By converting our code to meet new standards, we will be able to run natively on 64-bit operating systems. The conversion of our code will also bring an exciting array of new opportunities. With a stronger, more up-to-date code base, we expect to be able to offer you an entirely new generation of Nota Bene.

•	The new Nota Bene will run on 64-bit versions of Windows (no need for XP Mode), and it will hopefully (we’ll address this issue after we’ve finished the main conversion) run on Macs and Linux boxes under WINE (no need of a virtual machine and an installed copy of Windows).
•	It will make the process of adding new features and improvements easier and more efficient, so that we can offer you significant improvements and exciting new features going forward. This will enable us, for example, to dramatically re-engineer cellular tables (in future versions).
•	It will have a new updated look-and-feel, complete with “themes” and “skins,” among other things. The aesthetics of NB have long lagged behind its functionality, and we’re looking forward to a spiffier appearance.
•	It will allow us (soon after the first release) to expand Nota Bene’s advanced language-selection options beyond the Greek, Cyrillic, Arabic, and Hebrew currently supported to the full range of characters provided for by Unicode (including Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Devanagari, and much more).
•	It will provide the basis that will let us include (in a subsequent update) an improved and otherwise radically enhanced version of Orbis that should, among other things, be able to handle RTF, HTML, PDF, and other format files.

Looking forward to a next-generation code base is exciting, but completing the conversion is a huge task. We’ve been working on it in various forms for a number of years now, but there is still work to be done.

Two programmers are key to our success in making this transition in a timely fashion. In 1982, we licensed a copy of XyWrite, a word-processing program developed by XyQuest, and then by the Technology Group, until 2001, when XyWrite development stopped. Dave Erickson, the founder of XyQuest, and his first and very talented hire, Sam Cheung, are intimately familiar with the code on which Nota Bene is based. They are the ones that wrote the word-processing component (which we have been developing on our own for the last ten years). We are extremely fortunate that both Dave and Sam have been available to work on converting the NB code, and both continue to be available and interested in this project.

Of course, Dave and Sam like to get paid for their work (even though both are willing to work for less than market wages). While Nota Bene’s revenues can cover our normal operating expenses, adding two such talented programmers is possible only if we can find an additional source of revenue. That’s where version 9.0 comes in. Version 9.0 is based on the 16-bit code base, but it provides wonderful new functionality that has been added over the past three years by our regular full-time programmers. Your purchase of version 9.0 not only provides you with the best that we now have to offer, but the revenues that we receive will help us to keep Dave and Sam working on the important task of converting our underlying code so that we can provide you with an even more exciting “next-generation” product.