NEWSLETTER

What's New in BSD SpecLink-E for Fall 2011?

The latest release of BSD SpecLink-E includes several new features and enhancements of a number of existing functions. Perhaps the most significant of these changes is the reconfiguration of the Backup and Restore functionality to permit scheduled, automated backups. The Backup function is no longer accessed from the Tools tab within SpecLink. It has been replaced by a new utility named SLE Support Utilities, which is accessed from the Windows Start/Building Systems Design, Inc. menu for standalone users or from the server for network installations. This new utility is not available to client installations.



Automated Backups   SLE Support Utilities has three tabs: 1) Schedule Backup; 2) Restore; and 3) Restore Old. Backups can be run on demand from the first tab, or they can be scheduled to run automatically on a daily or weekly basis at a specific time. The number of backups to be retained can also be set on this tab. The Restore tab allows you to restore a backup file that has been made from the new utility, and the Restore Old tab allows you to restore a backup file created under the old functionality. We believe this new capability for automatically scheduled backups will be especially welcomed by many of our larger corporate users.

Revert to Master   Another new feature of the fall release is a new command on the Documents tab called Revert to Master. This command allows you to remove all selections, user edits, and user additions to the currently selected and open section, restoring it to the state of the underlying BSD master, as though it had never been modified. Before executing the command, the software asks you to confirm the action, because it cannot be reversed.

Last Edit Data   The corporate version of SpecLink-E has expanded on the Audit Trail functionality with the addition of Section Listing with Last Edit Date.  All sections in the project are listed, along with the Last Modified Date, the Last Edited Date, and Last Editor. The listing can be sorted on any column and can be displayed on screen, printed, or exported to Excel. In addition, the display can be limited to Selected Sections, Edited Sections (those with stored Audit Trail edits made since the fall 2010 release), or any section that has been looked at or linked to.

Enhancements    In addition to these new features, an extensive number of enhancements have been made and a few minor anomalies have been corrected. The Release Notes contain more details about these changes, but a few of the more noteworthy enhancements are as follows:

• Master paragraphs that have been deleted but were active in the project before updating continue to be active and converted to user paragraphs, but now these paragraphs are highlighted by a new olive green color in the status columns. The intent is to call attention to text that should be reviewed for relevance, since the original master text has been withdrawn and may have been replaced by other text elsewhere in the section.
• All instances of ASTM standard citations have been changed to correspond with the organization’s new nomenclature, which eliminates a space between the standard’s assigned subject letter and its numerical designation.  For instance, ASTM E 84 now appears as ASTM E84. This change has been made globally to thousands of standard citations, but affected paragraphs are not flagged as updates unless other changes have also been made.
• The Verify Document Sequencing function now offers the option to verify sequencing for only the open and highlighted section, instead of for the entire project.
• A user-added Project Template not already in the Projects Database because the project was loaded from file will now be added automatically.

Conclusion    We strongly suggest you read the Release Notes for additional information about this latest edition of SLE, including a number of improvements and corrections that haven’t been described in this article. As always, we welcome your feedback on our software and hope you enjoy using the latest enhancements to BSD SpecLink-E.