We receive customer feedback on a regular basis and it is usually very positive, however we rarely receive critical comments from people who have tried Surfulater and found it wanting, or simply doesn’t meet their needs. These critical comments are just as, if not even more important to us, ensuring we are doing the best we can to evolve Surfulater to satisfy broader community needs.  I am hopeful this new uninstall feedback form will give us some new found insights.

Flipping back to positive feedback, Jason Ebaugh, Founder of APIS Scientific sent me the following e-mail last week, which I am reproducing here in full with his permission.

I found out about surfulater on http://www.outlinersoftware.com/

I have been using it less than 24 hours, but have done a lot of research on the web in that time (as is typical for me).  Even in this short amount of time, it is obvious that Surfulator is a lot slicker than my previous method. I have found myself looking back thinking how much faster things could have gone if I would have been using it all along.

So, so far, so good!
JasonE

I have to say that feedback such as this is great to receive and helps reinforce that we have developed a good product that people find truly useful. Thanks again Jason.

The Outliner Software web site focuses on discussing Outlining software, however it also ventures into Information Management software and related areas. A number of the regulars there are Surfulater users, so you will see it mentioned from time to time. I also make the occasional appearance.

All feedback is important to us, whether you are new to Surfulater, just checking it out or have been using it for ages, we do want to hear from you. Our new Support Center has a Suggestions Category which is a good place to start.

Neville

The new V3.31.0.0 release contains several nice new features along with the usual variety of bug fixes.  The first new feature is the ability to drag articles from the content window to either the Knowledge tree or to the ‘See Also’ field of another article in the content window.

When the mouse cursor is positioned over the Label column of an article it changes shape to a hand cursor, which indicates that a drag can be performed. This is available when the normal Knowledge Tree view is selected, as with other tree drag & drop operations.

Article drag can commence

When the left button is pressed and the mouse is moved a little, the cursor changes to a drag image showing the Title of the article as shown here.

Article drag commenced

This is the same as what you see when dragging an article in the Knowledge tree. The final step is to move the mouse to wherever you want the article to go and then release the left button to perform the drop operation. To cancel a drag & drop press Escape.

The next new feature is the ability to quickly Tag articles using selected text.

Tag articles from selected content

In this example we selected the word museum in an article, then right clicked on it to open the context menu and chose the new Add Tag from selection menu item. The article is then tagged with museum. The selected text can of course include multiple words. Note that this can be used in both both view and edit modes. A handy new feature I’m sure you will find useful.

For more details on this release see the V3 Release Notes topic in the Surfulater Help and the related Help topics, which have been updated accordingly.

That’s it for this post. We hope you find the new features in this release useful and look forward to your comments as always. You can head on over to the Surfulater Download page now.

Neville

I did a quick evaluation of the most popular WordPress Social Bookmarking services and widgets and SexyBookmarks rated highly and looked pretty. Unlike most other programs of its type, it didn’t use any 3rd party service/web site for its operation, which was another big plus.

Shortly after the launch of the new blog I received an e-mail from one of our Surfulater users informing me that the SexyBookmarks Facebook sharing option wasn’t working. I checked and he was right. Upon further investigation I found that the Twitter share wasn’t working correctly either. I tried contacting Shareaholic via. their Bug Report web page, however I had an uneasy feeling that this may not have been working, as it never acknowledged that my submission actually went through. I tried a few times, then waited a week and bit to give them a reasonable amount of time to respond. I’d still not heard back so I used their Contact form and explained that I thought they may have a problem with their Bug report form and explaining the problems I was having with SexyBookmarks. The contact form worked and my submission was acknowledged.

I’ve waited another two weeks and still not heard a peep from the SexyBookmarks folks.  Upon checking their blog I see their last post was back in May this year. Maybe SexyBookmarks was more popular than they expected and they have been a bit overwhelmed by it all, who knows.

At the end of the day I certainly can’t expect to get any assistance from them. After all they’ve provided this for free, and all it has cost me is some of my time. I’m sure we’ve all dealt with companies where we’ve paid good money for a product and still received lousy service. It really is quite frustrating when this happens.

My take away from this is that anyone who develops a product or service, be it free or paid needs to give serious thought to how they will provide support, and the resources they will need to do so. Customer satisfaction is more important than ever today, if you want to succeed. The Internet has been a great leveler between companies and what they produce and the consumers that use their products. Dissatisfaction spreads like wildfire and rebuilding customer satisfaction and loyalty is a long and costly exercise.

So Sexybooks has been removed and replaced by AddThis which appears to be working well so far. I’ve also added the AddThis social sharing widget to the footer of all pages on the Surfulater Web site, which is a nice plus.

The blog software we use is the ever popular WordPress and we had fallen quite some way behind in updates, for the version we were using. Updating Web Server packages is not something I am fond of doing, so it is much easier to keep putting such tasks off. And that is something I am quite good at. In this specific case I am very pleased to say the entire upgrade process was painless and trouble free. I did lots of backups along the way in the clear expectation something would go wrong, but it didn’t!

Once the WordPress upgrade was complete it was time to upgrade the Blog sites theme to match the new Surfulater site theme. I have strayed a little and included a nice seductive banner image which I feel distinguishes the Blog from the actual Surfulater product site.

I’ve also taken this opportunity to add some enhancements, which I’ve been wanting to do for quite some time. You will notice two things that stand out below each post.  The first is the social media sharing bar which most people will be familiar with. This enables you share a blog post with sites like Digg, Facebook, Google Buzz etc. or E-mail the details to a friend or colleague. It is simply a way of enabling you to help us tell more people about our great product, Surfulater.

The next new feature is the list of ‘Related Posts’ which you (only) see when viewing a post in full. ie. click on the post Title. Note that some posts may not have any related articles. These lists are automatically generated and some fine tuning may be required. However from the brief inspections I’ve done they seem quite good and will enhance blog usage. It has also dawned on me that this could be an interesting capability to include in Surfulater one day.

The Blog Sidebar now includes ‘lists of Recent Posts’ as well as ‘Recent Comments’. Note that ‘Recent Posts’ are also displayed in the footer area of each page on the main Surfulater site.

The WordPress upgrade was a major one which gives us a much enhanced package of features than we had previously.  We are already making good use of some of the new features and will do more as time permits. From a site administrators point of view the overall experience has jumped up a notch or four, which is great.

If you have any suggestions for improvements to the blog do let us now.

Neville

I won’t bore you with a blow by blow description of the design choices we made, the sites implementation details, nor run through the final set of pages. Instead please go and browse the site and come up with your own considered opinion. And of course please let us know if you think we’ve succeeded, if not why not and where further improvements can be made.

I am well aware of certain areas I’d like to see more work done on, and some further pages I’d like to see included. That said the new site is now far enough advanced for it to go live and replace the original site, which is what we’ve done. It is also time to get back to work on Surfulater itself.

Seasoned Surfulater’ers will notice the new Surfulater Support Center, which will in time completely replace the existing support forums. (At least that’s the plan). You will also notice it is devoid of content, which will be addressed as you start new discussions and as we build up the Knowledge Base/FAQ area. I’ll write more about this shortly, suffice to say it was time for a new start with package that better met our collective needs.

Another new and noteworthy addition is our Surfulater Mailing List which we’ll use as yet another way to keep in touch with you. And as a special bonus we are offering subscribers an instant discount when they activate their subscription. This is a great opportunity for your friends and colleagues to start using Surfulater, so please do tell them about it.

As is often the case this turned out to be a bigger project than we envisaged, however I really couldn’t be happier with the final result and with knowing that the core we’ve put together will serve us all well into the future.

I mentioned in the last blog post that the new site would be built using a Content Management System or CMS. My original thoughts were to outsource the production of the new site using the CMS and I found someone who I feel would have done a very good job. However in the end I decided that I really needed a thorough understanding of the CMS in order to further develop the site and also to maintain it. And so outsourcing was scratched and the journey to learn the CMS was begun.

As often happens with new projects and new tools great progress is made early on and you are lulled into thinking that pace will continue, but this is not always so, as was the case here. I commented on the weekend that I feel like I am a hurdler at the moment, instead of a software developer. I run along smoothly for a bit and around the bend and out of sight a hurdle appears. With all my might I get over it, only for the pattern to repeat over and over again, or at least that’s how it seems.

However I do really feel that all of the hurdles are now behind me, no more issues to set me back, just producing the content, organizing it and testing everything works as it should. I have to say that even though my schedule has blown out and that I am behind on work on Surfulater it has been and continues to be a worthwhile exercise, and one I am glad I took on board and didn’t outsource. I’ve learned a lot, verified my choice of CMS was the correct one and have set up a system that will hold us in good stead for the foreseeable future.

And here is that glimpse I promised – it is today’s snapshot of the new home page.

Work continues apace and will hopefully see the light of day before too much longer. I really can’t wait to get back to work on Surfulater.

We will receive the final production ready material in the next few days, and then need to embark on first of all modifying it to work with our newly chosen content management system (CMS), finalizing the design for the new site structure and then writing new content and rewriting existing content for it. It is hard to say how long this will all take, however I would love to see the new site up by mid May.

In order to meet the requirements of the new CMS we’ve had to upgrade several of the major software packages on our Web Server. This is work I do not like doing as something always seems to break when big changes (or sometimes even small ones) are made to Web servers. So this time our Forums, Issue Tracking system and some other stuff broke. I started upgrading the Web server on Friday last and then spent most of the weekend trying to get everything working properly again. The Forums were off-line for a day and by far caused the biggest technical headache. The Issue Tracker is still not working, but I have yet to take a serious look at it.

Now that the Web Server has had its big update and appears to be running quicker and better than ever, I have decided to upgrade the Forum software, which is also overdue. You may therefore see the Forum closed again in the coming days, though hopefully for just a short period. E-Mail support is of course available as always. So that’s the second lot of good news.

And if that’s not enough I’d also like to update the blog software and want to look at a new theme for it, as it is also due for a makeover.

All of this is about helping us to deliver a better user experience for visitors to our site, especially for our Surfulater Customers.

Some people think a software product is just the application you run. To us is it much more. It is a complete package that encompasses the software, documentation, support (both pre and post sales), the web site and the blog. We continue to strive to deliver the best package we can so that our users have a great experience using Surfulater.

We also need to do a better job of converting folks who visit the site into happy paying customers. A lot has changed in the art and craft of Web Design since the Surfulater site was developed and the challenge now is to use the latest design techniques to create a better and more effective web site.

A part of this challenge is finding a good web designer or company that meets our needs and budget and is on the same page as me. ie. We understand each other and can communicate effectively. I have a fairly good idea of what I want and have written a Design Brief which has been sent to interested parties. I’ve had a dialogue with about a dozen designers so far and still don’t have one locked in ready to go. The task would be easier if I had a larger budget.

Finding a competent professional to do work for you and that you can afford, regardless of profession, never seems to be easy. At least not for me.

We are going to knock our house down and build a new one. We started talking to builders, architects and designers over six months ago after spending the previous nine months planning this project. We now have a builder and have just signed on a designer, but no plans yet, other than what we’ve designed. This is a much bigger project and journey than creating the new Surfulater Web site. That said I wish the later was moving along somewhat quicker.

If anyone knows of any good web site designers please point them my way.

There are various things you can do to prevent such nefarious events from occurring.

First never ever open an E-mail attachment unless you know who sent it and why they sent it. And remember anyone can spoof the senders e-mail address, so you need to verify that the e-mail really is from who you think it is from. Checking the full e-mail headers should alert you to a fake e-mail or failing that e-mail the sender and ask them. Opening bogus attachments is the easiest way to get your PC infected.

Antivirus programs are the next line of defense and you absolutely must be running one and ensure its virus definitions are updated daily.

Next comes Firewalls. Firewalls prevent (Internet) traffic from entering and exiting your PC, thus blocking unauthorized access while permitting authorized communications. Firewalls excel at helping to protect your PC, however they are usually complex to setup, manage and use correctly. Firewalls come in two types; Hardware which runs in your Router etc. and Software which runs on your PC. We are only discussing Software Firewalls here.

The Microsoft Windows Firewall is easy to use, however it is limited in its functionality compared to third party firewalls such as Comodo and Agnitum Outpost. I have no intention of discussing the merits or otherwise of any particular Firewall, suffice to say searching for “Windows Firewalls” on Google will give you plenty to read.

Now it’s time to come back to the title of this article “Firewalls are wonderful things except when they aren’t.” I mentioned that Firewalls can be complex to setup and manage and herein lies the problem. In fact I was prompted to (finally) write this article after a brand new Surfulater user Peter, ran into problems on day one. Fortunately he took it in his stride, but we all know from experience how frustrating it can be when something (new) doesn’t work as expected. To make matters worse this was on a weekend, so normally the issue wouldn’t have been resolved for a few days. However we’d had a Surfulater promotion that week and I wanted to ensure all the new users were happily using their latest acquisition, so I was keeping a close eye on our Support Forums and E-Mails.

A picture or two is worth a thousand words. When you open the sample Surfulater Knowledge Base and select the “Atlantica Blended Wing Body” article this is part of what you should see.

And this is what Peter saw. None of the images shown in the screen shot above are being displayed.

After a few e-mails back and forth the cause was discovered and the issue resolved. You’ve probably worked out by now that Peter’s Firewall was the culprit that prevented Surfulater from displaying images. If so you are correct. Now let me explain why.

The Surfulater content window (in the screen shots above) is in essence a Web Browser and like a Web Browser it retrieves its images from a Web Server. However in this case the Web Server is not out on the Internet, but built-in to Surfulater. In fact Surfulater’s Web Server is used for a variety of tasks beyond serving up images, including for example providing the list of matching tags for Tag auto-suggest. Now if your Firewall is set to Block Surfulater’s Web Server, it is unable to do its job and serve up the requested content resulting in missing images etc. etc.

When you install and run Surfulater for the first time your Firewall will pop-up and ask you whether to Allow or Block various requests it makes, as shown in this screen shot using Outpost Firewall.

For Surfulater to operate correctly you must set your Firewall to Allow Surfulater to perform all activities. Anything less will cause problems. Depending on which Firewall you are using, there can be several of these pop-up windows, which you need to confirm, to allow access.

Firewalls will also prevent Surfulater from checking to see whether there is a new release available and informing you of such. This screen shot shows the Windows Security Alert prompt which is displayed the very first time Surfulater is run.

When we do the check for a new release no information of any sort is sent back to us, so you do not need to be concerned about your privacy. Further the automated ‘Check for a new release’ is completely optional and can be turned off or on at any time. When it is off you can still use Help|Check for a New Release to perform a manual check. We therefore request that you select the Unblock option here as well, so that we can deliver an optimal user experience.

Clearly there is a perfectly legitimate and necessary requirement for applications such as Surfulater so send and receive both local and Internet  traffic and therefore not have Firewall Blocks put on them. You need to judge the veracity of Firewall block/unblock requests on a case by case basis, taking into account where the application came from in the first place. If it was purchased directly from a reputable vendor there should be no reason to block its access.

I hope you found this useful and that it will assist future Surfulater users, should they run into the same problem Peter did.

If you’ve had any specific good or bad experiences with Firewalls or applications which abuse your trust, comment away.

Knowledge Tree snapshots remember which folders are expanded and collapsed (ie. the shape of the tree) along with the current selection and Knowledge Tree Filter settings. They expand on a simpler notion of a bookmark and are far more useful.

Large knowledge bases with lots of folders and articles can become unwieldy to the point where you waist too much time opening and closing folders, as you work your way around the tree. Snapshots solve this issue by quickly restoring the tree to a previously saved state.

This screen shots show’s the “New Snapshot” dialog. Snapshots are kept in each Knowledge Base and you can create as many as you want.

You can restore any snapshot by selecting it from the Snapshots menu on the dropdown arrow on the Knowledge Tree toolbar Snapshots button.

And you can rename and delete snapshots using the “Manage Tree Snapshots” menu item shown above.

See the Help Topic: Power Features | Knowledge Tree Snapshots for more information.

Knowledge Tree Filtering has been updated to only include the folders that are expanded for the currently matching filter, when filtering is turned off. Previously all folders that matched as each letter was typed for the filter text were left expanded. Filtering has also been updated to restore the Tree to the original expanded/collapsed folders and selection when Backspace removes all characters in the filter string.

When I first implemented Tree Filters I thought these behaviours were quite reasonable, but after using it for a while and following on from comments on our support forum this clearly was not the case. These changes considerably improve the usability of Filters.

The new Tree Snapshots also work in conjunction with Tree Filters enabling you to save and restore filtered tree views.

For complete details of the new features and fixes in this release see the V3 Release Notes topic in the Surfulater Help.

Downloads are in the usual place on the Surfulater home and download pages.