DECEMBER 23, 2011
ANNOUNCING
Nota Bene 10 is our totally reworked next-generation version that runs natively on 64-bit versions of Windows, without requiring virtual mode. It is now available in a “beta” release. While not every feature is yet implemented, the program has been tested and improved through seven releases of an “alpha” version, and it is now solid enough, useful enough, and, frankly, exciting enough for us to now make it available more broadly, even if not yet in final form.
Whether you've been running NB in virtual mode on 64-bit Windows while anxiously waiting to use Nota Bene, Ibidem, and Archiva directly on Windows 7, or you've been working fine using NB on a 32-bit system, all the while eagerly looking forward to the next-generation of Nota Bene, the wait is over.
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Take a quick peek at Nota Bene 10.
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While version 10 is only available in a "beta," which means that it remains a work in progress, seven editions of an “alpha” version have been tested by a large number of NB users over the course of the last six months. This extensive testing on a wide variety of systems has enabled us to discover and address most of the serious issues (crashes, lockups, etc.). While issues remain, including some printing problems and some difficulties when importing Word files directly (you should be able to open RTF files), to name but two, most of these have been encountered and reported by only a couple of people, and are believed to depend on specific configuration settings and document-specific formatting. We’ll still work to fix these, of course, but they should not impact most users. Overall, we think that you will find the program to be quite stable. In the words of one user of the alpha, “NB 10 Alpha Release 7 has been holding up very well as I use it for serious work.”
SOME CANDID COMMENTS FROM USERS
OF EARLIER “ALPHA” VERSIONS OF NOTA BENE 10
THESE SNIPPETS GIVE YOU A QUICK BEHIND-THE-SCENES PEAK
AT THE DEVELOPMENT PROCESS, WHILE ALSO SHOWING THAT
EVEN EARLIER VERSIONS OF NB 10 WERE USABLE
[RELEASE 2]
“This morning I installed Nota Bene Version 10 Alpha 2 on my 64-bit
Windows 7 desktop. I'm just an hour into this, but Wow!
NB 10 looks fabulous and it's running fine.”
[RELEASE 3]
“I have now downloaded 10a3 and have been using it regularly since the weekend. There are some issues, most of which you have already noted in your release notes. They are largely cosmetic from my point of view and I'm sure you'll work them out. . . . But the real good news is that I have not had a single crash yet.”
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“LOVE the new version.”
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“Very nice job we are doing on 10. I couldn’t be happier. . . I have been playing with 10. As I said, I really enjoy working with it. It is a nice piece of software.”
[RELEASE 4]
“I like the NB10 very much and cannot wait for the beta or final version.”
***
“I kept my old computer with NB9 and used it until the second release of NB 10, which I have been using [now in release 4] for most things.”
[RELEASE 5]
“Hopefully V 10 will give Nota Bene a tremendous boost in sales and users, which you richly deserve.”
[RELEASE 6]
“Yesterday I installed NB10alpha on my my laptop and my desktop.
I'm thrilled with it.”
***
“I'm learning a lot in this testing process about how complex and multifaceted building such programs is, appreciating more and more your and Team NB's dedication and hard work, and looking forward to release 7 and onward.”
[RELEASE 7]
“I ended up writing in MS Word and formatting all my footnotes from scratch (since my current laptop is running with a 64-bit OS without the capability of running a virtual XP within in). Pain-in-the neck! I'm looking forward to being able to use Nota Bene again for academic writing!”
***
“I see that NB10 is getting to the level of a graphic word processor
able to attract new users.”
[Editor’s Note: You can still run NB 10 in a clean screen,
without toolbars, icons, pop-ups, etc.]
***
“I don't envy your work to get 10 right, successfully out the door, and another in the long line of great accomplishments in NB's history over the last almost 30 years! But I sure will await with anticipation the beta then final versions.”
***
“Looking forward to NB 10 avidly...”
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In many ways, then, the biggest problem with the beta is not lack of stability (although we cannot guarantee that it will be problem free), but the fact that it is incomplete. Among the major features that are not working in this first release of the beta are the following:
- Orbis
- Insertion and editing of images and objects, including frames
- Manuscript files
In addition, various dialogs, or portions of dialogs, including some of the new toolbar icons, right-click pop-up menus, side dialog bars, etc., are not yet fully implemented. You will find these non-functioning options scattered throughout the program. But the dialogs that are most necessary should now be working. You will also see that NB Help (F1) is still the v9 version. You should be able to get the help you need (most existing features work the same way), but screen shots will not be up-to-date and there may be some discrepancies.
In order to make it easier for you to start using the NB 10 beta immediately, we have designed it so that it can be used interchangeably with NB 9:
- If running on 32-bit Windows, you can install it into the same folder as NB 9, and access the same files, and use the same Ibidem databases
- If running on 64-bit Windows, you’ll obviously want to install NB 10 on the host system, not on the virtual machine, but you can still access the same files, and use the same Ibidem and Archiva databases
This convenient setup means that you can start using NB 10
without any worries — you can use NB 10 as little or as much
as you like, returning to the installed version of NB 9 whenever
your needs or preferences dictate. It’s really that simple.
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There’s no reason to wait to get started on the new break-through Nota Bene — you’ll enter a whole new world of convenience (and, finally, beauty — we think you’ll love the radically enhanced interface, especially since you have near total control over how it appears) while being automatically notified and provided with an option to download and install new releases to the beta and/or the final release version, when it is ready.
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