VivaDesigner 5.1 includes a number of changes and new functions. Here is a selection:

1. Mac OS X
Version 5.1 is the first version of VivaDesigner to support the Mac OS X platform (version 10.4 or newer). A "Universal Installer" that installs the appropriate version for PPC or Intel Macs automatically, is available in the download area.

2. New Open Dialog
As well as supporting the MacOS X platform, Version 5.1 offers a completely new Open dialog for documents and images. As well as the standard operating system dialog, this platform-crossing dialog developed by VIVA offers an excellent preview of all VIVA documents and image files. The preview of a document or an image can be enlarged according to preference. In addition, 5 different list displays are available. The dialog does not only save the last folder opened, but also the folders that were last selected by the user. This provides a very fast and comfortable navigation that generally would only be made possible by having additional software. An even faster process is enabled by the option of saving folders and files as "Favorites", as we know from the Internet Browser. At the moment under Windows no network drives or servers can be displayed. In this case the user goes back to the standard dialog of the operating system as, as he can on every platform.

3. Faster zooming and scaling of images
To enlarge/reduce the page view more quickly and comfortably and scale pictures up or down, VivaDesigner 5.1 supports the mouse scroll wheel (in Mac computers the "Mighty-Mouse").:
Enlarge/reduce document view by 5% (Win/Lin): Ctrl + Alt + scroll wheel up/down
Enlarge/reduce document view by 5% (Mac): Command + Option + scroll wheel up/down
Increase/reduce image scaling by 1% (Win/Lin/Mac): Alt + scroll wheel
Increase/reduce image scaling by 5% (Win/Lin/Mac): Alt + Shift + scroll wheel

Tip: The zoom speed depends strongly on the graphics card used. Under Windows this function works very rapidly from 1GHz computer performance and 128MB graphics memory. With older Macintosh computers there may be a delay, and here we are working on improvements.

4. New Facing Page Mode
A further great novelty is the introduction of "genuine facing pages". In this case it is no longer the physical page but a strip of pages next to one another that are considered as a unit. This function takes effect especially when images are placed over several pages. Here in the past there were problems with selecting objects on right and left hand pages that were underneath or above panoramic page-crossing objects.

5. Speed
The speed of processing images has been improved considerably in Version 5.1. Text is written a little more slowly than in Version 5.0, and we are working on the appropriate improvements. The import of PDF files has been considerably improved in terms of speed and font display (this is only available in the chargeable versions).

6. Transparency
Objects and images are displayed as transparent when moving. This increases precision and makes the job much easier. VivaDesigner itself works very comfortably with large images, insofar as sufficient memory is available (tested on a Mac Mini with 10.4 and 1GB working memory). In Version 5.1 the user can decide in the Program Preferences whether he wants to display the image preview more quickly or save memory space. Changes in these settings require that the program be restarted.

7. New File Formats
With Version 5.1 VIVA introduces new file suffixes for different programs. Up to and including Version 5.0 the programs VivaDesigner, VivaImpose and VivaPosterize all had the same file suffix. This had the disadvantage that one could not tell with which program the file had been created. Since all operating systems now support more than three characters for file suffixes, the VIVA programs now differ between:

1. *.desd (VivaDesigner 5.1 Document)
2. *. nwpd (VivaNWP Designer 5.1 Document, formerly VivaIP Designer)
3. *. posd (VivaPosterize 5.1 Document)
4. *. impd (VivaImpose 5.1 Document)
5. *. vip (VivaDesigner 5.0 Document, VivaIP-Designer 5.0 Document)
6. *.vpd (VivaPress 4.0 Document, only Mac OS 9)
7. *.xml (VivaXML Document)

The new VivaDesigner 5.1 can read all formats, but only save *.desd and *.xml formats. The formats are not reverse-compatible!

8. New Font Management
VivaDesigner takes a relatively long time to start. The reason for this is the altered Font Management that analyses every font exactly. With effect from VivaDesigner 5.1, font families and their appropriate font styles are displayed separately. Thus the previous attributes "Bold" and "Italic" are obviated, as a text in Version 5.1 can only be attributed as bold or italic when the suitable font styles are available. If in an old document (5.0 or earlier) a text is read with an attribute Bold or Italic, for which in the current version no suitable font style is available, these attributes will be lost. The use of Style Sheets is initially independent of this. We will provide further information at a later date.