Ok I finally gave in and added good old File Open, New and Close. Way back when I started on the design of Surfulater I thought that I would dispense with File Open etc. as part of my overall goal of keeping Surfulater as simple and as uncluttered as possible.
For some, Surfulater starting up with MyKnowledge.Surfulater worked well and was all they needed, but for other the means to create and work with multiple Knowledge Bases was at best cumbersome. I misread the broad range of uses that Surfulater would be put to and the many different types of users at its helm. As a stop gap I added File|Set as Default, but in hindsight this was a mistake and I should have just gone ahead done things properly with File|Open.
When I sat down to work out how I would fit File|Open into the current design my prime objective was to ensure you could still start Surfulater with whatever Knowledge Bases you were using and get back into the flow as quickly as possible. I must say I’m pleased with the outcome. It feels much as it did before, with the big difference being that if you had say four knowledge bases open the last time you used Surfulater then those same four knowledge bases will be open this time around. This means you don’t need to go anywhere near File Open most of the time, which suits me just fine.
You will find more information in the release notes included in the Help along with the updated Help topic “Working with Files (new/open/close)”. One thing I forget to mention in this topic is the new Toolbar which has File|Open etc. Use View|Knowledge Base Toolbar to open this. If your screen is wide enough you can drag it and place it beside the main row of toolbars. I’ve also added a new Help topic Backing up my Knowledge Base which everyone should read.
Well that’s it for this release. Happy Surfulater’ing.