The web team members are like prairie dogs seen from the porch of your country home. You see them pop up over there, so you keep your rifle aimed in that direction. But then they go and pop up over yonder, and you ain't got time to change your aim before the little varmint chuckles and dives back into its meager hole.

While we've been busy developing a new, large project, we took a short break to stick our heads up and update another long-ignored but popular system: the ANR File Vault. Without getting into technical jargon, the File Vault needed some security issues addressed to bring it inline with our current protocols. Compound the security upgrades with a number of enhancements, finish it off with a new header, and the end result is File Vault 2.0.

Here's a breakdown of the major new/revised features:

• My Files - only your files or files sent to you are shown on your new home page. Your new home page also has quick links to download, renew and delete your files.
• File Expiration - you can continue to "renew" your expiration date one year at a time. This allows you to keep files in the system indefinitely. You can even check a box that lets the system know that you'd like to be notified if a file is about to expire.
• File Groups - grouping your files makes them easier to organize. You can also share a group link with anyone, including folks outside of ANR, and they will be able to access all of the files in the group.
• File Edit - it's easier than ever to edit the name of your file, send it to additional recipients, upload a revised file or convert files to PDF. Click on the file name to edit the file. If someone from outside ANR sent you a file, you can "claim" it and make it a member of one of your file groups.
• File Sending/Receiving - You'll now see some common email addresses when you send a file if you've sent files recently. This allows you to quickly include frequent sharers in your recipient list. As before, folks outside of ANR will still be able to send you files. We've greatly enhanced the security of anonymous file uploading, allowing non-ANR users to upload only one file to one ANR staff member at a time. Once you have a file, you can claim it and send it on to additional people if necessary.
• Zip File Handling - when you upload a zip file to the system, you'll now see an option to extract the files and put each one into the File Vault individually. Also, when viewing the files in a group, you'll also be able to zip them up into one tidy package.
• PDF Conversion/Image Resizing - The PDF conversion utility is still available. Now, you can convert a document to PDF and shuttle it off to your File Vault after the conversion completes. The same is true for the image resizer, which now also includes image rotation.

Questions? Comments? Send them to Dave Krause or leave your comments here.