Both Document Express Professional Edition and Document Express Desktop Edition have been completely overhauled for the current release, version 4.0. From the process of installation, to document creation, editing and viewing, virtually all components have undergone significant change and upgrade. As you will note below, both Desktop and Professional now have the same three basic components:

• DjVu Browser Plugin
• DjVu Editor
• LizardTech Virtual Printer

The DjVu browser plugin is the same for both products and remains available for free download at LizardTech's web site. However, both DjVu Editor and the LizardTech Virtual Printer have different flavors for Desktop and Professional. The primary differences are, Desktop Edition enables single page scanning with Editor, and single document conversion with the Virtual Printer. Professional Edition enables multi-page scanning with Editor, and multiple-document conversion with the Virtual Printer.

Taken together, these applications will fit the needs of most end-user workflows. Document Express Desktop Edition is available now for $249, and Document Express Professional Edition is available for $349 with a 2,500 page cartridge. Please click here for information on ordering these products. For high volume conversion of content into the DjVu format, Document Express Enterprise remains the product of choice for creating network ready documents.

2. What's New in Document Express 4.0

  a. Annotation in DjVu Editor (both Desktop and Professional)

The overall purpose of including annotation to the Document Express feature set is to complete the last leg of critical functionality within a document management workflow: interactivity. DjVu provides order-of-magnitude improvements in transfer speed and viewing, as well as in file size and cost savings. However, the natural extension is moving beyond distribution and access to interactivity. With annotation capabilities, the value of a DjVu document will increase dramatically by enabling interactivity, while maintaining the original's integrity. In many industries, systems for content distribution and access require both the ability to lock down original content, while at the same time allowing users within the network the ability to comment on or add feedback to, the original. Annotation is now available in both flavors of DjVu Editor: Desktop and Professional.

  b. Lizardtech Virtual Printer (LVP)

The most noticeable change to the LVP is the user interface. Much has changed since the previous release (version 3.6). T he new dialog boxes are cleaner, provide more information on documents to be encoded, and operate more reliably on all operating systems. Beyond aesthetics, the biggest change is in the Professional Edition flavor of the LVP. Users installing the LVP on professional edition will be able to convert multiple documents in a single process. By simply setting the LVP as the default printer, then selecting multiple documents within Windows Explorer and hitting print, all jobs will be queued up in the LVP dialog box. The new user interface in LVP (Pro) will display the number of documents and the number of pages to be encoded, as well as providing feedback on pages left in the installed page cartridges. Additionally, users can select documents to be converted, view them in the preview page of the LVP dialog box, and include additional documents to the queue by opening and printing them to the LVP. Both methods enable a user to convert to DjVu a series of documents in one operation.

3. Areas of Particular Interest for New Release
    of Document Express 4.0

  a. Technical Publishing

Content managers that publish technical documentation, parts and service manuals, wiring diagrams and product specifications, have expressed the need for document interactivity. Previous to version 4.0, Document Express primarily offered efficient distribution and access capabilities. In This new release, interactive functionality has been pushed out to all users. Not only can content owners and publishers make technical information readily accessible to any user on any network, these users can now highlight areas of interest on a document, make notes on specific parts or service bulletins, or hyperlink documents to other relevant information or locations on the Web.

In addition, by improving the interface and functionality of the core editing tool, users can now rotate all pages in a document, select multiple thumbnails to be copied, pasted or removed, and hyperlink any annotation object added to the document. All objects can be printed and saved, so the process of individual workflow and collaboration is significantly improved, as described below.

  b. Design and Review

A common problem in technical design and review processes is moving complex content around in an efficient manner. When a group of engineers, or a team of designers are attempting to collaborate in geographically distributed areas, using annotated DjVu documents provides several advantages. First, the core content is always preserved, so even if a third party adds a series of comments or objects, the underlying information will be protected. Second, the files can be easily distributed via any electronic means, including email and posting to intranets and web sites with the indirect method that enables page independent viewing. Finally, because of the size and speed advantages, all versions can be easily stored and accessed to maintain a complete log of changes.

  c. Large Paper Repositories

In general, organizations with a high volume of paper find tremendous value with Document Express solutions. Primarily because of the segmentation capabilities of the DjVu technology, there is no better solution for scanning information into a high quality and network ready format. Combining the value of a scanned solution with the enhanced electronic conversion tools, Document express becomes a compelling proposition for customers in the following segments:

     i. Government

City, county, and state governments are typically required to publish a majority of their public records in an accessible format. Putting this information on the web saves considerable staff time and plant cost by eliminating mountains of legacy, and newly created paper documents. Government publishers can now label any document converted into DjVu format with the new annotation tools, convert a series of electronic files into Network-Ready DjVu format with the Virtual Printer, or hyperlink documents to improve navigation for constituents.

     ii. Legal

Given the immense amount of paper produced and stored by legal entities, Document Express can provide critical functionality, including:

• Network-Ready Access: every legal document can be readily accessed by any stakeholder with appropriate privileges, no need for off-site storage.
• Lock-Down of Original Content: Contracts, agreements, wills, etc. cannot be modified once converted into DjVu format.
• Annotation Capabilities: With a secure document that cannot be modified, freedom of document and information exchange is enhanced.
• Highlight and Redaction: Within the new annotation feature set is both a highlight and a redaction tool. Redaction is not fully secure - the text layer is still accessible - but certainly is effective for printed documents or for normal document exchange.

     iii. Publishing

Massive file sizes are common to the publishing industry. Whether they are Quark, FrameMaker, or PDF files, online publishers face significant challenges in delivering the content they need in the form they desire. Document Express enables content owners to publish any type of content in an easy and efficient manner. Combining the three core strengths of DjVu - high document quality, small file size, and ease of network distribution - full color catalogs, newspapers, and journals can all be easily distributed over the web.

4. Where to Try...

  a. Download a trial:

http://lizardtech.com/solutions/document/trial

Document Express Professional Edition is now available for trial on LizardTech's website. Please use the link above to download the file (it is 28 MB), and you will be entitled to 250 trial pages. Feel free to contact us with any questions at info@lizardtech.com