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New Tool?



G'day Framists.

Maybe it's old hat to some of you, but I just heard about 
it and it looks interesting, so I want the full background 
poop from anybody who knows.

There's a product [currently] called Coptech Webcheck, 
(now available from SWSolutions)
which says it does a bunch of useful things with respect 
to documentation, distribution, doc control, updates, etc.

It appears to use functions that we've all met elsewhere 
(web-page auto-updating and similar browser-related 
 annoyances), but it gathers and formalizes them in what, 
at first glance, seems to be a useful way.

Here's some advert-blurt text from one of their PDFs:

<blurb>
The Coptech WebCheck(tm) Plug-in allows you to publish 
self-updating documents on CD (or by e-mail,
intranet/internet, etc.).
What is a self-updating document?
A self-updating document (sales presentation, technical 
manual, price list, corporate policy manual, training
materials, software manual, databook - literally anything 
you might publish) that automatically updates itself
whenever a new version of the document is loaded on the 
Internet.
How does it work?
>From the user's perspective, it works seamlessly. The 
user opens the documents as usual. If the documents 
are published on CD, for example, this could be by 
following a link from a table of contents page, opening a 
file after executing a search query, or using any other 
type of interface you may have created for your documents.
Whenever a user opens a self-updating document, 
Coptech WebCheck(tm) checks the Internet to see if a more
current version exists. If one does, Coptech WebCheck(tm) 
notifies the user and provides an option to download the
newer version. If the user clicks "Yes", the newer version 
is downloaded and displayed. If the user clicks "no", the
original (older) version on the CD opens.
If the user elects to download the updated version, the 
next time he or she opens the original file on the CD,
Coptech WebCheck(tm) offers to load the updated version 
on the hard drive instead. If the user says "yes", the
previously downloaded document opens instantly from 
the hard drive. If "no", once again the old version on the
CD opens.
[snip]
</blurb>

It is said that this product was "proven" at Philips and 
ASA -- which I take to be NV Philips of the Netherlands 
and the American Standards Association.  In other words, 
I gather those organizations participated in the beta.

Anybody got any thoughts. Anybody seen this in 
action?    This is all third hand for me, but I understand 
it would cost us $5000 for unlimited license.  Works with 
Acrobat 3.

The notion looks appealing for user docs, data sheets 
and other externally published items that are subject to 
update.  But it also looks like a really good idea for 
in-house stuff like policy-and-procedure manuals. It appears 
to solve the problem of getting things updated when they 
need to be, but overcomes the limitations of "push" 
technology by using "suck"  :-)  technology.   Hmm?

Speak, O wise ones.    Re-packaged snake-oil?
Other products that do the same thing (or better)?


/k


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