TheFormTool PRO v2.5, What’s In It For Me?

Demonstrating TheFormTool PRO v2.5

We recently held an introduction and demonstration of TheFormTool PRO v2.5 for our two-dozen beta testers from around the world. The idea was to give them a foundational view of what’s new, features to which they might pay particular attention.

You might enjoy these previews of four the the biggest and best new features that will be included in the public release of this new upgrade.

I call it an upgrade to differentiate it from the more than a dozen updates TFT has experienced in the last 18 months. Its previous upgrades have introduced major new features, Math and Derived Answers, come to mind.

Version 2.5 is a major endeavor. Nearly every area of its program was changed. 

What hasn’t changed is its emphasis on simplicity, user-friendliness. If anything, TFT PRO v2.5 is slightly easier to use.

WIth that simplicity comes major-league power, allowing more users to make more of their documents vastly more intelligent.

Beyond that, v2.5 adds major stepping stones to the future, a future that will enfold in coming months.

GRID

WIth GRID answers, complex data entry becomes easier and the uses to which an author can put the data grows exponentially. Learn about creating GRIDs, Using GRIDs to create Lists, Smart Answers in GRIDs and converting Linked Lists to GRIDS.

 

Sublists

I remember a demonstration of Internet advertising a few years ago. We started with a group of 300 million and repeatedly filtered the group until finally landing on an audience of one, a one-armed retired endocrinologist in Olathe.

TheFormTool’s Sublists will do that for you. You can divided and subdivide until the cows come home, almost endlessly defining groups (people, roles, products, services, whatever) to include or exclude. Scott will demonstrate how to select Sublists from Lists and using Linked Lists and GRIDs to select Sublists.

 

Item Fields

Items Fields are TheFormTool’s equivalent of vertical and horizontal drilling for data. Item Fields allow you to specify data based on their descriptors. You can select all air conditioning shops in Idaho or select the name of the president in Rotary Club #4. Here you’ll see how to select specific data from a List or a GRID.

 

Compound Conditions

Here’s the Boolean Boogie, the ability to construct logic paths that would put a Vulcan to shame with envy. Kids in philosophy classes across the country will be bootlegging papers created with TheFormTool to prove their professors’ pet deep theorems. More prosaic users will settle for including or excluding text based on multiple layers of conditions controlled by Compound Conditions using AND/OR/XOR and parenthesis and using Compound Conditions to create Sublists. 

Spock would be proud!

 

UPDATE: For more on TheFormTool v2.5, including screen shots, please go to https://www.theformtool.com/theformtool-pro-v2-5-goes-to-beta/