Sneak Peek of Lectora Version 11

Last week, Desiree and I had the pleasure of attending the Lectora User’s Conference in Chicago, Illinois. The closing session included a sneak peek of Lectora Version 11, which is to go into beta testing soon. Here is our impression of the new release.

The main difference with the new release is that the interface is moving from the Office 2002 paradigm of menus and toolbars to the Office 2007 paradigm of tabs and ribbons. They’ve worked very hard to increase usability and development speed by arranging the tools differently and placing the most relevant tools within reach when you need it.

I still believe that Lectora is one of the most powerful tools on the market, but I’ve talked to many people who feel it is hard to use. These usability enhancements should go a long way to making the software friendlier to the novice user.

The one thing we saw that seems to be a big competitive advantage over the other major tools on the market is the inclusion of some new social tools. While we didn’t get to see all of them, they did show how to quickly add an RSS feed, a twitter feed, and a functioning Google map.

Even though they are about to go into beta, we got the impression that the feature set isn’t locked yet. I’d like to see them improve the graphics capability, such as being able to rotate and crop images right on screen, and enhance the ability to time elements to audio.

Side note: If you are a Lectora user and have never been to one of their conferences, I highly encourage you to go. I do enjoy the sessions (that range from novice to advanced), but I also really enjoy getting to know the Trivantis staff. You can meet the developers, support team, product managers, and even the CEO. You can schedule one-on-one meetings with a support person to talk about your specific issue or attend the Ask the Experts session where anyone can ask questions to a panel of developers. Next year’s conference is in San Antonio at the end of April.

I’ll be there—will you?