[Richard Murphy]

I have posted a beta build of Bonsai version 5.0.1. The build number is 3158. The install is for Bonsai desktop-only and Palm OS Desktop Edition users. This is a paid upgrade release for Bonsai v4 users. The new features target the desktop application; No changes have been made to the Palm OS app.

View screencast of the Find/Replace improvements and quick filter feature or the file to file sync feature.

New on desktop:

• Bonsai Desktop support of outline to outline file sync. Can be used by Bonsai USB users wishing to keep their outlines in sync between their local desktop and corresponding outlines on their USB drive. Feature includes an option to auto-sync on outline open/save operations. Configured from the Outline Details dialog (right click the outline tab and select the properties menu).
  
• Support for syncing outlines to Palm Pre devices for use with Bonsai for Palm OS software ***VIA*** the Classic emulator by MotionApps. Bonsai for Palm is certified for the Classic emulator and Bonsai Desktop can sync your desktop outlines with the Pre when it is connected as a USB mass storage device. Use the outline to outline file sync feature and select the Bonsai Palm outline on the Pre device (will be named NO_<Outline Name>.pdb). Requires a USB connection; does not support OTA sync. If you are wondering about a Bonsai Palm Pre native application, we currently do not have any plans. Palm has not seen fit to even give us access to the Pre SDK at this time so we are concentrating on other platforms. Hopefully in the future that will change.
  
• Improvements to the Find/Replace operations. These operations now support incremental find and have options to "search notes" and "search up". As you type your search string, Bonsai will location and display the next found occurrence of the partial search string. If the edit control background for the search string switches to red, the search string could not be found.
  
• New Quick Filter feature. Allows users to quickly define and apply a temporary filter. Define by clicking the quick filter toolbar icon in the filters toolbar or from the Outline/Filter/Quick Filter... menu. You can also right click the outline header and select the filter menu, in which case you will be placed on the appropriate page of the filter dialog to configure options for that column. For example, right click on the due column and select filter will open the filter dialog on the Dates tab so you can quickly enter a filter based on the due date. The quick filter can also be used to temporarily modify an existing filter. To do this, enable the filter to be modified and then open the quick filter dialog while holding the shift key. The quick filter will be initialized with the settings of the current filter. The quick filter is disabled in the same way as normal filters. It can also be activated again just like normal filters (i.e. select the " <Quick Filter> " filter from the Filters toolbar's filter list). The quick filter is never saved to the outline file.
  
• Optimized Bonsai background processing, particularly improving CPU usage when the Bonsai app is placed into the background.
  
• Support for importing and exporting of Bonsai outlines files in a Bonsai Palm (.pdb) format.
  
• Added Alt+’0’ desktop shortcut to mirror the Shift+ Keypad '+' shortcut for expanding the entire outline. This shortcut is easier to access on laptop PCs verses the keypad version and complements the Alt+'1' ... Alt+'4' shortcuts for expanding the outline to level 'n'.
  
• The "Edit/Insert File Link" menu now allows multiple file links to be inserted.

Fixed on desktop:

• Resolved sync issue that caused any category icon changes on the handheld to be overwritten by the current desktop settings.
  
• Fixed issue that would cause note text containing ';amp;' to be changed to '&amp;'.
  
• Optimized syncing a large outline. Large outlines that were deeply nested might see significantly longer than normal sync times (in one particular case, a 40x reduction in sync time was seen).
  
• Corrected Bonsai U3 USB support of the template print menu. Previously, Bonsai was unable to locate the OXT files in the installation folder on the U3 USB device.
  
• Fixed CSV outline import issue that caused problems with importing data where a multi-line text in the outline item text or the note field would not be properly parsed.
  
• When added a new sibling, the software will set defaults for various fields based on the new item settings. When configured for using the sibling's value, a check was only being made for the previous sibling. This caused unexpected results if the item is added immediately following the parent such that no previous sibling will exist. With this change, if a previous sibling is not found, a check is also made for the next sibling.
  
• Resolved problem that would cause the Bonsai HotSync conduit to crash if the Palm handheld contained a corrupt Bonsai Keywords db.

Use the following links to download the current beta build.
For Desktop & Handheld click setup (exe) or setup (zip).
For U3 users click here for up3 file or setup.

[Richard Murphy]

The v5 update is a paid upgrade from v4. Upgrade pricing will be announced before or at the time of release. Our online store is not setup for ordering at this time (we will work on that this week). For now, you should have a 30 day trial period with the beta. We expect to release within the 30 days. If you are having a problem with the v5 beta reporting an expired trial period (likely to happen on your Palm OS device) you can use the evaluation number 645-WSS8-9P62-W2FA-1958-131A to extend your evaluation trial until July 31st.

[Richard Murphy]

I have posted a new beta build of Bonsai Desktop v5.0.1. The build number is 3166.

• Added the properties menu item to the outline manager context menu.
  
• Fixed several issues in the Outline Details dialog involing the sync with file configuration.
  
  • The sync with file settings are now saved when the sync now button is clicked.
    
  • If the drive specified for the file to sync with is not available, a warning is displayed when clicking the sync now button. This gives the user a chance to connect their removable drive if this is the cause of the problem.
    
  • If the specified file to sync with is not found on disk when clicking the sync now button or when closing the Outline Details dialog, the user will be prompted if the file should to created, This means for outline files (.OTL) the outline will be placed on the target path. For Bonsai Palm OS format files (.pdb), the outline will be exported to the Palm format.
  
  
• Auto-save feature will now work on new documents. Previously, you needed to save the document first before auto-saving of the outline would be enabled.
  
• Optimized sync with file code to speed up sync times. This is particularly important when opening Bonsai as this could trigger multiple file syncs to occur and delay the application startup time.
  
• Added "Sync: File" to be displayed in the status bar if the outline is enabled for the sync with file option. If the outline is configured for synchronization (to handheld), the "Sync: Yes" status will be displayed regardless of sync with file configuration.
  
• Fixed problem with the pdb import and export losing an outline item's next action parent attribute.

See the first message in this thread for the download link.

[Richard Murphy]

I have posted a new beta build of Bonsai Desktop v5.0.1. The build number is 3173.

• New conflict dialog for the "Sync with file" feature. If changes are detected on both copies of the outline, the user will be presented with a conflict dialog to allow them to select which change is kept. Since Bonsai syncs at the field level within the outline item, the change must be made to the same field in both outlines in order to trigger this dialog.
  
• Added detection of changes to the disk based version of an opened outline file so the user will be notified and given a chance to reload the outline file. This check is done when the Bonsai application is brought to the foreground and when the outline is initially modified.
  
• If the outline has been configured to synchronize with another outline file using the "sync with file feature", Bonsai will check and if needed prompt to perform a synchronization at the time the outline is initially modified.
  
• Fixed problem if an already open outline was re-opened, the framework would properly switch to the document but the code also reset the note splitter position.
  
• Added ability to duplicate an existing filter or view.
  
• Fixed the Find dialog so the Enter key will default to performing a find next operation.

See the first message in this thread for the download link.

[Richard Murphy]

Bonsai v5.0.1 has now been released and can be downloaded from the Bonsai download page.

Thanks to everyone who helped with testing this beta. I know there are several suggestions we did not get to in this release and we will keep it in mind for future v5 maintenance updates.