ISYS OUTDOORS Newsletter 2005/09 Merry Christmas In this Newsletter Last Orders Christmas / New Year eBay WebSite - User Area Edition 6 Price Rise Hints and Tips Nag Humour? This is the Newsletter for users of ISYS OUTDOORS Software: Hillwalker, MapWise, MapWise and Alpiniste. LAST ORDERS Tomorrow is the last chance for to order a guaranteed Second Class delivery for Christmas. Friday 16 - last order guaranteed to catch 2nd Class Post for delivery within the UK Saturday 17 - last posting for Second Class Monday 19 - last order guaranteed to catch 1st Class Post for delivery within the UK Tuesday 20 - last posting First Class CHRISTMAS / NEW YEAR One of the problems of starting to advertise Christmas in August is that you become immune by December. Yes, August was the first time I saw Christmas goods for sale this year. ISYS is a strong supporter of KCID - Keep Christmas in December. Even at that Christmas lasts five weeks or 10% of the year! ISYS will be available for email support and Registration over the festive period. If you want to speak to someone, then leave a UK landline number (starting 01 or 02) and we will get back to you. Friday 23 - closed 15:00 Saturday 24 - closed Sunday 25 - closed Monday 26 to Friday 30 email and return telephone support Saturday 31 December to Wednesday 4 January - closed Thursday 5 January - normal service from 10:00 am eBAY Dawn reports good sales and good bargains on eBay of ISYS OUTDOORS v5 software. When I last looked, MapWise 50 England North was selling for £10.50, MapWise England South for £10 and MapWise Scotland for £10. I am sure these will not be the final prices but some auctions have only a day to run. Where better to pick up a real bargain? WEB SITE - USER AREA If you were an ISYS OUTDOORS Registered User before October, then you can update your contact details in the User Area of the Website. You can choose to receive (or not) any of the ISYS Newsletters and update email and physical address and telephone numbers. By January, all users will have access to this service. One publication which has caused special interest is the Simple Newsletter. This will be launched in January and will provide very simple tips on using ISYS software and Windows. You can order it now from the WebSite. EDITION 6 The offer to upgrade to Edition 6 from versions 1 to 5 continues throughout December. 50% discount is allowed on all direct upgrades. Indirect upgrades (eg Hillwalker Info to Hillwalker Max) are attractively priced. PRICE RISE Some programs will increase slightly in price on 1 January 2006. HINTS AND TIPS Long Routes (or at least routes with many waypoints) are now handled very efficiently. The Route Card is not validated after each point is added but only when you click the Validate Button on the Route Card. Some users have very fast computers and will never want to change to this mode; others will want to change as soon as possible, that is after two waypoints. You can set the number of waypoints entered before entering Fast Append Mode by visiting Main Menu | Preferences | Walk. Ensure the Use Fast Append tick box is ticked and set the number of waypoints to accept before entering Fast Append Mode. The Mode of the Program is shown in the cyan box on the Main Button Bar. When the program starts, the mode is shown as Normal. When you start a new route the mode is Route(New). When the first point is entered, the mode changes to Route(CIAfter) meaning Continuous Insert After, ie any new waypoint will be inserted after the previous one. This is the mode used to 'click round a route'. After your chosen number of waypoints, the mode changes to Route(Fast Append) and the Route Card is not validated after every point. The same thing happens on Vector Maps, Image Maps and Raster Maps both on the flat form and the crinkle form of these. The crinkle form is interesting because only ISYS allows you to plan your route on crinkle maps. Note that Image Maps includes OS MiniScale, OS Travel, OS Landranger, OS Explorer and PhotoMaps, the orthophotographic maps but these are currently available only for England and Wales. I have been asked recently if you can synchronize two maps. This means that if you scroll one map, the other scrolls automatically. The answer is Yes! You can actually synchronize any number of maps, not just two. To make a map 'opt in' to the synchronization, right click and select Synchronize Map Centre. When you scroll one map, the other synchronized maps will scroll, too. The Synchronize feature applies to any number of flat Vector Maps and Image Maps. Crinkle Maps cannot be synchronized. If you have Hillwalker, then the hill name pronunciations will work on crinkle maps! Just click on the hill and the name will be spoken. Stob Coire an t-Sneachda will hold no fears for you now! When the hill is selected, it becomes the Current Hill and is indicated by 'The Spiky Thing', the 3D equivalent of the 2D Gun Sights. NAG If you do send us an email, please check that your user number is in the subject line. This ensures that the email gets through our filtering system. You can change your own email address online. Visit the User Area of the Website. The user Area can be access by users who were users in October. New Users will have access by January. Have a very merry Christmas. Iain R White ISYS OUTDOORS www.isysoutdoors.com support@isysoutdoors.com HUMOUR? Have you eve wondered: Why you don't ever see the headline: "Psychic Wins Lottery"? Why is "abbreviated" is such a long word? Why Doctors call what they do "practice"? Why you have to click on "Start" to stop Windows? The Ferrari Formula 1 Team fired their entire pit crew yesterday. The announcement followed Ferrari's decision to take advantage of the British Government's "Work for the Dole" scheme and employ a group of lads from Glasgow. The decision to hire them was brought on by a recent documentary on how unemployed youths from Glasgow were able to remove a set of wheels in less than 6 seconds without proper equipment, whereas Ferrari's existing crew could only do it in 8 seconds with millions of pounds worth of high-tech equipment. It was thought to be an excellent and bold move by Ferrari management; as most races are won and lost in the pits, Ferrari would have an advantage over every team. However, Ferrari got more than they bargained for. At the crew's first practice session, not only was the Glasgow team able to change the tyres in 6 seconds but within 12 seconds they had re-sprayed, re-badged and sold the vehicle over to the McLaren team for 8 cases of Stella, a bag of weed and some photos of Coulthard's bird in the shower.