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Happy New Year!!!!
I wish for you all a wonderful, rewarding and peaceful 2017.
I am pleased to announce the release of Pathagoras 2017, and its many new features. (I
never use the term 'brand new' because that scares people into thinking
the old program has been supplanted. Trust me, that's not how we work.
We always build on the existing structure. Everything you have
remains intact. Everything is always 'grandfathered'. That said, there
are a lot of new features which may interest you. Check out especially
the 'Optional Text by Color Codes' feature below.)
Let me thank all of you who helped to test the pre-release version. Your feedback and suggestions has (as always) been invaluable. (Don't stop sending your comments just because this version has been published. All suggestions are always welcomed.)
- Document automation by color:
This was actually a latecomer to the 2017 release, but when it was suggested to me, I just had to make it happen. I even delayed the release Pathagoras 2017 to get it up and running, and to make sure it was well tested.
The feature is 'Optional Text by Color'.
The idea behind it is to
allow a user to mark up blocks of text within a document with
colors. Color-coded questions matching the body text are placed at the top of the
document. When the form document is recalled for processing for a client or customer,
Pathagoras will present a
multi-colored checkbox form (the colors, of course, marrying up to the
document's colors). The user checks which 'colors' to keep and which to
discard. The process is described in more detail (with pictures!) in the Manual at this link. We have made the setup super easy. For your simple documents, this will be an incredible tool.
When
this was first proposed to me, I remembered that many of you send me color coded documents for me to Pathagorize. It just made sense for me to build a new
tool based on what you already know how to do.
- That confounding Final 'And' (or 'Or') in a List:
I
have finally solved how to add the final 'and' or 'or' to a bulleted
or numbered list. You know, when you have a list of stacked items, and
you want an 'and' (or an 'or') between the last and the
next to last item in the list to indicate conjunctive (or disjunctive) elements or
requirements. Well, Pathagoras can now do it and it's quite elegant. Here's the page in the
Manual that discusses how.
- Automatically 'check' your document's check-boxes:
If
you have placed 'content control' check-boxes in your document,
Pathagoras can scan for them and present them in a single interview for
answering 'yes' or 'no'. No more scrolling the document to see if you
got them all.
This is definitely an advanced feature, but we are
seeing more and more checkboxes in forms, especially state and federally mandated forms. I want Pathagoras to be
able to handle them for you. The feature does require that you edit the
content
controls 'title' and 'tag' features, but once you get the hang of it,
it's a piece of cake. Because content controls don't require you to lock
down your whole document, or major portions of it, all other Pathagoras
tools and features remain at your fingertips. See this page in the Manual for more information.
- Improved '/' search function for QuickLinks.
Not
a new feature, but an improvement that practically qualifies as such.
You can now set a default search path. Assign one of the paths to the
default simply by prepending a '#' in front of the line. Type just a '/'
followed by Alt-G and you are instantly taken to the folder. Type (let's say) '/jo' followed by Alt-G and you are
instantly show a list of folders in the default parent folder that wildcard
match the letters provided (e.g., Johnson, Jones, Jordan, etc.)
QuickLinks was always an OMG fast way to get
to your documents, esp. client files. Now it's even faster.
Read more about this very cool tool here, ('QuickLinks' is also featured in the 'Oldies but Goodies' section of this newsletter, below.)
- Default Values for Multiple Choice Variables:
It
is now possible to set a 'default value' for your multiple choice
lists. When the choices come from an *Alias* or from a hard coded
multiple choice variable, just type a '#' in front of the value you want
to be the default. When the list is displayed in the Instant Database
screen, the item marked as the default will appear in the field. You can
still select any of the other choices, by when you use one choice more
than the others, it's nice not to have to make a selection every time.
- Insert text from preview screen:
We
always provided ways to preview clauses and documents in various selection screens before you selected them, but what was missing was a way to insert from the preview screen directly into your document. (The previous action was to move the selected clause from the left panel of the clause selection screen to the right panel.) Now you can just press a button to insert the clause directly into the document.
- Clause Selection and Instant Database Screen Improvements:
Width sliders: When
document names (for the Clause Selection screen) or variable names (for
the Instant Database screen) are wider than the initial display, you
can now grab a 'slider' in the lower right side of the screen and
increase the width to view the entire name. (To set a default opening width,
you would still use the resizer buttons under 'Power Tools' to set the default. Make sure
the click the 'lock' button to retain your setting.)
Right click options:
(a) You can now right click on any book in the Document Assembly screen to reset, rename or repoint that book. This makes it very easy to change your settings to your office practices and needs.
(b) You can right click on the informational bar at the foot of the Instant Database screen to repoint your IDB records to a common location.
'Next day that is not a weekend' date calculation: When using the date calculator in the Instant Database module, you can now tell Pathagoras to return the first weekday after the calculated date. (We're working on holiday exclusions; that'll be in a future release.)
- New (and some old) Alt-G calls:
- Meeting(Alt-G) will start a GoToMeeting session with me.
- Last(Alt-G) will recall the last document called or saved via Pathagoras.
- Lastpath(Alt-G) will open the last folder you worked with.
- (quicklink name)(Alt-G) will open folder assigned to QuickLink name. See 'QuickLinks' in Manual
- (#)(Alt-G) will open folder assigned to 'SmartPath' number in PathSmart module.
- (document name)(Alt-G) will insert text of named document. Requires that named document be present in one of your DropDown Lists.
- New (and some old) Date-Variables:
- [Date of Contract] (complete this with any valid date, in any style)
- [Date of Contract(ext)] (above date, spelled out)
- [Date of Contract(num)] (above date, in 1/1/17 style)
- [Date of Contract(num4)] (above date in 1/1/2017 style)
We invite you to a few of our previous newsletters which made major feature announcements to explore other improvements and feature additions. August 2016, May 2016, January 2016
Oldies but Goodies.
Just a reminder of some fantastic Pathagoras tools that you may have forgotten: - QuickLinks: This is a really ‘cool’ application introduced last fall. Imagine that you have assigned the folder 'Clients' in which you store your clients’ documents to the QuickLink word ‘clients.’ To access the folder, simply type
“clients” anywhere on an editing screen and press Alt-G. Instantly, the folder called 'Clients'
appears. No navigation. Want to hone in on a particular clients folder? Just type 'clients/jo' Alt-G and all folders (Jones, Johnson, Jordan etc.) will be displayed for you to choose. (How is this document
assembly? you may ask. Well, Pathagoras’ roots are actually based in super-fast folder
navigation -- hence the ‘Path’ in Pathagoras. We extended the fast navigation concept into document
assembly, and all associated with that. But we have not lost touch with our
roots.) Read more about QuickLinks here.
(New in 2017: You can designate a default QL. Designate it with a '#'. With a default set, you can simply type a '/' plus the first few characters of a name. E.g. '/jo'. Pathagoras will automatically assign the default QL path and display all the 'jo*' folders in a selection screen.) To set a default path, open the QuickLinks list and add an apostrophe in front of folder you want to be the 'default.' Save the file, and you are done.
- Quick Document Insert: If you type the name of any term that exists in any DropDown List, and follow it with the press of Alt-G, Pathagoras will insert the text of that term into your document in the place of the typed term name. Don't know the names? Print out a list. Click the 'Other Settings & Actions' button at the bottom of any DropDown List and select 'Print List' from the resulting screen. Keep the list at your desk for quick reference. Saves an immeasurable amount of time.
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As always, I appreciate your kind words complimenting the program and
encouraging its development. I also very much appreciate your valuable
suggestions. I am told constantly that Pathagoras offers an incredibly
easy path to document automation, and we strive to keep it that way. |
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If you are within a year of your initial purchase or renewal of your Annual Support Agreement, or are a monthly subscriber, the Pathagoras 2017 upgrade is free to you. Just click the button below. At the next page, insert your Serial Number and Pathagoras will let you know where you stand. (If you don't know your serial number, no problem. Just write.)
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If you are still within your initial 90 day free trial period, you can finish up your trial with the latest, greatest version. Log back onto the site (button below) and click any 90 day trial button. If you are beyond the 90 days, but still not sure if Pathagoras fits your needs, think about a monthly subscription to Pathagoras. It's only $25 per month.
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