We have issued this second set of updates this month because we have finished some extra features and enhancements early! The two really big items are the new ‘Presentation Mode’ and much smarter Attachments handling.
Here are a couple of short videos that summarise the key changes and demonstrate how the new features work:
Presentation mode
This screenshot illustrates the new ‘fullscreen’ view with the menu bars stripped out and a pared-down panel, showing only the goal name, notes and attachments. It also shows the new Attachments display and image preview.
You can access Presentation Mode using the new View option in the OS menu bar (click the ‘X’ top right or press ‘Esc’ to revert to the standard mode).
Attachments
The Attachments tab now displays attached files as icons. For image files a preview appears on mouseover and there are different options to show the image, including fullscreen.
To indicate the presence of attachments on a goal, an asterisk appears next to the paper clip icon in the tab.
AIR 2.0 (currently in beta) offers further improvements here – particularly the facility to open attachments directly in their native applications rather than through your browser. If you do not want to wait until AIR 2.0 goes on public release, you can download the beta version here (check the License Agreement box and download Adobe AIR 2 Runtime).
HTML reports
HTML reports now include details of any attachments present (with live links) and text in user-defined fields.
Bug fixes
There were a few, er, “interesting” bugs that needed fixing urgently! The most obvious was the issue with the German ‘Get started with Goalscape’ template that caused an exception on starting Goalscape. There was also a problem opening old goalscapes that had goals with very small Importance.
There are a few more fixes and a couple of minor tweaks to the look and feel. As always you can find a full listing in the Release Notes.
Goalscape Online beta test
We already have a basic alpha version running and we are putting it through its paces right now. Many of you have already signed up for the beta test: this is still open and you can sign up on this forum thread.
Goalscape Affiliate Program
Lots of people have also joined our affiliate program: if any more of you want to earn rewards by helping us to spread the word about Goalscape you can sign up here.
Most of the changes in the latest updates are in Goalscape’s look and feel. Here is a short video to illustrate the most significant:
Start and End dates
Goalscape enforces the rule that subgoal start and end dates must lie within those of their parents. If you try to select an invalid (grayed out) date a pop-up tooltip explains the constraint. You can now delete dates.
Goal names
Once you select a goal, if you click it again the ‘Rename goal’ pop-up text entry field will appear. (A faster double-click still accesses Focus view functionality.)
Hotkey options
We have extended the hotkey options so those who dislike moving the mouse can now cut, copy, paste and delete goals with standard ‘Ctrl+’ functions (Cmd+ on the Mac) instead of using the relevant icons.
Responsibility
When you copy a goal from another goalscape, any new people it brings with it (as Responsible) are added to the target goalscape’s Responsible list.
Look details
Further refinements of the automatic resizing of goal names
Changed order of items in the right-click context menu; invalid options are disabled and grayed out
More compact Search results list
There are other minor tweaks to the look and feel and a few bug fixes. A full listing of all changes appears in the Release Notes.
Lots of you are already using the forum to ask questions, make suggestions and report problems. Your feedback is very valuable to us and we always try to respond quickly. In fact some of these latest bug fixes are the result of your notifications, so thanks again!
This release of Goalscape delivers greatly improved performance for quicker interactions and slicker navigation. Better performance is an ongoing goal for us and this step took a lot of work over a long time. The faster response times are especially valuable when working with very large goalscapes: our company goalscape contains hundreds of goals and it runs like a dream!
The other significant enhancements are in the appearance of goal names in the goal map: the automatic resizing is now very sophisticated and the manual adjustment is finer.
Most of the other changes are subtle refinements of the functionality and look and feel, along with some small bug fixes:
Color-coding
The color-coding window now has a checkbox ‘Apply to subgoals’ in place of the selection button. We have also corrected the intermittent bugs that caused changes to subgoal and neighbor colors.
Application window preferences
Goalscape now stores the selected size and in position of the application window. For example, if you are in full-screen mode when you Quit, it will open in full-screen on restart.
User-defined text fields
Cut or copy and paste now includes the contents of all user-defined text fields and any attachments. The selection of user-defined text field is preserved on navigation to another goal that has the same text field. Search finds text in user-defined fields.
Save As
We have tidied up the default filenames and folders for first Save and subsequent uses of Save As. Details of all the changes are in the Release Notes. If you have any trouble updating Goalscape with the automatic Install process, you can download the latest version here.
Goalscape Online
Development of Goalscape Online, our new online collaboration service, is going really well and we are confident that we can deliver it this quarter. Before we launch it we will run a full beta test, so if you would like to participate please post on the Goalscape Online Beta Test thread under ‘Questions’ on the forum.
Goalscape Affiliate Program
We are extending our affiliate program and have now implemented a new software tracking system for such business. So if you like Goalscape and know others who would like it too, you can become an affiliate and earn rewards by helping us to spread the word! Click here for full details and registration form.
Support questions If you have any problems, questions or suggestions please post on the forum. Thanks again to those who have done so in the past few weeks: your feedback has been a great help in finding errors; and there have been some interesting discussions about future developments.
The most obvious change in the latest software update is that Goalscape now starts with an open goalscape “Get started with Goalscape”. This contains a basic user guide and a few standard templates. We will be adding more templates soon – in fact if you have a good goalscape of your own particular area of expertise please let us know. We may even ask if we can include it in the next ‘Get started…’ so other people can use it!
The other main enhancements to functionality are:
Color-coding Applies colored borders to goals (seven colors are available). You can color individual goals, subgoal areas or entire sectors of the goal map. This adds another dimension to Goalscape’s visual model and opens up some new options for “tagging” goals.
User-definable text fields There is a tab in the Notes area to open a new text field, to which you can attach your own label.
Refined Search function Search can now find text that appears in goals that are not in the current view and even in other open goalscapes.
Navigation options If you are fed up with moving the mouse (thanks, Emmett!) you can now navigate around the goal map using the cursor arrow keys.
Themes You can now choose between the standard ocean blue or graphite black as the background color. More colors (and different options to apply them) are coming soon.
There are some minor fixes and other changes to the functionality and look. As always a full listing of all changes appears in the Release Notes.
We like seeing your comments and suggestions on the forum and we try to respond straight away. Let us know what you think of these latest updates.
