Corel released CorelDRAW X4 today, with over 50 new features for designers. We’re happy to say that CorelDRAWConceptShare integration is one of them, we even got a mention in the promo video about CorelDRAW X4. I guess that says both companies are pretty excited about bringing web based collaboration right into desktop software.
We’ll have more news soon about how the integration works. If you just can’t wait to see for yourself, take a spin with a 15 day full featured free trial of CorelDRAW X4.
We’re super proud of our partners at Corel for launching CorelDRAW X4. Having worked in the desktop software world myself at Flock, I know how many months of hard work that goes into each release. We web companies have it easy by comparison.
There are two features that I have always yearned for in SQL Server: quick and easy paging, and string concatenation to be used as an aggregate function. For the life of me I could never figure out why these features never made it into SQL Server versions. I’ve been using SQL Server since version 7 and with each new version I was hoping it would be available in the subsequent release.
To this date there still is not function to aggregate a string when using a group by clause and no “easy” way to page. There are workarounds available but none that are as straight forward as MySQL’s LIMIT clause. As for string concatenation with SQL Server 2005, we can create custom aggregates so we can finally roll our own. I created a quick class (StringConcat.cs) you can embed in a DLL and load it into SQL Server’s CLR. To use the aggregate in SQL Server, you’ll need to load it and assign it first. Here is a good article quickly explaining how to create and deploy aggregates.
I was added to someones ConceptShare workspace recently to consultant on some designs. I was one of the first few people in the workspace and was able to make a few, what i hope were useful comments. The admin later added 12 and it was amazing to see how quick the pace change as there were 4 people in the space at once then 8 and basically we came up with so many ideas and decisions were made in under 5 minutes. Comments and replies were flying. Debates were happening. People were really engaged. It still amazes me how much time was saved vs sending those designs via email alone. As they others joined they also had great feedback and the momentum continued while I worked on other things.
It reminded me of a basic principle of this type of collaboration. If you have 2 or 3 people I think it does work effectively but can take longer, the more people added seems to increase the pace and frequency of the conversation. Everything happens fast and then its over and then back to Photoshop to redo and then do it all over again. Adding more people gives you better feedback faster almost everytime. That is why we put NO LIMITS on the number of people you can invite. So if you are redesigning your corporate business cards why not bring in the front line workers, assitant, interns, clients and see what they think.
One of the most interesting design posts I’ve read in a good while was about how Apple design is inspired by 60’s Braun design. Apple’s Jonathan Ive has taken Dieter Rams‘ designs and updated them beautifully for everything from product to user interface design for Apple.
Braun T3 pocket radio and Apple iPod
Braun LE1 speaker and Apple iMac
What products have inspired you? I’ll never think the same way after seeing the the multitouch on the iPhone, and how it’s been adapted for the new Apple MacBook Air. Surely there must be more examples out there. Tell us what products have made you stop in your tracks and say “brilliant”.
Adobe recently announced a big upgrade to their Flash Player. Here are just a few new additions in this version that will directly impact your use of ConceptShare:
Better quality and faster performing image scaling
Support for H.264 video, and High Efficiency AAC (HE-AAC) audio codecs
Multi-core support for faster rendering of many file formats including vectors, filters and video.
This new plugin is much faster then previous versions. ConceptShare runs twice as fast now with this new version, and we couldn’t be more excited about that. We recommend that all users upgrade their Flash plugin right away. Make sure you uninstall your existing plugin with the Adobe Flash uninstaller before you download and install the latest flash player..
When it comes to some of our package features in ConceptShare we found it much easier to use a flag enumeration to test if a particular package had a given feature enabled such as SSL, custom branding, etc.
Flag enumerations behave very similar to a standard enumeration just that it allows usage of bitwise operations to “test” if a particular value is selected. Flag enumerations basically work off of the powers of 2. Below is a sample enumeration (C#.NET):
That is all there is too it. You don’t have to use the helper functions and you can write the code inline but I find this easier as I sometimes forget which bit-wise operator I should be using. I won’t go into the theory of how flag enumerations work as there are many comprehensive articles available online. Below are some samples on how to use the functions.
// Enumeration with SSL & Custom Branding Set;
PFlags f = PFlags.SSL | PFlags.CustomBranding;
// Checks if SSL is enabled (returns true);
Boolean result = IsFlagSet(f, PFlags.SSL);
// Sets Custom Branding Off
f = SetFlagOff(f, PFlags.CustomBranding);
There have been some recent changes to the My Workspaces module in the new ConceptShare UI. We have already received a lot of great feedback on this feature and have already made a few key improvements.
Our core goal was to maximize the number of workspaces you could see at one time as well as be able to perform key workspace actions quickly. While this may not seem like much of a productivity gain to the free users (1 free workspace), it is of great benefit to the paid subscribers of which some have over 200-500 active workspaces at any one time.
The workspaces that you belong to are represented by thumbnails. You can mouse over any workspace thumbnail to access its Workspace Actions menu. You quickly add people, concepts or edit the workspace as well as launch the workspace from this menu.
Newly added! is the ability for Account Managers to Disable and/or Delete a workspace from this menu as well. This feature was based on your user feedback and now you won’t have to enter the Edit menu to disable or delete your Workspace. As before Workspaces that are disabled do not count towards your package total. Workspaces must still be disabled before you can delete them. Disabled Workspaces can also be hidden from your main page.
This is probably one of the best ads I have seen in a long time. This is product of the guys over at Tribal DDB in Toronto. Wow that is creative. I have tired to get all the movie references that they do. Watching this once just won’t cut it. Apparently there are 35 movie references in this particular ad.
A year later, not a day goes by that we are not using the power of ConceptShare to get a better understanding of what a client wants from a design perspective, showing a series of websites that might be good models, critiquing a design for one of our designers, etc…It has changed the way we work and we can’t see going back!
