System capabilities have been improving at an unprecedented rate and show no signs of slowing. Since the first edition of the MSDS Software Report in 1993, MSDS software has changed in response to the rapid development of computer software and hardware technology as a whole. Most systems are now network compatible. And because many of the people who need access to the MSDS database may be computer novices, the use of graphical user interfaces is increasing. But most of these packages have improved with the addition of a variety of data entry features to help minimize the time it takes to add an MSDS to the database.
Most packages still treat scanned images as graphics files.
This approach has the advantage that the scanned image is identical to the original MSDS, eliminating the risk of incorrect data entry associated with keying in text. But a graphics file offers limited opportunities for manipulating the data once it has been scanned. To overcome this difficulty, a few developers now offer an optical character reader to translate the graphic image into text. About one-fourth of the packages index the MSDS automatically when it is scanned. Other automated alternatives are also more prevalent.