Release version of FieldWorks 8.3

[Beth Bryson]

We are happy to announce that FieldWorks 8.3.8 is now available.  This is the release version for FieldWorks 8.3 (also known as the “stable release”, although most of the beta versions were at least as stable as 8.2 as well).  If you have been following the announcements of the beta versions, you will know that the exciting features in FieldWorks 8.3 compared to 8.2 are the Upload to Webonary feature and dramatic improvements in the capabilities for configuring Dictionaries and Reversal Indexes, both for print and electronic output.  

If you have not been using the beta versions, please note that there is a “model change” between FW 8.2 and 8.3.  That means that you should make backups of all your projects before you upgrade, since after you open a project in FW 8.3, you will no longer be able to open it in FW 8.2.  Also, if your team is doing Send/Receive, it is best if the whole team can upgrade as close to the same time as possible.  (You can keep doing S/R when team members have different versions, but the changes will be stored in different locations, and won’t sync with each other until all team members upgrade.)

Compared to FieldWorks 8.3.7 RC1, we have fixed the few things that users reported.  We still do not have the integration with Paratext 8 working yet, but in a few weeks we expect to put out a hotfix version (probably 8.3.9) that has support for Paratext 8.1.  For details on the specific changes since FW 8.3.7 RC1, please visit:

http://software.sil.org/fieldworks/fw838/

The Windows version of FieldWorks 8.3.8 can be downloaded from:

http://software.sil.org/fieldworks/download/fw-838/

The Linux version is available for Xenial and Trusty in the main section of the packages.sil.org repository. For installation instructions, see http://packages.sil.org/ under "Install SIL software” (under Wasta or Ubuntu).

At this time, we encourage everyone using FLEx to upgrade to this version.  Please send any feedback (including positive experiences) to FLEx_...@sil.org.  

Beth Bryson

for the FieldWorks development team

[Beth-docs Bryson]