Hi Everyone,

We just released the beta version of Axure RP for Mac. It is available for download here. And we are still targeting the end of March for the final release.

The beta expires April 15, 2010. A valid beta will be available until the final release of 5.6 for Mac, so your work will not be interrupted. 

Axure for Mac requires the following:

• Mac computer with Intel processor
• Mac OS X 10.5+
• 1 GB Memory
• 200 MB disk space
• For specifications, Microsoft Office Word 2004 (with compatibility pack) or Word 2008
• For prototypes, Firefox

What to expect:
The beta has all* of the features from Axure RP 5.6 for Windows including shared projects. It also has a number of UI enhancements like a new properties pane and redesigned interactions dialog.

If you've been using the alpha (thank you!), you'll notice a new formatting toolbar and the formatting pane has been moved to the annotations and interactions pane. Also, the default folders for widget libraries has been moved to ~/Documents/Axure/Libraries.

The .rp files are compatible with Axure RP 5.6 on Windows.

*Features not in the Mac version:

• Word 2000 generator (the newer Word 2007 or DOCX generator is available)
• CHM generation for prototypes
• Spell Checker (native Mac spell checking while editing text works)

Known issues:
Safari compatibility has not been fully tested. If you notice anything in prototypes that do not work in Safari, please let us know.

iWork Pages crashes when opening the generated specification. Word is required to open the specification. But once saved in Word, they do open in Pages.

Shared Projects can be stored on a Windows (SMB) network drive or SVN server, but not a Mac share or through https.

Performance tuning is in progress.

How can you help?
Please submit bug report dialogs that pop-up in the application. Any information that might help us repeat an error is really helpful. You can send those to support@axure.com along with any bugs and requests.

What's next:
We'll continue to release beta builds until the final release and post known issues at www.axureformac.com. You can keep track of updates at www.axureformac.com, here or by following us on Twitter.

And if you have any requests for 6.0, now's a good time to send them in.

Thank you!
Victor

In our continuing effort to provide you with the best resources to quickly learn Axure RP, we are excited to announce the new & improved Online Training section and Community Libraries page.

How is Your Axure Fu?

Through a series of articles, videos, samples and exercises you will improve your Axure RP skills and become an Axure Fu Master in no time! The training articles are now broken up into three levels Newbie, Apprentice and Master. Each article has videos, samples and exercises to help you learn the features and concepts. 

Community Libraries

Over the past year, many members of the Axure community have created and published libraries of custom widgets, design patterns and icons. With more and more popping up, we wanted to showcase them all in one place.  Have a library to share? Email us at contactus@axure.com. 

We hope you like these new additions to the site and welcome your comments and feedback. Email us at contactus@axure.com, or tweet us at @axurerp.

Hi Everyone,

They say if you’re not getting sued, you’re not doing anything worthwhile. We are now "officially" doing something worthwhile :) Last year, iRise filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Axure which was recently settled.

Our goal was to be able to continue growing Axure and deliver the best product and the most value to our customers. We accomplished that goal through settlement. iRise agreed to drop the lawsuit and Axure agreed not to try to invalidate the patent. Other terms of the agreement are confidential.

We’ve heard from some customers who were pretty upset that iRise chose to file a lawsuit. Thank you. We appreciate your support.

We have a lot to be excited about. The first community-driven conference AxureWorld was a success. MAxure is on its way. And we have lots of requests and feedback guiding 6.0. We hope you're excited too.

If you have any concerns, please let us know.

Thank you!
Victor

Axure RP Pro 5.6 Release Candidate (RC)

This release gives you some new features that make a variety of things in Axure RP easier to do. We'd love it if you would download the release candidate and test it out. The plan is to have the final release ready in a few weeks.

Feature highlights:

• Image slicing (right click image, Edit Image->Slice Image)
• Option to import styles and variables used in a custom widget when that widget is added to a page
• Import manager supports importing multiple types (pages, masters, styles) at one time
• Removed the variable limit (however we still recommend using 25 or less if viewing prototypes in IE)
• Undo check out for shared projects
• Converting widgets to a dynamic panel or master (right click widgets, Convert)
• Duplicate masters
• FIPS compliance (mostly for government computers)

Bug fixes:

• Fix for rendering rollover images with preserved corners in the prototype
• Fixes in Set Widget and Variable Values dialog to preserve right side values when appropriate
• Fix for grabbing connector endpoints even when connector is below the connected widget
• Fix for Do Not Autoreflow on connectors when moving both objects a connector is attached to
• Fix for Send to Back and Bring to Front (also affected Flatten masters)
• Fix in specification generation when loading masters with raised events
• Fix for editing specification template on Vista

Worth reading:

Files created in 5.6 RC will open in version 5.5, BUT not in earlier versions of Axure RP.

Also, 5.6 RC will install over 5.5. If you want to keep a copy of 5.5 follow these steps:

1. Make a copy of the "Axure RP Pro 5.5" install directory before installing 5.6 RC.
2. Install Axure RP Pro 5.6 RC
3. Rename the "Copy of Axure RP Pro 5.5" folder back to "Axure RP Pro 5.5".

One more thing, your 5.5 license key will work for 5.6 RC. If you do not have a license, a 30 day trial will start.

Is this a free update?

If you have 5.5 or purchased a license or renewal after February 1, 2008, the 5.6 update is free. If not, you can purchase a renewal. Login to the customer portal if you're not sure when your maintenance period expires.

Got bugs?

Please send all bugs and feedback to support@axure.com or post to the forum.

Download Axure RP Pro 5.6 RC

Axure is helping fund five teams from the University of Michigan HCI program to compete in the international Student Design Competition at CHI in Boston on April 9. Each year CHI holds the competition providing an opportunity for students to demonstrate their problem solving and design skills. Students were required to submit a paper, poster and presentation illustrating their proposed solution to the design challenge. This year's challenge was to design an object, interface, system or service that supported the idea of consuming local resources instead of global ones.

Of the twelve teams accepted, five teams were chosen from the University of Michigan: Treasure Hunter (Sanghyuk Koh, Amy Kuo, Debra Lauterbach, Noah Liebman & Andrea Mc Vittie), Local Buy (team members include: Wentao Wang, Li Li, Nan Chen & Jenica Baty), MI Fresh (Maureen Hanratty, Geoff Ho, Yang Jiang & Xiao Wei), Want Knot (Jared Bauer, Liz Blankenship, Leanna Gingras & Mark Goetz) and eXtend (Annie Fang, Sergio Mendez-Baiges, Rahan Khozein & Eunice Shin).

Both Treasure Hunter and Local Buy used Axure RP to create their project prototype.

Treasure Hunter

The goal of this project was to design an online community that would help expand the consumption of used resources, specifically encouraging people to shop at thrift stores. 

The team began by conducting research to uncover the barriers to buying used items at thrift stores.Then, they created personas, brainstormed concepts and worked through various scenarios. Team Treasure Hunter used Axure RP to create a hi-fidelity prototype for user testing and used the results to tune the design.

The final application enlisted frequent thrift store shoppers to help individuals who lack the time or desire to search for the items themselves (prototype [click Go to begin]).

"Several judges commented on how impressive our prototype was. We consider Axure to be a big part of our success."
- Debra Lauterbach

Local Buy

This project aimed to promote the availability of local food. The team worked with a start up business interested in directly connecting consumers with local food resources.

They conducted interviews, created personas, sketched concepts and worked through different scenarios. After this process the team was ready to bring their ideas to life. They used Axure RP to create their hi fidelity prototype and conduct user testing.

The final application provided a platform for customers to locate and purchase from local sustainable food resources (prototype [click Go to begin]).

"Features like masters in Axure RP were a big time-saver when creating the various web pages in our design."
- Wentao Wang

Congratulations to all of the outstanding teams accepted to present at CHI!

Axure RP Pro 5.5 is now available for download at http://www.axure.com/downloads.aspx.

This release adds the ability to create custom widget libraries for the Widget pane, new interaction capabilities for high fidelity prototyping, easier Dynamic Panel management, and enhancements to widgets and diagram editing.

Check out this 3 part series for more details on new features, as well as our Online Training.

Part 1: Widgets Pane and Custom Widget Libraries
Part 2: New Interactions and the Advanced Interactions Editor
Part 3: Dynamic Panel Manager, Image & Button Shape Enhancements and Diagram Editing

Is this a free update? If you purchased Axure RP or a renewal after February 1, 2008 or plan to purchase between now and the final release, version 5.5 will be a free update. All other customers will need to purchase a renewal to upgrade. You can login to the customer portal to see when your maintenance period expires. 

Please note: Files created in version 5.5 will not open in previous versions of Axure RP. Version 5.5 will convert files created in previous versions to the new format.

Want the latest updates, discussions, and tutorials?
Join the Axure Community Site and we'll keep you connected.  After joining, subscribe to the forum for discussions and the blog for tutorials and release announcements.

You can also follow us on Twitter www.twitter.com/axurerp.

We appreciate any feedback, suggestions, or bug reports. Please send them to support@axure.com or discuss them on the Axure RP forum.

In Axure RP Pro 5.5, we added the ability to create custom widget libraries for the Widgets pane. To help you get started, we created the following libraries based on the Yahoo! Design Stencil Kit:

• Advertising
• Calendar Picker
• Carousel
• Charts and Tables
• Controls
• Form Elements
• Menus and Buttons
• Mobile - General
• Mobile - iPhone
• Navigation and Pagination
• OS Elements
• Page Grids
• Placeholder Text
• Screen Resolutions
• Tabs
• Windows and Containers

You can download these libraries from the Widget Libraries page at http://www.axure.com/widgetLibraries.aspx. We will be adding more libraries in the future. If you have published a widget library that you would like to share, please email contactus@axure.com.

The Axure RP Pro 5.5 Beta is now available for download at http://www.axure.com/downloadBeta.aspx. For more information about custom widget libraries as well as other features included in Version 5.5, please visit our 3-part blog post Introduction to Version 5.5 Features.

Part 1: Widgets Pane and Custom Widget Libraries covers enhancements to the Widgets pane (including Search) and creating and using custom widget libraries.

Part 2: New Interactions and the Advanced Interactions Editor provides an overview of the new actions (Set Focus on Widget, Bring Panel(s) to Front, Set Widget(s) to Selected State) and creating animation using the new Advanced Editor.

Part 3: Dynamic Panel Manager, Image & Button Shape Enhancements, and Diagram Editing shows the new Dynamic Panel manager, the Preserve Corners feature for images, editing MouseDown and Selected styles for images and button shapes, deep selection in groups, and the "Visio style" selection mode.

There are now 2 arrows above and 2 arrows to the left of the image that determine the corners that will be preserved. Dragging the arrows will adjust the corners.

Now, the image can be sized without changing the corners.

Mouse Down, Selected, and Disabled Styles

In addition to rollover styles, you can now add Mouse Down, Selected, and Disabled styles to images and button shapes. These styles can be used to create custom, interactive buttons. Button shapes and images can be set to the Selected style using the "Set Widget(s) to Selected State" action and set to their Disabled style using the "Disable Widget(s)" action.

The Selected style is also available for menu items making highlighting a menu item on a page much simpler.

Diagram Editing Enhancements

Select Contained Mode (Visio-style)

By default, clicking and dragging to create a selection area selects all of the widgets that intersect with the selection area. Now, there is an option to change modes so that only widgets entirely contained in the selection area are selected. This is similar to the way selection works in Visio. To change to the "Select Contained Mode", click the Select Contained Mode button in the toolbar or press Ctrl+F9.

Deep Selection in Groups

You can now select individual widgets within a group for editing and adding annotations and interactions. To do this, select the group. Then, click the widget within the group that you would like to select. You are also able to move and size widgets within the group.

Location and Size Pane

The Location and Size pane (View->Location and Size) replaces the Location and Size dialog. The pane can now stay visible while designing wireframes. It gives the ability to set the location and size for a single widget or a group of selected widgets. You can also set the location and size for each individual widget within a selection. This is helpful for aligning widgets or setting a group of widgets to the same width or height.

Check out Parts 1 and 2 of this series:

Part 1: Widgets Pane and Custom Widget Libraries covers enhancements to the Widgets pane (including Search) and creating and using custom widget libraries.

Part 2: New Interactions and the Advanced Interactions Editor provides an overview of the new actions (Set Focus on Widget, Bring Panel(s) to Front, Set Widget(s) to Selected State) and creating animation using the new Advanced Editor.