Version 0.98.9.5 alpha - Mon, 19 Nov 2007

At last, this version is released! There are a few new things, a number of improvements, and many bug fixes including a few important bugs squashed related to problems customizing tags. Visually, the most significant difference is the elimination of the log file with that data being added into the File Information sections at the bottom of the Everything Report.

There really has been no use in me saying that the next version would be out in 2 months. It always seems to extend to almost three. Thank goodness that I added my expiry of the program after 3 months. At least that has forced my hand at getting a new version finished.

But now I’m guided by my new resolve to work towards the goal of Version 2.0 and get there as soon as possible, maybe within a year. First step is to get to beta. I’m again attempting to say 2 months (January 2008) to do the final bits of alpha work. There are 3 major features I want to that I feel need to be in version 1:

1. Handling Photos. I want to be able to display thumbnails with their associated data. Hopefully I’ll find a quick and dirty way to code it to show a larger picture when you point to one with the mouse. Exporting to HTML should be easy. I don’t know about RTF.
    
2. Displaying the same AFNs together. This will basically be a precursor to Virtual Merging. I’ve promised this to one purchaser for too long a time already. And it has been the feature that seems to get deferred every version. This time I’ll do it.
    
3. Allow Behold to be used as a Portable Application on a pen drive. This really isn’t that important now, but it will be quite easy for me to do (only take a few days) and it will be a “sexy” feature that might get Behold noticed.

Number one for me are the pictures. I need that feature to use Behold to make my webpage with info for my Romanian research. If your genealogy program exports links to photos in its GEDCOM, then you’ll want that feature as well. I’m a bit worried as there is a chance that graphics might slow Behold down or make it use too much memory. But I’ll tackle that problem if it happens.

So, enjoy this current release. I’m very happy with it. I’ve been tightening up and simplifying the code, and Behold is starting to feel like a real solid application.