Some of what's New in ReportMakerPRO

 

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New / Improved Text Features

New Image / Photo Features

New Image / Photo Drawing Features

New Fluke InfraRed Features

More Resilient

Backwards Compatible

Miscellaneous

 

Note from the Developer          back to top

ReportMakerPRO Growing  

My name is Scott Stephen and I am the developer of ReportMakerPRO.  I would like to sincerely thank ReportMakerPRO users for there ongoing support over the years, bringing great thoughts and ideas that has helped ReportMakerPRO become what it is today.  As many of you know, I have been working on a contract with Lockheed Martin for the DoD over the last few years, but I am now back full time on my own with ReportMakerPRO my primary focus.  We have acquired back 100% ownership and rights to ReportMakerPRO, so we are free to develop without any restrictions. 

YOUR Input is VITAL

Most features originate from User requests so this is the time to let us know what you like, what you don't like, and what you would like to see in the future.  This release is just the beginning of good things to come!  We plan to rebuild from the ground up the way ReportMakerPRO handles lists, comments and text libraries.  You can look forward to a more straight forward, intuitive way add dropdown lists, manage comments to be used anywhere in any report!  There will be improved, simple portability to distribute your report templates to your team.  We will also be adding capability to connect with databases.  Many improvements are planned for the text engine and image engine, this release just includes a few. Let us know what your thoughts.    

Scott Stephen

support@reportmakerpro.com

850.944.6744

 

Endless Text Only and FreeStyle Pages       back to top

No More One Page Limit

As you know, previously you had to manually create a new page for each Text Page if you needed more than one page.  If you needed to add text, the text did not carry over to the next page.  Now Text Only & Freestyle pages will automatically add pages as needed and the text will flow from page to page.   If you insert or delete text the text will automatically shift across pages.  You will see when a new page is added right in the Text Editor (see Below)

 

Two Options For Page Numbering

If  you have your Page Numbering Style set to 'Page 5 of 20' then the additional pages will be numbered 'Page 5.1 of 20', 'Page 5.2 of 20', etc. If you just use the simple page number style 'Page 5'  then the pages will be numbered in the order they occur ie Page 5, Page 6,  etc.  

 

Standard Cntl Key Clipboard Funtions for Text Editor     back to top

       Now the text editor accepts all normal Cntl + Key clipboard funtions as follow: 

            Cntrl + C    Copy to clipboard

            Cntrl + V    Paste from clipboard

            Cntrl + X    Cut and Copy to Clipboard

            Cntrl + Z    Undo (keep clicking - some undo's are just undo cursor positions or spell checker)

            Cntrl + A    Select All text

 

New Report Default Fonts          back to top

Set Fonts with two clicks

There is a new button in the 'Font' section of the toolbar labeled 'Set Defaults'.  Clicking this button will launch the Font Setting dialog screen shown below:

  

 

You can select the font and color for Page Titles, Large Headings, Small Headings, Normal Text and Small Text.  After you have set these once, you can easily assign the fonts by selecting text and choosing one of the font options from the new 'Preset fonts' dropdown list in the 'Font' section of the text toolbar (shown below).  No more scrolling through an endless font list, although it is still there if you need it. 

 

 

Text Toolbar Improvements          back to top

More descriptive Buttons 

We have tweaked the Text Toolbar to be more intuitive especially for new Users. Several button now include text descriptions to help them be self explanatory.  

 

Improved Right Mouse Click Menus          back to top

More intuitive pop up menus

We have made the right mouse pop up menus more intuitive in that only items that apply are visible on the menu.  We plan to add more right mouse functionality.  See some examples below:

If images in text pages are right mouse clicked:

 

If textboxes are right mouse clicked:

 

If text is selected and then right mouse clicked:

 

New Text Library Features          back to top

New Text Library Dialog Screen 

Ever tried to remember what you named that comment you saved in the Library or which comment had the text you are looking for?  Well now you can preview the comments before importing them. You can also now select multiple comments and bring it all at once.  You can also edit the comments from the dialog screen.  See new screen shot below:

 

 

Individual Page Headers and Footers          back to top

Customize Individual Pages

Now there is an new feature to save a header or footer for 'this page only'.  To use simply display the Header or Footer, set up as desired for that page.  Then right mouse click and select 'Save for This Page Only' option.   To return back to the default report header, right mouse click on a page header and choose 'Use Report Header For This Page'.  See examples below. 

 

 

Improved Image Resolution On Freestyle Pages          back to top

Customize Individual Pages

Now there is a lot better control of image resolution on Freestyle pages.  We have improved the image resolution at the default settings (see screenshot).   

See Examples Below: 

Before: Image quality at default settings of 80 Image compression and 300 dpi.

AFTER: Better resolution & detail at same settings (80 compression and 300 dpi)

 

       Here is screen shot showing where to set the Freestyle Image qualities.  Keep in mind the higher the image resolution the larger the files and slower times loading, previewing & printing.

      

New Drag and Drop Support for Images             back to top

By Popular Request!   For those with large or multiple monitors, you can now open up multiple window explorers in thumbnail view (shown above) and simply drag the desired image and drop into the    image editing area to load.  Great if your photos are in multiple project folders! Drag from as many windows explorers as desired.  There is a catch for Window 7 & Windows 8:  Windows UAC security prevents windows explorer from dragging into a more privileged application (such as ReportMakerPRO).  You must either temporarily disable UAC (not best idea) or get a windows explorer alternative such as FreeCommander (worked well in our tests).

Large thumbnail display option             back to top

The image viewer now has an option to 'Show Large Thumbails'  (see sample below).  To select the option, open the ReportMakerPRO Settings dialog screen and check the 'Show Large Thumbnails' checkbox (see below). A little help for those of us with older eyes. You can also HOLD DOWN the right mouse button over a thumbnail to see a large preview screen of the image.

 

New Image Resolution Options            back to top

We have added more options for image optimization.  You can choose to use original camera resolution (no optimization) or select from Low, Medium, High & Highest Quality.  

We have also reworked the Optimization tab in the Preference screen to be more intuitive and self explanatory (see below).  Higher the quality the crisper the images but the larger the file and slower the performance.   You can also elect to take control of Jpg Compression which also effects image file size and quality (for advanced users only).  2 is the best quality while 100 is the most compression.  Default is 20. 

We have also added the feature to load any selected image(s) at several resolutions.  This is useful if you want to have the photos default to 'Low' resolution but load a particular image at a higher resolution.  Simply select desired image(s) in the thumbnail browser, then right mouse click and choose "Load At Resolution ..." and then click desired resolution (see below).  This will load the selected images at the chosen resolution without changing your default resolution settings for loading images.   

 

Portrait Image Layout Support            back to top

We are adding portrait image support to most page layouts.  This new feature is tricky so we expect we will need to tweak.  Let us know how its working. 

 

 

Border Frame Option for Photos            back to top

You can now add a border frame around photos.  To select the option open up the ReportMakerPRO settings screen and check the 'Place Borders Around Photos' check box on the General Tab.  You can also choose the border thickness. 

Grow And Shrink Option for Photos            back to top

This is the introduction of a new feature to help optimize space on a page.  For now it is limited to the 'One Image with Table' page layout.  We will be adding the feature to additional layouts.  With the option turned on the size of the Photo will automatically be sized to fit in all of the available space not used by the flexgrid at the bottom. See examples below.   To select the option open up the ReportMakerPRO settings screen and check the 'Allow Photo Sizes to Grow & Shrink as Space Permits'.  

                Normal Photo Sizing                               Grow & Shrink Option On

New Support For .PNG & .WMF Image Formats            back to top

We are adding support for these image formats.  Portable Network Graphics (.png) image format is used a lot with websites.  Windows Meta File (.wmf) image formats are used a lot for clip art and diagrams.  

 

Back by popular demand:  Probe Marker Drawing Tool          back to top

 Click to turn on / off.  Once the feature is on (glows orange) on you simply click anywhere you want the marker drawn.  Three sizes available.  See images below.

 

Also New Starburst Drawing.  Simply click and a starburst will be added to the image.  You can move and resize after drawn.

 

New Grid Overlay Options       back to top

The Grid Overlay drawing tools has been expanded to give you more options. Set the number of rows and columns and line thickness.  Choose a percent of transparency which provides option for a very 'soft' grid overlay (shown below).  Also choose grid and label colors.  Improved to draw more consistently regardless of image resolution.  Simply click the dropdown arrow next to the grid button to access new options (see below)

 

 

New Drawing Duplication Features          back to top

After you have added a drawing to an image, you can duplicate any drawing by selecting the drawing, holding down the cntrl key and clicking where you desire a duplicate (see below arrows). This works with any drawing including text drawings.  You can also duplicate text drawing while automatically incrementing by selecting the text drawing, holding down the shift key and clicking where you desire the new incremented drawing.  For example Photo1 becomes Photo2, Item A becomes Item B.   It will work with just numbers or letters ie A will become B.   See Examples below:

 

 

 

 

New Fluke InfraRed Features       back to top

Now the Fluke InfraRed Editor will load temperature sensitive markers set in the camera.  You can change the colors, line thickness, text placement and temperature function.  Available markers are Spot and Area markers.  You can select Max temp, Min temp, Avg temp.  You can also now choose the number of temp lines for the pallet scale.

 

 

 

Automatic Report Recovery From Crashes       back to top

Improved handling of Crashes

Improper Antivirus Settings have been known to cause unexpected Crashes with ReportMakerPRO.  We have changed the way ReportMakerPRO does some things to make crashes less likely.  We have also added code to automatically recover a report if it gets corrupted because of a Antivirus caused crash. If ReportMakerPRO performs this kind of recovery then you will be notified with a pop up message that lets you know what occurred.  It is still important to get your antivirus setting correct, but now you won't loose the whole report. Support can help get your antivirus settings correct.  

We have also worked on known crash causing bug issues and have added code to 'shield' errors from causing hard crashes.  Please let us know about any crashes so we can address appropriately.

 

Report Backups - Recover Recent Report Features

If for any reason a crash occurs we have added new features to recover a recent report .  You can recover the very last report that was open or select from a time stamped list of the last 30 saved revisions. No more loosing work because you forgot to save, your key wasn't plugged in, or there's a power glitch or battery dies, or a crash happens.  This new feature does a very good job of recovering up to the very last item you were working on!   The feature is very easy to use.  The recover report feature is available on the Getting Started menu (shown below).  Report backup options are set on the general tab of ReportMakerPRO options and preferences dialog screen.  You can view detailed instructions by click the quick help button (shown below).

       

 

 

Miscellaneous       back to top

There is a new Drop Down List Manager Button (see below) that is visible when working on a flexgrid that will open up the list manager.  There is also new quick help with instructions on using and working with dropdown lists (see below).

 

 

 More Quick Help

   We are adding more Quick Help instructions throughout ReportMakerPRO screens to provide instructions for various features.  There are several new topics in this release and we will be adding more with every release.  If you see a help button (shown to left), click to show the Quick Help for that feature.

 

Performance Improvement

If your default printer is a network printer, it can slow ReportMakerPRO down.  ReportMakerPRO uses the 'default' printer driver to draw or 'render' the report pages.  We have now added a setting to allow you to choose any printer for ReportMakerPRO to use to render the report pages.  This will not effect your printer settings at all, but may increase ReportMakerPRO performance. We suggest always using a 'local' printer or we suggest using the 'Primo PDF' printer if installed.  You can experiment with the settings to see if you can improve performance.  The setting may not take effect until you restart ReportMakerPRO.   The new setting can be found on the Optimization Tab of the ReportMakerPRO Options and Preferences Dialog screen (see below).

 

Automatic Update Notifications

Gold Support Subscribers will receive automatic notification of new available updates.  A download link will be displayed on the ReportMakerPRO startup screen.