Xequte March Newsletter: Power Tools Release for Outlook + Two Updates

15 March 2009

 

In this Issue:

 

  • New Product: Text Lightning, Power Tools for Outlook
  • MailList King V8.11 Released
  • DVD PixPlay V4.10 Released
  • Program Tips
  • Removing yourself from this List

 

 

Dear Xequte Software User,

 

When I am not developing our products, I spend most of my workday in Microsoft Outlook, responding to the numerous emails I receive each day.  While Outlook is a great tool, you often find yourself repeating unnecessary tasks: typing the same text you've written to the same question countless times before, digging out the email address to search for the sender's earlier messages, selecting a folder to move the current message, etc.  If only - you say to yourself - I could make Outlook a bit more efficient…  Well that same thought has crossed our minds a few times too, and out of that murky part of the brain was born Text Lightning, Power Tools for Outlook. 

 

Text Lightning is a toolbar and Text snippets panel that integrates into Outlook and provides ready access for the text and functions you use most often.  If you are an Outlook fan you really need to take a look at Text Lightning.  We're even celebrating its release with an introductory offer...

 

In other news, we have important updates for MailList King and DVD PixPlay.   Please see below for further details.

 

 

Regards

 

Nigel Cross

Xequte Software

nigel@xequte.com

www.xequte.com

 

P.S.  If you find this newsletter interesting please forward it to your friends :-) 

 

 

* New Product: Text Lightning, Power Tools for Outlook

Text Lightning is a toolbar and Text snippets panel that integrates into Outlook and provides ready access for the text and functions you use most often.  With a single click you can perform such tasks as:

  • Insert a text snippet or HTML template
  • Attach common files
  • Embed an image
  • Search for other messages of the current sender
  • Move the current message to your usual archive folder

More Info and Evaluation download: http://www.xequte.com/textlightning/


Text Lightning Introductory Pricing

To celebrate the new release we are offering a 20% discount for the next seven days. 

To purchase Text Lightning for only $23.90: 

http://www.xequte.com/gettxl/

 

Note: This offer is only available using the link above and expires on March 25.

 

 

 

* MailList King V8.11 Released

 

MailList King allows you to manage and communicate with a mailing list from your own computer.  Since our last newsletter we have released some big updates:

 

V8.10 Top Ten Enhancements:

  1. Can import and send directly to contacts in Access databases, OpenOffice spreadsheets, Advantage Databases and columnar data in HTML and Word documents
  2. Excel importing improvements including Office 2007 XLSX format and selection of the worksheet to import from
  3. Also allows you to import directly from a data source using ADO or ODBC
  4. Many other improvements to layout and functionality when importing
  5. Main graphs now allow you to group by week, month, year, etc.
  6. You can now select the number of days to show in the Recent Activity statistics
  7. Now all grids allow you to position yourself at a contact by typing the first few letters of the address
  8. Added "Read_From_File" personalization field which allows you to dynamically read plain and HTML formatted text from files
  9. Other new personalization fields: Sender Email (% SenderEmail %) and Sender Full Name (% SenderName %)
  10. Added /AUTOCLOSE parameter to shutdown MailList King after it has checked for new mailing list messages and cleared its Outbox

 

V8.11 Top Ten Enhancements:

  1. Export to Microsoft Access, XML, Word, RTF and Adobe Acrobat
  2. Dial member's phone numbers from within MLK
  3. New history items for Customer Relationship Management usage
  4. Edit > Add History to add a custom history item to the current member(s)
  5. Specify destination Groups for a message within the Message Sending dialog
  6. Add recipients to an existing auto-responder task
  7. Text returned by personalization fields can be made URL safe by using the .ENC suffix, e.g. % FullName.ENC %
  8. Can specify whether web form messages generate acknowledgements and/or double opt-ins by using the Verbosity field
  9. "Send Email to Support" under Help menu which sends relevant all relevant debugging files
  10. Improved layout of various dialogs

More Info and Evaluation download: http://www.xequte.com/maillistking/download.html

 

Registered Users: An updated download link will be sent to you over the next 24 hours.  If you do not receive the link, please complete the following form:

 

http://www.xequte.com/support/serial/

 

 

 

* DVD PixPlay V4.10 Released

 

DVD PixPlay allows you to create slideshow discs from your digital photos and videos for playback on DVD players and computers.

 

Important Compatibility Fix:

 

We have just released v4.10 to address a situation whereby DVD PixPlay will fail to finalize a DVD burned in TAO mode. This will lower the compatibility of created disks with DVD players.

 

We recommend all V4 users install the new release!

 

 

Enhancements to Professional Version:

 

Professional users will also benefit from improvements to the importing of PowerPoint presentations:

 

- PPTX PowerPoint files can be imported

- New High Quality PowerPoint importing option available under View > Options, Other, Advanced

- Addressed issue due to bug in PowerPoint 2007 SP1 whereby PowerPoint frames may be partially black

 

Complete Change List:  http://www.xequte.com/pixplay/changes.html

 

More info and download:  http://www.xequte.com/pixplay/

(Simply install the new version over your old one.  No new key is required if you are already using v4.*).

 

Upgrades:  http://www.xequte.com/pixplay/upgrade.html

 

 

 

* Program Tips

 

- DVD PixPlay: Automatic Cropping

 

You may not be aware that DVD PixPlay includes an option to maximize the amount of image that is displayed onscreen (i.e. reduce the border area).  Because a TV screen is wider than it is high (landscape) if you have images that are portrait shaped then DVD PixPlay needs to add borders to the left and right of the image (i.e. so that the image does not display stretched).  However with most images the areas near the edge can safely be removed without affecting the subject of the photo, so DVD PixPlay takes advantage of this and - optionally - trims a little from the top and bottom of a portrait image so that the image is larger and there is less border displayed.  By default, DVD PixPlay only removes a small amount (15% of the height), however you can change or disable the feature by clicking Frame > Frame Properties, Remove Borders tab and altering the Automatic Cropping option.

 

 

- MailList King: Customizing Date Formatting

 

When sending personalized messages you often want to automatically insert a date, such as when the recipient last emailed you ("We haven't heard from you since…").  But how do you format the output so that it looks natural?  When creating your message select Personalize > Personalization Options from the message sending toolbar.  Under the "Other Options" tab you will find the settings that control the formatting of dates.  You can even choose not to display the current year, or show it as text, such as "this year", e.g. so 1/1/2009 displays as "January this year"

 

The option is also used for any custom fields with the "Date" suffix, e.g. PurchaseDate.

 

 

- Smart Pix/MegaView: Faster e-mailing of images

 

You've probably noticed that when you e-mail the images you've downloaded from your digital camera that it takes forever to send.  The image resolution of digital camera images is very high, which is good for printing, but for images that are just going to be viewed by your friends and family it makes more sense to send them at a lower resolution (for viewing purposes there is no value in sending an image that is larger than the screen).

 

Fortunately Smart Pix and MegaView include an option to automatically create lower resolution versions of your images when sending (without affecting your originals).  You can enable it under Tools > Options, Other and it will automatically be used whenever you select File > E-mail File.

 

 

- Text Lightning: Automatic Insertion of "Dear Tom"

 

When replying to a message in Outlook wouldn't you like it to automatically start the message for you with a salutation to the message sender, such as "Hi John"?  You can enable this in Text Lightning by displaying Options, choosing the Toolbar tab and checking the "Automatically insert salutation" box.