In order to request this version you must be current with your support plan.  To get current with your support plan (or to check if you are current) email orpsales@office-routing.com

The following are the primary new features for version 4.0:
-Previous versions of ORP were limited to 255 characters in the body or comment section of the outgoing email to next recipient.  Users now have no limitation on the size of the comment/body.

-New reject document feature allows downstream recipients to reject a document with a comment and this goes back to the initiator with the document and a rejected status in the routing slip.

-Added right click ability to see recipient’s comment or email a recipient. This allows for comments from all users to stay with the routing slip on the document (previously, only the last recipient’s comments were saved with the routing slip).

-Anyone can now be signed up for receiving status emails (and updated files at each step)-previously, only initiators could receive tracking emails that show the status of the routing process.  Either the initiator can sign up other recipients for tracking emails, or when recipients downstream receive the document, they can sign themselves up.

-Changed the track changes feature in MS Word so that initiator is now the only one who can toggle it and initiators now have the option to track changes at the time they enable this feature from ORP or only once they send to the first recipient.  If users downstream use the MS Word menu to turn track changes back off, ORP will set it back on (with no prompts to user) for the copy of the doc that gets routed out.

–When closing a document that has a routing slip, if the document can be routed to the next recipient by the current user, a new improved dialogue box will be shown which will allow the user to route with or without a comment to the next recipient, and it will also allow the user to disable this prompt (it can be re-enabled from configuration screen).

-If a document is marked as final in 2007 and up then ORP wont let you do anything with the routing slip

–ORP can now be configured to automatically delete the message that was routed to you from your Outlook inbox when you route this document to the next recipient (the deleted message will show in your deleted folder in Outlook.  Note this feature is enabled by default but users may turn this off if they’d like by using the configuration button).

–When resetting the slip, ORP will not keep the initiator as the last recipient as it does in previous versions (the initiator will always be the last recipient without needing to add him/her as the last recipient, since the completed document always is returned to the initiator when the last recipient has approved it).

To request this new version, email orpsales@office-routing.com

Inquire about upgrading to our new Enterprise Product for Office Routing!

See our complete change log history for Office Routing Plus.

Our “third-party” solution with Office Routing Plus Standard Edition is a client based offering that extends the capabilities of email with most any client and main stream email server system. Our offering removes the step of creating an email message and attaching items to send. It also enhances email functionality so messages can be sent in true sequential flow where the process is defined and controlled by the initiator. We also included a light-parallel routing feature which through a send at once option that creates an enhanced ability to track and follow up on responses and rapidly collect group approval.

What our customers like the most about routing processes created by ORP is the formalization. Our workflow tracks each routing step and maintains that routed pattern with recorded approval events. We time stamp and mark the username associated with each approval of the document. In the process design of ORP we decided that Microsoft Outlook or any other email client was not required to create an effective workflow process. If you are a Microsoft Outlook fan we do have options that tightly integrate with the product environment so you can use it to help you manage your workflows. If you are not a Microsoft Outlook fan and have avoided or migrated away from the Microsoft Exchange option we have also included features that run off of non-Microsoft based email technology. Since most businesses still choose to use Microsoft Office for document management with the tools of Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel we’ve decided to keep our core offering focused to enhancing productivity within these environments.

We created Office Routing Plus because we believe our solution design and its forth coming product variations meet the core workflow objectives of most organizations throughout the world.

Learn more:

• Our workflow methodology
• Product Features
• Product Demo
• Product Pricing

Product options:

• Document Routing
• Spreadsheet Routing

Reference:  http://support.microsoft.com/kb/252976 reviewed on 1/20/2012. According to reference the article in review was previously published under Q252976. The article in review keywords:  kbinfo KB252976

To accomplish this in Office Routing Plus, simply select “Add Recipient” or “Delete Recipient” at any stage of the routing process. The initiator might setup one list of routing recipients but any recipient downstream from the document initiator who needs to insert (or delete) a recipient can do so. The only rule Office Routing Plus enforces is that recipients downstream from the initiator cannot delete a recipient that has already been routed to (unless they are the person who has just routed to the person they wish to delete–in this case this falls into the out of office scenario).

Office Routing Plus not only restores the routing slip features that were in Word and Excel 2003, but it adds many other features and enhancements, including a fix to these annoying security issues. As of February 2010, these security alerts will no longer show in ORP.

You programmers who follow our blog are dying to know how we achieved this. The answer is Outlook Redemption . This is a great program, which we highly recommend. Redemption safely communicates with Outlook with no security warnings. It also allows .net programmers to hook into Outlook at deeper levels than what is available in the Microsoft Outlook API.

Below are the variations of this Microsoft Outlook message.

A: This is actually a feature of Microsoft Outlook and has nothing to do with ORP. In Microsoft Outlook 2007 and earlier any file attachments from Microsoft Outlook will open in read only mode if you open the attachment from the reading pane (aka the preview pane). The solution on these versions of Outlook is to double click to open the email message first and then open the file attachment. In Microsoft Outlook 2010 all attachments seem to open in read only mode by design. For the 2010 issue, see the article here for a description of the problem and some work-arounds.

• Your company must be actively enrolled in the support/upgrade plan. 
  Read more about enrolling in the support plan here.
• Request the update by emailing support@office-routing.com
• As of version 3.x, users may simply install the new upgrade without needing to uninstall the current version you are on.  Running the setup.exe file will automatically uninstall the old version.  Also, pushing out the software silently is now much easier with the new Advanced Installer.
• For detailed instructions for silent installations and other installer information, see here (the steps for an upgrade are the same as a new installation).

While many users will find that the base product suits their needs for archival, via the emails that can be archived in your email program’s sent box or inbox, other users who have a number of documents enroute at any given time, will find the enhanced product’s search and sort features to be a vast improvement.  Also, there is presently no way to have real time tracking of the status of the document, other than the emails that are sent to the initiator.  If you are the initiator of multiple documents, it can become cumbersome to track the status of each one just by email notifications coming at you from multiple routing processes.  Additionally, if you are not a routing initiator then you have no way to presently track the status of the document.  The new enhanced product will allow the document initiator, and anyone upstream or downstream from the present state of the routing process to check on the status of documents that are enroute. 

An organization that has purchased the baseline product for Office Routing Plus may choose to purchase an additional number of enhanced licenses for power users. For example, an organization may have purchased 200 licenses of the baseline product and only wish to pay for 20 enhanced licenses for the people who need the enhanced functionality.  If your organization already uses just the baseline product, then all users would need to upgrade to a new version of the baseline product, which can write data to a simple MYSQL© database that will be installed in your environment.  Then the enhanced licenses will be installed separately for just the users who are using the enhanced product.

The enhanced product will likely be a new feature that shows up inside of Excel or Word.  We may decide that this should be a product that runs outside of Excel or Word but our impression is that most users who use Office Routing Plus will want to stay inside of Word or Excel to see the real time status of documents that are enroute, or to lookup routing history (or the actual final archived document) on completed routing processes.  Let us know via email if you have feedback on this matter, or if you would like to provide any feedback at all about these exciting new features while they are being developed (orpsales@office-routing.com)!  Our target date is February 2011.  The enhanced licenses will be available in beta mode for existing Office Routing Plus users and then the licenses will be on sale.