It’s been some time, but at last DesignWall released an update that allows their ‘Page’ theme to support a blog. To be fair to them, they released it a number of weeks back, but I’ve only gotten around to updating it. So we begin again with the DaylightAT blog to try and drive some traffic to the site.
I’m excited to say that the PDF extraction processing has gone really well. The tools I’m using now are so sophisticated and so powerful, I don’t think there are many projects I can’t handle. Kudos to TET and AM.
Additionally, I spent part of January out in Colorado, where Digitech Systems were hosting their annual conference, this time renamed Digitech Systems University to reflect the more technical, product-oriented nature of the event. I got a lot out of it, but even so I missed seeing more of HK Bain, their CEO, at the front of the room. But they stripped out most of the marketing aspects of their previous shows, and other than a short intro, we didn’t get to hear much from him. But I did get the chance to catch up with him individually and he was gracious enough to spend a bit of time talking with me. He’s a good man, that HK.
On the product side, Digitech have released some really powerful applications. I wish they had spent more time on Forms Magic (unfortunate product naming) and on their new EForms products, but they are in early stages yet. Regardless, both products show a lot of promise – really powerful stuff.
PaperVision EForms is a new module tied on to the popular PaperVision and ImageSilo applications. It’s a first release so it’s missing some of the bells and whistles of more mature products, but for a first release it really does everything it ought to do. You can build HTML forms or create forms in Word or other applications, import them into PaperVision/ImageSilo and then link form fields to PaperVision fields so input data is brought across once the form is submitted. You get a record of the entry and the submission itself might kick of a workflow or another internal process. Slick stuff, and you can link the form within the PaperVision/ImageSilo application, or use an externally hosted form on the internet/intranet. Simple, powerful stuff.
Speaking of PaperVision Workflow, they also released their latest upgrade to that module, and what a welcome addition this one is – finally getting a little more control over the graphical representation of the flow, and a number of improvements to the design interface that bring the product into the 21st century. That sounds critical of the previous version, perhaps, which is unfair. The workflow was fine, it was just getting a bit long in the tooth and was in serious need of an update – and Digitech really delivered with this one. Hopefully it is a sign of great things to come in future for that module, as it could do a lot more than it currently does.
As for PaperVision Forms Magic (or is it “PaperVision Capture Forms Magic”? – not sure as they have not finished the branding of it), all I can say is Wow! What an impressive product. Granted it was a controlled environment and they had set up the demo ahead of time, but if it works 75% as well as it did on the demo, then it is leaps and bounds ahead of competitors in the forms processing and form data extraction space – including long term players like ReadSoft or AnyDoc or Kofax. PaperVision Forms Magic is the future. I’ll tell you all about it tomorrow, need to get to work!