Printer Friendly Version

Not one to rest with a good thing, the developers behind popular intranet creation tool HyperOffice have unveiled its latest improvement, dubbed HyperOffice Publisher.

HyperOffice Publisher allows users to customize their pages with uploaded graphics and animation, as well as other elements, and to design layouts using tables. The product is still easy enough for non-technical users, but the range of pages that it can make has greatly expanded.

When creating pages, users can build and identify

Recent Intranet Journal Articles

Intranet Journal Product of the Year Awards SharePoint Governance, Part 1 ISYS Lauded, Open Text Humming Along Oracle Snares Stellent for Content Management FREE IT Management Newsletters bITa Planet CIO Update Intranet Journal Update Datamation IT Management Careers Datamation IT Management Update Grid Computing Planet HTML E-Security Planet Text E-Security Planet HTML DRM Watch HTML

content modules that they can reuse later on other pages. A simple pulldown menu lists all the modules, or "snippets," as Publisher calls them, that users have created for a given site. A built-in wizard helps users create new modules to use and store (see screen shot). Users can even add Flash to their intranets or add code created with Dreamweaver or other Web creation tools.

Publisher comes with a list of pre-built templates that users can access to create interesting layouts, although users are free to build new templates and add them to the list. The tools are easy to use and greatly improve the kind of look you can give to your pages.

Along with Publisher, HyperOffice is rolling out new support for handheld devices. Of course, live pages created with HyperOffice could already be viewed with handhelds, but they wouldn't be easy to read on a smaller screen. Now, the server automatically detects the kind of device sending a page request and returns a customized version of the page to small-screen devices. That means mobile workers who need to check the intranet while out of the office will have a far easier time reading information than before.

Users can also create pages that can be viewed by outside people, so that you can pull other agencies into special project spaces or create sales pages that only your customers can see. Previously, the tool only built internal sites, but customers requested more flexibility. The administrator can control what gets loaded on outside-accessible pages, to control outsiders from seeing other parts of the site or from using in-house tools. These pages are password-protected, so that you don't open them up to the entire Web. Only people that you want to view them will be able to access them, and the pages can be customized to remove any proprietary information.

Finally, while HyperOffice had already introduced document management features, it now includes a document notification system that alerts users of changes. If users need to know when documents stored on the intranet have been altered or updated, they can sign up for notifications for each document.

HyperOffice is a hosted tool, so there's no software to download, even to get the new and updated features. Instead, updates simply appear to users when they're ready. The current updates are available to users at the same price as before, which ranges from $6 to $10 per user per month, depending on the particular plan chosen. New users need to pay a one-time $39 set up fee. The company also provides other paid extras, such as site customization options and HyperOffice training.

HyperOffice Publisher lets users create more flexible layouts on their intranet pages.