Surfulater is on 50% discount at Bits du Jour today
http://bitsdujour.com/blog2/wordpress/?p=387

A few words on the application, which I have been using for a few months now. For anyone looking for a straightforward web content saver / anotator / editor, I think it's an excellent choice. I started using it in the course of my recently resumed studies, where saving content as plain text (with Brainstorm and Zoot) was often not an option. Till now it has performed very well, quickly saving most text & graphics content accessible by Internet Explorer.

Neville, the Surfulater (and Ed for Windows) developer, is helpful and responsive; he takes into account user input and requests without getting off course. He's chosen to build a focused, solid application that is straightforward to use and anything but feature-bloated.

One of the interesting ways that the powerful infrastructure shows in the user experience is the data tree, which can be automatically re-organised by date; apparently, more such re-organisation modes will be available in the future.

For those wanting to keep everything in one place, Surfulater can probably facilitate collecting the content. For sharing content, the trial version of Surfulater can now work as a permanently free viewer.

Last but not least, a rather obvious disclaimer: I am in no way associated with Neville's business other than being his customer.

alx

Personally, I prefer MyBase+WebCollect (at wjjsoft.com). I've tried Surfulator, but I'll try it again, if I can.

I also use Surfulater, and have found it to be the best of the web saving research tools I have used. I especially appreciate the easy ability to clone information so it can appear in more than one place in the tree, and also the "file last saved item here" feature.

I have found that when other programs are unable to save text material without deleting lines separating paragraphs, Surfulater often is able to do so. So even if I eventually want some material in another program, such as UltraRecall or InfoHandler, I will save it to Surfulater first, then copy it and paste it in the program I ultimately want it in.

Daly

Alexander Deliyannis wrote:

Surfulater is on 50% discount at Bits du Jour
today
http://bitsdujour.com/blog2/wordpress/?p=387

A few words on the
application, which I have been using for a few months now. For anyone looking for a
straightforward web content saver / anotator / editor, I think it's an excellent
choice. I started using it in the course of my recently resumed studies, where saving
content as plain text (with Brainstorm and Zoot) was often not an option. Till now it
has performed very well, quickly saving most text & graphics content accessible by
Internet Explorer.

Neville, the Surfulater (and Ed for Windows) developer, is
helpful and responsive; he takes into account user input and requests without
getting off course. He's chosen to build a focused, solid application that is
straightforward to use and anything but feature-bloated.

One of the interesting
ways that the powerful infrastructure shows in the user experience is the data tree,
which can be automatically re-organised by date; apparently, more such
re-organisation modes will be available in the future.

For those wanting to keep
everything in one place, Surfulater can probably facilitate collecting the
content. For sharing content, the trial version of Surfulater can now work as a
permanently free viewer.

Last but not least, a rather obvious disclaimer: I am in no
way associated with Neville's business other than being his customer.

alx

I'll put in a good word for Surfulater, too. I registered a copy a couple months ago. As a hybrid between a web clipper and a two-pane outliner, it does what it's designed for very well. Surfulater parses HTML more accurately than any other knowledge manager I've tested, and it has a very useful search function.

On the down side, the UI is just a bit quirky- eg, no "Edit" item in the menu bar, though cut/ copy / paste /undo functions are available through toolbar icons or right-click. You can set most font aspects for text you enter, but not color. Right-clicking the document icon in the tree pane- intuitive for most of us - does not bring up the normal set of choices; you have to select the label TEXT instead. Odd!

I've still got my fingers crossed that the much more powerful MyInfo will do a better job with web documents in version 4.0 as promised (broken record time!) but if Milenix disappoints me on that score, I'll probably find myself choosing between Surfulater and OneNote for storing web content.

Well, I've tried the Surfulater trial again. It would not allow me to create a new article, nor even paste clipboard contents into an existing article. In both cases it told me that these are disabled in the trial version. NOT MUCH OF A TRIAL IF ONE CANNOT TEST IT!!!

From Surfulator's help file, I learned that Surfulator saves Web pages as Attachments that one has to open in an external browser. But the single supplied file, "Knowledge Base" has 0 (ZERO) attachment, so I couldn't even try that..

MyBase+WebCollect can save Web pages and display the saved pages automatically within MyBase. One can have more than one database open at the same time. Corresponding to each tree node is both a display of a saved Web page and a display of an RTF editor screen which displays clippings. One uses taps or CTRL-TAB to switch between them.

It can also edit the saved Web page and has full RTF editing capabilities. It also has indexed search, file compression, a "local" recycle capability (which can be cleared), file size optimization, and,a pop-up window that allows one to paste a copied (CTRL-C) selection into a MyBase file in a number of ways.

UNLESS SOMEONE CAN TELL ME HOW TO GET THE SURFULATOR TRIAL VERSION TO ACTUALLY ALLOW ME
TO TRY IT, I'LL STICK WITH myBase.

-cassius

Cassius,

You wrote:

Well, I've tried the Surfulater trial again. It would not allow me to create a new
article, nor even paste clipboard contents into an existing article. In both cases it
told me that these are disabled in the trial version.

It sounds as if your demo went into read-only mode. This short thread on the Surfulater forum seems to describe a similar problem and the resolution:

Soft As It Gets Forums - Surfulator Crashes loose free trial
http://www.softasitgets.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1261

I picked it up at the discounted price today; it's a really good deal. I hope you can complete your trial.

Regards,
Wes

Stephen,
Surfulater must be running in Free Reader mode, not as a Free Trial. This will happen if you've previously installed Surfulater on this PC and your free trial period is over.

To start a fresh free trial period you need to UnInstall Surfulater and Delete the My Documents\My Surfulater folder. It is also adviseable to use Start|Run|Regedit and Delete: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Soft As It Gets\Surfulater.

Free Reader mode enables you to share content with people that don't own a copy of Surfulater. ie. It works like Adobe Reader.

If anyone has a problem or suggestion for Surfulater I would urge you to either contact me directly or post on our support forums. Details for both can be found at: http://www.surfulater.com/contact.html

Thanks to everyone for the feedback on Surfulater.

Neville Franks


Cassius wrote:

Well, I've tried the Surfulater trial again. It would not allow me to create a new
article, nor even paste clipboard contents into an existing article. In both cases it
told me that these are disabled in the trial version. NOT MUCH OF A TRIAL IF ONE CANNOT
TEST IT!!!

From Surfulator's help file, I learned that Surfulator saves Web pages
as Attachments that one has to open in an external browser. But the single supplied
file, "Knowledge Base" has 0 (ZERO) attachment, so I couldn't even try
that..

MyBase+WebCollect can save Web pages and display the saved pages
automatically within MyBase. One can have more than one database open at the same
time. Corresponding to each tree node is both a display of a saved Web page and a display
of an RTF editor screen which displays clippings. One uses taps or CTRL-TAB to switch
between them.

It can also edit the saved Web page and has full RTF editing
capabilities. It also has indexed search, file compression, a "local" recycle
capability (which can be cleared), file size optimization, and,a pop-up window that
allows one to paste a copied (CTRL-C) selection into a MyBase file in a number of
ways.

UNLESS SOMEONE CAN TELL ME HOW TO GET THE SURFULATOR TRIAL VERSION TO ACTUALLY
ALLOW ME
TO TRY IT, I'LL STICK WITH myBase.

-cassius

That's another good thing about Surfulater- an active and accessible author, who pays attention to user feedback.

But I do have to agree with Cassius to a certain extent: if I recall correctly, the demo version I downloaded would not allow me to create a new knowledge base, and trial users are locked out of several of the support forums.

If you're going to time-limit a demo version, then why cripple it? Some of us like to put a program through its paces to see if it's going to work for our needs.

And keeping trial users out of support forums seems downright counter-productive.

Nonetheless, I was quite content to buy Surfulater at full price, and told a whole bunch of friends when I saw it available for a paltry 17.5 USD today. A real bargain.

Wes,

Thanks for the info. I followed the instructions and was able to actually get the trial to work! With the very limited time I had to test Surfulater, it appears that:

1. Surfulater does a better job of copying highlighted text+images from a Web page into Surfulater than does myBase. With mB one has to paste images separately.

2. Since Microsoft revised Hotmail, mB can no longer save entire Hotmail email pages from either Firefox or IE7. Surfulater apparently can, but it has to open them in an external browser.

3. mB can edit saved Web pages in its internal browser. Surfulater cannot since it opens saved pages in an external browser. As a workaround, one apparently can highlight all of a Web page, copy it to the clipboard, and then save it to Surfulater. The saved clipping can then be edited in Surfulator.

4. Thus, in mB one immediately sees a saved Web page. In Surfulater, one only sees it after it is opened in an external browser, or if one has copied it to the clipboard and thence to Surfulater. Both allow one to see the current, possibly changed, version of the page.

5 mB has more formatting features than Surfulater.

6. mB saves pages virtually instantly; Surfulater sometimes takes what seems like several seconds.

7.In mB, one can have more than one database open at the same time. One selects which by using tabs or CTRL-TAB. It appears that one can only have one Surfulater database open at a time.

8.mB has indexed file search and the ability to remove "recycle" (i.e. "undo") items. I did not see these in Surfulater.

9.One can optimize the mB file size. I don't know if Surfulater can do this. I could not compare file sizes because the Surfulater trial version does not permit the creation of new files.

10. Both programs have some "ease-of-use" features, but each has some that the others lack. The same is true for some advanced features.

11. I am about to suggest to Bits du Jour that it also offer mB in the near future.

12. I did take`advantage of the BdJ discount, and will further test the full version of Surfulater as time permits.

-Cassius
===========(see below)

Wes Perdue wrote:

Cassius,

You wrote:
>Well, I've tried the Surfulater trial again. It would not
allow me to create a new
>article, nor even paste clipboard contents into an existing
article. In both cases it
>told me that these are disabled in the trial version.

It
sounds as if your demo went into read-only mode. This short thread on the Surfulater
forum seems to describe a similar problem and the resolution:

Soft As It Gets Forums
- Surfulator Crashes loose free
trial
http://www.softasitgets.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1261

I picked
it up at the discounted price today; it's a really good deal. I hope you can complete
your trial.

Regards,
Wes

Cassius,

Thanks for your detailed analysis.

You wrote:

7.In mB, one can have more than one database open at
the same time. One selects which by using tabs or CTRL-TAB. It appears that one can only
have one Surfulater database open at a time.

Surfulator has tabbed multiple databases as well. It's not as apparent in the demo version since, as you mentioned, new DBs can't be created.

As an aside, I'd like to add my voice to Bob's: time-limited demos should not be crippled. They don't show a product in its best light, and can cause misconceptions.

11. I am about to suggest to Bits du Jour that it also offer mB in the near
future.

That would be cool; I'll reconsider it at that time. BDJ has been the deciding factor on a number of applications for me recently.

12. I did take`advantage of the BdJ discount, and will further test the full
version of Surfulater as time permits.

Excellent!

Regards,
Wes

More on Surfulater vs myBase:

1. Wes pointed out that Surfulator, like mB, can have multiple databases open.

2. Surfulator says, "Secure HTTPS pages can't be added as Attachments. This isn't a Surfulater problem and is due to the nature of secure pages. Instead select the content you wish to save and use Surfulater: Add new Article in your Browser."

MyBase CAN save such pages. (I just did it.)

-c

SurfulatEr can also save HTTPS pages; they just can't be saved as attachments, which is another issue.

[Surfulater: Add new Article] is the way that I save most pages anyway, so that they be viewed within the program.

In any case, I definitely expect MyBase to be able to do more things than Surfulater; it's a broader-scope program, with a higher price tag. As far as I can tell, the main advantage in MyBase is the "breaking down" of saved pages to HTML and linked files, which I think is very useful if one wants to play around with the material. SuL's (Surf-U-Later's) main advantage is that its focused in saving web material and it keeps getting better at it, even as the web material gets more diverse. SuL's main advantage will probably show in pages using CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) which are multiplying every day as more
and more websites use some kind of Content Management System, separating content from layout.

As an all-round database SuL is still immature, but the infrastructure is very powerful (if you read Neville's vision http://blog.surfulater.com/2005/11/21/surfulater-under-the-hood-and-down-the-road/ there seems to be interesting times ahead). For example, though (apparently) you can't as yet create external links to SuL content as in UltraRecall, OneNote, Evernote or Whizfolders, the underlying functionality is there and should eventually be available to users.

As a sideline, I have the impression that it will make more and more sense to maintain material segmented in specialised repositories, accessing it from a central location, so this kind of URL linking is something I am increasingly looking for.

alx

Cassius wrote:

2. Surfulator says, "Secure HTTPS pages can't be added as
Attachments. This isn't a Surfulater problem and is due to the nature of secure pages.
Instead select the content you wish to save and use Surfulater: Add new Article in your
Browser."

MyBase CAN save such pages. (I just did it.)

alx -

As a sideline, I have the impression that it will make more and more sense to maintain material segmented in specialised repositories, accessing it from a central location, so this kind of URL linking is something I am increasingly looking for.

Web Research may have what you want http://www.macropool.com/en/ . It is in many respects similar to Surfulater, but has been around somewhat longer (it used to be called ContentSaver).

You can copy the URL-like address of any of WR's documents (htm, pdf, doc, etc) - using Ctrl+Shift+W - to any external software that can handle these types of hyperlinks. Then you can summon the document in question for viewing from that external software. Zoot, for example, can "read" WR's addresses, as can UltraRecall (I think*) - and, no doubt, many other information management programs.

WR works with IE and Firefox (with a free add-in), and also has an Outlook add-in ($15) to make it easier to save emails etc., from within Outlook to WR.

*So far I haven't been able to open UR's editor to find out. After years of puzzling out Zoot my patience with poorly-documented programs is minimal...

Derek

*So far I haven’t been able to open UR’s editor to find out. After years of puzzling out Zoot my patience with poorly-documented programs is minimal…

O.K. It seems that the introductory database supplied with UR must be read-only or something. I opened a new one, made a new text item and pasted the WR hyperlink into it. Then I highlighted it and used Ctrl+Q to activate the shortcut. UR displayed the WR item in its Details Pane. Worked with pdf, htm, and doc - though the time taken for the Word doc to display was agonizingly slow. Probably works with other file types.

Derek

See my replies below:

Bob Mackreth wrote:

I'll put in a good word for Surfulater, too. I registered a copy a couple months ago. As a
hybrid between a web clipper and a two-pane outliner, it does what it's designed for
very well. Surfulater parses HTML more accurately than any other knowledge manager
I've tested, and it has a very useful search function.

Thanks.

On the down side, the UI is just
a bit quirky- eg, no "Edit" item in the menu bar, though cut/ copy / paste /undo
functions are available through toolbar icons or right-click. You can set most font
aspects for text you enter, but not color. Right-clicking the document icon in the
tree pane- intuitive for most of us - does not bring up the normal set of choices; you
have to select the label TEXT instead. Odd!

- What action would "Edit item" actually perform? About all I can think of would be to enter edit mode on the Title for the current record. There are already plenty of ways to edit content and this seems like adding unnecessary clutter to me. Note also that Edit works on a Record -> Field basis wherease Cut/Copy/Paste etc. all work on complete records.

-Setting text color is on our todo list.

- Surfulater makes extensive use of right click context menus throughout the program. It seemed logical to me at least that right click on an image would limit itself to menu items to change the image and right click on the item title would provide the full complement of capabilities. I could also add these to the image context menu, but surely that's unnecessary clutter. Context menu's are after all, all about what you click on.

Product design and development comprises various tradeoffs. With Surfulater I'm striving to make it as uncluttered, intuitive and easy to use as possible, whiles't still catering for power users.

I welcome further discussion on these and any other issues.

Neville Franks.

Please see below.

Bob Mackreth wrote:

That's another good thing about Surfulater- an active and accessible author, who
pays attention to user feedback.

But I do have to agree with Cassius to a certain
extent: if I recall correctly, the demo version I downloaded would not allow me to
create a new knowledge base, and trial users are locked out of several of the support
forums.

If you're going to time-limit a demo version, then why cripple it? Some of us
like to put a program through its paces to see if it's going to work for our needs.

Unlike other software we allow the Surfulater Free Trial to be restarted at any time, as documented on our FAQ page. Allowing new Knowledge Bases to be created could potentially enable folks to continue using Surfulater forever by restarting the trial, hence this restriction was put in place.

No other features are disabled or restricted in any way in the trial and the sample knowledge base content can be deleted or just simply added to. So I never considered not allowing new KB's to be created as being too onerous and was a reasonable tradeoff to allow the trial to be restarted.

Having said all of that I do plan to see if this restriction can be removed.

And
keeping trial users out of support forums seems downright
counter-productive.

There is a Pre-Sales Surfulater forum that anyone can read, post on and get replies. The Surfulater Customer forums are provided as an added-value area for paying customers. They also provide an area where product direction and development are discussed away from the eyes of potential competitors.

Neville Franks

Most secure HTTPS pages can only be retrieved once from the Web Server. To demonstrate this click Refresh in your Web Browser and you will usually get an error. This is the reason Surfulater can't download "some" https pages.

When you use IE as your Web Browser Surfulater has smarts that enable https pages to be saved without having to download them from their Web Server. We may add this capability for Firefox in the future.

However the best way to save such https pages is simply to use Edit|Select All (Ctrl+A) on the Web page and then use: Surfulater: Add new Article. This will always work.

I'm surprised to hear that Mybase can save HTTPS pages that Surfulater can't. Can you please post the URL for such a page, so I can see whats going on. Thanks.

Neville Franks.

Cassius wrote:

More on Surfulater vs myBase:

1. Wes pointed out that Surfulator, like mB, can have
multiple databases open.

2. Surfulator says, "Secure HTTPS pages can't be added as
Attachments. This isn't a Surfulater problem and is due to the nature of secure pages.
Instead select the content you wish to save and use Surfulater: Add new Article in your
Browser."

MyBase CAN save such pages. (I just did it.)

-c

Please see below.

Cassius wrote:

Wes,

Thanks for the info. I followed the instructions and was able to actually get
the trial to work! With the very limited time I had to test Surfulater, it appears
that:

1. Surfulater does a better job of copying highlighted text+images from a Web
page into Surfulater than does myBase. With mB one has to paste images
separately.

2. Since Microsoft revised Hotmail, mB can no longer save entire
Hotmail email pages from either Firefox or IE7. Surfulater apparently can, but it has
to open them in an external browser.

The ability to (optionally) display attached Web pages within Surfulater is on our todo list.

3. mB can edit saved Web pages in its internal
browser. Surfulater cannot since it opens saved pages in an external browser. As a
workaround, one apparently can highlight all of a Web page, copy it to the clipboard,
and then save it to Surfulater. The saved clipping can then be edited in
Surfulator.

You can do Edit|Select All (Ctrl+A) then Surfulater|Add New Article to grab the entire page and include it inside a Surfulater Article, which can subsequently be edited. There is no need to copy it to the clipboard. You can append content to an article using the Surfulater Clipboard Hotkeys.

When we add the ability to display attached Web pages in Surfulater we may also add editing capabilities.

4. Thus, in mB one immediately sees a saved Web page. In Surfulater, one
only sees it after it is opened in an external browser, or if one has copied it to the
clipboard and thence to Surfulater. Both allow one to see the current, possibly
changed, version of the page.

See my earlier comment.

5 mB has more formatting features than
Surfulater.

What extra formatting features do you need?

6. mB saves pages virtually instantly; Surfulater sometimes takes
what seems like several seconds.

If you use IE as your Web Browser attached Web pages are saved very quickly. Also if you acquire selected content from a Web page it is very fast.

7.In mB, one can have more than one database open at
the same time. One selects which by using tabs or CTRL-TAB. It appears that one can only
have one Surfulater database open at a time.

You can have as many KB's open as you want in Surfulater.

8.mB has indexed file search and the
ability to remove "recycle" (i.e. "undo") items. I did not see these in
Surfulater.

Undo is planned. Search is very fast as is. Indexed search may be added in future however.

9.One can optimize the mB file size. I don't know if Surfulater can do
this. I could not compare file sizes because the Surfulater trial version does not
permit the creation of new files.

10. Both programs have some "ease-of-use"
features, but each has some that the others lack. The same is true for some advanced
features.

11. I am about to suggest to Bits du Jour that it also offer mB in the near
future.

12. I did take`advantage of the BdJ discount, and will further test the full
version of Surfulater as time permits.

-Cassius
===========(see below)

Wes
Perdue wrote:
>Cassius,
>
>You wrote:
>>Well, I've tried the Surfulater trial
again. It would not
>allow me to create a new
>>article, nor even paste clipboard
contents into an existing
>article. In both cases it
>>told me that these are
disabled in the trial version.
>
>It
>sounds as if your demo went into read-only
mode. This short thread on the Surfulater
>forum seems to describe a similar problem
and the resolution:
>
>Soft As It Gets Forums
>- Surfulator Crashes loose free

>trial
>http://www.softasitgets.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1261
>
>I
picked
>it up at the discounted price today; it's a really good deal. I hope you can
complete
>your trial.
>
>Regards,
>Wes

Neville Franks

Neville said, "Most secure HTTPS pages can only be retrieved once from the Web Server. To demonstrate this click Refresh in your Web Browser and you will usually get an error. This is the reason Surfulater can’t download “some” https pages.

"When you use IE as your Web Browser Surfulater has smarts that enable https pages to be saved without having to download them from their Web Server. We may add this capability for Firefox in the future.

"However the best way to save such https pages is simply to use Edit|Select All (Ctrl+A) on the Web page and then use: Surfulater: Add new Article. This will always work.

"I’m surprised to hear that Mybase can save HTTPS pages that Surfulater can’t. Can you please post the URL for such a page, so I can see whats going on. Thanks."

REPLY: The Web pages in question were prescription refill confirmation pages from www.caremark.com. Thus, they no longer exist.

As I said, the ability of S to copy both text and images is a big plus. It almost makes saving Web pages unnecessary. In fact, if this saving ability also saves links, what advantage is there to saving a page as a separate operation?

-cassius

Thanks for popping in Neville, and taking the time to respond.

Just a couple of clarifications:

>On the down side, the UI is just
>a bit quirky-
eg, no "Edit" item in the menu bar, though cut/ copy / paste /undo
>functions are
available through toolbar icons or right-click. You can set most font
>aspects for
text you enter, but not color. Right-clicking the document icon in the
>tree pane-
intuitive for most of us - does not bring up the normal set of choices; you
>have to
select the label TEXT instead. Odd!

- What action would "Edit item" actually
perform? About all I can think of would be to enter edit mode on the Title for the current
record. There are already plenty of ways to edit content and this seems like adding
unnecessary clutter to me. Note also that Edit works on a Record -> Field basis
wherease Cut/Copy/Paste etc. all work on complete records.

You misread my post, specifically reading :

"edit" item on the menu bar

as:

"edit item" on the menu bar

What I was trying to say is that in the vast majority of Windows applications, the menu bar, reading from left to right, will include FILE - EDIT - and then other items specific to the app. (Maybe I should not use the word "item" here, but I can't think of a better term right now.)

In most other programs when you choose EDIT, the drop-down menu will include choices such as UNDO - REDO - CUT - COPY - PASTE, etc.

I find it a bit odd that Surfulater does not follow this Windows convention. Personally, I like to minimize toolbar clutter, and in most software, I can confidently delete seldom-used buttons from toolbars knowing that, should I ever need to use that command, it will be available from a drop-down menu. This does not seem to be the case with Surfulater.

And while we're speaking of Windows conventions,

- Surfulater makes extensive use of right click context menus
throughout the program. It seemed logical to me at least that right click on an image
would limit itself to menu items to change the image and right click on the item title
would provide the full complement of capabilities.

But is it not a Windows convention that when you right-click on an icon, the context menu choices affect the associated file, document, item, whatever? Go to Windows Explorer, for example: right-clicking the file icon will bring up the same context menu as right-clicking the file name.

I find it jarring when I want to cut or copy or delete an article in a knowledge base, and I right-click on the icon as I have learned to do, lo these many years, and the choices that appear are, "Change This Image," "Restore To Default Image," and "Set This Item Type's Default Image." Seems to me most Windows users will be expecting the CUT- REMOVE - RENAME etc choices here.

I could also add these to the image context menu, but surely that's unnecessary clutter. Context menu's are after all,
all about what you click on.

Perhaps clutter is in the eye of the beholder. To me a toolbar button for "Select A Content Color Theme" qualifies as clutter; how often do most of us change color themes in the middle of a session?

Product design and development comprises various
tradeoffs.

Indeed; I think you've done a good job, and I have stated elsewhere that your accessibility and communication with users is a strong point in Surfulater's favor.

Neville Franks wrote:

Unlike other software we allow the Surfulater Free Trial to be restarted at
any time, as documented on our FAQ page. Allowing new Knowledge Bases to be created
could potentially enable folks to continue using Surfulater forever by restarting
the trial, hence this restriction was put in place.

No other features are disabled
or restricted in any way in the trial and the sample knowledge base content can be
deleted or just simply added to. So I never considered not allowing new KB's to be
created as being too onerous and was a reasonable tradeoff to allow the trial to be
restarted.

Well, speaking purely for myself, I find 30 days to be plenty of time to assess a program, provided I can give the application a thorough workout. Since my preferred way of working involves sorting information into numerous highly-focused databases this limitation really did make it hard for me to see whether Surfulater would suit my needs.

I' think it would be a better idea to be strict with the time limit, but allow use of all program features.

There is a Pre-Sales Surfulater forum that anyone can
read, post on and get replies. The Surfulater Customer forums are provided as an
added-value area for paying customers.

I always look at reading through user forums as akin to reading the FAQ. I can't see the point of making potential customers submit queries that you or someone else will have to address when the answer may be already available in a forum that's blocked off. Pardon me for saying so, but it just does not seem to make business sense.

They also provide an area where product
direction and development are discussed away from the eyes of potential
competitors.

Well, it's nice that you share this info with registered users, but if I were one of your competitors I think I'd be happy shell out 35 bucks to scope out your plans. :)

Hi Bob,
No one can ever accuse me of not listening to our users. I've opened up the Surfulater Customer forums for anyone to view. Only Registered Customers can post though, as it was before. I hope you find this an acceptable compromise. Anyone can post in the Pre-Sales Forums.

The link to the forums is: http://www.softasitgets.com/forums

I will be changing the Trial version as discussed previously, hopefully in the near future.

Neville Franks wrote:

Hi Bob,
No one can ever accuse me of not listening to our users.

And that's God's truth.

One of the reasons I was happy to recommend Surfulater to friends.

Keep up the good work,

Bob