Efofex News

We have just uploaded new versions of all of our products which have much better SVG support. SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) files are a vector based graphics file which allows for high resolution output regardless of how far you zoom in.

While our products have long been able to save files in SVG format, they have not previously been able to crop the page to your graphic. This meant that SVG files were often a small graphic at the top left of a blank page. The latest versions of our products fix this issue and now provide SVG files that are cropped to your graphic. Just choose File Save As SVG from the menus.

Windows Users Get More

If you use Windows and you do not normally send files to Mac users, you can turn on a new option that allows you to paste SVG files directly in to your Word documents.

Go to the Tools Menu and choose Preferences. Turn on “Add SVG to Clipboard”. Once this is done, whenever you click on the green check mark, the product will add an SVG version of the graphic to the clipboard. Word will use this preferentially.

There are two reasons to use SVG graphics.

• Higher quality output
• Transparent graphics

Note that SVG graphics will NOT be used if you are using the toolbar to insert a graphic, you will only get SVG graphics if you use our newer, copy and paste option.

Unfortunately, the Mac version of Word does not seem to “play nice” with SVG graphics so we have not turned this feature on by default. If, however, you tend to exclusively use Windows computers and our new, copy and paste modern-mode system, SVG graphics will produce a noticeable improvement to your graphics.

We have uploaded new versions of our training videos for FX Draw and our Equation, Function Graphing and Statistical Graphing tools. The new videos replace our old email tutorials and show you how to use all of the latest features.

One new feature of the training videos is the table of contents that we have added to the videos.

This allows you to quickly find the topics you are interested in.

The new videos can be found on our Information & Training Videos page.

In the July 5 2019 versions of FX Draw and FX Stat, we have added the ability to add a normal distribution curve and a cumulative normal distribution curve for a data set.

The new graph types draw an idealized normal/normal cumulative curve for a selected dataset using the dataset’s calculated mean and standard deviation. They allow you to demonstrate how closely your data fits a normal distribution.

The cumulative normal distribution curve can be combined with the calculated cumulative frequency curve (as well as a cumulative histogram) to clearly demonstrate differences.

As part of this upgrade we have also added some smoothing to our cumulative frequency curves – particularly when produce from grouped data.

Download the latest FXDrawTools pack to access the new features.

We recently received a request to allow FX Chem to create gas evolution arrows (↑) and precipitation arrows (↓). We have added this capability by using the \ character for precipitation (think of it as sliding downhill) and the / character for gas evolution.

The new feature is available in versions of FX Chem produced after June 26 2019

The latest versions of our products have added your registered name and current license status to the title bar.

This allows you to keep an eye on the current status of your license and will also make it clear when you have not logged into your account.

The other significant change we have made is to our trial mode. Previously, we have offered full access to the software for thirty days, after which the software expired and allowed no access. Unfortunately, this often meant that teachers would install the software and not log it in – because it appeared to be working correctly. Thirty days later, the trial period would expire and we would receive a support request to help them get their software working.

Our new products never “expire”. They make it clear that you have not logged in AND overlay all graphics with a watermark. This lets you still fully evaluate the software while preventing the 30-day expiry issue.

In the May 2019 versions of FX Equation and FX Draw, we have introduced Equation Contexts. These are quick buttons that you can use to set up FX Equation for different contexts that you are writing in.

The five available contexts are shown below.

Most of the time you should use the General Algebra context but if, for example, you are creating some Vectors, switch to the Vector context and FX Equation will set itself up to make creating vectors as simple as possible.

Contexts make it easier to set up some fairly obscure options that FX Equation has always had in order to produce exactly what you are after.

There is a short video on the new feature at https://youtu.be/7ap_9ze-6O0

You have always been able to change the colors of functions and statistics graphs – but it has always been a bit slow and fiddly. Each function or data set needed to be changed individually which was slow and error prone.

In the latest versions (19.05.27), we have added the ability to quickly change ALL of the functions or data sets.

Function Graphs

The quick entry screen for functions has seen two changes. Firstly, any changes made to line widths or point sizes now affect ALL functions. You can, for example, set all function lines to 2pt with one change.

The second change is the addition of a palette button. Pressing this allows you to change the color settings of all function lines. You have the choice of setting all functions to one color (normally black) or to choose one of twelve different color schemes, including the “classic” color palettes. Once you have chosen a color palette, pressing Set As Default will keep your current settings for all future graphs.

If you wish to change the color or line width of an individual line, you now need to change to the Function Properties tab.

Statistics Graphs

We have also added color schemes to statistics graphs.

The colors of individual data sets can be changed by pressing the data set buttons.

You can find a short video of the new feature at https://youtu.be/eyOVZiF7TXg