I am pleased to announce the availability of the Release Candidate for Workshare Professional 5.2 SR2.
Even though new features typically make the headlines, the excitement around the upcoming release of our leading document comparison product is about the commitment Workshare made to product quality in June of 2008.
A year ago Workshare realigned resources, improved processes and focused the entire engineering team on product quality. As part of the process we embarked on six months of quality assurance testing in over 500 customer environments to ensure a high level of product quality.
So even though quality can’t be made exciting with new screenshots, a few good statistics can also get the heart pumping. Here are a few improvements the release of Workshare Professional 5.2 SR2 will provide over the last release:
- Comparing large documents just got 22% faster
- Scanning documents for hidden metadata is now 44% faster
- Converting large documents into PDF, 27% faster
- A 59% reduction in the size of the installation package
- A 17% reduction in the time it takes to install the product
Our beta customers have noticed the product quality improvements and we believe you will to. But just in case you also wanted to know about the new and enhanced features I’ve put that list together as well:
Comparison of Embedded Excel Tables
You can now accurately compare Microsoft Excel tables that are embedded in Microsoft Word documents. Please note the comparison is of the text in the tables not of the formulae.
Image Comparison
Workshare Professional’s comparison functionality now includes the comparison of images. After running a comparison you will see whether an image has been modified, deleted or inserted.
OCR Support
Working with scanned documents just got easier with optional OCR technology from ABBYY integrated into Workshare Professional.
PDF Combine
Combining many different files such as documents, emails, spreadsheets and graphics into one PDF file just got easier with an enhanced user interface and file support for DOC, DOCX, PPT, PPTX, XLS, XLSX, PDF, TXT and HTML. Clean metadata before conversion, apply security settings, and manipulate and organize pages, and save the state of your binder as a workbook. You can also integrate the feature with your document management system.
Permanently Remove Sensitive Information
You can now redact (black out) selected content in Microsoft Word (DOC and DOCX) documents so that it is no longer discernible. Use redaction tools to black out sensitive information and permanently delete the content from your document. Text redaction replaces the text with “pipes” (||||||) on a black background.
Cleaning Password-Protected Documents
You can now clean hidden data from password-protected documents and prevent inadvertently circulating documents with metadata.
Previewing Cleaned or PDF Attachments
When cleaning email attachments, or converting them to PDF, you can now preview the cleaned attachment or the PDF before sending your email.
Workshare Connector for Microsoft SharePoint Server 2007
With this optional integration you are now able to browse, access and compare SharePoint documents
> You can download the Release Candidate here. Availability of the final version will be announced in the coming weeks.