New ITP update
Aia Software is currently finalizing an update for ITP/Server 3.5, ITP/OnLine Server 3.5 and ITP/MDK Repository 3.5. This update will be available in October and will provide some great enhancements for both existing customers and new customers: Rich Text Blocks, Conditions in Content Wizards and PDF/A support.
Rich Text Blocks: text blocks with rich layout features
Text Blocks are content elements for documents containing text, basic layout and variables. Text blocks are document and layout independent, re-usable and the basis for text blocks correspondence where users can interactively compose their documents based on pre-defined text blocks. In this process selected text blocks can be previewed in the browser. Text Blocks are also the basic content element for the Content Wizards introduced with ITP 3.5.
Text Blocks are a key element to enabling the business to manage content but they provide only limited layout features. Rich Text Blocks on the other hand are word processer based content elements in which content designers can use all of the word processor’s features in addition to being able to insert variables. Rich Text Blocks differ from ITP’s standard model documents and includes because they can be used exactly like regular Text Blocks, including the use in Content Wizards and preview functionality in the browser.
The September update will provide support for Rich Text Blocks in projects that use the Microsoft Word format (.doc). Support for the Open Document Format and the Microsoft Office Open XML format (.docx) will be added in a future update.
Conditions in Content Wizards: lifting conditions into the GUI
Content Wizards have now been enhanced with Conditions. Content designer can add conditions to all elements in a Content Wizard. Conditions for text, date and numerical values are available. This will in a lot of cases effectively lift conditions from the ITP instruction language to the GUI designer for Content Wizards thus greatly enhancing the capabilities of Content Wizards.
The enhanced Content Wizard together with Rich Text Blocks increase the potential of replacing traditional ITP model documents with Content Wizard based document tremendously.
PDF/A support
ITP/Server will get enhanced PDF/A support in the September update. ITP/Server’s PDF commands will be enhanced with parameters to tell them to produce proper PDF/A output. PDF/A is an ISO standard important for the longer term archiving of documents. ISO 19005-1 defines PDF/A as “a file format based on PDF, known as PDF/A, which provides a mechanism for representing electronic documents in a manner that preserves their visual appearance over time, independent of the tools and systems used for creating, storing or rendering the files.”