The Readerware Newsletter

Readerware 1.70

Readerware 1.70 is now available on the web site. This major release includes a number of new features and enhancements. The focus of this release was once again your requests, the new features and enhancements were added because you asked for them!

You can always download the latest version from the Readerware web site, http://www.readerware.com. You will find three download links, one for the full US install, one for the full international install and another for the upgrade. The upgrade can be applied to either the US or international versions. The easiest way to upgrade Readerware, is to download the upgrade file. This is a self extracting file, just double-click on it after you download it to begin the upgrade. Make sure you pick the same directory as you installed Readerware in originally and then click the Unzip button. Your existing Readerware 1.50 or higher installation will be upgraded to the latest version. If you prefer you can download the full install instead.

It is recommended that all users upgrade to Readerware 1.70.

What's New

Readerware 1.70 includes:

• New Import Options Dialog, now you can control the Readerware import process
• New Custom Reports, one of the most requested features, the ability to design your own reports.
• New Loan Tracker, for all of you who loan out books, now you can track the books you have out on loan, search for over due books etc.
• There is a new help engine in Readerware 1.70, now you can print out the online help and search through pages.
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Import Options Dialog

This was actually added in Readerware 1.61 released a few weeks back. Now you can control some of the data Readerware imports when you run auto-catalog. You can assign default values to fields and control the format. For example the publication date can now imported as the full date or year only. If there are other controls you want to see, please let me know. In addition, I am looking into documenting the full extraction process so that you can write your own extraction routines. This is probably not for novice user, but if you don't mind getting down to some script writing it can be a very powerful feature. The goal will be to enhance the options within the program for most common features and allow scripting for really non-standard requirements.

Loan Tracker

It appears quite a few Readerware users loan out their books, so a tracking system is a frequent request. Now you can loan out books, keeping track of who you loaned them to, when, and the due date. You can search for books on loan or overdue with new searches added to the regular Readerware search bar.

You can see a screen shot of the new loan tracker on the web site at http://www.readerware.com/rwFeat.html

Custom Reporting

Readerware has had built-in reporting from day one, but you had limited control over the format and contents of those reports. With the new Readerware Report Writer you can design your own reports.

The process is fairly simple. You create an HTML template to define the report. You can do this with a text editor or with one of the many HTML authoring tools out there. For example the free Netscape browser includes Composer, an easy to use WYSIWYG HTML editor. Rather than include data in the report template, you embed keywords that tell Readerware where to add data to your template.

To actually produce the report, you start by doing a search. This determines which books will be included in the report. You can search by author, category etc. Then simply open the Report Writer Window and select the appropriate template, the template will be displayed in the window. Click on Run and Readerware will produce the report by merging the search results into your template, sort of like a mail merge feature in a word processor. Now you will see the full report displayed in the window. Click on print to produce a hard copy of your report.

You can also click on the save button to save the full report in HTML format. This is an easy way to produce great looking web pages from your Readerware database.

Sample templates are included for a basic table report, labels and a detail report which displays book information along with the cover image. You can start with these templates and edit them to meet your needs or you can start from scratch building your own templates.

More information on writing your own custom report templates is available in the online help and on the web site at http://www.readerware.com/help/rwReptWriter.html

I hope that you will consider sending in some of your templates. I will add them to the Readerware web site so that others can download them. You will get full credit for your work on the web site, unless you would rather remain anonymous. So if you come up with a great looking report, please consider sharing it with others. Just e-mail the template to support@readerware.com

You can see a screen shot of the new Report Writer in action on the web site at http://www.readerware.com/rwFeat.html

Help Engine

Many new users have asked how they can print out the online help. You have always been able to do this by opening the online help files shipped with the product in your regular browser, Netscape or IE. But now with the new Readerware help engine, you can print them from within the product. Just click on the print button in any Readerware help window.

There is also a new page search facility so that you can search the current help page for the information you need.

Support Readerware

You can support Readerware and ensure that the new features keep on coming. Use Readerware when making your online purchases. If you order using the Readerware browser or shopping cart, Readerware normally receives a commission from the vendor. The Readerware browser uses the same encryption technology as the major browsers so you can order online, safely and securely using Readerware. Plus it ensures continued development of Readerware.

Thank you.

Your Feedback

We welcome your feedback on Readerware. We have received a lot of comments from users since Readerware was released. So please let us know what you think of Readerware so far. E-Mail feedback@readerware.com.

Thanks for your support.