We’ve made some big changes!

The short version

Thanks to everyone for providing feedback, we’ve started making changes to ensure you can get the most out of Simul Documents. Our first major upgrade now uses Microsoft Office Online Server to process your Word documents – meaning documents in Simul will now look identical to Microsoft Word.

On top of this, we’ve added the ability to delete documents. This is significant as it allows small teams to use Simul Documents on the free plan indefinitely!

The longer version

A key piece of feedback we receive is that Simul worked great for most documents but struggled to clearly show changes for rich content such as brochures. These documents usually included changes within shapes, word art or textboxes.

We are very pleased to announce that with Simul’s use of Microsoft’s Office Online Server, we can now display your changes much more in line with Microsoft Word. The following shows changes to a letter head using text boxes:

The following shows complex changes being captured within shapes and textboxes:

Simul Documents is now far more accurate in identifying these complex changes and bringing them to your attention.

With Simul now leveraging Microsoft’s platform, you can be assured that as new features are introduced into Word – Simul will be able to handle them, ensuring nothing is overlooked.

Deleting Documents

Simul aims to keep a history of every change to a document and ensure its easy retrieval. Initially, Simul Documents only supported archiving and intentionally didn’t have permanent delete functionality.

The ability to delete documents has been requested for two main reasons:

• navigate_next To permanently remove a document once there is no future need to collaborate.
• navigate_next To remain under the 25 documents limit; to use Simul for free indefinitely.

Simul now supports this – but once we delete a file, it will eventually be removed from our storage systems and we will not be able to undo this for you.

You can read exactly how to delete a document here: Deleting a document.

In short, you now have the option to ”Archive” or “Delete” a document:

You will then need to acknowledge that Simul Documents can’t restore this document for you:

Document Labels

You can now name individual versions within a document. Select “Name this version” from the document options menu:

This label will then appear like so:

In addition to the above, the label will be used to identify the version on the “Major Versions” console:

This will become a very helpful feature as we introduce the concept of document viewers. Users who can only see major versions and not drafts or tasks.

Pricing

We’ve also simplified our pricing – as mentioned above, you can now use Simul for free indefinitely if you remain within the allocated limits. (25 documents and 0.5 GB)

Now, the only differences between the free and paid plan are the removal of all limits and the ability to create support tickets. You can see the monthly pricing in your local currency here: Pricing.

What you have to look forward to

Over the next few months you can expect to see the following:

• navigate_next An Enterprise Version
  We plan to make our software available as an enterprise package which can be deployed to an organization's existing IT infrastructure.
• navigate_next Document Viewers
  The introduction of a new security role “Viewers” for users who need to view major versions but should not see the draft versions or tasks.
• navigate_next Document Forks
  The ability to create a linked copy (fork) of a document – this will enable a particular revision to be shared as if it was a new document. Any changes can be synchronized back to the master document

As always, we greatly appreciate your feedback!