Avalanche Launches; FastTAG 1.2

Early this year Avalanche is releasing a new version of FastTAG, its
flagship document conversion and management product. AS many readers
already know, FastTAG is used to recognize different kinds of structures
in documents, including headings, lists, notes, tables, and other kinds of
document objects. Once FastTAG has identified an object, it can write it
out with special tags or codes. The nature and format of this output is
controlled by the enduser through a simple procedural language called
"Louise."

Originally released in 1990, FastTAG has been widely used within a broad
variety of applications. New capabilities allow FastTAG 1.2 to be even
more powerful. Here are some of its enhanced features:

* FastTAG now runs under Microsoft Windows 3.1. This is important not only
because this is such a broadly used platform, but also because, through
Windows, FastTAG has access to more memory, enabling more complicated
processing.

* The new FastTAG includes an easy to use, windowed interface for use with
Windows and with Motif on UNIX systems (Sun Sparc version).

* Microsoft's Rich Text Format (RTF) is now among the supported input
types. This means that FastTAG can process documents produced with
Microsoft Word for Windows or with Word for DOS.

* Users can now tell FastTAG to recognize objects in the input file on the
basis-of a style name or another incoming identifier. This is a
tremendously important feature, since documents increasingly make strong
use of word processor-style capabilities to enforce consistent formatting.
Rather than describing an object's formatting and running the risk of
confusing it with other document elements that h-ave similar formatting,
as was the case with earlier versions of FastTAG, users can now simply
tell FastTAG to identify things by name, whenever that is possible.
Further, if the style name is not enough to uniquely identify the document
element (for example, you have a style called "indented para" that you use
for both Warnings and Notes), then FastTAG 1.2 allows you to combine style
names with other features of the text, such as keywords or special
numbering schemes. Finally (and this is often the case in practice), if
styles are supposed to be used consistently but in fact aren't (i.e. some
of the elements just "look right), FastTAG can be configured to recognize
on the basis of style when appropriate and visually when appropriate.

* Embedded graphics in WordPerfect and RTF files are supported in the new
version of FastTAG. As a result, it is now possible to read in a compound
document, text and graphics, and to use FastTAG to create different
compound document forms or, if necessary, to separate the graphics from
the text.

* FastTAG 1.2 permits users to direct output to more than one file at a
time. This is an extremely important addition, given the new capabilities
for handling graphics. Users can send graphics--or graphic references--to
one file, and text to another. They can also use the feature to send text
to one file and tables to another. This feature greatly extends the range
of things FastTAG can do in a single pass.

* Users can now tell FastTAG to recognize crossreferences inside text, just
as they can specify rules for recognizing headings or different kinds of
paragraphs. This new cross-referencing capability makes FastTAG a much
more powerful tool for feeding hypertext systems.

* Tables are now treated as a "text object" category that can be named and
described, just as older versions of FastTAG have supported the naming and
description of paragraphs. Consequently, users can differentiate between,
say, two-column tables and more complex tables as well as provide
different output instructions for each table type.

* FastTAG 1.2 will support an optional DocumentAnalyzer tool that works
through the input to find and classify the different kinds of objects used
in the document. This can save large amounts of time that would otherwise
be spent in manually analyzing and describing your documents for
subsequent FastTAG processing. The Document Analyzer actually creates a
first cut of the "INSPEC" file, which is used to control FastTAG.

In addition, FastTAG 1.2 includes new functions to make better use of the
Louise language, including greater flexibility, bug-fixing capabilities,
new options for running from the command line, and many other features
making this a true "new version" of the product.

FastTAG 1.2 will be moving into field testing on the Microsoft Windows and
Sun Sparc platforms by the end of this month. General availability on a
broader variety of platforms will occur in the following months. The fully
supported, final release of 1.2 is scheduled for the end of March.

Avalanche Development Company, 947 Walnut St, Boulder, CO 80302
303-449-5032

  +---------------------------------------------------------------+
  |   From the America Online - New Product Information Services  |
  +===============================================================+
  | This information was processed from data provided by the      |
  | above mentioned company. For additional details, contact the  |
  | company at the address or telephone number indicated above.   |
  |    All submissions for this service should be addressed to    |
  |   BAKER ENTERPRISES, 20 Ferro Drive, Sewell, NJ 08080 U.S.A.  |
  +---------------------------------------------------------------+
