InfoTart

I’ve recently begun work on the next release of FloPrompter, which is tentatively scheduled for mid-September. I’m tentatively calling this version 2.5 because it will have a completely overhauled content authoring window and a critical new feature in the teleprompter player. Here are highlights of what I’m working on right now:

• New Word Processor: The current version of the software uses a free text editor that is s-l-o-w and a little buggy. In FloPrompter version 1.0, the text editor was so bad that it sometimes crashed the program unexpectedly. So when I started working on version 2.0, I focused on making it, well, at least tolerable — and so that it wouldn’t crash the program. Now with version 2.5, I’m throwing away the old text editor and installing a brand new one! The new text editor comes from a different company which only makes word processing software. So it’s fast, flexible, and stable. The new processor will make it much easier to paste text in from other sources, including both web pages and Word documents. Changing the style from italics to bold will also be instantaneous rather than taking several seconds. Boy, I can’t wait to get this in!
• Mirrored Text in the Teleprompter Window: This is probably the most requested feature by customers and would-be customers. Traditional teleprompter hardware might show the text “mirrored” on a monitor, and then reflect that off a transparent screen, which is then read by the person speaking. Because the text is reflected off a screen, it will appear normal to the speaker. (Think of those swanky see-through teleprompter screens that you’ve seen the President use in some of his speeches.) I’m delighted to say that I’ve figured out how to make this feature work and we can expect to see it in version 2.5.
• Find & Replace: I have been working out how to implement the Find and Replace features within the new word processor. The new word processor comes with its own built in Find and Replace dialogs, but I’ve grown to dislike having a separate window open for these features (such as how Microsoft Word does it). So instead, I’ll be implementing these features using thin strips at the bottom of the Authoring Window, just like the Firefox web browser does. It’s so much nicer to be able to see and control the Find and Replace features from within the same window.
• Spell Check: Depending on how long it takes to implement the other features, version 2.5 may also have a new Spell Check feature. This feature will also require specialized software from a third party, so it will also be a bit expensive to pay for and bundle into FloPrompter. Still I think that any decent word processor really needs a built-in spell checker, don’t you?
• Spell-as-You-Type: Most people I know are lousy spellers. (God bless us all!) One of my favorite features in Microsoft Word is when it automatically underlines words that are mis-spelled, and then when you right-click on the word with your mouse, it will show you a little popup menu with a bunch of spelling suggestions. That’s a cool feature! Version 2.5 might ship with this feature, too! But fear not, if it doesn’t make it into 2.5, it is pretty likely to make it into 2.6.
• Remembering the old window size and location: One of my customers called me last week on my new FloSpace telephone number to make a personal plea for this feature (plus a few others). In short, when he launches FloPrompter, he wants the window to show up in the same size and location on the screen as the last time he used it. That sounds pretty reasonable to me, so I’ll be implementing this as a user configurable option — you’ll be able to have it open in the center of the screen every time like it does now or have it remember where it opened last time. The trick to implementing this feature is that some customers use FloPrompter in video production, where they’ll connect a second monitor to the computer and run the teleprompter there (say, under a video camera). So I’ll have to do some error checking to make sure that when the window launches it’s actually visible on screen and not off on a second monitor that might not be connected any more.
• Set a default file save location: This is another customer-requested feature. Right now, when you create a new FloPrompter document and click on “Save”, it’ll show you the contents of your My Documents folder first. After you’ve saved the document (say, to a folder called “Teleprompter Speeches”), it’ll offer to open or save files to the most recently used folder for the rest of the time FloPrompter is running. But once you exit FloPrompter, it resets to My Documents again. The customer says he always saves FloPrompter documents to the same folder so he’s requested the ability to set a user preference for the default folder instead of its being My Documents. That sounds pretty good to me, and it should be in the next release.

Should I buy FloPrompter now or wait until 2.5? Buy it now, please! First of all, you should buy it now because all version 2.xx upgrades are absolutely free for FloPrompter customers. Second, every purchase makes it easier for me to afford to buy the expensive software from third parties that I can bundle into FloPrompter (i.e., the new word processing and spell checking capabilities) to make it an even better product for you to enjoy.

As always, many thanks to the FloSpace customers who’ve written or called with feedback and suggestions! Please see the FloSpace contact page for more information on how you can contact me with your ideas.