Office software: March 2009 Archives

Quark announced Quark XML Author 3.0 for Microsoft Word, the next version of Quark’s XML authoring tool that allows users to create XML content easily within Microsoft Word. Quark XML Author 3.0 supports Microsoft Office 2007 and Microsoft Vista from a single XML Author code base. The new version of Quark XML Author also offers native user interface support for French, German, and Japanese languages, which increases user productivity and collaboration among global teams. In addition, Quark XML Author 3.0 offers new style and formatting functionality that gives users more control over their content, including: new integration with Design Science’s MathType Editor for equations, improved tool bar for use with the Microsoft Office 2007 native ribbon interface, improved feature that allows for bulk changes throughout a document, and advanced indenting and style capabilities for list items and paragraphs. Users of Quark XML Author for Microsoft Word are able to upgrade to version 3.0 automatically. The new version is backward compatible with Microsoft Office 2000-2007 and is bi-directionally compatible with Quark XML Author 2.x files. It will be available on April 30, 2009. http://www.quark.com

Nordic River announced they have released a new version of TextFlow, their AIR-based document collaboration software. TextFlow can now store all documents and versions in a “Document home” on the TextFlow server. The new version also allows you to invite co-writers directly to TextFlow. New writers receive a secure link in an e-mail whenever you want to share a version. The secure link starts TextFlow directly in the browser without the need for them to install TextFlow or even create a TextFlow account. http://www.textflow.com

Microsoft Corp. and Creative Commons announced the release of the Ontology Add-in for Microsoft Office Word 2007 that will enable authors to easily add scientific hyperlinks as semantic annotations, drawn from ontologies, to their documents and research papers. Ontologies are shared vocabularies created and maintained by different academic domains to model their fields of study. This Add-in will make it easier for scientists to link their documents to the Web in a meaningful way. Deployed on a wide scale, ontology-enabled scientific publishing will provide a Web boost to scientific discovery. Science Commons, a division of Creative Commons, is incubating the adoption of semantic scientific publishing through creation of a database of ontologies (http://neurocommons.org/) and development of supporting technical standards and code. Microsoft Research has built a technology bridge to enable the link between Microsoft Office Word 2007 and these ontologies. Microsoft is making the source code for both the Ontology Add-in for Office Word 2007 and the Creative Commons Add-in for Office Word 2007 tool available under the Open Source Initiative (OSI)-approved Microsoft Public License (Ms-PL) on CodePlex, Microsoft's Web site for hosting open source projects, at http://ucsdbiolit.codeplex.com/ and http://ccaddin2007.codeplex.com/ respectively. The Ontology Add-in for Word 2007 is enabled by Microsoft Office Word's Open XML Formats underpinnings and its extensibility in the form of smart tags. http://creativecommons.org/, http://www.microsoft.com/

Zoho announced Zoho Writer 2.0, the next generation of the company’s online word processor. Featuring MenuTabs, a new interface philosophy that uses tabbed menus to streamline the user experience, Zoho Writer 2.0's new user interface will soon be adopted by other Zoho productivity and collaboration applications. Previously, Zoho Writer displayed all commands at once via a three-row toolbar. However, as functionality was quickly added, the UI became crowded. The crown jewel of Zoho Writer 2.0 is the MenuTab design, which streamlines the toolbar with tabbed menus that not only organize commands in context-based groups, but also provide quick access to commands in other tabs. Users now get the best of both worlds - menus and tabs. The Zoho Writer 2.0 toolbar includes Format, Insert, Review, Share, Views, and Page Setup tabs. Users click on a tab to view all related commands, which are displayed in a single row below the tab. Users can also click on a tab’s down arrow to display the commands in a drop-down menu. The latter option lets users work in one tab yet access commands found in other tabs. Other enhancements to the Zoho Writer 2.0 interface include an enhanced sidebar, improved header/footer with auto-fill, and document info and live word count displayed in the status bar. http://www.zoho.com/

Systems Alliance Inc. announced it has earned Certified status in Microsoft’s Partner Program. In addition to becoming a Certified Partner, Systems Alliance earned a Microsoft Competency in Information Worker Solutions, with a specialization in Microsoft Portals and Enterprise Content Management for its work delivering solutions based on Microsoft Office SharePoint products and technologies. Systems Alliance can help clients optimize their use of Office SharePoint products and technologies through Microsoft’s SharePoint Deployment Planning Service (SDPS) program. The program is offered to clients as a Microsoft Software Assurance benefit. Depending on a client’s Software Assurance benefit level, Microsoft will cover the cost of a pre-defined one, three, five, 10 or 15 day deployment planning session provided by Systems Alliance consultants. Much of the demand for Systems Alliance’s SharePoint services has come from line-of-business decision makers who are looking for ways to improve information access, collaborative business processes and content management. http://www.systemsalliance.com