Improvements to change requests, site search, version history and more

28 October: Improved sidebars for change requests and version history, plus search improvements, expandable code blocks and more

A better change requests panel

This release makes it easier for you to view and filter change requests in the sidebar within a space.

First, there are new filters that let you discover change requests you’re involved in more efficiently. For example, you can find change requests based on their creator or participants — or just see those that are awaiting review. Which means in a couple of clicks you can see all the change requests awaiting your review.

The top of the sidebar also shows a few shortcuts to some of these filters, allowing you to instantly narrow down long lists of change requests in busy spaces to just the ones you need.

Site search improvements

Search has had a few upgrades with this release, making it easier for your end-users to find what they need:

• Sites now support type-ahead search queries — which means users will see relevant results even if they don’t finish the word they’re typing. For example, if you search for ‘reusab’ in our docs, you’ll see results for ‘Reusable content’.

• We’ve also improved the search filters to make the UI less obtrusive. Filters are now accessible at the bottom of the search modal — with the option to filter by site sections and then variants, if enabled for a section.

• Finally, two small things. First, you can now hit Esc to close the search window. Plus, AI search now has a nice little animation to make it clear it’s working on an answer — plus a back button to get back to the standard search.

Easier version history browsing

You’ll now see a specific time and date next to each entry in the version history panel, making it easier to find the version you want when browsing back in time.

Talking of going back in time, we’ve also improved the rollback confirmation message, to make it clearer what will happen.

Finally, we’ve fixed a bug that would reload the entire page when navigating between entries in the version history — now only the content of your page will refresh.

Adjustable page cover heights

If you’ve added a cover image to your page, it’s now easier than ever to adjust the size to your liking.

You can use the drag handle or keyboard controls to make it taller or shorter, and you can see the percentage size of the image so you know it’s going to fit properly.

We’ve also added a crosshair to the UI, so that when you drag to reposition the cover you know when it’s perfectly centered.

Expandable code blocks

You can now choose to make code blocks collapsed and expandable in your docs — perfect for when you have long code blocks that take up a lot of vertical space.

In the editor, simply open the block’s Options menu and enable Expandable. The block will show the first 10 lines of code, with a button to expand to show the rest. Here’s how it looks in practice!

// Simple text summarizer demo using OpenAI API
import OpenAI from "openai";

const client = new OpenAI({
  apiKey: process.env.OPENAI_API_KEY,
});

async function summarizeText(text) {
  try {
    const response = await client.chat.completions.create({
      model: "gpt-4o-mini",
      messages: [
        { role: "system", content: "Summarize text concisely." },
        { role: "user", content: text },
      ],
    });

    const summary = response.choices[0].message.content;
    console.log("Original text:", text);
    console.log("\nSummary:", summary);
  } catch (error) {
    console.error("Error generating summary:", error);
  }
}

// Example usage
summarizeText("GitBook helps teams create, scale, and adapt documentation intelligently with AI.");

Improved

• With this release, we’ve made some nice improvements to our published docs.

  • In a tab block, if a user selects a specific tab and navigates away from the page, when they come back that same tab will still remain selected so they can pick up where they left off

  • We’ve also made tab block headings more responsive, so they’ll look and work better on smaller screens.

  • Finally, we’ve fixed a bug that meant opening an anchor link and then switching to another page would jump down the page to the same position as the anchor on the previous page. That no longer happens.

• If you’ve added a file to a page, you can now quickly view or download the file from within the editor with a click using context-aware buttons on the file block itself.

• We’ve improved the way OpenAPI pages display in the editor. Titles, pagination buttons and the OpenAPI banner are now aligned with the rest of the content, and the page outline uses space more efficiently.

• You can now search through the reusable content in your space using a new search box at the top of the reusable content section of the table of contents.

• You can now create a page group in any position within your space’s table of contents using the + button that appears when you hover over the gap between two pages.

• We’ve added the option to add alt text to cover images within cards — so you can make your docs even more accessible.

• Using inline elements — like icons, emojis, page links and mentions — is now easier thanks to an improved UI. You can now more consistently browse the menu with your keyboard and type to search for what you want.

Fixed

• Fixed an issue that meant on some site slug inputs, the URL was unnecessarily truncated. Now you’ll see more of the URL in the box while updating the slug.

• Fixed a bug that meant emojis would be slightly cut off when added to the editor — particularly in comments.

• Fixed an issue that meant creating a multi-level domain (such as staging.docs.example.com wouldn’t display the correct CNAME during the configuration process.

• We’ve improved the wording of our import panel to make it clearer that you can import content from another docs site using a URL.

• Fixed a bug that meant some MCP requests weren’t working properly.

• Fixed an issue with merge rules that meant outdated reviews weren’t considered a rule-passing criteria.

• Fixed a bug that meant duplicating a space group didn’t duplicate the custom slug for that page group. Now it will duplicate the custom slug, as expected.

• Fixed a bug that meant opening Settings from the organization menu in the top-left of the app would open your personal settings, rather than the organization settings.

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We’re constantly working to improve the way you and your team work in GitBook, and value your input on features, bugs, and more. Make sure you head to our official GitBook community to join the discussion.