What use is a blog if you don't, well, blog? That seemed to be the verdict handed down by user "lainep" on the forums - officially shaming me (in a nice way) for lower than desired production from the blog factory. So, I decided to forego my ham salad sandwich, chips, and Diet Rite Tangerine (I've gotta' watch my weight with all this sitting and programming I've been doing) and update you on the status of XMod 5.

It has been a long hard slog that began some 8 months ago. One of the primary goals for this release was to provide you with a more visual approach to editing your forms and templates. I think you'll be quite pleased by what we've added in this regard. Of particular interest - for this blog entry at least - is the new rich text template editor. Finally you'll be able to approach your templates in much the same way you do your word processing documents.

However, this editor has not come without a price. We've been at it for some 7 months and most of the time, we've felt like we were hacking our way through the rain forest - trying to deal with various browser inconsistencies. At times it has seemed that billg himself simply didn't want you to have a rich text editor in XMod.

XMod 5.0 has been in near-release form for a couple of weeks now, but this editor has been digging in its heels - refusing to play nice in IE. After much swearing, pounding of fists, and gnashing of teeth, I think we may have tamed it. If it passes our tests then we may have a release date for you very soon. We're crossing our fingers, toes and eyes.

I would like to tell you more about what's happening with 5.0 - but "lainep" tells me I need to write more posts, so I'd better save it for later blogs. If you don't like it - talk to lainep