From the Desk of the President To Our Friends and Valued Customers, Another year has passed. We’re all a bit older… perhaps greyer… hopefully wiser. Some would say the most important thing is that we’re all still here. In recent years, when conversation becomes retrospective, most of us seem to recall the challenges that the industry and the economy as whole have experienced since the events of 2008. Happily 2013 brought with it the first real signs of recovery, and by all indications it was felt throughout the industry. For the first time in years, we saw companies renew their commitments to growth and even expansion – a welcome change from the anxiety that seemed to have encompassed everyone. Periods of recovery bring with them hope; and along with it comes huge expectations for the years to come. Most people, upon finally seeing the “light at the end of the tunnel” look forward to something – revolutionary – something to look forward to. In this spirit our developers have spent the better part of 2013 working hard to develop the next evolution of our products; something that would exceed all expectations. AVAware released a new version of its flagship product, AVAproject for 2013. In addition to another myriad of compelling new features, this version set the foundation for some exciting new technologies that will continue to develop into the next year. Our Fusion product has continued to grow and develop as many new users have adopted the innovative platform and support continues grow for an increasing number of accounting/ERP systems. AVAware presently offers Fusion interface modules for several popular accounting systems, in addition to a development framework that allows quick development of additional modules as our users request them. It’s exciting to be able to offer our users choices; Fusion ensures that companies will never have to “settle” for anything less than the perfect solution for them. On behalf of all of us at AVAware, we wish to thank our valued clients, vendors and corporate partners for all their past, present and ongoing support. We owe our success to you and only hope that we can, in some way, return the favor. From our family to yours, we wish to extend our best wishes for a safe and happy holiday season and a very prosperous new year. All the best! Paul S. Kirsch President & CEO AVAware Technologies

With this follow-up to our popular Christmas-time article last year, we bring everyone up-to-date on the events surrounding our favorite holiday personalities: Microsoft, Google, NORAD and Santa Claus.

It seemed difficult to believe, but Santa Claus’ legal representatives – NORAD – had slighted the mighty Google in favor of an arrangement with Microsoft. In actuality, Microsoft had taken responsibility for setting up and maintaining the legendary NoradSanta.com site that allowed children all around the world to track the impending arrival of Father Christmas on his journey around the world.

You may recall that all this began when Sears & Roebuck offered a phone number in their Christmas advertising that could be used by parents to persuade anxious children to get to bed. As the story goes, they

published the wrong number and everyone ending up phoning the one-and-only NORAD! Mistake or not, It must have seemed perfectly reasonable in 1955 that NORAD, the organization once perceived as the most powerful and “all-seeing” on Earth, would be the ones capable of “tracking” even the magical Santa. Today, however, things may just have changed. Call it superior marketing skills, but if you ask most people today who the most powerful force on the planet is – their answers might be split between Google and Microsoft!

It’s fitting then that both of them should feel it’s their responsibility to “pick up the torch” as it were and continue this

long-standing American tradition. The problem is – at least for Google – that Microsoft seems to have won. NORAD has chosen Microsoft’s Bing Maps for their annual Santa tracker. It might be interesting to note (see the image below) that the actual Microsoft logo does not appear on the NORAD page; instead, a discreet “rethink” with the Micosoft Internet Explorer logo embedded appear in the top corner. Naturally, clicking on it takes users to the Internet Explorer page on the Microsoft web site. (image below)

Not to be outdone, Google’s team at Mountain View have taken it upon themselves to innovate Santa himself! Once again, they have set up their own version of the Santa trackers at Google.com/SantaTracker that, like the NORAD site, features a countdown, track on the all-important day as well as various games and toys to heighten the anticipation of children (and adults) everywhere.

This year, the battle for the hearts and minds of the children will also take

place in the mobile arena. While NORAD has released apps for both iOS and Android, Google has limited their offering to their Android platform. While it may seem that NORAD has one up their competitors, team Google has one more surprise – at least for a VERY small segment of the population.

Over the past year, Google has gradually rolled out early versions of their “Google Glass” product to a small, but growing number of early adopters. Select US residents that are willing to

cough up $1500 for the privilege can “request” the opportunity to buy into this well-publicized new technology. For those who have had the opportunity to do so, Google is offering a version of their Santa tracker that works on Google Glass! This is definitely what the “cool kids” are wearing this Christmas!

Microsoft Word, Google Docs, and other popular word processing programs store documents as standardized docx files. AVAproject can now export perfectly formatted reports into this popular format.

This is another powerful feature created in response to overwhelming requests from AVAproject users. In many markets, architects and other industry professionals have become accustomed to receiving reports such as Hardware Schedules in files compatible with such programs as Microsoft Word. By insisting on having files delivered in open formats such as this, architects enjoy the ability to modify reports they’ve been given at their leisure. Although many distributors and spec writers are often reluctant to provide editable files, given they’re far too easy for the customer to reuse on other jobs, sometimes one has no choice but to give them what they want.

Most people are familiar with common word processing programs, such as Microsoft Word, OpenOffice and Google Docs that save their documents to popular docx files. What most users don’t know is that these familiar docx files actually contain document data in XML format. During the “save” process, the XML data is ZIP-compressed and simply given their signature “docx” file extension.

Having had some experience in both creating XML formatted files, as well as ZIP compression (ie: AVAware’s online ‘Catalog Packager & Downloading tool’), AVAware developers were definitely up for the task.

AVAproject now contains a powerful docx export facility, which allows Word-compatible versions of the system’s text-based reports to be created. Unlike many other export tools, AVAproject’s offers several key features in the exported files:

• Each and every report-related option offered by AVAproject is reflected and supported in the Word export. Users will have complete control over the formatting of the schedules.
  
  
• Page titles and data blocks are exported as actual document ‘headers’ and ‘footers’ – not just free-floating text. This ensures that proper formatting will be automatically maintained should content be added or removed from the document after the fact.

• Columnar Schedules and reports are exported as actual document ‘tables’ – not just text delimited by spaces and tabs. Once again, perfect formatting will be maintained during manual editing.
  
  
• Standard document ‘properties’ are being set when the docx file is created. Attributes such as Project Name, Report Title, Plan Revision & Date, etc. are filled into their corresponding fields and can be seen when viewing file properties or browsing in a detail view. In addition, users that make use of document storage and retrieval systems (ie: Microsoft SharePoint) will be able to organize and search these fields based on the various attributes.

The image on the left is a ‘Hardware Schedule” as generated directly from AVAproject. The image on the right is the same document, exported to and printed from Microsoft Word.

It’s also important to note that this new export facility is entirely contained within AVAproject; as usual, absolutely no additional or third-party software packages are required for it to work – not even Microsoft Word!

When creating these, or any other XML based files, AVAware developers use our own proprietary software engine rather than rely on

the standard Microsoft-provided development tools. In general, we find we are able to realize an increase in performance by as much as 10x, while significantly reducing the overhead required. Even with all the additional formatting directives being added to the document files, AVAproject can export even the largest reports and schedules in a matter of seconds.

File Attributes

As a final measure of compatibility, AVAproject supports and sets the standard OS-readable file attributes

typical of Word documents. Right-clicking on an AVAproject-generated document file and selecting properties, will cause a dialog similar to this one to be shown. Notice that information such as ‘Project Name’ and other relevant information is inserted into the appropriate fields.

This information is also visible in “Detail” views of the Windows Explorer. Documents can be sorted and/or grouped by many of these fields.

* Originally published in the December 2011 AVAwire Newsletter *

As another year comes to a close, many businesses and individuals alike take advantage of the opportunity to do a bit of housekeeping to get ready for the new year. A tidy desk, clean work space and properly organized paperwork are all wonderful things to come back to after the holiday break to maximize productivity and efficiency. But what about your PC? The following are a few basic PC maintenance tips and tricks to ensure your computer is performing optimally.

Windows Update

Virtually every piece of software will inevitably have updates made to it. These “updates” can be for a number of reasons, ranging from new feature to addressing “bug” issues and security threats. Though often overlooked, the same holds true for the operating system itself. Microsoft also releases regular updates to Windows for all the same reasons.

If Windows (and other Microsoft software) is not current with the latest bug fixes and patches, your system is vulnerable to viruses, spyware and other malicious software. Windows

Update is a built-in software download and installation system for keeping Windows and other Microsoft products up to date. Windows Update not only ensures the latest operating system and program features are available, but also provides the latest bug fixes and security vulnerability patches that are critical for system safety. The software updates come directly from Microsoft and may be trusted for installation.

In the Windows Update preferences the system administrator can set whether Windows Update should download and install updates automatically, simply download the updates and wait to be instructed to install them, or neither download nor install updates. If the second or third option is selected,

respectively, it is extremely important that the user manually install the latest Windows updates on a regular basis.

Many malicious software preys on “un-patched” computers, as the vulnerabilities they exploit are often already patched via Windows Update. We recommend downloading and installing updates automatically if possible, since it keeps the operating system and software up to date constantly and provides the best protection against the latest threats.

To change preferences and/or install updates, simply locate and run “Windows Update” in the “All Programs” section of the Start Menu.

As a final note, it is always advisable to be using anti-virus / anti-malware software to protect your computer from malicious programs. Some of the traditional anti-virus suites actually consume a lot of system resources in their own right, which may be bogging your computer down. Microsoft offers their own (free) program to combat malicious software called Microsoft Security Essentials. We have found it to be very light-weight in terms of the required system resources and just as effective as other commercial solutions.

We welcome any questions, comments or suggestions about any topic mentioned in this edition of AVAwire. Please visit our website for more information, or contact us directly at (416) 239-9099.