Blurb BookSmart 1.9.3 has been released

bruceblurbbruceblurb Registered Users Posts: 48 Big grins
edited April 8, 2008 in SmugMug Pro Sales Support
Hey folks, here's a post from Kathy, our Director of Customer Experience, about our just-released new version of Blurb BookSmart software! Please note it is still in "soft release" so we'll likely have a bug patch in the next couple of weeks but we wanted to make sure you are among the first to get it!

--bw


BookSmart 1.9.3 is now in soft release. As we did with our previous release, we like to give our forums community the first chance to take the new BookSmart for a spin. We won’t make it massively public for another few days, but it is ready for you to pound on it and let us know what you think. Here’s what we went for:
• Performance and stability – This build is much more stable and should have far fewer major bugs, if any. That was our main goal with this version, so you’ll notice fewer add-ons and more improvements under the hood.
• Copy and paste functionality works better, and your text will retain its formatting from other applications.
• Text handling in general is vastly improved, and text flows well across multiple containers and pages.
• We’ve improved the page layout handling. Selecting layouts and switching things around handles better.
• Books created in older versions of BookSmart will now have access to all layouts in the application, not just those that were available when the book was created. Please note: Any layouts that have been removed in the newest version of BookSmart can still be used in old books by selecting the desired page and using Duplicate Layout.
• The font menu now features every font’s plain-text name and a WYSIWYG styling that shows what each font looks like.
• The font color menu now remembers your recent font colors.
• The baby, cat and dog themes have been gone for a while, but we brought back the backgrounds, borders, and ornaments.
• We added four new collage layouts.
Go ahead and download the new version and let us know what you think. Please post your comments here in this post. We’ll check back frequently, answer questions, and make improvements if you find anything new for us to fix.
– Kathy

Comments

  • dogwooddogwood Registered Users Posts: 2,572 Major grins
    edited March 26, 2008
    But will it work from behind a firewall? I've had problems with previous versions of blurb booksmart not working unless I turned off my firewall, which I don't do on my production computer.

    Ended up doing my blurb book using a unfirewalled laptop-- and that worked fine.

    Portland, Oregon Photographer Pete Springer
    website blog instagram facebook g+

  • bruceblurbbruceblurb Registered Users Posts: 48 Big grins
    edited March 26, 2008
    dogwood wrote:
    But will it work from behind a firewall? I've had problems with previous versions of blurb booksmart not working unless I turned off my firewall, which I don't do on my production computer.

    Ended up doing my blurb book using a unfirewalled laptop-- and that worked fine.

    Don't know that we've changed anything on the security front Pete. I would download the new version and see if it works for you.

    Best,

    --bw
  • dogwooddogwood Registered Users Posts: 2,572 Major grins
    edited March 26, 2008
    Okay, thanks Bruce. I'll give it a whirl later tonight.

    Portland, Oregon Photographer Pete Springer
    website blog instagram facebook g+

  • TrinityTrinity Registered Users Posts: 4 Beginner grinner
    edited March 29, 2008
    Hope this isn't a dumb question, but...
    I just stumbled on the SmugMug-Blurb connection today. (Sorry. I've been busy having a baby.) I've read the previous threads, and it appears that past versions of BookSmart only capture pictures from SmugMug -- not captions.

    Does this new version of BookSmart add that functionality by chance? I'm a writer who also enjoys taking pictures, so the captions that go with my photos are just as important as the images themselves, to me.

    Kelly (Trinity)
  • bruceblurbbruceblurb Registered Users Posts: 48 Big grins
    edited April 8, 2008
    Hard Launch Blurb BookSmart 1.9.4
    We've just released Blurb BookSmart™ 1.9.4. Bookmaking should get better and easier with each release, and this new version has achieved that.

    Most significantly, BookSmart performs better and is more stable than ever. It handles better, it functions more intuitively, and you'll encounter fewer bugs, if any at all.

    You can expect improvements when working with text. Your words will flow better from page to page and they'll retain their formatting when you cut and paste from other applications.

    There are also new collage layouts and we've brought back the dog, cat, and baby illustrations.

    There are more details about the new BookSmart in the Blurberati Blog, but it's ready for download right now. It works with all the books you've been working on, so there's no need to wait. Test it out and let us know what you think.

    Happy bookmaking,
    The Blurberati
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