Our past few months of beta tests have been strenuous, exciting and, eventually, very satisfying. We have had a flood of suggestions, bug reports and comments from around the world and we have now released the result of all this work as new Live version of Topicscape Pro. This is version 1.54 and comes with a new Skins installer.
This is a big step up from version 1.3 (until yesterday, the current Live Topicscape Pro). It went through version 1.4 in internal testing, followed by five versions during which our Beta Users provided great feedback - our thanks go out to everyone. Below is an outline of how Topicscape Pro 1.54 will help you as an information and ideas organizer.
The download is here:
http://www.topicscape.com/tnc.php?productID=14&downloadID=14
And the new installer that replaces the previous Skins installer is here:
http://www.topicscape.com/downloadFile.php?productID=13&appID=7
Below there’s some indication of what’s new. We’d like to hear what you think of the new Topicscape Pro.
Roy
What’s new
Below is just a summary. See the What’s New page at
http://www.topicscape.com/Topicscape-Pro/whatsnew.php?page=1
The Help system in 3D Topicscape Pro 1.54 has been updated. The on-line browser version of the Pro User Guide will be uploaded sometime in the next 24 hours and the updated PDF is already available for download here:
http://www.topicscape.com/downloadPDF.php?downloadID=16 These all contain the same substance, it’s just a question of how you prefer to read and refer to it.
Importing
Turn MindManager 5, 6 and 7 .mmap files directly to 3D information landscapes.
Turn your Personal Brain files into Topicscapes using a simplified process (reads .pba export files directly). Also updated to work with the latest version (PB4).
Eliminate duplicate files
Check files before bringing them into Topicscape, to see if they are there alread (including checking for changes).
Better descriptions for your topics and occurrences
Plain-text descriptions in the Details Panel extended to 2000 characters.
Opt for a rich text (rtf) topic or occurrence description (”Description+”) linked to the Details Panel. Allows colored text, tables, images and embedded OLE objects, for example portions of a spreadsheet.
Flag your occurrences
Spot and sort out your occurrences, by flagging them with one of 5 colors. Colors show up in the Topic Center, lists, etc. Customize the five colors.
Mark occurrences as “Finished with”. They will be moved to the foot of the occurrence list and turned gray.
Merges
Experience an automated offer to merge a newly-introduced folder to topic
where the name is the same.
When you find that you have accidentally set up two topics covering the same
ground, merge them easily.
Show how Topics are associated (Association Types)
Capture more knowledge in your Topicscapes. Topics are connected by associations in Topicscape. You can now describe those associations, so that two topics and their association types become a record of some piece of knowledge. This is a feature of concept maps. They can go two ways. Here are examples: France “has its seat of government in” Paris, and Paris “is the capital of” France
You can add and edit these, see them as hints, see them floating in 3D between the topics they describe and search them.
Despite the fact that FreeMind, being a mindmapper, does not directly support association types, association types are exported to FreeMind from Topicscape (as FreeMind “attributes”) and they will be correctly re-created on re-import. Please note that this only works with FreeMind 0.9.0 v.8 Beta and later, not version 0.8.0. Although 0.9.0 is a Beta version, we have been using it without problems for a year now.
The standard association types “is parent of” and “is child of” will generally be suppressed unless you use the option to show them.
Contents of topics more visible
Open an occurrence file directly from the 3D landscape (the ‘Scape) with Quickopen.
And without opening the Topic Center, it’s easier to know what occurrences are in each topic:
- with the view button at the right-hand end of the Details Panel title bar (only visible if topic has occurrences).
- with a right click on a topic and select the menu item: Show contents.
- with a right click on a topic and hover over the menu item Show contents - shows a list of contents as a cascading menu from which you can open an occurrence.
Performance
Smoothness of flying has been improved and start-up times have speeded up on most PCs (some optimization is done the first few times you run after installing, so you won’t see the full benefit at first).
Making web archive (MHT) files
Topicscape Pro’s MHT maker has been improved to handle authentication (save web pages where you have to log in) and save web pages that are RSS feeds.
Convert all your URL occurrences in Topicscape with the Mass URL - > MHT converter. You could, for example, import all your favorites or bookmarks, then use this, and you would have a frozen view of your favorites for indexing and reference.
Skins
Choose from two new skins, so there are now 17 to choose from.
Adjust the transparency of the Hit and History Lists to allow for different
field textures.
Transparency settings and color of topic lettering (black or white) are now
saved as part of the skin.
Searching
If a search yields a single hit, Topicscape now takes you straight to the hit.
Return to previous search phrases more easily: The Advanced Search Panel carries a drop-down of your search phrases. There is a “Clear search history” button.
Search by topic- or occurrence-created date.
Search occurrences by colors and take the ‘Finished with’ setting into account on searches. For example, exclude all “Finished with” items from a search.
If you have Google Desktop installed, you can opt to use it in Topicscape file-content searching.
Search in Orphans or Islands topics specifically.
Usability improvements
Quickzoom has been improved by hiding intervening topic cones if they would obstruct your view too much.
View your occurrences in the preview panel in three sizes: small, medium or large.
Edit large text fields more easily with the new text editing panel - press Shift+F2.
Find often-used items more quickly in the Tools menu - it’s been re-organized.
Save screen-space now the minimized Details Panel is easier to work with, using hover.
See more in some cases now the Full view (”Shift+Home”) has been improved.
See more occurrences in the Topic Center (especially with bigger screens and a full-height window) with the expanding occurrences list — length depends on window height.
A “View” button on Details Panel now shows any topics loosely associated with the selected topic. Another shows topic contents list (see above).
Maximize visible space in the Topic Center with the new draggable Details Panel.
Leave the Topic Center more quickly with a double-left-click on the wall of the cone. In addition, Ctrl+I and Ctrl+R now work from inside the Topic Center.
Choose how some mouse double-clicks work to your own taste: You can swap mouse buttons for certain functions.
Find the skin customization controls more easily. The View menu has new items, and the Options panel has a new button labeled “Show individual topic color picker (F4)”.
New users should be able to find things in the Options panel more easily. It can be opened conveniently with a new shortcut: Alt+O.
Repair
Data Repair has been extended to check the new data for association types and Description Plus files.
Do you sometimes find that searches filtered with the occurrence file modified date miss results you expected to see? This can happen if you open, change and save files from outside Topicscape, or even if you open them from within Topicscape, but save changes after you’ve closed Topicscape. There’s a new process to fix this under the Tools | Data checks menu, and the same process is built into the Data Repair wizard.
Fixes
Make Outlook 2007 work with Topicscape as it did for previous Outlook
versions.
PCs not having Outlook Express installed could not start Topicscape at all,
and this has been corrected.
Help
Find your way around the new features with the comprehensively updated Help system.
Vista news
[Update of June 2008] Intel have fixed their drivers and 3D Topicscape will now run on Vista. If you experience a problem with Vista, please ensure that you have the latest driver.
[Now out of date: We are NOT claiming that this is a Vista release of Topicscape Pro. However, Topicscape Pro 1.5 will now run on some computers operating under Microsoft Windows Vista. We have an internal test PC on which it runs completely normally and another on which it runs with some graphics anomalies. The main issue is believed to be that some graphics chipset manufacturers are slow at producing fully OpenGL-compliant Vista drivers for all their chipsets.
http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2007/06/26/microsoft_windows_vista_facts/
says "... Windows Vista has come up short on third-party support. ... In May Mike Nash, Windows product management corporate vice president, ... attributed 80 per cent of user complaints to 4,000 drivers. Among those suffering: gamers and laptop users - with even Microsoft execs complaining Windows Vista does not support their branded laptops."
We expect this to gradually get sorted out. Meanwhile, anyone who is prepared to give us feedback on Vista / drivers / Topicscape Pro Beta will be listened to with great attention.
Our experience and that of our Beta users is that nVidia graphics seem most likely to be able to Run Topicscape on Vista, and Intel do give some problems at present. One Vista-based Beta User found that running Norton anti-virus software slowed Topicscape down greatly. Our tests indicated that it speeded up in later runs and ended up about 5% lower.
If you see a message "The color scheme has been changed to Windows Vista Basic.", this is normal, because Topicscape uses OpenGL for 3D graphics and Vista is based on Direct3D.]
Updated 12 Dec 2007