? You can now completely disable them
• New Support System – The in-app Contact Support option is now powered by replies.io, which makes it easier to improve your support request with screenshots, videos and logs, significantly reducing the time needed for your issue to be resolved
• Lots of Small Improvements – New in-page find interface and result highlighting, new status bar, faster search and a lot more are waiting for you in Dash 5

Download Dash 5

Dash 5 is a paid upgrade ($19.99), but it’s free to download and try out. If you encounter any issues or need any help, contact me.

In case you like living on the edge, Dash 4 seems to work great with the macOS Catalina beta.

The Apple API Reference docset was updated to work with the latest docs from the Xcode 11 beta.

To use the Xcode 11 beta docs, make sure xcode-select -p (in Terminal) points to the location where you have Xcode 11 installed.

Use xcode-select -s <path-to-xcode> (in Terminal) to change the active version of Xcode and then check for updates in Dash’s Preferences > Downloads to make sure Dash picks up the change.

The Swift docset in Dash is based on swiftdoc.org, which has not been updated to Swift 5 yet. As soon as it’s updated, the docset will also be updated. In the meantime, you can get the Swift 5 docs by using the Apple API Reference docset (mentioned above) with Xcode 11.

Please let me know if you encounter any issues or if you have any special requests.

TL;DR

Download Dash 4 for macOS and try it out!

Dash 4 is the latest and greatest Dash release. It incorporates the most popular feature requests in a new streamlined interface. Enjoy!

Dash 4 is a paid upgrade ($14.99) for existing Dash users. To upgrade, download Dash 4 and add your Dash 2 or Dash 3 license in Preferences > Purchase and you’ll be prompted to upgrade.

Anyone that purchased Dash after the 1st of December 2016 gets to upgrade for free.

What’s New

• New Interface – Clean, modern, with a focus on what matters most: the docs
• New Dark Mode – Night owls, rejoice! The entire Dash interface can now be turned dark
• Web Searches – You can now add/edit fallback web searches (e.g. Google or Stack Overflow) in Preferences
• Docset Playgrounds – Most docsets now show “Play” buttons which let you quickly test snippets of code
• Search Using Selected Text – This feature has been completely remade and is now more reliable, even in apps that don’t support system services. Set a hotkey for it in Preferences > General
• Tab Improvements – You can now reopen the last closed tab, duplicate tabs and close all tabs except for the selected one

Lots of other improvements:

• You can now easily manage docsets directly from the docset browser, using drag and drop, right click and/or the add button
• You can now manage bookmarks from the top menu bar
• Searching in Preferences > Downloads is now synchronised across all docset sources
• You can now copy the external URL of documentation pages for easier sharing
• The Add button in Preferences > Docsets now offers the option to download docsets
• Installing a docset will now also add it to your currently active search profile (Note: can be disabled in Preferences > Docsets > Settings)
• You can now manage the default profile settings from the search profiles popover
• Dash’s web browser is now a bit smarter

Download Dash 4

Dash 4 is a paid upgrade ($14.99), but it’s free to download and try out. If you encounter any issues or need any help, contact me.

Dash for iOS 1.6.0 is now available.

What’s New

• Added support for cheat sheets – #22
• Added support for user contributed docsets – #20
• Added state restoration support. Thanks to @zhongwuzw for the great work on this – #18
• Fixed Unity 3D docset bug which caused it to not remember the selected language. Thanks to @hantengx for reporting the issue – #17
• Fixed a crash in the docset downloader. Thanks to @zhongwuzw for the fix – #16
• Stopped an evil if() from taking over the world. Thanks to @BalestraPatrick for reporting the issue and @flovilmart for fixing it – #4

Dash 3.4 is now available.

What’s New

• Apple API Reference Improvements:
  • The Apple API Reference docset now reads the docs from within Xcode 8. This reduces disk space usage while also allowing me to modify & improve the docs at display-time. Thanks a lot to the Xcode team at Apple for helping me understand the new documentation format!
  • The doc pages of classes will now display full method/property docs inline (i.e. how the old docs used to be)
  • The parent class will now be shown at the top
  • For any other improvement ideas, please contact me
• Angular for TypeScript Docset. An “AngularTS” docset is now available in Preferences > Downloads.
• Lots of minor improvements and bug fixes.

That’s all. Thanks for using Dash!

Dash 3.3 is now available.

What’s New

• macOS Sierra Support. Dash should work fine with macOS Sierra. If you notice any bugs, let me know.
• Apple API Reference Support. Apple has new API docs. You can use them in Dash by installing the Apple API Reference docset.
• GitHub Docsets Repo. You can now generate docsets from any GitHub repo’s markdown files and wiki pages. Check out Preferences > Downloads > GitHub Docsets.
• Lots of minor improvements and bug fixes.

That’s all. Thanks for using Dash!

TL;DR

Download Dash 3 for macOS and try it out!

Dash 3 for macOS is the biggest update I’ve ever worked on and I’m happy to announce it’s finally available. It comes with a lot of features that you, the users, have requested and some features which I’ve always wanted to add but never had the time until now.

Dash 3 is a paid upgrade. To upgrade, download Dash 3 and follow the instructions in Preferences > Purchase.

New: Archived Docsets

Dash will now use a lot less disk space by keeping docsets archived. Files will only be unarchived on-the-fly when they’re needed. Docsets take up to 10x less disk space while archived.

This feature has no significant performance impact. Most of the page load time is spent during rendering and the time it takes to load the files either from archives or directly from disk is insignificant.

Reinstall your docsets from Preferences > Downloads to benefit from this feature.

New: Tab Restoration

Dash will now restore all your open tabs between launches, so that you can continue from where you left off.

New: Settings Sync

Dash can now sync your settings across Macs, including installed docsets, search profiles and bookmarks.

New: Open Online Page

The “Open in Browser” feature now lets you choose between opening the local or online page.

New: Annotations

Use Annotations to extend any documentation page by adding comments, examples, warnings or bug reports. Annotations are stored online and can be public or private. You can also set up teams to share annotations with your coworkers or friends.

The Annotations Server is open-source so you can set up your own server if you want, for ultimate privacy.

New: iOS Remotes

Dash can now connect to Dash for iOS and display documentation pages on your iOS device. Keep your iPad or iPhone next to you while coding and use them as a second display just for docs.

Clipboard syncing makes sure that when you copy something in Dash for iOS it gets synced to macOS. iOS Remotes also support integration plugin redirection, so that you can initiate searches from your favorite integration plugin directly to iOS.

New: Dark Mode

Documentation pages can now be set to dark mode.

Download Dash 3

Dash 3 is a paid upgrade, but it’s free to download and try out. If you encounter any issues or need any help, contact me.

For the past few months I’ve been working on bringing Dash to iOS. I’ve finally reached a point where I can share what Dash will and won’t be like on iOS.

If all goes well, a beta of Dash for iOS will be released sometime in November, followed by an App Store release in December, hopefully 2014.

The boring news

• It’s going to be an universal app and will support both iPhone and iPad.
• It will probably cost around $9.99.
• No snippets at all. Only documentation. I might add snippets later on depending on demand.

The good news

• Searching will be the same as on macOS. Same instant speed, same results.
• Docsets that are downloaded by the app will be kept archived and documentation pages will be unarchived in-memory only when they need to be displayed. This means 4-10x less disk space usage compared to Dash for macOS.

The bad news

• There are a lot of limitations when dealing with WebViews in iOS. This means that some docsets might not be as awesome as they are on macOS, but I’ll do my best to fix any issues.
• You’ll only be able to install the main 150+ documentation sets and nothing else (i.e. no support for Ruby Gems, CocoaPods and others). However, you’ll be able to transfer docsets from your Mac/PC using iTunes File Sharing.

Screenshots

Note: This is a work in progress. Some things (e.g. icons) will be changed.