Features December 2018

This release was mostly designed to stabilize several bugs found in some of the newer features of the product, but there are a few interesting new features as well.

Virtual Publisher

General

• Redesigned merge tool and position tool interface. The newly redesigned merge tool interface moves the information to the top into a bar. This makes data visualize better than hunting for it on the right. 
• Addition of new quick actions in the merge and positioning tool. The new actions allow for one click adjustments to match ad bleed or trim and easily remove bleed sides. This reduces the need to key in the exact data to make ads place properly. 
• New print orders feature available for purchase. This new module allows publishers to track exactly where there print order will be distributed. It also comes with a highly style excel spreadsheet and report view as well. In Q1 this feature will include office copy address and quantities as well. This also includes new interfaces to manage distributions channels, distribution locations, and several new region form UI items. 
• New option in the Virtual Publisher company profile to control which phase of the workflow print ads show up in the clipboard. This new option allows ads to be shown only when they are finished if the publisher desires. 
• VP Merge tool now allows multiple versions of the same page to be merged at a time as opposed to before the page would lock users out while the file was processing. This speeds usage up in a multi region book. 
• New ad clipboard options added to select multiple items in the clipboard and apply, Hide, Unhide, Move To Position, and Move To Clipboard. A new filter has been added as well to show hidden ads. 
• New feature to limit delivery locations to a set of specific publications. This allows publishers to decide which delivery locations will be available in each publication. 
• Automatic issue creation now supports auto-incrementing the externalId field. 
• New buttons in region details view to move to the next or previous region. 

VP Photos

• Removed the need in the Editorial Manager plugin to download VP job options to support OPI photos system. 
• New “Download Fullsize” action available within photos list view, which will allow for bulk download of all selected photos’ latest revision. 
• New “Add Tasks” action available within photos list view, which will allow for bulk adding of a task to all selected photos. 
• New “Send for Corrections” action available within photos list view, which will allow for bulk sending of photos for corrections (max 10 at at time). 
• New “Mark Tasks Complete” action available within photos list view, which will allow for approval of all tasks for all selected photos. (Note: This will not mark the master approval of “All Corrections Complete” as done). 
• Added ability to upload to an Issue without specifying an editorial via the “Awaiting Editorial” option within the editorial selector. 
• New “Change Associated Editorial” action available within the photos list view, which will allow for bulk change of all selected photos' associated editorial. This action is also available within the photo details view as a pencil icon next to the editorial name in the left panel. (Useful when moving photos from “Awaiting Editorial” to their intended Editorial. 
• Added a photo status filter within the photos list view. 
• Added ability to view tasks associated with a photo from the photos list view. 
• Sending photos off for corrections now locks the ability to add, edit or remove tasks.

October 2nd Release notes

VP

• New option to force an ad's placement into a position on the book plan.
• New option to deliver a compiled digital book for use in Zinio or other digital outlets to any VP delivery destination.
• New option to deliver single pages of a digital book to any VP delivery destination. 
• New "Markets manager" allows users to quickly manage all the markets on all content on a specific page. Found in each page menu.
• New "Position Tool" allows for fine positioning of content before pages are merged. 
• New "Position Templates" allows users to save ad positions on pages for use in other issues.
• New option to duplicate newly created stories
• New option to auto add and remove all region children
• New option to set order sub region lists.
• New option to duplicate inserts and onserts a number of times on the add form and duplication form. 
• New system that auto centers ads when dropped from clipboard to book plan.
• New position profiles, allows users to save page position setups for later uses.
• New option to duplicate editorial reservations a number of times when reserving editorials directly on the book plan.
• New option to fill inserts and onserts with ad, edit, or neutral content when the item is created.
• New left menu slide out for page details views with regions. Makes viewing editions of pages much quicker.
• Merge tool can now show and hide individual ads and editorials.
• New clipboard feature to bulk remove editorials and new match to features allows bulk shape matching of existing editorials.
• New option when flowing editorial hits another editorial to pickup flow on another page.
• New option added to allow regional circulation numbers to be managed separately from the printed edition's region set.
• "Runlist View" now allows for black plate change selection and shows plate change count.

SMA

• New left menu interface
• New option added to allow import csv files for digital ad reservations.
• Issue codes can now be used when delivering digital ads.

Photo Portal

• New "Collections" functionality, allows for a photography select workflow on large batches of photos.
• New "Photo Jobs" functionality, allows for photo markup and corrections by in-house or remote corrections staffs.
• New "PhotoManager" Photoshop plugin created for use alongside our Photo Jobs functionality to aide in a corrections workflow.
• New "Photos" menu item listed under "Editorials" in order to show photos as they are connected to specific editorials.

Editorial Manager Plugin

• Regions are now listed in the editorial table view.
• New "Archive" functionality in plugin allows setup of an archival destination for package archival of indesign files.

May 21st 2018 Release Notes

Virtual Publisher

• Signatures & Onserts tab have been joined into one single tab. This reduces clicking and allows users to see all of the book content in a single stack.
• Non-Advertising and Neutral postal options added to ads and editorials.
• Big updates to weights, calipers, and ad calculation systems in preparation for USPS Page Certification.
• New configurable left side menu. See preview here.
• Clicking on a folio in the clipboard will scroll directly to the item in the plan. This can save a lot of time looking for content.
• New precision positioning tool can be found in the page menu, allows users to finely position page items.
• New ability to quick merge ad reservation that are custom sizes by drag and drop.
• Multi page ad reservations are now supported in CSV ad imports. The new required field is named  "Page Count".
• New support for multiple text boxes per text assignment in editorial assignments portion of the site.
• When adding book plans, more common folio setup is now used as a standard to make it easier.
• Clipboard is now displayed on signatures list view.  
• New option on inserts and onserts to allow extra weight and caliper to be added to special execution types like "Magnastrip" and "Hangers".
• Wording of "Thickness" across the product has been changed to the more standard "Caliper".
• Removed options on inserts and onserts to count advertising and editorial. It is now required to count all reservation content in book plan items. All reserved content on inserts and onserts are now counted as they are set.
• Snapshots now show regional versioned pages on the last page.
• Pressform data can now be imported and exported. 

Editorial Manager Indesign Plugin Release

• Many enhancements to the user interface
• Support for multiple text boxes per assignment

Assignment Manager InCopy Plugin Release

• Many enhancements to the user interface
• Assignments now open as multiple text boxes per assignment when available.

SendMyAd

• Multi page ad reservations are now supported in CSV ad imports. 
• New option to control VP licenses when adding users. Virtual Publisher required.  The new required field is named  "Page Count".

February 4th 2018 Release Notes

Virtual Publisher Enhancements

• Plan display settings moved to new icon in the toolbar for easy real time plan display settings changes.
• Large update to plan item calculations. Previously item calculations were not truly done by square inch calculation for each page, now they are. This results in highly accurate page coverage calculation per edition of the book.
• Removed left menu option "VP Stats" after a review found that this view was not only slowing down the system but also collecting a large amount of info that was not in use by any publisher. The reports system has access to all of the same data in a better format, so we removed this piece of the UI.
• New ability to download book as single pages in one pdf.
• Right click menus available on vp book plan.
• Spread details view enhanced to support more complex books
• Weights and measurements enhancements now support editioned books.
• We've added the option to deliver to dropbox locations.
• New slack integrations for group channel notifications.
• This includes a new option to send a pdf or jpg preview to a slack channel or person.  Users can now go to slot details view in VP -> Actions -> Send to Slack -> You can send a single file to multiple channels you have defined in the slack setup portion of the portal.
• New option to add and remove users to a publication's access directly from the publication details view. The option to do this from the group details still exists but it is not possible to manage access both ways.
• When adding a publication, users can now select more than one rights group to associate the publication with more than one group.
• Edition naming conventions can now be customized to match what each publisher prefers when producing editions.
• New option added to control which plan warnings show in the plan warning system. 
• New plan warning added for book plans with polybags and belly bands to ensure the proper mail class is selected for the belly band.
• New feature to allow approval of each page while in the spread details mode of VP.
• New option to add a 14 page signature added.
• Support for CDS subscription circulation file export and import to update the circulation information by zipcode and edition for VP book plans.
• Desktop drag and drop now allowed on all uploaders in the site.
• New vertical bindery report available in the VP reports area.
• New pressform option to add single pages to a pressform instead of whole signatures.
• Group details view now has tabbed view for publishers with VP licensing system. This makes it easier to see license groups vs the main groups list.
• Support for viewing special signatures in VP spread mode added. Clicking through spreads in vp should now perform better.
• The publication details view -> action menu was changed. All non actions were moved to our more standardized "More" tab at the top. We know this may appear strange at first but it is a more appropriate location.
• Plan sections can now be downloaded as a CSV file.
• Issue reports can now be nested into sub groups for easier compartmentalization of reports.

SendMyAd Enhancements

• When doing spread ad pickups, users are now given the option to also pickup the split children ads as well or only the unsplit parent ad.
• We've added the option to deliver to dropbox locations.
• This includes a new option to send a pdf or jpg preview to a slack channel or person.  Users can now go to slot details view in VP -> Actions -> Send to Slack -> You can send a single file to multiple channels you have defined in the slack setup portion of the portal.
• New option to add and remove users to a publication's access directly from the publication details view. The option to do this from the group details still exists but it is not possible to manage access both ways.
• When adding a publication, users can now select more than one rights group to associate the publication with more than one group.
• Desktop drag and drop now allowed on all uploaders in the site.
• Group details view now has tabbed view for publishers with VP licensing system. This makes it easier to see license groups vs the main groups list.
• Custom metadata can now be added to digital ad tracking.
• The publication details view -> action menu was changed. All non actions were moved to our more standardized "More" tab at the top. We know this may appear strange at first but it is a more appropriate location.
• New Dynamic Digital Ad type created to support more flexible digital ad uploading.
• Issue reports can now be nested into sub groups for easier compartmentalization of reports.

Photo Portal Enhancements

• A list of users who are in the photo task group can now be seen on each photo.

New Hotfixes August 31 2017

Release notes for Aug 31 hot fixes

Signature, Supplied Item changes

• VP: Signatures tab renamed to "Signatures & Inserts". All inserts are now managed from this list.
• VP: Supplied Items tab renamed to "Onserts & Polybags". This list now contains only items running outside of the book.
• VP: Inserts now show in book plan as all pages by default. Old style inserts will still exist but are being phased out.
• VP: Inserts are draggable on the book plan by grabbing the name label.
• VP: Inserts are now shown as starting on page, instead of starting after page. We found that publishers think in placement term as "In the fold". This means our previous form setups of placing inserts "After a page" were wrong and confusing.
• VP Polybags and wraps now show extra information on the form like:
• Creation Date
• Created By User
• Last Update
• Thickness
• Weight
• VP: Support for offline option in polybags, wraps and onserts
• VP: Support for include percent forward to adjust the percentages on the plan to include in the percentage counting or not.
• VP: New option to override the page numbering for specific inserts without effecting the main plan folio numbers.

Edition System Changes

• New inline id field added to the edition list view. This id can be used to identify unique books by their content.
• Changes to the edition calculation engine to support compacting region markets into the distribution region when possible.
• Changes to the edition calculation engine to support demographics breaking single editions out for states or local markets.
• Easier to manage regions list per plan by clicking on whole row

July 30 Release Notes

Virtual Publisher Enhancements & Bug Fixes

• Demographic support
• Demographic support for inserts, onserts, special sigs, ads and edit. (Ads and Edit will need your review, im sure it is not perfect yet)
• Demographic rules system added for exclusive, not exclusive etc
• Demographic combination rules support for running with or without specific demo.
• Bulk set data option available for demographics list.
• Enhanced Regions support
• Distribution Regions: This is a new type of region that dictates how zip codes are handled in the given region zone. This is the new top level region required to support multi-level regionalization.
• Distribution categories added for (us subs, can subs, etc). The distribution category also further defines which postal code set to use. 
• Postal code management for Canada and US
• Support for 3 digit and 5 digit codes
• Can add and remove by whole state
• Editions and Regions:
• New Editions list: We moved the editions tab from the book plan details to the left menu. This makes it more possible to see final data and reports related to editions.
• Regions for the issue are now managed in the "Regional Books" tab. It is assumed that all regions running will be used that are selected from the master region profile list. This list is also manageable per issue as before it was not.
• Better display of missing regions on page details views
• New notice on page details if parent page is found to be in a special signature or insert that is already regionalized. This helps the user not have to add more regions when the parent signature is already regional.
• Regional globe icon now shows up on regionalized signatures at the top of the page near the name of the signature. This helps the user know that the signature is regionalized. 
• Mail enhancements 
• Mail classes can be setup on inserts and onserts
• Mail weights are now counted by class and shown on the editions list view.
• Press Manager Area:
• Can now create and manage presses
• Press Forms Area:
• Can create and manage press forms
• Reports
• Changes to Book Reports -> Manufacturing Report, to support new press forms as the field name field.
• New book reports custom report creation tool. This is a beta release but you can now create your own custom reports out of book plan data. More enhancements will come to this later.
• Rights can be assigned to view each available book report in VP.
• New press forms area added to the bottom of the "Manufacturing Report".
• New configuration option in book reports to hide the top "Information" area of the report.
• New editorial placements report available in Left menu -> "Reports" list view.
• New Editions -> CDS Summary Report
• New Editions -> CDS Weights Report
• Coming Soon -> CDS Regions & Demographics Report 
• Paper Splits Area 
• In the signature details users can now add paper splits to a signature. 
• Paper split information is displayed in some reports.
• Warning displays now when paper split is not covering all available regions
• Flipped positions in book support:
• Magazine viewer now supports flipped pages
• Several display bugs were fixed.
• Special Inserts
• This is a new area in which you can add inserts from the signature list view. Special inserts always show in the main book plan, unlike the old style inserts. 
• Special inserts always show up in the full run of the book. You do not have to open an extra plan to see the insert details anymore when using this feature.
• Signatures
• Signatures now have a standard default color applied for easier identification of the signature's architecture. 
• Dark blue = cover
• Light blue = body
• Floating Square = insert
• Floating Rounded Square = special signature
•  Signature preview bar now shows inserts and special signatures as floating above the run of the book unless the pages are set to run in the normal flow.
• Inserts
• Inserts and Insert Templates can now have customized colors for better identification.
• File Delivery
• There are 2 new file delivery tags. 
• ZIndex - This option allows the delivered file name to have a numeric indication of placement in a vertical stack of files found on a single page. This can be useful when one or more items are stacked on top of each other on a single page.
• ZindexAlpha - this option allows the delivered file name to have an alpha indication (like A,B,C) in a vertical stack of files found on a single page. 
• Custom Page Sizes
• When setting a custom page size from the actions menu in VP, the opposing side of the page will now be automatically set to the same size. 
• Ad Reservations
• New option to create custom ad sizes is available. These custom ad sizes can be created at the time of creation of the ad reservation in VP. This allows the user to not have to choose an ad specification.
• New option to drag jpg previews directly on to ad reservations in the ad reservation details view. This allows users to show an ad preview for ads that do not or will not have a corresponding pdf uploaded later. 
• New option in the actions menu of ad reservations to duplicate the ad reservation.

SendMyAd Enhancements & Bug Fixes

• Ad list view support for seeing custom meta data. If you have custom metadata fields added, you can now see this info in the ad list view
• Created new checkbox on the ad size details to allow a publisher to make it available for publishers only. This is good for in house ad specs that are not to be visible to advertisers.

Hotfix Feature Release May 09 2017

• New feature allows publisher users to drag & drop ad (JPG or PNG) previews directly on to ad reservations in Virtual Publisher
  https://screencast.com/t/bavk7Kw6Xy
• New SMA and VP file delivery tags added for 
• SpreadSideCode
• ColorProfileName
• ColorProfileCode 
• Fixed bug in VP weight calculator causing some reports to show 0 on weights.

Hotfix Features Release

Some new features have been released!

• VP book plans can now have custom size settings. This allows publishers to run a custom sized issue of the magazine. Please make sure to also setup your ad size shapes to work in the new trim size.
• SMA issues can control which ad sizes are to be used for a given issue. This feature requires that you have the setting "Allow only one issue per ad" turned on. 

April 30th 2017 Release Notes

Virtual Publisher & SendMyAd

• Company Profile moved from the left menu to top right menu profile menu. Please look for this in the top right of your screen.
• Ad Details View: Users can now see ad status and filename on spread ads which have been split. More details have been added to the small thumbnail at the bottom of the spread split view.
• Added publisher setting to skip spread split re-approval of split children if parent spread is approved before split.
• Print Ads and Ad Reservations position tags area has been moved from an accordion style form item to a drop-down + tag type form item. This form item was different on the the ad reservation form than the print ad details, now they are both the same interface.
• Issue Reports can now be downloaded as excel spread sheets and keep the report's styling.

Virtual Publisher

• Editorials: Editorial Change rounds are now customizable for each publication.
• https://screencast.com/t/hfqGCuVdvdq

• Regions: Regions and region profiles are now managed from the left menu area.
• https://screencast.com/t/0LcNOXqnYSg

• Regions: Region Profiles have been renamed to Market profiles and now include options to use demographics on all items
• https://screencast.com/t/0LcNOXqnYSg

• Regions: Regions for each item can now be managed from a single checklist style editor. This option is better for customers with large region lists and demographics. You can turn this interface on in your company profile -> Virtual Publisher Settings.
• https://screencast.com/t/asLT61x06fy

• Regions: Region calculation can be done by the sum of all items on the plan or the sum of the whole market profile.
• https://screencast.com/t/BJDYbTEbNM

• Markets: (Beta) New Demographics option has been added to the left menu
• https://screencast.com/t/YDtUtYDqryP
• Signatures: Cover signatures larger than 4 pages now have the option to set the front side page count. Previously we only supported stacking all but 2 pages on the front side of the cover.
• Signatures: Can now see supplied items in the signature manager list view. This helps users know where their insert falls in the signature.
• Signatures: Can now create snapshots of selected signatures list.
• Signatures: Special signatures can now be run as book covers, in order, or saddle style.
• Signatures: Special signatures can now have custom trim sizes. This allows the user to run a section of the book as a different size than the rest of the book plan.
• Signatures: New option to change more than one signature's data at a time. Using the bulk set option in the actions menu allows the user to set multiple values at a time on signatures. (More of these will be coming to vp)
• Reports: New page content list report in VP reports view shows a list of all of the contents for each book plan.
• Reports: New manufacturing report in book reports
• Reports: New report configuration editor for book reports. Users can now change the reports to download as filename and have custom column order and displays.
• Rights: New VP right added to allow control over who can delivery pages out of VP
• Book Plan: New option to run a portion of the book as flipped over and backward reading.
• Book Plan: Clipboard tab selection, scroll position and sorting are now remembered. This makes the user experience smoother.
• Book Plan: Faster more precise drag and drop system. The new drag and drop planning system should visibly speed VP planning up. 

• Book Plan: New option to click directly on the signature label and supplied item label in the book plan view to open the details form.
• https://screencast.com/t/Pv5ZkKk0lOG

• VP Book Plan: Further removal of bottom right progress indicator and replaced with top toolbar rotating refresh icon.
• https://screencast.com/t/Pv5ZkKk0lOG

• VP Book Plan: New option to control the base font size of the book plan.
• https://screencast.com/t/Pv5ZkKk0lOG

• VP Book Plan: New option to hide book plan percentage labels.
• https://screencast.com/t/Pv5ZkKk0lOG

• VP Book Plan: Less obnoxious plan warnings. New plan warning system shows a warning icon in the toolbar. Before it would show a popup constantly until the problem was dealt with.
• Warnings include: Signature overlap and underlap, Positional coverage problems, inserts not at signature split.
• https://screencast.com/t/qHHqyfDkcf

• VP Book Plan: New warnings for files found in the plan with coverage issues.
• https://screencast.com/t/qHHqyfDkcf
• Magazine Viewer: Magazine viewer invitation system now supports multiple emails per invitation.

SendMyAd

• Print Ad List View: New option to bulk deliver completed SMA ads from the ad list view for publishers only.
• Print Ad List View: New filter option to show only ads that have no reservations "Materials Only". This is useful for figuring out which ads do not have merged ad reservations.
• Print Ad List View: Increase ads per page count to 200.
• Pickups: New option to keep pickup status the same as the source when picking up. This option allows publishers to bypass re-approval of pickups. Notice: This option is only available if the pickup is not reprocessed in any way.
• New option to change the date which the ad uses to calculate due date. This new option can be found in the publication details and allows publishers to change the base date that the ad due date is calculated from.

January 15th Release Notes

Virtual Publisher

• Regions are now managed via profiles instead of per issue. VP users will now see a new option to select a region profile set for their current plan. This new option will allow publishers greater flexibility when reusing sets of regions from issue to issue. If your plan does not use regions, this will not effect you. If you do use regions, users should go to plan details and select a region profile.
• Regions lists are now importable and exportable to CSV format.
• The "Inserts" tab in plan details has been changed to "Supplied Items". We felt like the word inserts was to inclusive of items found in the book when in fact the list has always contained both inserts and onserts.
• New demographics and attached mail system, allows publishers to manage demographics and attached mail on VP book plans. This new system comes complete with weight and thickness calculations for onsert items and poly bagging.
• Much better supplied item templates system. The supplied item templates now support much more enhanced features for managing supplied items such as inserts, onserts, polybags, and other attached mail types.
• New regional book list tab in the VP plan details. This new tab shows a complete list of regionalized plans with circulation counts, thicknesses and weights.
• New final editions tab. This new tab adds functionality to combine both the regionalized book plans with the demographic items and poly bags of the book to create and maintain a final list of magazine editions.
• Change to the regionalization calculation. There has been a big change under the hood of VP and how we handle regionalized books. In previous versions of VP, we only generated regional versions of the book plan once an item with a region was placed on the plan. The new version of the software will now auto generate regional editions of the books based on the full list of regions selected in the region profile option in the plan details form.
• Special signatures now supports perfect and saddle style specification independent of the parent book plan.
• Special signatures now supports input for front page count and back pages count for saddle style signatures.
• Special signatures now support more custom label styles like "Alpha","Numeric" and "Roman Numeral"
• Special signature markers can now be seen on the book plan view. Previously no signature separation markers could be seen.
• Execution Type field added to Supplied items, Signatures and Special Signatures. This new option will allow users to define how items are tipped into the book at their position.
• New user avatar system allows users to upload photos of themselves or avatars to make the application more user friendly.
• VP Plan display settings moved from top right menu to the plan actions menu.
• New left menu for VP Reports. We have been getting a lot of requests for VP specific reports and more visual reports, so we've added a new book reports view that shows downloadable reports in a list view.
• Tasks can be shown or hidden when viewing the book plan magazine viewer.
• Supplied items on the book plan now show a nice tool tip with details.
• Issues can now have custom metadata added to them. We've received several requests to allow custom metadate to be printed on the issue details form, VP and SMA now support this feature in the publication details setup form.
• Several new metadata tracking fields have been added to the book plan details
• LAP
• Grind Off: Area that is ground off the spine of a pre-bound piece.
• Head Trim: Area that is trimmed off at the top of a piece during the binding process.
• Job Number:A custom job number that can be included for printing purposes.
• Total Circulation: The total run of book circulation.

SendMyAd

• New avatar system allows users to upload photos of themselves or avatars to make the application more user friendly.
• Issues can now have custom metadata added to them. We've received several requests to allow custom metadate to be printed on the issue details form, VP and SMA now support this feature in the publication details setup form.

August 28th Release notes

VIRTUAL PUBLISHER

 General

• New reports list view makes finding and viewing reports easier.
  

Book Planning

• New ability to set a single page size in a plan to a custom size. This can be found in the page details action menu and can be used to produce single custom page sizes.
• New type of percentages data can now be viewed on the vp book plan footer. This can be setup from the plan display details in the top right corner.
• Magazine viewer now shows section labels on the page display.
• Magazine viewer now shows special signatures.
• Special signatures now support front and back side feature for saddle stitched book plans.
• New user right added to allow or disallow users from creating plan versions.
• Special signature support added to VP book plan ladder view.
• Users can create multiple editorials on a book plan at a time.
• Users can now create multiple ad reservations on a book plan at a time.
• VP Runlist view has been converted to a fixed header table and the totals and header fields can now always be seen when scrolling.

Book Production 

• Selected Edition can now be used in the file delivery path when delivering VP plan pages.

Editorial Management

• Editorial details view now has a new view menu at the bottom right. This new menu allows users to see 3 new options when viewing editorials. Shape, Shape and preview and Preview only. This is handy for seeing story shapes once the actual preview has come into partial page stories.
• Editorial list view can now be edited in bulk. This will save editors a lot of time. 
• Editorial Assignment users in the editorial details view can now be searched for in the drop down details.

Editorial Planning

• Users can now add custom fields to the editorial planning view. 
• Row heights can be set on the editorial planning view.

SENDMYAD

• Issue reports enhancements including live filtering by time and deadline types.
• Send ad view now has search inside of publication drop down. We have done away with the old search input field and combined it into the publication drop down.
• All select drop downs in the site have been re-skinned using a better technology.
• New company level setting added allowing publishers to hide old issues from all views x number of days after the issue's run date.
• Added a new notification email that can be sent when the advertiser changes the issue on any ad.
• Publisher dashboard now moved to statistics view in left menu.
• Publisher dashboard Tabs now moved to left menu items for easier access.

Ad Creator 

• Ad creator ads now have XMP job ticket when they are delivered or downloaded.

June 2016 Release Notes:

As many of you may have noticed, this release cycle was a little longer than normal. That is because instead of doing our usual release phase we moved all our services into a more stable cloud based environment. This was a huge move for us under the hood and the plan could not accommodate both a software release and a systems migration. Most users should be experiencing much faster performance from both SMA and VP as a result.

What's new?

Virtual Publisher:

• New planning reports functionality gives publishers access to highly configurable issue based reporting. For more information please contact a sales representative.
• Large enhancement to auto issue creation system, allows for issues to be created automatically with many new date offset and incremental options.
• Newly redesigned login screen.
• Many list views converted to new fixed header style tables, making it easier to sort and see table headers.
• Added support for dropping 3 or more page spread on to right side plan positions
• Added support for delivering saved plan versions to delivery locations.
• Special signatures can now be counted as regular pages in the book plan. See the new check box "Include in page count" in the signature details view.
• All table rows in the main list view are now easier to see when checked off.
• All table rows in the main list view now show the last selected row.
• Dashboard in VP have been removed. The dashboard will now be called statistics and can now be found under "Information" in the last side main menu.
• Better support for A/B splits on ads and editorials.
• Better visibility of inserts when multiple inserts are dropped on top of the same position. 
• Minor UI updates to the  page, ad and editorial details (lightbox) view. 
• Redesigned draggable rows UI in all of site. Easier to user and matches normal standards.
• Several new fields now visible in the issues list view.
• New advanced non-latin character support. Before now many aspects of the product did not support entry of special characters found in the non-english language. This should now be corrected site wide.
• Users can now save plans as versions and also deliver the saved versions of plans to different locations. 
• File deliveries view now contains data filtering options.

SendMyAd:

• New planning reports functionality gives publishers access to highly configurable issue based reporting. For more information please contact a sales representative.
• Large enhancement to auto issue creation system, allows for issues to be created automatically with many new date offset and incremental options.
• New preflight feature allows warning or reject if a font with a specific name is found in the file. This can be seen in the preflight profile configuration screen.
• Newly redesigned login screen.
• New planning reports system includes filters for multiple publications and filtering by date ranges.
• All table rows in the main list view are now easier to see when checked off.
• All table rows in the main list view now show the last selected row.
• Newly redesigned contact selector on ad upload form. New form allows for greater flexibility of finding ad contacts.
• 3rd party approval ads no longer allow revisions when the advertiser re-uploads.
• New deliveries menu allows publishers to see all of their file deliveries in one view.
• New option to warn or reject if specific list of font names are found in the uploaded ad.
• New option to limit ad sizes by issue. This new option allows publishers to create an ad size which will only be available for specific series of issues. This can be managed on the ad specification details form.
• Minor UI updates to the ad details (lightbox) view. 
• Redesigned draggable rows UI in all of site. Easier to user and matches normal standards.
• Several new fields now visible in the issues list view.  
• 3rd Party ad approvals no longer allow multiple revisions. Users can only revise one time per approval.
• New left menu "Deliveries" view available for publishers. View shows all outgoing deliveries from SendMyAd.

January 31 Release

January 31 Release Notes

SendMyAd

• New easier to user lists for group details and approvals details views.
• New Blanchard Systems branding applied system level outgoing emails.
• Fixed bug that was causing some kindle fire tablet previews to look blurry.
• Can now warn in ad creator ads for dpi or color space.

Virtual Publisher

• Editorial list view now has assigned filter.
• New VP Dashboard information
•  You can now see publication level numbers by selecting a publication and no issue in the dashboard.
• You can now see company level numbers by selecting no publication and no issue in the dashboard.
• Net Cost and Rate field added to Run list view.
• Option to reject and comment on added editorial tasks.
• New company preference to not fill merged ads with white background. See "Auto fill ads with white background when merging." in your company profile. This option will allow you to place transparent ads directly on to editorial pages and if the ad has a transparent background, it will keep it.
• New user preference to show weights in grams instead of pounds.
• New recalculate editions buttons shows up when publication has editions.
• Draggable guides now available in the merge tool.

December 7 Release Notes

December 7 Release Notes

Send My Ad:

• Auto split speads can now have custom heights defined for the split children.
• Users can now filter the main ad list view by non-ad creator ads. This makes it easier to see only uploaded pdf ads.
• Ad Creator : It is now possible to set ad creator fields to not require a max character limit.
• Ad Creator : Added support for international phone number formatting. (E.164 Standard)

Virtual Publisher:

• New flashless merge tool is much faster and no longer requires adobe flash to run.
• A/B Splits are now supported on ads.
• Gatefolds were renamed to "Special Signatures".
• We've added the ability to have custom sized run plans based on regionalization.
• Special signatures (previously gate folds) can now be placed on top of one another and contain multiple per signature.
• Better load balanced delivery servers. We now have twice as many delivery servers. This means less time waiting on files to deliver.
• New auto deadline system allows users to setup dynamic style deadlines which feed off of previous deadlines.
• New ad based deadlines can be added in the deadline manager.
• TASKS: The page details view tasks can now be filtered to show all completed tasks.
•  New insert type labelled outsert. This is a piece of content usually in a poly bag.
• Instructions field added to the Runlist view.
• New option in vp page display settings to show the editorial's or ad's section on the book plan page display.
• Proposed folio field added to VP bulk ad csv import form.

October 25th Release Notes

SendMyAd

• New Feature: Auto stamp content items on advertisements when the advertiser approves the ad. Please contact your sales representative if you are interested in learning more about this.
• Flash plugin is no longer required to use SMA.
• New trim tool is much faster and no longer requires flash.
• Ability to quickly change background color on ads view the views button at the bottom. 
• New publisher only option to move an ad to different publication and issue before it is completed.
• New optional ad form item "Combo Ad". 
• Issue lists in the ad upload form now match the same sorting as the ad list view issues dropdown filter.
• Issues list view can now be customized to not show hours minutes and seconds.

VirtualPublisher

General

• Ability to quickly change background color on pages view the views button at the bottom.
• Editorial Reservations can now be added without an issue.
• Inserts can now be seen directly in the magazine viewer and invitations can be sent from it. 
• Position notes metadata field added to editorial details.
• New feature to import 50 states list into vp regions

Reports

• New ad rate field option added to VP run list report
  

Editorial Planning 

• New ability to remove sections from the VP editorial plan and not effect other editorial plans and issues.
• New option to set the order of editorial plan items.
• Change sections feature allows users to change the editorial plan item's section.  
• Planned Editorials can now be linked to pre-exisiting editorial reservations. This is useful if the editorial reservation was created separately from the planned editorial. 
• Editorial approvals can now auto-time stamp specific planned editorial deadlines. 

August 31 Release Notes

Virtual Publisher

• Big update to the editorial plan view. New features include. 
• Sticky column headers.
• Collapsible column section
• Editorial plan history view
• Columns resizable and remembered between logins
• New option to add or remove whole groups from approval lists.
• Magazine viewer invitations can have an expiration associated with them. Default is 3 days.
• Bug fix in plan snapshots allows more rows on a single page for some magazine trim sizes.

SendMyAd

• Files can now be delivered directly from the assets area in the left panel.
• Enhancements to the ad details view allow for better zooming and dragging.
• Big speed boost in ad advanced searches.
• Softproofing now uses 100% html5 viewer.
• New option to add or remove whole groups from approval lists.
• Ad creator now uses all html to view and edit data.
• Ad creator edit image screen enhanced to be more user friendly.
• New brand and product auto-suggest allows advertisers and publisher to use the same naming conventions for brands over and over.

July 12 Release Notes

Virtual Publisher & SendMyAd

• Added several new fields to the issue details area and changed the edit issue interface to support more sectioned data.
• Added Issue Theme Text Field
• Added Issue Circulation Text Field
• Added Printer Drop down. Allows selection of who is printing the issue.
• New Task and Notes drawing tool speeds up drawing notes on ads and editorials by allowing the user to draw the shapes directly on to the ad or page.
• See video tutorial here: http://screencast.com/t/v6cz1DUhl
• 3 New Reports Added
• New VP "Ads and Editorials Run List" report shows all ads and editorials. This new report can be found in the reports download area.
• New VP "Ads Only Run List" report shows all ads and inserts. This new report can be found in the reports download area.
• New advertiser by publication report available in Virtual Publisher and SendMyAd. This new report allows publishers to see a list of advertiser companies by publication and an active ad count.
• New VP feature to save a plan as a version. You can now save each vp plan up to 2 times. Each saved version creates a new set of editorials for each version.
• New Dialog Softproof HTML 5 based version.
• New option in force form fill item in publisher approvals allows the forcing of a format to be phone number or url.
• New Virtual Publisher feature to plan editorials before they are created. This new system also manages editorial deadlines and editorial budget. 

June 1st Release Notes

Virtual Publisher

• New ad category merge action allows users to merge ad categories together and update them automatically on all connected ads.
• Video Tutorial 
• Added new option for VP production users to see editorial pages which are removed. 
• Video Tutorial

SendMyAd

• Moved media profiles to left menu for digital ad. This makes the list easy to download and search.
• New ability to auto split multi page spreads with more than 2 pages.
• Video Tutorial
• Digital ad url enhancement allows for click and product url validation.
• Print ad upload url validation added and placement holder text to better guide users.
• New option to choose "No Product Url" in print ad upload forms. This can be found in the "print ad upload form settings" of your company profile.
• New DFT PDF feature allows publishers to upload and preflight RGB PDFs designed for tablet and mobile applications. For more information please inquire at sales@blansys.com 
• New option to bypass split file approvals added to the company profile.
• New multi-page spread splitting system allows for ads to be split across multiple pages.

April 26 Release Notes

Virtual Publisher

• New option for sorting issues by open and closed: This option can be setup in the publisher company profile under virtual publisher settings. It will sort issues in the plan view by open and then closed, showing the closed items in gray.
• New option on plan creation to not use a cover signature: This is good for publications or issues which do not use a cover signature. This option can be changed at any time in the plan details view.
• Advanced file viewer is now visible on all plan views: You can now view spreads and all plan view pages in the advanced file view system. This allows better visual control of your pages and ads.
• New editorial clipboard filters: There are 2 new options in the editorial clipboard which allow you to see both placed and unplaced editorials in the plan.
• New option to see inserts less than 8 pages on plans: There is a new setting in the plan display options which allows users to see all pages of the insert in the plan as long as it is 8 pages or less. This option makes it easier to see the content of your insert. Please note the insert is read only in the plan view and cannot be dragged to or from.
• Coupon enhancement: Coupon issues are now scanned real time and will show a red bar over the pages of concern. 
• New help videos added! VP Quickstart, adding a publication and adding an issue.
• Change in plan editorial details view: The editorial details view now shows only the pages with the editorial on it. Before it would show all pages in between the start and end of the editorial.  
• New enhancements to book shifter functions: Book shifter now includes ability to shift content forward and backward will auto fixing signatures.
• New option to remove pages and decrease book plan size: This can be seen on any page menu.

Editorial Manager Plugin

•  We now support syncing notes down to the active document in the page manager plugin. This allows users to see notes entered in VP pages, directly on their documents as a layer.

SendMyAd

• New brand list in advertiser customer detail view: You can now see your customer's brand details by clicking customers -> companies -> company details and on the right there will be a list of brands and products your customers have entered in past ads.
• New option to force a form fill on publisher approvals: You can now setup publisher approvals and force users to fill any form item before they are allowed to approve the cycle. This can be setup in Publication or publisher details -> approval cycles -> the approval cycle details form -> Fill Form Action
• Advanced file viewer is now visible on all ads: This new viewer allows finer control of the visual ad display than the previous viewer. This viewer included zoom in, zoom out, fit and more.
• New option to create CT/Vector file in ad size form: This option allows greater control in the ad size detail form so that CT/Vectors are only created when you need them.
• New enhanced spread view: The new spread details view allows you to see all of your spread details including splits in one single view.
• New approvals and rejections report: This new report can be found on the dashboard and shows all approvals and rejections for a publication.

SendMyAd Tablet Ads

• New option to turn off EFT Tablet ads: This is helpful if you do not wish to receive EFT tablet ads.

SendMyAd Digital Ads

•  New ability to create ad reservations for Digital Ads: If you have the digital ad portal option, you can now create digital ad reservations.

Minor Features/Updates

• Google DFP API updated to v201502
• New field, "Has Reservation" in VP Ad Clipboard list view
• We increased the requirement for Internet Explorer to be 9 or above, from 8.

March 8 2015 Upgrade Release Notes

Virtual Publisher

• New split spread option added: Spread ads can now be automatically split when the advertiser approves the file. This both reduces unnecessary splits and allows publishers greater control over when spread advertisements are split.
• New custom insert system: Allows for creation of inserts which can have custom sized pages. Each page can be a different dimension in the insert.
• New feature allows archival of editorials: You can now archive and unarchive editorials from the editorials list view. This is helpful if you do not wish to remove an editorial but no longer wish to see it. 
• New option to approve whole editorial: We've added a new option which allows publishers to approve the whole editorial for a specific approval cycle.
• New spreads detail view: This view allows publishers to view and make notes while viewing spreads in the VP plan view. Please note this is the first version of this feature and more features surrounding it are coming soon.
• Now supporting Adobe Indesign CC plugins: All 3 new plugins are now available for download in the site download area.    
• New option to invite non-users to view VP Magazine viewer: This option now allows non-users to view the actively planned VP magazine through a private email link invite. 
• New Page Menu option to Swap Pages: This new VP feature allows publishers to "swap" all of the content on one page with another page. This includes all notes and details on the pages.
• Users can now see and make comments on the whole plan: This feature can be turned on in the user's plan display settings view. 
• New action to remove placed ads: This new action can be seen in the VP plan items list. This allows you to select and remove items directly from the plan and place them back in the clipboard. 
• New advanced action to copy plan editorial data to different publications. You can now copy editorials from one plan to another in the advanced actions menu.
• Notes can now be seen in the editorial details view.
• New option to force unlock read only plans. You must have "Only one user can edit the plan at a time" turned on for this to be visible.

SendMyAd

• New split spread option added: Spread ads can now be automatically split when the advertiser approves the file. This both reduces unnecessary splits and allows publishers greater control over when spread advertisements are split.
• New gridded laser PDF proof feature: The new gridded laser proof system allows you to create customized gridded laser proofs directly from SendMyAd. The gridded laser can include any variable of your required marks and image files, and can be automatically renamed and sent to your destination of choice. To learn more about our gridded laser feature please contact your sales rep for a demo today.
• New CT/Vector PDF feature: The new CT/Vector PDF feature can automatically create CT/Vector PDF versions of your ads for tablet workflows.  These files can be can be automatically renamed and sent to your destination of choice. To learn more about our CT/Vector PDF feature please contact your sales rep for a demo today.
• Custom Revision Limits for advertisers: If you have some advertisers who send multiple file revisions and you are ok with them sending more but do not want them to hit the imposed revision limit, you can now browse to your advertiser's details and increase their revision limit permanently. This can reduce frustration by some advertisers who send many revisions on a monthly basis.
• New additions to the customers list view: You can now see both advertiser users and the companies they work for. The new company details view also allows you to see exactly how many print ads the company has sent to you and which publications they are sending to.
• Languages & Units can now be associated with a branded domain: Publishers who have multiple branded domains in SMA can now associate a specific language with that domain.
• New bulk ad reservation creation system: This new option allows publishers to import multiple ad reservations to SMA through a CSV import. If you are interested in this feature please contact us as it must be first turned on.
• New data items available in the ad invitation and request email templates: We've added 4 new data variables in the email templates "Full Ad Size Label","Short Ad Size Label","Ad Size Trim","Ad Size Bleed" and "Ad Size Safety".
• New data items available in zip downloader: Several new variables added to the zipbundler downloader system. You can manage the downloaded name in your company profile settings area.

SendMyAd Tablet Ads

• New option to turn off EFT Tablet ads: This is helpful if you do not wish to receive EFT tablet ads.
• New option to set a different materials contact for tablet ads: You can see this new option in the publication setup if you have the tablet ads feature.
• Tablet ad sizes can now be custom sorted just as print ad sizes could be.

SendMyAd Digital Ads

•  New ability to create ad reservations for Digital Ads: If you have the digital ad portal option, you can now create digital ad reservations.

Minor Features/Updates

• Ad creator digital receipt added ad size field.
• "Has Reservations", "Ad Instructions", "Short Description" and "Publisher Info" fields added to custom ad view options.
• All add form fields now auto focus on the first form item in the list. This saves the user from clicking as much.
• SMA and VP reports views look the same and are available from the dashboard.