The Latest on BSD SpecLink-E

Development on BSD SpecLink-E is nearing its Beta phase. There are a couple of events coming up that you should know about. First, BSD is planning one or more “webinars” to provide live demonstrations of the new software and its numerous new features. Second, BSD will be delivering a first Beta of the new product to selected firms and individuals. The first Beta will not be considered ready for production use and will be given to those entities who are willing to take the time to review, test and report on it in this “not for prime time” state.

The webinar is an event that will let you watch the software in action from the convenience of your office. It requires a computer and a fast Internet connection but does not require any software installation. We will ask you to sign up for the event using an online form and we will ask you to complete a modest survey following the demonstration. The purpose of the webinar is to provide feedback to BSD on the user interface and features presently included in the SpecLink-E product, and to provide you with an early look at the product that is coming down the pike.

Both the webinar and the Beta release present numerous new features over and above all of the functionality currently found in BSD’s SpecLink+, accumulated over ten-plus years of development. The new features include:

A Tabbed Document Interface – Features slide out panels that let you open multiple documents in a single window accessed by tabs; allows drag-drop side-by-side positioning of panels and cut-copy-paste between them;

Detachable Notes Panels – Easy to “tear off” using drag and drop and place anywhere on your desktop, including a second monitor;

Page View – A print layout of a document, familiar to Word users, that lets you add and edit text and choices while viewing the document as it will be printed;

Project-wide Find, Replace and Spell Check Functions – Flexible commands let you search any and all documents in the project in a single process;

Style-based Templates – Styles define paragraph appearance including outline number format; each of 10 paragraph levels are assigned a style to create a document template; multiple user-defined templates are supported;

Template-based Documents – A single template (one of four built-in or any number of user-defined templates) is assigned to the whole project as the default but each document can override the project default with its own template;

Insert Pictures – Support for insertion of multiple picture formats;

Insert Tables – More robust support for inserting tables, rows and columns;

Insert Hyperlinks – Allows inserting live links to the Web in the body of the specification document;

Expanded Export Capability – Supports export to Word document and PDF formats including live hyperlinks;

System Roles – Support for assigning roles to individual users, including Administrator, Expert User, Standard User, and Reviewer, that determine and limit the application commands to which the user has access;

SpecLink+ Project Conversion – Fully automatic facility for converting BSD SpecLink+ projects to the new Microsoft SQL Server-based SpecLink-E;

Other Improvements – A host of smaller changes and improvements to make the life of the specifier easier and more productive.

To sign up for a Webinar or the upcoming Beta release visit BSD’s website at http://bsdsoftlink.com or call BSD Technical Support at 888-BSD-SOFT. Information should be available in early December that will allow you to get on the list. If you have already left your name and address at one of the annual trade shows or via Technical Support, you will be contacted around the same time. If you feel we’ve missed you or might miss you, please don’t hesitate to give us a call. We look forward to your participation and your feedback.