New Features in FNO 3.5 Release

1. The latest Outside-in v8.0.1 Document Viewers are now included. 

2. A number of bug fixes and improvements to current features are included.

3. A new video playing component is included.  This was included in the 3.4 maintenance release.

New Features in FNO 3.4 Release

New Features in Live and Project Collections

Although project collections were partially introduced in earlier releases they are now fully integrated into FNO3.4.  

Collections are like virtual folders... you can drag files and folders into a collection and make a single list of files that you can treat as if they were all in the same place, even though they are spread around your PC or network.

Live collections show the same notes that you will see next to the files in their real folders.  Any changes you make to notes in a live collection alter the same notes you will see in the real folder.

Project collections use a seperate notes catalog file.  So if you add notes to a file in a project collection it does not affect the notes in the real folder.  This allows you to take a group of files (say some photos for a presentation) and write new notes that are for a specific task, without affecting the original notes you have already created for the files in their real folder.

Adding files to a collection can be done by dragging files from the file list into the collection tree and shown below.  Or you can use the right click menu on any notes column where there is an "add to live collection" and "add to project collection" menu item.

Using Collections with other Windows Search Tools is now possible too.  On the Windows right click files menu you can now choose "Copy/Move to > Add to Collection" to add a file or set of files into an FNO collection.  You can do this from the standard Windows search utility and many other Windows utilities.

Importing X1 or Yahoo Desktop search results into a Collection is now possible.  All you need to do is copy the results from the X1/Yahoo results window into the clipboard (using Ctrl-C) and then you can import them into a Collection in FNO3.4 using the menu as shown below. 

Playing a collection as a slideshow or playlist can now be performed using the new collection playlist controls.  These controls open an independent Slideshow window (i.e. not the Slideshow window invoked from the main toolbar).  As you can control the playing of the items using the new toolbar it means you can have the slideshow running on a second monitor being controlled from your main PC monitor.

The screenshot below shows how a collection of "My Photos" has had a filter applied, and then a slideshow started by pressing the new play button on the playlist toolbar.

Using Collections as a music playlist is now supported.  Just drag the music files you want into a collection, or use a filter to choose the files you want from a larger collection, and then click the play button to play the music.  The music files are run in a slideshow-style window independently from the main FNO3 application, so you can continue working with FNO3 while the music plays.

Multi-user Collections are now supported by enabling you to specify your own location for the storage of collections.  You can change the folder from the default "My documents/filenotes" location to any folder.  If you set it to the same network folder for several FNO3 users it will enable them to all share collections.  This opens up even more uses for collections.  You could create a sub-folder for each user and use a collection to pass a list of files to someone else to work on, making a collections the basis of a simple job control system.

One-Click Backup

FNO3.4 now removes any excuse for not regularly backing up your files to another disk or folder.  Once you have used the "One click backup" for the first time and given it your prefered location for backups its a simple one-click operation to backup your chosen folders/files to the same location the next time.

You can have several favorite backup locations which you can pick from a dropdown list. You can choose whether to backup all the files you have chosen or just those that have changed since your last backup.  And you can have the filename automatically include the current date, so you have a unique filename for each backup in your chosen folder.  When the backup is performed all the files are compressed into a standard ZIP file, which can be password protected if you wish.

External Disks with offline Removable Catalogs.  

On the Options > Advanced window you can select any disk drives to use with removable catalogs.  Then any notes are stored in the Notes Catalogs pane under the drive letter and disk volume label.   As the notes are stored offline they can be searched without the disk being attached to the PC.  This feature is identical to how catalogs work for CD/DVD media.

Support for latest Acrobat version 7 (as well as earlier versions)

The latest version 7 of Acrobat works extremely well embedded in FNO3.4.  Previous versions did have issues of stability. As a result of the improvement we have now made Acrobat the default viewer for PDF files rather than the Outside-in Viewer (which is still available).   If you haven't yet upgraded to Acrobat 7 reader then we recommend to do so.

Other changes in the FNO3.4 release

* Displaying thumbnails for folders is now an option.  This greatly speeds up the displaying of folders on network drives.  Just go to the Options window to turn it on if you still want to use it.

* Improvements in making bookmark clips of video files

* Drag and drop between all the various panes in FNO3 and between multiple FNO3 windows has been improved.

* The Rename Wizard now shows shortcuts in alphabetical order.  A new option "Copy Of..." enables a set of files to be copied to "Copy of Filename".

* The Slideshow window only displays the popup menu when the mouse moves near the top of the screen

* Various bug fixes and smaller improvements.

New Features in FNO 3.3 Release

Full Text Search

Now you can add the text from documents such as Word or Wordperfect into your notes catalogs so the text can be included in your searches and filters just like any normal note is.  So you can now find a document by remembering key words within it even if you haven't written a note for it.

Go to a folder with documents in, select "Notes > Add Full Text Notes" and you get the following dialog window:



This will add the text from the documents into the notes catalogs, which you can then search or filter for:

If you want to add a full text note greater than the 99,999 characters that the dialog allows, then you can use the right-click popup menu on a file (on any of the notes columns) and choose "Add Full Text Note" to add up to 300,000 characters.  On the same right-click menu is "Remove Full Text Note" should you want to remove any full text notes that you don't want included in searches and filters.

Thumbnail Grid Improvements

The most noticeable new feature is the folder thumbnails... a small set of 4 images from a folder are used to make a thumbnail image representing the folder.  If you double-click on the thumbnail it will change into the folder.

All thumbnail grid thumbnails are now displayed using a background process.  This means you can continue to use FNO while they are being displayed.  So for large folders on slow network disks instead of waiting until they are all displayed you can type a filter or change the folder to interrupt the displaying that is in progress.

Since version 3.2 you can also change the size of thumbnails, from the Options window.  This also applies to the thumbnail grid and the folder thumbnails.

We have fixed the problem of the thumbnail grid refreshing while being displayed.  So you can now select the thumbnails and use the right-click menu (e.g. to rotate the image) without the grid being refreshed and loosing your selection of files.

Filtering for "does not include" and "exact" matches

The filter now allows [-] 'does not contain' and [=] 'exact word' search elements.  So if you filter for =ball you will not match football or softball.  If you filtered for june&-july you would find matches that contained june but not july.

Bug Fixes

The latest Outside-In document viewer libraries have been included, which have maintenance fixes to them.

You can now bookmark video files that are longer than 32000 frames.

A number of bugs and issues have been resolved and overall stability is improved.  Customers are reporting "rock solid" performance of this 3.3 release.

New Features in FNO 3.2 Release

Adding Notes from Pick List

The main new feature in FNO3.2 is the ability to have a drop-down pick list to populate a note.  You can very quickly create a list of options which you then use in future for quickly filling in a note.

As the example shows below, this feature is ideal for when you are using a status field with preset values.

The lists are stored together with the rest of the column settings for the folder... so they get included in the column templates, enabling them to be used in other folders. If you save the column template into a network folder then other users of the folder will then be able to use the pick list too.

Here is a sequence of screenshots showing how you use this feature...

1) When you select a cell you now have a "list" button. If you click on it then the cell turns into list-mode working.  The same happens if you press the "ALT" key.

2) You can now see the pick-list within the note cell.  If you type the first letter of an entry in the list then an entry that matches that letter will automatically be chosen.

3) You can edit (or create for the first time) the contents of the list by selecting the "edit list" button. You can paste a list into the list editor or just type the contents, using <enter> after each entry.

4) Here you can see the pick-list in action

Working without the background File Detection Service

Because some users have found that the background File Detection Service caused them problems, we now enable FNO3.2 to be installed without it.  At the moment we know that the service conflicts with the new form of licensing in Photoshop CS and AutoCAD 2005.  Its also possible for it to conflict with low-level file services such as Acronis PerfectDisk.

In FNO3.2 without the File Detection Service installed all notes will be maintained when files are moved, copied, deleted or renamed within FNO.  But if you do file operations in other applications such as Windows Explorer, then the notes will not be maintained.  The other difference is that without this service running you cannot be prompted for notes when files are saved into folders.
 

Choose Font for Annotations

You can now choose the font and font size when annotating images and documents.

Bug Fixes

We had noticed some instability when running in Windows 98 which we have fixed in this release.

We have fixed the problem where the viewer window would re-appear even though it had been de-selected from the side-bar.

New Features in FNO 3.1 Release

"My Organizer" PIM

FNO3 now fully supports the ability to use "free form" notes that are not notes against files, but just "standalone" notes. Although you can add these notes anywhere, to make it easier we have added a new toolbar called "My Organizer" with 4 buttons: Calendar, Address Book, To-Do, Notes.

Each of these buttons changes the file list to display a folder that holds free format notes, each with a custom-designed column template suitable for the task. You can of course modify the template to show whatever notes columns you want, with your own titles.

For example, You may want to re-define the "to do" template to include the checkbox to mark when a task has been completed. You may want to add the "index" numerical note as a priority field.

Attachments Toolbar

This toolbar enables you to add files as attachments to notes.  This is ideal for "to do" notes, where you can link to a file that needs to be used with the to-do action.   
 

Shortcuts Toolbar

Because some people found the shortcuts pane on the left sidebar hard to use and taking too much space, we have added a new Shortcuts Toolbar, which works best over the top of the file list. This displays the shortcuts as normal buttons, which you press to change to the folder. It is integrated with the sidebar shortcuts, so you can use either or both as you wish. A management dropdown menu allows you to add/remove shortcuts, or toggle those on display from your master list.
 

Folder Size On Demand

The great feature that displays the total size of a folder (including subfolders) can now be invoked by holding the <Ctrl> key down when visiting a folder or when refreshing a folder. So those who find the feature uses too much processing power to have on all the time can now have the feature "on demand".

Add/Edit Note Popup Improvement

The Add/Edit Note popup window now runs as a seperate application, which gives it the ability to properly popup as the window in focus when its prompting for new notes. Many people had reported how the previous method of it not being in focus caused them to start typing with the focus still in a different window. Now it works as you would expect.

Multi-user Access to a Folder

Now multiple users can simultaneously edit notes on files within the same folder, without overwriting each others notes. As long as users are not writing notes on the very same file at the same time it is now possible to work within the same folder. This is great for workgroups where one person may be adding new notes, whereas another person may be updating existing notes on other files.

Another example is if the PIM folder has been set to be a network folder, it would be possible for a manager and secretary to work together on an appointments diary, for example, with one adding a new appointment while the other updates information about an existing appointment.

Export Notes as XML

You can now export a set of notes into a text file in XML format.
 

Printing Notes Improvements

A number of improvements have been made to the quality and accuracy of the notes printing. A major improvement is the ability to include a grid around the notes fields.
 

Row Color Button

A new "Add Row Color" button has been added which makes adding color as simple as a click of the mouse. It has a simple dropdown color picker and the last chosen color stays as the default so its very simple to mark up rows as you work down a list adding color highlights.
 

Notes Backup

You can now backup all your notes files (from all over your PC and network) into a ZIP file for safe archive storage. It only takes a few seconds to do, and gives you the piece of mind that all your effort adding information will not be lost if you accidentally delete a notes catalog or have a system crash.
 

Auto Play Slideshow

As some found the Slideshow a great way to instantly preview a file, we have added an auto-play option. If you want to start the displaying of files only when you press "play" then you can toggle the auto-play off.
 

Panoramic Viewer

The slideshow window has a new option "Panoramic Viewer" which automatically pans the display of a wide image in steps. So instead of using the horizontal scrollbar to slide the image from left to right, it will automatically do it for you.