Specify Software Project Announces Specify 4.0

[Beach, James H]

The Specify Software Project announces Specify 4.0, our
biggest upgrade and the best Specify ever.

What's new in Specify 4.0:

Microsoft SQL Server: Robust, Scalable, Relational, and
Internet-Ready

Specify 4.0 moves your data into Microsoft SQL Server--proven
commercial mainstream database technology. SQL Server is a
scalable and reliable database manager that can handle
collections working with hundreds of thousands of specimen
records on a PC, to research centers with millions of
collection objects in multi-user, server installations. MSDE,
SQL Server's standalone version, is capable of handling the
processing needs of medium-sized collections. We supply a free
copy of MSDE with each Specify installation.

SQL Server's relational data model and industry-standard
network interfaces position Specify data providers for
integration with emerging international research data network
architectures and the burgeoning deployment of internet web
services.

Specify's New, Capable Web Interface

We've completely re-engineered the Specify web interface to
make it easy to provide Internet access to your collection
data and to give you extraordinary flexibility for web site
customization. Have a fondness for banana yellow, aubergine
purple or inclined toward a proper corporate blue-grey?
Whatever! Grab your color palette and Specify's web style
sheet and customize. Banners, footers, headers, images,
fonts and colors can all be detailed the way you want them.

With look-and-feel taken care of, specifying web page content
is even easier and more flexible. You decide which data fields
should be visible for queries and for result displays by
simply creating a Specify query. Specify 4.0 then takes your
query and automatically creates customized web pages with
templates for query forms and data output tables. That's all
there is to it. Visitors to your Specify web site simply fill
in the query forms with search values and go. Create as many
distinct web query pages as you like for special purposes or
for particular users.

Specify Smart Installer

Specify's smartest installer ever is completely rewritten to
transparently handle complex Specify and MSDE installation
tasks and to migrate your existing Specify 3.2 MS Access data
to SQL. The installation process is easy and the installer
suggests default values for file locations and passwords as it
works along. We've also added administrative menu options
for backing up and restoring your database. No need to get down
and dirty with the file system to copy and archive database
files. Just click, designate a backup file name and Specify
does all the rest. Restores are just as easy. Forget to backup
your Specify database? Not to worry, we will remind you, and
remind you, and remind you.

Batch and Series Processing

Say good-bye to the drudgery of updating specimen records one-
at-a-time, say hello to blazing batch processing.

For collections that catalog individual specimens in lots or
with a common collecting events and localities, Specify 4.0
adds to Series Processing functions in Specify 3.2, new
capabilities for speeding through repetitive changes to
similar records. Specify now supports batch editing and
updates to records in many data tables which can easily
correct historic data inconsistencies or slight variations in
spelling in your data. Text fields, number fields, dates,
times, lat/longs, pick lists, and list button fields may be
batch edited. Pick the value you want to replace, click and
let it run.

Specify 4.0 also implements a facility for removing duplicate
records by automatically finding them, deleting them, and then
re-linking any associated records in other tables to the
single remaining copy of the record. It's an easy way to rid
your database of unneeded duplicate entries. Just select the
table you want to "de-duplicate", click and go.

Documentation and Support

Although only the most determined actually read software
manuals these days, we have greatly expanded and updated the
Specify User Manual as an exhaustive reference. It's packed
full of examples and explanations about how to make Specify
4.0 work for you. Comprehensive help is also available from
the integrated Specify Windows help facility. And in the
unlikely event that you cannot find something in online help
or in the manual, contact us and we will be happy resolve any
documentation or technical issues.

What are you waiting for?

The downloadable Specify 4.0 installation package is available
on the Specify Software Project web site. See our web home for
more detailed information on our newest Specify release and
for the updated Specify 4.0 User Manual.

Specify Software Project
Biodiversity Research Center
University of Kansas
1345 Jayhawk Boulevard
Lawrence, KS USA 66045

Phone: +1 785 864 4400
Fax: +1 785 864 5335
E-mail: specify at ku.edu <mailto:specify at ku.edu>
Web: http://usobi.org/specify <http://usobi.org/specify>