New Web Browsing Features

• Browser's Back and Forward buttons now also include a drop-down list of recent sites

• User-Configurable Address Bar Shortcuts (click on Research-Desk Tools, then Options)

• Annotate web pages with electronic Sticky Notes

• Toggle Macromedia Flash effects on/off (CTRL+SHIFT+F)

• Automatically includes the date/time and URL in web pages saved as Microsoft Word documents

• Now also saves web pages as .MHT files (Shift+Click on the Save button)

New Security Features

• Shows the Padlock icon when viewing secure web pages

• Shows current Internet Zone information in the status bar

• Right-Click on Internet Zone information to add the current site to a Zone

New File / Folder Management Features

• Right-click on a folder or select "Open Folder Contents" from the File menu to open all files in a folder

• Use the Files Side Bar (Research-Desk Professional only) to browse and open files and folders

Improved Side Bar Features

• Favorites Side Bar: Add and Organize Favorites buttons now work correctly

• Favorites and History Side Bars: Significantly improved speed and efficiency

• New Files Side Bar (Research-Desk Professional only)

Improved File Downloading Features

• Correctly remembers position of File Download Bars

• Significantly improved automatic handling of file downloads

• Now correctly handles FTP file downloads from older servers (including SunOS 5.8)

Improved Search Workspace (Research-Desk Professional only)

• Many internal improvements - now works much faster and more reliably

Help Documentation

• Now includes a Search facility
• Improved help text

Other Improvements

• Starts up much more quickly
• New Office XP style menus and toolbars

User Interface and Screen Layout

• New Document Tab Bar

• Sleeker Side Bar

• New Status Bar and Progress Bar

• Main Title Bar is no longer grayed when the 'Find' box is clicked

• New Icons for Zip Archives and for File Transfer Manager

• Sleeker Options Dialog

• Redesigned 'Save All' Dialog

• Fixed incorrect menu bar wrapping/height with non-standard Windows font settings

• Fixed ugly icons when Windows is set to "Large Fonts"

Microsoft Office Related Enhancements (Research-Desk Professional Only)

• Now automatically detects and fixes most Microsoft Word menu problems

• Now correctly hides formatting marks during Microsoft Word Print Preview

• Now correctly detects when an Excel spreadsheet needs to be saved

• New 'View External' command (see the Window menu)


   Shows MS Office document in its native application
   Select 'Close and Return to Research-Desk' to return the document back to Research-Desk
   This allows quick and easy access to the few MS Office features that are unavailable in Research-Desk
   For example, MS Excel's 'Page Break Preview' feature.
   Prior to final release, we will fix the occasional visual glitches and add hot-key support to this feature

• Reduced screen flicker when switching between a chart and a worksheet in Excel

• More specific and helpful error messages shown if a file does not exist, or is in use

• Now shuts down correctly when a PowerPoint document is open, but not saved

• Now correctly opens Office documents created in older versions of Office than the one you have installed

• Shift+F3 to toggle uppercase/lowercase now works correctly when editing Microsoft Word documents

Web Browser

• Now properly handles CTRL+C, CTRL+V, etc. in the browser's address bar

• Fixed repeated keystrokes when using a Java Applet or an ActiveX Control embedded in a web page

• CTRL+SHIFT+B now turns popup blocking on / off

• Personalized Favorites Menus can now be turned on / off

• Fixed a bug that sometimes caused the embedded Word/TextArea to loose text when used with web forms

• New toolbar and address bar for more efficient use of screen space

• More intuitive keyboard and mouse focus management

• Saving ZIP and ZHTML (web pages) files now works correctly on systems with multiple drives

Workspaces

• Improved 'Save All' Dialog

• Improved handling of .zhtml and local html files contained in saved workspaces

• More detailed and specific error messages shown for problems encountered while opening a workspace

• If Research-Desk fails to open certain documents in a workspace, improved dialog shows a list of failed documents with reasons

• Fixed various keyboard glitches with Search Workspace (Research-Desk Professional only) 

• Self Contained Workspace command (Research-Desk Professional only)


   Improved compatibility with Windows XP
   Now saves a copy of the current workspace
   Now works smoothly with workspaces with various combinations of documents

ZIP Archives

• New Zipping Tool

• Several minor bug fixes

• New Feature: Group Zip Archive Contents by Folder or File Type

Windows XP Compatibility

• Added full support for Fast User Switching

• Now supports new Windows XP visual styles

• Fixed various visual glitches when running on Windows XP

File Downloading

• Now automatically handles file downloads that redirect from HTTP to FTP servers

• More reliable handling of FTP file transfers and better recovery of interrupted file transfers

• Automatic assignment of filenames is now smarter, especially with regard to web sites that redirect downloads

Startup

• On startup, shows a 'Tip of the Day' (this option can be turned off)

• On startup, checks if RD is correctly associated with various file types (this option can be turned off)

• On first start, shows Help documentation

• Use the new Startup category to change Research-Desk's startup behavior

Installation / Uninstallation

• Upon uninstallation, if necessary, correctly disassociates itself as the default browser and with Microsoft Office documents

• During installation, asks user permission before creating icons in the Quick Launch Bar and on the Desktop

Help

• Research-Desk now (optionally) shows a Quick Start Guide on startup

• Updated Help documentation

Other

• Improved Layer Manager Context Menus

• Improved focus management, esp. with regard to the Web Browser

• Fixed problems with keyboard shortcuts sometimes not working when multiple instances of Research-Desk are used

• Show / Hide Side Bar's shortcut key changed from F4 to F6 so that F4 can be used within Microsoft Excel

• Asks for confirmation before removing a layer that contains multiple documents