What's New?

    Pathagoras is always 'on the move.' Because of great ideas that come from you (and we think of a few good ones ourselves), we continue to enhance the program with new and innovative features, or those that simply make the basic program easier to use.

 

 

Pathagoras 2009, Build 4 (Released May 16, 2009):

 

   There are no fewer than 10 major changes in this release. They include:

 

    (1) 'Show All' function in Clause Selection Screen

           Initially, Pathagoras displays only 'documents' ('.doc' and '.docx' file) in the Clause Selection Screen.  But occasionally you will want to see (and select from) other files that may reside within the same book (folder).  You can now do so. Look for, and click, the <Show All> button located in the Clause Selection Screen. All files in the designated folder will be displayed.

 

    (2)  'Image,' 'Excel' and 'PDF' assembly now available

 

           To complement #1 above, you can now select any of the items you can display for assembly. The result is thay you can now assemble images, Excel spreadsheets, text files and even PDF files.  This is a tremendous leap in assembly power. Mixing text with images and spreadsheets is just something that few other programs have, and none at Pathagoras' price point.

 

    (3)  Automatically convert 'fields' from your legacy Word, HotDocs and other forms into plain text [bracketed variables]

           This has been a much requested feature. Instead of manually converting every variable that you created in other programs you have tried, use Pathagoras to automate the process. Pathagoras can recognize variable construction patterns from several other major programs and convert them to plain text [bracketed variables]. 

           This routine is invoked from the 'Create Variables Assistant' screen. Simply highlight a field from your legacy document  and click the <Convert to Variable> button. Pathagoras handles the rest. 

           We are expanding the list of 'conversion sources' and capabilities daily.  If you have documents created in other programs that you want to convert and which Pathagoras does not recognize, shoot them over to us. We'll parse the text, add the conversion steps to our automation library and shoot you out notice of the upgrade.

    (4) More elegant handling of 'variable construction/variable size' issues

          Sometimes variables are 'too long' to process. This most frequently occurs when variable simply doesn't have a closing bracket. In such cases Pathagoras cannot know where the variable ends. Other times, the variable exceeds a pre-set length, such as 60 or 70 characters. The latter frequently happens when you are adapting 3rd party forms for use with Pathagoras and lengthy 'explanatory' or 'instructional' text resides between square brackets in the original text.  You told us that the previous version of Pathagoras didn't handle these issues well. We agreed and have fixed it.

          A new screen has been created that offers more straightforward ways to handle these situations. Check out this page in the Help Manual for more information.

    (5) Revised Term Works! screen.

          The new Term Works! screen allows you more control over the highlighting process and more 'power' within the screen itself to refine the selection. That will make the 'highlight & add' technique for adding new clauses to your books much faster, more accurate and more intuitive.

 

           Check out these pages in the Help Manual for more information: Term Works!   Bulk Add

 

    (6) Preserve the original variable name within an assembled document

           In the 'typical' Instant Database session, the [bracketed variable] is overwritten by the replacement text, and it is forever gone. No longer. Click the optional 'Preserve Variable' box and you can keep the original variable within your document as hidden text. This in turn allows you recall a previously assembled document, call up the Instant Database, correct a spelling error, change an address, etc., and then 'update' the document. It adds a little bit of processing time to the process, but not a significant amount.

           Check out this page in the Help Manual  for more information.

 

    (7) 'Tree service' has now come to the Instant Database

 

          Many people have requested the ability to save Instant Database records within subfolders of the parent IDB folder. This allows one to organize the IDB records by client or customer by creating a subfolder for each one and storing IDB records there.

           Check out this page in the Help Manual for more information.

    (8) The <<*Repeat*>> function now works when wrapped around entire tables

           Many customers are using tables to format 'identity of parties' blocks at the top of a document and 'signature blocks' at the bottom. There are many other places where a table is the best tool to lay out values in a document. Before this release, the <<*Repeat*>> function did not process the data within such tables by augmenting and incrementing the variables in the table.  It does now, and it does so even if the table is 'complex' (i.e., with columns that span multiple rows, or rows that span multiple columns). Read more about <<*Repeats*>> at this link.

    (9) Search Pathagoras Help  from within Word

          You can now undertake a full search of Pathagoras' On-line Help System without exiting Word.  Click the "Main Menu" OR the "How Do I . . .?" screen. Put a search word or term (including wild card "*" and "?" characters) that you want to learn more about. Click "Submit" and Pathagoras will display the pages in the main Help Manual which discuss the feature. Now, in addition to clicking the contextual help buttons which appear on each screen, you can ask a 'general' question about the program and get instant answers.

 

    (10) 'Reverse to Master' routine (reinstated and improved).

          Most will not recall the original of this routine. A bit of background will help:  Pathagoras allows you mark up an original document for 'disassembly' by putting 'boundary markers' around each clause in a complete document. You would then provide the name and subject that you wanted the clause to bear at the head of each clause. Once properly marked, you could 'Bulk Add' all of the individual clauses into a glossary or a folder. (The result of the exercise was to disassemble a complete document into its component parts.) The marked up original was called the "Master" document. If you wanted to make changes to a new system, you could make them in the Master and then run the Bulk Add routine against the Master to recreate the system.

            Sometimes the changes made to the individual clauses after disassembly (editing, adding new clauses, etc.) made using the Master to recreate the system impractical. The Master no longer looked sufficiently similar to the updated individual clauses to be of much use. Years ago we designed a routine that allowed you to create a Master document from the updated individual clauses (dubbed 'Reverse Bulk-Add'), but paid little attention to that routine over the years. Eventually it failed to work as intended and we hid the routine from view.

 

             Well, we have restored it, improved it and offer it to you again.

             There are many uses for this routine, but they may not appear obvious at first. Here is one: Let's say you want to make bulk changes to a folder of clauses. You do not want to have to open each clause to make the changes. Using this tool, you could 'assemble' the clauses into a Master document, make the changes and then disassemble them into a new glossary or folder. (Pathagoras offers other means to accomplish the same end, but now you have another to many will be more intuitive.) Read more about Reverse Bulk Add (Creating a Master Document) at this link.

 

 

Pathagoras 2009, Build 3 (Released March 16, 2009):

 

   The major changes in this release are:

 

    (1) Easier to 'sanitize' documents and

    (2) Map a removable drive as a SmartPath

 

   The specifics:

 

       (1) With the earlier releases, the process of 'Sanitizing'  a document (converting 'personal-text' into a variable) was 'one-name-at-a-time. It was pretty smooth and remarkably elegant, but not as smooth and elegant as it is now.

    Now you can pre-mark the first appearance of each 'personal text' block with a special symbol. On command, Pathagoras will locate each such marked block and will present all blocks found onto an Instant Database screen. There you can provide the desired replacement text, press Next and effective convert all personal text to variables at one time.

• So,  lets say the text is this:  "This Contract, made by and between ABC Company (referenced herein as "ABC") and XYZ Corporation (referenced herein as "XYZ") . . .")
  

• The 'special' markers are simply "+[" at the beginning and "]" at the end of the block. So now the text will read thus:  "This Contract, made by and between +[ABC Company] (referenced herein as "+[ABC]")and +[XYZ Corporation] (referenced herein as "+[XYZ]"). . .") (The blue is for emphasis. It is not required.)
  
  

• When you run the Create Variable Assistant, press the +[. . .] button on the screen. Pathagoras will identify each pre-marked term, convert it (asking only for the variable name) and proceed to make all conversions automatically for you.

    The benefit of this method is that you can provide variable named to all potential variables, but before committing to the name, change your mind. Only after you are comfortable with the assignments do you commit.

 

       (2)   In the prior versions, drive "A:\" was the '13th' SmartPath. It showed up at the top center of the PathSmart screen and as the first entry of the SaveSmart list of folders you could select. You could directly display, or save to, drive A:\ by clicking a button, and (just like with the other SmartPaths) without navigation.

    For anyone born before 1980, you know what drive 'A:\' is -- it's the floppy drive that read floppy disks. (Born after 1980 . . . who knows?)  But few people use floppy disk any more. However, lots of people have thumb drives, external backup drives, etc., and it made sense to remove the hard coding to A:\ and let the user (you) choose the best use of this feature. So, now you can designate the 13th SmartPath. Do so via the Settings screen ('Options' tab) in the PathSmart system.

OTHER CHANGES: 

• On the Main Menu, we added a Read Me First Button which leads to a Read Me First Document which will take the new users through the steps needed to create an absolute minimum configuration to automate a document: (1) creating variables in a document and (2) creating a DropDown List so that a copy of that document can be quickly recalled for 'assembly' and personalizing with the Instant Database.
  
  We are hoping that this addition will satisfy requests of some who need just a quick taste
of the program before they are willing to delve deeper.

BUGS:  As typical in any new release, we discovered a corrected a few bugs in 2009 SP1: