Released: Arbortext Version 7.0

Here’s a short summary of SPRs and enhancements added to the product release. Many SPRs and enhancements are part of the release. We highly recommend you log in to the support site and read the release notes. If you have an active maintenance contract you can download the new version from the PTC-Support website as usual. If you need any help please contact our support team.

Summary

Arbortext 7.0 was released last week. We saw a preview of what was coming last month and have been eagerly awaiting the release. There's some big improvements with this release and some special treats for the early adopters.

What's in the release? Support for DITA 1.3. A new JavaScript IDE for APP source in both Styler and APP. And a host of other features, including one that our customers requested!

7.0 will require new license generation, but 7.0 licenses are backwards compatible and will support older releases at the same time.  If you have an active maintenance contract, you can download Arbortext 7.0 at no additional cost from the PTC website.

We're testing 7.0 for our customers right now. For now, this post will take you through the highlights of the release. Details on each feature and specific bug fixes contained in the release can be found in the release notes on the PTC website.

Major Improvement Highlights in 7.0

• DITA 1.3 Support added (get the details).
• New JavaScript IDE Editor for APP Source which includes syntax validation and auto-complete for APP functions and stylesheet debugger
• Support for downsampling of images to reduce graphic size
• Saved Search capability for PTC Server CCMS (Windchill/Arbortext Content Manager
• New PDF properties available for APP output. The stylesheet can now define, at a global level:
  • Line Break Characters that indicate the characters at which a line is permitted to break
  • Vertical spacing properties for column top baseline, cell top baseline, and professional leading (baseline to baseline)
  • Horizontal spacing properties for word space (amount of space that will be substituted for every space character when formatting a line), letter space (amount of space added to the right of a letter when formatting a line)
  • Hyphenation properties for maximum consecutive hyphens, minimum word size to hyphenate, minimum characters before/after hyphen
  • Table formatting for row-breaking conditions, default rule thickness, minimum row height, default cell padding

Additional Improvements with 7.0

• User Interface improvements for Arbortext Editor and Arbortext Styler including new menu shortcuts and streamlined toolbars
• New Environment Variables:
  • APTSPELL for alternate, additional locations for the list of accepted words used by the spell checker
  • APTOPENINSTYLER to set Styler (rather than Editor) as the default File Open option for PTC documents
• PTC Windchill Service Information Manager now permits Information Structures within the context of a library
• PTC IsoView and IsoConvert support have been updated to the 7.3 M040 release
• PTC Creo View Express has been updated to the 3.0 M031 release
• SPRs have been included in this release. For more details, see below the fold.

Discontinued support as of 7.0

1. PTC Arbortext Adapter to Documentum/WDK is no longer part of  Editor install
2. Dynamic Line Manager no longer part of Editor install
3. Service Manual Application no longer part of Editor install. If you are thinking of upgrading to 7.0 and are using the Service Manual Application doctypes from an earlier release, we can help you install them for use in 7.0.
4. Arbortext Digital Media Publisher has been moved to Sustained Support. DMP is no longer actively distributed by PTC. It's end of life was announced in the 2015 Arbortext Technical Support Bulletin.
5. FOSI and XSL-FO Print engines have been moved to Sustained Support.  APP is the recommended engine for print output.
6. Arbortext Editor clients and Arbortext Publishing Engine support IPv6

For more information

Documentation supporting Arbortext is delivered in the Arbortext Editor Help Center. You can download the release notes for this and all recent releases from the Reference Documentation area of the PTC web site at ptc.com.