I've been a consistent user of DirectSOFT for the last six years so I was very interested to check out AutomationDirect's new release of DirectSOFT5. This is both an overview of the new features and a review as to their usefulness.

We’ll start with some first impressions like new icons, toolbars, themes and dockable views and then discuss the important internal changes with IBoxes. There have also been significant moves made in how Automation Direct packages and sells DirectSOFT which should factor into whether to upgrade or not. The New Look Opening the new DirectSOFT for the first time immediately reveals some new features. • Tip of the day • The icons are different • New toolbars configuration • The XRef view is docked on the side • The online status bar is actually in the status bar • There is a tab above the main ladder view • The ladder logic rungs have an even more 3D appearance then before. Tip of Day The first thing to greet you is a tip of the day. Unlike other programs, there are some neat little tricks which are worthy to read.

For easier perusal I’ve made a list of all the. Maybe I'll add a few of my own. First Impressions: Eye Candy Am I crazy to think that first impressions matter? Sure it’s the underlying functionality that counts but when you’re trying to win over new users a good slick interface can go a long way. Any good business man will tell you first impressions are important. Unfortunately, DirectSOFT has taken a step backward by changing bad icons for worse ones. They look like something more suited for Windows 3.1 rather then XP (or the upcoming Vista).

I would have expected something closer to the Windows Office icons but these are big buttons with the text built right in. I like my screen real estate so I typically switch to smaller icons but they’ve taken that feature out of this new version. The text uses strange letter casings and even misspellings like “Browz”. Many of the icon pictures are not clear such as “Open” or “Opts”.

Example Program 77 When you click on the DirectSOFT icon from the DirectSOFT Windows Group, a screen similar to the one shown below appears. You will notice a.

To make matters worse the same icons are shrunk down and used in the pull down menus where they look like pixilated blobs. Configurable Toolbars I may not like the “new” look of the icons but at least I’ve got better control over them now! • The new toolbars can be grabbed by their handle and docked to any edge of the work area or undocked even outside of the DirectSOFT window. • Right click on any toolbar or go to View Toolbar and there’s a list of many new toolbars that can be turned on our off. • Click on the Commands tab and drag and drop any icons to existing toolbars. • There’s even an ability to create brand new toolbars by clicking “New”, giving it a name, click on the Commands tab and drag any number of icons onto it.

Themes – Some More Eye Candy Another new feature under the “Look and Feel” category are themes. I like the idea behind themes but in this case I can’t see the point. To change a theme go to View Themes The theme enhances the toolbars and background but leaves the Views unaffected. I’ve compiled so you can be the judge. The only one I find appealing is the Office 2003 theme. Some of these themes like Fancy are just plain atrocious while others I can’t even see a difference.

Viewing Improvements Enough eye candy! Let’s get to some more interesting new functionality.

There’s been a nice feature added for Views (Cross References, Data Views and the Output window) that give them the ability to be docked or floated. Windows Vista Polski Pobierz. To bring up the Data View go to Data View New and a new data view pops up neatly underneath the Xref View. Do the same for the Output window under Window Output Window and it pops up in its default location at the bottom of the screen.

Changing the placement of a view is really flexible. Do a quick double-click on the title bar and it pops out into a floatable view. Click and drag it’s title bar and move it around the screen to dock it in another position.