Jarte News

Jarte 3.2 is Now Available

Bob Flora — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 12:30:00 EDT

There have been scattered reports of Jarte not starting on some computers since version 3.1 was released. Jarte 3.2 addresses this issue and is now available. Version 3.2 contains a few other minor fixes, so you may find it worthwhile to upgrade even if you have experienced no problems starting Jarte. If you are using the free edition of Jarte then download the new version from the Jarte download page. If you are using Jarte Plus then go to Help > Check for Updates to download the appropriate Jarte Plus upgrade file.

Jarte 3.1 is Now Available

Bob Flora — Mon, 19 Feb 2008 17:15:00 EDT

Version 3.1 contains bug fixes and minor enhancements. If you are using the free edition of Jarte then download the new version from the Jarte download page. If you are using Jarte Plus then go to Help > Check for Updates to download the appropriate Jarte Plus upgrade file.

Jarte Templates and Backgrounds

Bob Flora — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 11:30:00 EDT

There is now a Jarte templates page with predefined templates for popular label sheets and envelope sizes. There is also a Jarte backgrounds page with a selection of background textures for Jarte's tool panels.

Jarte 3.0 is Ready!

Bob Flora — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 19:30:00 EDT

Jarte 3.0 has finally been officially released! It can be downloaded from the Jarte download page. Jarte Plus users can download a free upgrade by going to Help > Check for Updates within the program. Jarte Plus users can also purchase the Jarte Plus 3.0 CD at a special upgrade price. Enjoy Jarte 3.0!

Jarte 3.0 Beta 3 is Available (Updated)

Bob Flora — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 22:02:00 EDT

Jarte 3.0 Beta 3 has been released. The Beta 3 release contains a number of important fixes. Jarte 3.0's online help documentation is now complete and the latest release links to it from within the program. The Beta 3 release is expected to be the last (and shortest) beta release before the official Jarte 3.0 release.

Jarte 3.0 Beta 3 can be downloaded from the Jarte 3.0 beta download page. If you are using Jarte Plus then you can obtain the appropriate upgrade patch by going to the Jarte Plus upgrade page instead.

Please send any bug reports or feedback to the e-mail address shown on the Jarte 3.0 beta download page

Update: It should also be mentioned that the buttons in the "Compact Layout" have been reordered a bit. The Edit button has been moved over to the left side and the Insert, Font, and Paragraph buttons have been moved one position to the right as a consequence. This was done because the Edit button feels more correct in its new position. It also leaves the Compact Layout's 8 major buttons in roughly the same order as their corresponding functions appear in most word processors, thereby making the interface easier to adapt to for new Jarte users.

Jarte 3.0 Beta 2 is Available

Bob Flora — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 21:15:00 EDT

Jarte 3.0 Beta 2 has been released. Jarte 3.0 Beta 2 can be downloaded from the Jarte 3.0 beta download page. If you are using Jarte Plus then you can obtain the appropriate upgrade patch by going to "Help" and then "Check for Updates" within the program. If you have a version of Jarte Plus before version 2.6, or if you received a special Jarte Plus build from me during the beta period, please contact me directly for an upgrade file.

There have been many fixes and enhancements added since 3.0 Beta 1. More software development was done during the beta period than I expected, but that will now end. In order to keep the software stable, further software changes will now be limited to fixing whatever bugs may be remaining. The remainder of the beta period will be spent working on the new 3.0 documentation.

Please send any bug reports or feedback to the e-mail address shown on the Jarte 3.0 beta download page

Jarte 3.0 Beta is Available

Bob Flora — Sun, 14 Jan 2007 20:15:00 EDT

The Jarte 3.0 Beta is finally available. See the list of highlights, the screen shots, and the beta download page. Jarte Plus customers should go to the Jarte Plus 3.0 Beta 1 upgrade page. The new Jarte 3.0 Help document is being written during the beta period and is therefore unavailable until the official release. The Jarte 3.0 official release will occur when the documentation is complete and any reported bugs have been fixed.

The Same Story

Bob Flora — Tue, 19 Dec 2006 17:30:00 EDT

Well, it's past mid-December and the Jarte 3.0 Beta is still not released. The feature development work is actually finished now but testing has revealed a lot of cleanup work to be done. Much of the clean up has been done as well and I've debated whether to go ahead and make the Beta available now. I've decided against that even though it means that once again a promised date goes by unfulfilled, something I very much wanted to avoid. I want to do more testing and cleanup before releasing the Beta. With the holidays here I don't expect to release the Beta before the end of the year (as if anyone would still trust a release date I might give anyway).

I have been through date slips before but nothing anywhere near as bad as this release has been. The scope of the release kept expanding as development continued (aka, "feature creep"). Much of the growth in program scope was due to realizing how to accomplish some important things that I had previously thought were unfeasible for a word processor based on the Microsoft WordPad word processing engine. Those discoveries led to the change of much of Jarte's foundation. Much of the benefit of that foundation work will appear in future releases more than in Jarte 3.0.

Based on my experience with Jarte 3.0, my first New Year's resolution will be to never, ever, ever give another forecast release date. From now on "when will it be ready?" will be met with "when it's ready." That's what a lot of other I derive a lot of pleasure from working on Jarte, making it available to others, and hearing about the neat projects people are using it for. I don't like having any of that joy sapped away by wearing myself out trying to meet deadlines that were self imposed to begin with, and then disappointing people who were counting on those dates.

With that said, I will now take a little time to enjoy the season and its meaning. I wish all of you a very merry Christmas!

Further Delay of Jarte 3.0 Release

Bob Flora — Sat, 19 Aug 2006 13:00:00 EDT

Unfortunately, I have to slip the release of Jarte 3.0 again. The new forecast release date is 4th quarter 2006. The main culprit was the implementation of tables which turned out to be a huge task. Although the WordPad word processing engine Jarte is based on provides decent support for displaying tables, a rather complex solution was necessary to allow creating and editing tables. In hindsight, table support should have been left until the next version. The good news is that although there is still a lot of work left to be done, the most difficult aspects of version 3.0 have been completed so work should proceed more smoothly.

Also, you may have noticed the grammar web link in Jarte's Reference Bar is now broken. That's because the grammar web site has now moved and the old address was not redirected to point to the new address. I have e-mailed the web site's webmaster about this but I don't know if it will be fixed. The new address for the grammar site is http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/. Jarte 3.0's web links will be routed through the Jarte web server where I can easily resolve problems like this in the future.

Jarte 3.0 Screen Shot

Bob Flora — Fri, 26 May 2006 14:30:00 EDT

As promised, the first partial screen shot of Jarte 3.0 is now ready. The screen shot below shows Jarte 3.0's main control panel. Click on it for a larger view.

Despite the very different appearance from Jarte 2.6, most of the buttons are the same ones used in version 2.6. The new look attempts to address two major concerns:

Provide a more attractive interface. Jarte 3.0 buttons use full color graphics, although the colors are slightly muted. Avoiding overly bright splashy colors helps prevent the buttons and tabs from being distracting or becoming tiresome to look at during long editing sessions. The chosen colors are also designed to fit in better with the Windows color scheme.

Most of the buttons are either labeled or show industry standard icons (if available) for their associated functions. This is designed to make Jarte 3.0 feel more familiar and comfortable right away, especially for new Jarte users. Most of the buttons are also slightly larger in order to make them easier to use.

The new graphics for the other buttons have not yet been created so other screen shots are not available at this time. Your comments concerning the new Jarte 3.0 interface are welcome. You can send your comments to beta@jarte.com. Although your comments will be read with interest they will not be responded to unless you have a question you want answered.

Update on Jarte 3.0 Progress

Bob Flora — Sun, 30 Apr 2006 10:35:00 EDT

It has been awhile since my previous post so I want to update everyone on Jarte 3.0's progress. A lot of Jarte's infrastructure is being changed to make it more robust and to provide a strong foundation for the features to come in future versions. Many of these underlying changes take better advantage of the Microsoft WordPad editing engine Jarte is built around. These infrastructure changes are more extensive than originally envisioned. This will cause the forecast release date for Jarte 3.0 to be pushed from 2nd quarter to 3rd quarter 2006.

However, I am very happy with the results achieved so far. Jarte 3.0 will be a significant improvement that I believe most people will find to be well worth waiting for. The artwork for the new interface is still in progress, but I hope to post the first screen shot of the new look by the end of May.

Jarte 3.0 is in development

Bob Flora — Tue, 17 Jan 2006 21:29:00 EST

Development of Jarte 3.0 is well underway. There will be more new features and enhancements than originally anticipated. However, this means the expected release date has been pushed back to 2nd quarter 2006.

Some of the new features include:

A new appearance (a mockup screen shot will be provided here when it is ready)
The ability to install Jarte to any USB flash drive so you can take Jarte and your documents with you wherever you go
A Wrap to Page setting that wraps lines just as they would appear when printed, including indicators for page breaks
Basic template support
Ability to insert tables
Document encryption (Jarte Plus only)
And much more

As always, the new version of the Jarte word processor will be free. It has not yet been decided whether there will be a price change for Jarte Plus. However, a free upgrade to Jarte Plus 3.0 will be available to existing Jarte Plus users.