Spotlight on Spira 6.8 - Inline Content Editing of Rich Text and Markdown | Inflectra

Spotlight on Spira 6.8 - Inline Content Editing of Rich Text and Markdown

January 25th, 2021 by inflectra

We are excited about the next release of Spira 6.8, due to be released in March. This new version includes major enhancements to the documents management module to allow users the create and edit inline content directly in Spira. Customers have asked us for ways to make authoring the unstructured, freeform content easier in Spira, similar to how they could use a Wiki, Google Docs, or Confluence page. This new functionality lets you write plain text, rich text, and markdown inside Spira and have all of the versioning and workflow capabilities at your disposal. Of course, you can link this content to your requirements, test cases, and other Spira artifacts.

Author Freeform Content Inside Spira

This new version of Spira changes the Add Document button to include a dropdown selector that lets you choose whether to upload a file, link to a web page, or paste in a screenshot (as was the case in previous versions), or create a markdown or rich text document directly inside Spira:

Markdown Creation and Editing

When you choose the option to create a new markdown file, you simply fill out the name of the file, the description, document type, initial version, and any meta tags:

Once that's done, you are taken to the new document inline editing tab of the document. This lets you edit the raw markdown content.

When you click the Save button, the system will save a new version of the content, allowing you to preview the latest version:

Every time you make a change, the system will keep track of the versions as well as update the latest preview. You can view the previous versions directly inside Spira:

You can of course revert the document back to an easier revision. The normal Spira document workflow is available, with the ability to assign the content to be reviewed and approved by contributors and editors.

Rich Text Creation and Editing

When you choose the option to create a new rich text file, you simply fill out the name of the file, the description, document type, initial version, and any meta tags:

Once that's done, you are taken to the new document inline editing tab of the document. This lets you edit the rich text in a WYSIWYG text editor. This editor includes support for choosing the style, font, size, font weight, size, italics, color, background color. In addition, the rich text editor lets you easily enter bullets, numbered lists, quoted text, tables, images, and code snippets.

When you click the Save button, the system will save a new version of the content, allowing you to preview the latest version:

Every time you make a change, the system will keep track of the versions as well as update the latest preview. You can view the previous versions directly inside Spira:

spotlight roadmap content management document management inline editing