10/9/03 - NEW Test Beta 2 Released!

Download EClass.Builder 2.5b2 for Windows (16 MB)
Download OpenOffice.org1.1 beta 1 for Windows (66 MB, needed for DOC and RTF support)

New features:

Beta 2:

• Web Page Plugin: Lets you create web pages just as if you were working in a word processor or web page editor! Also lets you directly edit HTML code.
• More Complete Plugin Support: Now, when you create a new page, you are asked which type of page you want to create (EClass Page, Web Page or Quiz). You can set a default via Options->System Preferences.
• Multi-Browser Preview: Preview how your page will look in Internet Explorer and Mozilla/Netscape with the click of a tab!
• Theme Support: Change the visual look and feel of your EClass. Two default Themes (frames and no frames) are provided in the beta. You can change themes by going to File->Project Settings, and selecting the "Publish" tab.
• Smarter Publishing: EClass now only publishes pages that have changed, and publishes them on demand (updating the table of contents as well). Publishing the entire course is now only necessary when you change Themes!
• French Language Support: EClass now has a French translation as well! (Note, some features added in the betas have not yet been translated.)
• Note: Now that OOo 1.1 final has been released, we will try to provide a new beta with support for OOo 1.1 final soon!

Beta 1:

• DOC, RTF support for text formats (if OOo 1.1 beta 1 is installed)
• Translation Engine - add new language support to EClass (English and Spanish available)
• New Quiz plugin - create auto-grading quizzes, and provide feedback on correct and incorrect answers
  (select Page->Add New->Quiz from the main menu)
• Flash support - Add Flash videos and presentations into your EClass pages
• Improved Search support - Greenstone is no longer required for full-text indexing
• EClass.Server - resolves issues with Windows Media files and allows authors to add CGI scripts to EClasses
• More on the way... =)

Notes:

• OpenOffice1.1beta 1 must be installed before EClass installation, and if OO is running when EClass is installed, it may need to be restarted. OOo must be running in order for DOC and RTF support to work. (I recommend selecting the "start OpenOffice on computer startup" option so OOo is always running in the background.)
• OOo must be installed in the default directory.
• OpenOffice1.1beta 2 will NOT work.
• As everything is in beta state - be sure to backup your data before trying the new version!