Writing Outliner Beta 4 (Update 1)

Posted in: Book writing software, Version History by Edwin on July 2, 2010

Hi folks,

I’ve just uploaded a new beta version of Writing Outliner – 0.9.9.492 Beta 4 (Update 1).

This version includes the following bugfixes and enhancements:

• Enhancements of document compilation (merging separate documents into a single one):
  • Compilation error under Vista Enterprise + Word 2007.
  • Style handling problem reported by forum member MuppetGate in this forum post (happens only when ‘Include titles’ option is not selected).
  • Now the ‘compiled output’ will not be opened in the current document tab, but instead, open in a new tab (and one tab only). This is more convenient as it will not change your current document selection.
  • Shows an icon on the ‘compiled output’ document tab so that it can be identified easily.

• Occasional error (something like ‘Access violation’) that happens when closing Microsoft Word.
• Shows a balloon hint window to tip the user that he/she can restore  the Writing Project Manager pane when it’s is minimized. Some users reported they lost Writing Outliner, I guess this might be the reason 😉

Download address of this beta 4 (update 1) of Writing Outliner Word add-in. Note there is an alternative download link at the bottom of the download page.

Writing Outliner Beta 4 and Pre-launch Promotion

Posted in: Version History by Edwin on June 29, 2010

BETA 3 update 1 – Slightly enhanced the interactive between the tabs and the Project Manager.

Posted in: Version History by Edwin on April 25, 2010

I have just uploaded beta 3 update 1, which includes some minor changes, especially for the newly introduced multi-column outliner which helps get a big picture of the selected portion of the project and manage it easily.

1. Fixed the two issues reported by Taxi in this thread in the beta test forum.
2. Fixed the second issue reported by Andrej in the beta 3 announcement thread.
3. And slightly improved  usability of other parts of this Word add-in.

BTW, I’m going to make some demo videos for Writing Outliner .

Writing Outliner Beta 3 Is Released!

Posted in: Version History by Edwin on April 24, 2010

Full-featured multi-column outliner

Search snippets preview  and auto locating

go to the exact matching places easily when searching documents. See my previous blog post for details.

Project restore (and backup, of course!)

Project restore function – now you can revert the entire project to any previous revision which was saved manually or automatically!  . See my previous blog post for details and screenshots.

New graphical visual outline style

Emphasis the hierarchical relationships – and you can switch back to the old text-based style, of course! screenshot:

Thanks for your attention, folks! And I’m looking forward to you feedback!

I’ve been extremely busy in the past month, in the upcoming days I will still have a lot of work to do – mainly preparing for the first commercial release, and it’s very late here now,  I’ve got to have a sauna and take a rest now now!

Have fun play with the new version, don’t’ forget to give me feedback via email or the online best test forum.

Instant Word document search with matching snippets preview

Posted in: Word addin by Edwin on April 17, 2010

I’d like to show you my recent works with regard to the Writing Outliner Word Add-in proejct.

Check the screenshot below, now  you can instantly preview the  matching snippets when doing a full text search search,  and the best thing is that the keyword will be highlighted in Word’s6 document window once you select any of the matching snippets! And it will be available in the next release. Can’t wait to try it? Let me know then 😉

Currently, I’m working on the multi-column outliner which was discussed in the beta test forum, stay tuned!

New visual style for the outliner

Posted in: Outliner Software by Edwin on

Hi Folks,

Take a look at the new visual style for the outlines in Writing Outliner Word Add-in below, It will be available in the next release 😉

I think the new visual style makes  the hierarchical relationships of  the documents more prominent, as a result, you get a better big picture of the whole project. What do you think? Do you like it?

Auto project backup and more – Writing Outliner Word Add-in BETA 2

Posted in: Version History by Edwin on March 31, 2010

Hi Folks,

I’m getting a great amount of valuable feedbacks from emails and the beta test forum since the first beta of Writing Outliner Word Add-in was release 15th this month, thank you all, guys!

Of course in such a short time I couldn’t get all suggestions and problems fixed, but here is the list of the new stuff in this second beta release of Writing Outliner Word Add-in – the all-on-one writing tool for writers.

And I’ll be working on the rest, please don’t hesitate to give me more feedbacks through:

1. The beta test forum, or
2. Email me directly.

Download the new release (BETA 2) here.

Manual or automatic project backup

You write/edit Word documents a lot, you have to backup your documents frequently.

Word document backup with Writing Outliner has become easy now, it allows you backup your whole Writing Outliner project anytime as you wish, or simple let Writing Outliner takes care of it for you – automatically backup the modified writing project upon closing. See the screenshots below:

Quick Word document import, a great time-saver!

Quickly (with two clicks) import currently opened Word document to a specified Writing Outliner project.

It’s very easy, just click the ‘Import Current Document’ link in the Welcome pane and then select the target project you want to import to. Once it’s done, you open the target project and you’ll find the imported Words documents under the newly introduced INBOX folder. Screenshots:

Other improvements

• Move a document up or down in the Project Manager Outliner with keyboard <Ctrl + Up/Down>;
• Added the ‘address bar‘ to the embedded File Explorer tab, so that when doing document importing or exporting you can quickly navigate to a folder;
  
• Now ignorable notification messages are shown with the small notification window that appears at the lower right part of your screen, so that your workflow will not be interrupted (Like what Outlook, MSN/Live Messenger do).
  

Bugfixes:

• Project notes are missing after re-opening the project several times;
• In a rare case the document synopsis, tags or notes sub-pane in the Document Properties Pane (only the UI itself, not your data) will disappear until you reopened Microsoft Word.
• Temporary Word documents that are used internally by Writing Outlinier Add-in are no longer be added to Word’s ‘Recent Document List’, so you’ll not be seeing strange document names like 1AE63565B5E04ACB8674659621A9AA89.docx;
• Avoid moving the special ‘Compiled Output’ document node with drag and drop.

Download the new release (BETA 2) here.

Enjoy the new beta release!

Let’s start the BETA test of Writing Outliner Word Add-in!

Posted in: Book writing software, Version History by Edwin on March 15, 2010

Hi Folks,

Finally, I can start the beta test of Writing Outliner Word Add-in today!

What you can do with this version?

• Project-centric writing, keep all files together;
• Use the Project Manager Outliner to outline book-length documents, each outline item is associated with a Word document.
• Tabbed document editing – edit multiple Word document at the same time;
• Instant, Google-alike full text search, find any documents in the project, you can search by text, title, status, label, tags, notes, synopsis, or match all these fields!
• Document tagging and search by document tags, for example, search by “tag:MyTagA or tag:MyTagB“
• Attach icons (status and label) to documents and search by the icons, for example,  you can specify the status icon of certain documents as “Needs Review”, and when you want to see only those documents, all you need to do is to  input “status:needs review” in the search box.
• Import existing documents (supports doc, docx, RTF, text, wri, all file formats that supported by MS Word).
• Embedded File Explorer tab for viewing and importing files in your harddisk, or  exporting files from a Writing Outliner project to disk.
• Drafts compilation and branch compilation, the Drafts folder or a specific document branch will be merged for output.
• And so on…

You can see some screenshots in my previous blog post.

And I hope you think this is a good start!

Download and feedback

Please download the beta version here.

Please report bugs, make suggestions and post comments in the beta test online forum.

Thank you!

Update 1

I have just uploaded a new version which solves the following two problems:

1. Error message is displayed when opening the sample project: “Wrong Project Property: Modified (Last Modified Time)”;
2. The error report technical information does not contain the most important info for locating the source of the problem.

Sorry for the problem, please download it again!

Update 2

If you couldn’t download the software with the above link, please DO let me know, and try this download link.