Security Upgrades

As part of our ongoing effort to keep ProposalSpace—and our users' data—secure, we recently had to disable access for older web browsers.

If your web browser is displaying an error when you try to log in, it's probably because you're using an older, unsupported web browser. Please make sure your browser is up to date, or at least a more recent version than the following:

• Chrome 30
• Firefox 27
• Internet Explorer 11
• Safari 7

Changes to the Data-Export Tool

One of our users recently reported a problem with the way our data-export tool was handling special characters. Abstracts for his call often contain mathematical symbols, which were being displayed correctly on the ProposalSpace website, but were becoming garbled in the output file generated by the data-export tool. For example, Δ (delta) was showing up as Δ and ± (plus-minus) was showing up as ±.

We fixed the issue by changing the character encoding for the output file. Now, any character that is displayed correctly on the website is also displayed correctly in the output file.

(A special note: Some programs, like MS Word, might ask what encoding to use when opening the file. If that happens, select "Unicode" on Windows or "Unicode 6.3 (Little-Endian)" on Mac.)

Also, we've removed the "strip HTML" option from the data-export tool and made that the default action. If you miss having that option, just let us know and we'll be happy to put it back!

Improved Data Export Feature

We've just released some exciting improvements to the data-export feature in ProposalSpace!

• Proposal information is no longer spread across multiple rows. All the information for a proposal—including role data, reviews and scheduling information—is now on the same line.
• You can now select individual questions from the submission and role forms to include in the export file.
• Special characters (like é) now display correctly in the export file.
• The "Proposals to Include" section now shows totals for each category so you can tell in advance how many proposals will be included in the export file.
• We've streamlined the code so the export file is generated even faster.

All of these changes were in response to feedback from our fantastic users. Keep the ideas coming!

Data Export Improvements

Our Data Export feature now has an option to limit reports to certain types of proposals. This means call administrators no longer have to weed out unwanted proposals after generating a report. Now, you can just pick the status(es) you want to include.

Next up: The ability to select specific items from the submission and role forms.

Where Is My Logout Button?

Some of you may have noticed some changes to the design of the site. We've been working on new features and needed a little extra "real estate" in order to keep things from becoming overcrowded. Plus, the average size of monitors (even on laptops) has continued to increase, so why leave all that extra white space unused?

For details about what got moved where, see our Design Notes.

Submission & Withdrawal Notices

We've just added a couple of features to the site that should make managing submissions a little easier for call admins:

• The site now automatically notifies call admins by email whenever a proposal is submitted. Before, call admins had to log in to check on any activity. Now, that information is delivered right to their inboxes.
• The site now automatically notifies proposal managers by email whenever a proposal is withdrawn. (A copy of the withdrawal notice is also placed in the manager's Message Center in case the email has problems making it through.) Plus, call admins have the option of including a message with the withdrawal notice.

New layout for Submission Tracker

We've changed the layout of the Submission Tracker slightly to make navigation a little clearer.

Before, the navigation items for the three categories of submissions (Draft, Awaiting Approval, and Approved) were displayed at the very top of the page and were somewhat removed from the main content. Thanks to feedback from one of our users, we've moved the three categories closer to the content, making it much clearer that they are navigation elements.

We think it's a huge improvement. We hope you do, too.

Usability Enhancements

We've just released two enhancements that make the site a little easier to use...

For call administrators: We've made it easier—and faster—to view submission details from the Submissions page. Previously, when you clicked on a submission's title, you were taken to a new page. Now, the same information is displayed in an overlay.

For authors: We've added a tab to the top of the proposal screens that links to the call's submission instructions. Now you have access to that information throughout the entire submission process. (Previously, the instructions were only displayed when you first created the proposal.)

Let us know what you think!

New Software Release

We've reorganized the My Calls, My Proposals and Call Settings pages to remove some of the clutter and to make things easier to find. All of the functions that were on the My Calls and My Proposals pages are still available, we just moved them to the Call Settings and Proposal Details pages. Call administrators will also notice a big change in the navigation for the Call Settings page, which now has the basic settings, tools and settings for all the major functions (submission, review, selection, notification) accessible via tabs across the top of the page. We also created a way for call administrators to archive completed calls so that they're not in the way but can still be accessed if need be.

New Software Release

Our latest software release fixes a number of issues for users with the latest version of Microsoft Internet Explorer (version 8).