A shout out to everyone using 4D Write Pro and letting us know your thoughts about the product. This lets us better understand your needs and difficulties. Thanks to this input, we’ve realized that some commands have become unnecessary, complex to use, and/or difficult to learn. Sometimes it could be the smallest things that make learning a challenge. For example, if you just want to insert some text in the footer, you first need to create an empty range! Why so complicated? Good question!

Thus, many commands that previously only used ranges have been extended in order to manage almost any kind of target (ranges, elements, sections, documents, etc.). Code is now easier to write and read. If you need to insert text … in a document, a footer, a range, (wherever!) …  just use it as the target and you’re off and running.

And that’s not all! Six commands have been renamed with shorter names, so they’re easier to remember.

We’re thrilled to announce an exciting enhancement in 4D Write Pro! In addition to the features we’ve rolled out so far, 4D v17 R5 also includes a new feature for tabs.

4D Write Pro documents can be displayed in different modes (draft, page and embedded), each with their own viewing options. For example in Page view mode, you can choose to hide both the vertical and the horizontal rulers, but keep the headers and footers visible. The same goes for many other display properties such as zoom, spell check, page frames, etc. Thirteen different viewing options can be defined. The good news is that rather than handling all of these properties manually, it can now be done programmatically.

As a developer or end user, you know how convenient hyperlinks can be. Without them, you would need to know the URL for every page on the internet! They let you turn your text or pictures into links to allow easy transitions from one place (e.g., a 4D Write Pro document) to another (typically a website).

What if links could offer more? What if they could launch the execution of 4D code or simply move the cursor to a different area in the same document? They can!

Understanding end user needs and creating user-friendly interfaces are high priorities for every application developers.

And as you may know, the 4D language lets you alias table and field names in order to make them more readable for end users. This allows easier translating and readability in standard dialogs (query, sort, and formula editors), but also filtering out any table or fields that should be kept away from end users sight. 

During 4D Summit 2018, we had requests to extend this feature to 4D Write Pro. Well, we listened and it’s now available with 4D v17 R4!

By now, you should be familiar with the WP Get position command. At the very least you’ve read about it in this blog post. Introduced with v17, it helps you get information about the location of elements within your documents.

4D v17 R4 spices things up … now, it also returns coordinates!