Press Release - 25 November 2005
Major new release of Cardbox database program for Windows
Cardbox Software Limited, the software house based in Speldhurst, Kent, announces the release of Version 3.0 of its database program Cardbox for Windows. This marks the eighth major release in a software family that began in 1982.
- New macro & programming system integrates Cardbox with Microsoft Office and the rest of Windows.
- Quick scanning and compressed image storage give "Personal Document Management" at a fraction of the cost of dedicated systems.
- New client/server networking lets people use Cardbox databases over the Internet when working from home or travelling.
- Databases can be published and accessed with the freely downloadable Cardbox Client.
- New low-cost Home Edition makes Cardbox accessible to everyone.
- Reversing industry trends, a 300-page colour manual combines clarity, instruction and inspiration.
Over the past twenty years over 100,000 people have experienced the power, flexibility and simplicity of Cardbox databases. Cardbox has been used for contact lists, address books, archives, photographic inventories, museum catalogues, personnel, recruitment, abstracts, academic research and criminal investigation. Cardbox is used by everyone from individuals and small businesses to multinational corporations and United Nations agencies. No business sector is immune to Cardbox, and there are Cardbox users on every continent including Antarctica.
Cardbox 3.0 brings unprecedented power to mainstream users of its Professional Edition. A new Home Edition makes Cardbox affordable and accessible to everyone. The new 300-page colour Cardbox Book gives new Cardbox users a deep understanding of the program, and its "Inspiration" section inspires them with illustrated real-world examples of how other people are already using Cardbox.
New features in Cardbox 3.0
- Enhanced Boolean searching (AND, OR, AND NOT). Phrase searching and context-sensitive searching.
- Streamlined image handling for documents and photographs. No limits to the size of scanned documents. No limits to the number of pages that can be attached to each Cardbox record.
- Top-of-the-range spelling checker from Wintertree Software.
- Simple export to Microsoft Office. Data export in XML format.
- Unicode support extends Cardbox's text handling beyond Western European languages.
- Automatic web and email hyperlinks.
- A new macro system using Microsoft's VBScript. Using VBScript, Cardbox macros can be developed to "mini-programs" in their own right. Cardbox macros can drive external software, such as email programs or Microsoft Office. Microsoft Office documents can send search requests to Cardbox and incorporate the results of the Cardbox search into their text.
"It's worth upgrading for the image features alone", says Martin Kochanski, a director of Cardbox Software. "Nowadays whenever something arrives through the post, we scan it into Cardbox at once. That way we can index and categorise the documents at our leisure without having to throw big box files around; and we can read them on the screen without ever having to open a filing cabinet".
Cardbox Server
Cardbox has always allowed people to share databases across a network, giving them simultaneous access to live data, showing changes as they happen, and preventing two people from changing the same record at once.
Until now, this has been done by having a single shared database file, opened concurrently by every user. The new client-server architecture supersedes this file sharing model. Instead, a small program – the Cardbox Server – runs on the computer that actually holds the data.
- A small, stable, solid, fast program that is unaffected by problems or crashes on users' computers.
- Allows sharing of Cardbox databases across an office LAN or across the wider Internet.
- Communications between the Cardbox Server and each user's Cardbox are encrypted and cannot be intercepted.
- The Cardbox Server runs on Windows or Linux.
- For database publishing, the Cardbox Server works with the freely downloadable Cardbox Client. Publish databases free of charge, or charge a subscription for access.
Home Edition
The new Home Edition of Cardbox is ideal for individuals and small businesses where the same person designs the database, owns the data, and operates the computer. It omits high-end corporate features such as password protection, macros/programming, automatic data validation, and customised user interfaces.
- Capacity of 10,000 records per database (Professional Edition limit is 16,000,000). "Very few people have more than ten thousand friends, or books, or CDs, or photographs, or invoices, or diary entries".
The use of Cardbox typically spreads from one enthusiastic user to another and the Home Edition is designed to make Cardbox more infectious than ever. "If a friend recommends a program to you that costs as much as a weekend city break," says Martin Kochanski, "you'll thank him but you'll think twice about it. But if it costs £54.99 including VAT – as much as a decent dinner – you'll give it a try… and get hooked".
The Cardbox Book
"The software industry has become lazy," says Martin Kochanski. "It sells software in big boxes with just a CD in them, and when it does give you printed manuals they are full of step-by-step instructions without any explanations. To use software effectively you need to understand it, and there is nothing that conveys understanding as well as a properly written book".
- 300 pages in colour.
- Included with every copy of the Home or Professional Edition of Cardbox.
- An "Inspiration" section shows how other people are already using Cardbox.
- Exercises and sample databases help you take your first steps in creating your own database.
- Unique "Help Points" act as electronic footnotes: links into the Cardbox help file for specialised and detailed additional information.
- Written by human beings for human beings. "So interesting, you'll buy it to read on the train even if you don't own a computer".
About Cardbox
Quick summary of features
Text: Indexes individual words in a piece of text (such as an address or description), allowing virtually instantaneous searches. Cardbox recognises and indexes numbers and dates without needing separate numeric or date fields.
Unlimited images can be attached to each record: photographs, drawings, documents of any size. Cardbox compresses images using JPEG for photographs and its own proprietary compression algorithm for documents and drawings.
Searching methods include keywords, full text, wildcards, fuzzy matching, Boolean search and phrase searching. Searches can be combined and refined, and can even be fine-tuned manually.
Display and output: a single concept of user-drawn "formats" replaces the traditional confusion of input forms, list views, and mail-merge templates, and creating mailing labels is as simple as choosing a paper size. Additionally, printed output can include special features such as bar codes.
Capacity and requirements
Records per database: 16,000,000 (Professional Edition), 10,000 (Home Edition).
Fields per record: 4,096.
Size of fields: no practical limit.
Images per record: no practical limit.
Database file size: 1,024GB (1TB).
Operating system: Microsoft Windows 95, 98, Me, NT 4.0, 2000, XP and above.
The Cardbox Server can also run under Linux.
Memory: 32MB.
Disk space: 12MB.
Pricing
Professional Edition: £299+VAT (single-user). Networks start at £575+VAT
(3-user network including the Cardbox Server).
Home Edition: £54.99 including VAT.
Further information
Contact Martin Kochanski at press@cardbox.com. Review copies are available.
Contact details
Cardbox Software Limited • Scriventon House • Speldhurst • Tunbridge Wells • Kent TN3 0TU • England
Tel: 020 7460 3179 • sales@cardbox.com • www.cardbox.com