Shoutbox

Common asked questions in this thread:

Can Plus! 3 include the handwriting plugin/infopen? Patchou has decided not to include this in Plus! 3.

Can I e-mail you about being a beta tester for the new version? Patchou is not accepting any requests for beta testers at this time, if this changes you'll find out about it on this forum.

When will Plus! 3 be released!?!? That information isnt known yet, but there is one thing certian. When it is, it will be released on these forums first!

This edit was by Johnny_Mac

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Hello everyone,

I think it's time for me to give a little more information about the forthcoming version 3 of Messenger Plus!. As a lot of you already know by now, I've been working on the next major release of Messenger Plus! for the past month and it's starting to look sweet. Messenger Plus! 3 is built on the Messenger Plus! 2 engine, which has proven itself the past 14 month to be very reliable (how many of you have seen their Messenger crash or act weird lately? ). Plugins are also doing well, some of the, are excellent and will be publicized on the new msgplus.net, which will be available at the same time as Plus!3.

As announced previously, the new version focuses on user interfaces. Most of the original windows created one year ago for Plus!2 have already been redesigned, the preferences panel included. The new preferences are better organized, more clear, and with more options. Menus will also be completely redesigned and some simple wizards will be added when justified (meaning that Plus!3 won't be transformed into what I like to call an "are you sure?" program). Existing features that are not very well known currently will be brought to you more explicitly and better integrated in Messenger. This means that most of you will notice a lot of "new" features that were, in fact, available before (but the end-result is the same right? ).

Of course, despite what some of you are thinking right now, there will be brand new features in Plus!3. I've made some screenshots to show you some of them (see below). I'm doing everything I can to make the new version a must-have for anyone already enjoying Plus!2, and a very appealing software for those who aren't. I'd also like to point out that ZDNet made an official editorial review of Plus!2 last week (available on download.com) where Plus! got the great note of 4/5! the only bad point mentioned was that the number of configuration options can be overwhelming which is ok as I've already taken care of it for the next version .

If the only question you have in mind is "when?", I can't promise anything yet as there's still a lot of things I want to add, however, I think it's safe to say that the final version will be released sometime at the end of March or at the beginning of April. Here is a list of some of the new features you can expect:

• Word Filtering, when you receive and when you send (see screenshot).
  
• Redesigned Quick Icons with 5 configurable panels, automatic custom emoticons detection, ...
  
• Plugin preferences panel to enable/disable/configure plugins differently in each account.
  
• More multi-format options: 68 pre-defined colors, special auto-formatting panel, ...
  
• Text Search function
  
• Helper panels to select commands or enter command parameters while you chat
  
• No more permanent chat messed-up. Plus! now has a built-in auto-fix feature that detects placement errors in a chat and fixes them.
  
• Auto-accept feature for file transfers and other requests (like web cams). This feature can be enabled for specific contacts only if you want.
  
• The Personalised Statuses have been redesigned, the options are more clear and you can choose who receives your automatic message.
  
• Quote Sender. This new feature lets you quote anything recently said by one of your contacts, in the easiest way possible.

Again, this is just a preliminary list, there's much more to come. I hope that the 4th year of existence of my little plugin will be as good as the 3 previous ones. Thank you all very much for such a long time support!


Note: all these screens may change before the final version is released.


New color panel displayed with Ctrl+K




Plugins preferences panel




Another new feature: the Quote Sender