General Notes re our Software

• Splash Screen
• Downloading Program Updates
• Moving Around The Screens
• Main Screen
• Getting Help
• File Menu
• Database Menu
• Finding and Selecting Data Records
• Entering Dates
• Using Combo Boxes
• Spin Buttons and [>] buttons
• Printing Reports
• Standard Windows Key Functions

• To move forwards from box to box on any form on the screen you press the TAB key on your keyboard (not the ENTER key).
• To move backwards from box to box on any form on the screen you hold down the SHIFT key and press the TAB key on your keyboard.
• To scroll through a list in any text box (eg when the system is asking for you to enter a code you can use the PAGE-UP and PAGE-DOWN keys (sometimes marked PG-UP and PG-DN) but NOT the up-arrow or down-arrow keys.
• To move to the end of a text field on the screen press the END key
• To move to the start of any text field on the screen press the HOME key.
• To delete text AFTER the current cursor position press the DELETE key
• To delete text PRIOR TO the current cursor position press the BACKSPACE key
• To insert text AFTER the current cursor position press the INSERT key
• To move the cursor forwards (to the right) through the existing text without changing any text use the RIGHT ARROW key.
• To move the cursor backwards (to the left) through the existing text without changing any text use the LEFT ARROW key.
• If the NUM LOCK button is turned on (and the NUM-LOCK light is on) then the numeric keypad works with the numbers marked on the keys while if the light is OFF then the arrows, home, end etc functions are active rather than the numbers.

When you have the main screen displayed you will notice a box in the bottom right hand corner which will tell you the company name associated with the current database, the current date, the name of the current user logged into the database and the date and time that you last backed up your data.

In the title bar you will see the program name followed by the name and location of the database that you are currently working on. Our programs can support multiple databases for multiple companies in a similar way to the way that a word processing program can open more than one documents. The main difference is that this software can only open ONE database at any ONE time although you may open different databases on different computers or the same database on multiple computers.

Across the top of the screen you will see menus such as FILE, EDIT, INQUIRY, REPORTS, DATABASE, FIX and HELP. If you click on any of these menu items a menu will pop up under the menu item. These menus may have multiple sub-menus as well. In some cases, due to limitations in the number of total menu items that Windows can support, clicking on a menu item (eg the FIX menu) may change the screen display and the menus and you may then need to click on the FIX menu again to see the contents of the FIX menu. Click on each of these menus in turn an have a look at what functions are listed under each menu.

Under the menus you will see a number of shortcut buttons. If you point to any of these buttons a yellow tool-tip will be displayed telling you what this button is for. The buttons call up similar functions to those on the menus. It doesn't matter whether you select a function using a button or a menu as the same function will be performed. The buttons correspond to the features that you are likely to use most often.

• Contents: This will take you to the CONTENTS page of the help (operator) notes
• Search: This will take you to the SEARCH page of the help (operator) notes
• Show Menus: This will print a list of ALL of the menus for the current screen. It might be useful to keep as a reference to help you locate a particular function.
• Windows Help: Displays information about how to Use Microsoft Windows Help
• Windows Tutorial: If available it will display a tutorial about how to use Microsoft Windows
• Calculator: Starts the standard Windows On-Screen Calculator
• View Update Notes: Opens a list of program changes that we have made recently
• Request for Support: Enables you to fill in a form to fax to us requesting help - always use this form to request help via fax
• Go to Web Site: Opens our web site if you are currently connected to the Internet
• Email Us: Creates an empty email already addressed to us
• About Program: Displays information about the program version and about Windows

• Select New Database: Enables you to change from using the current database to a different database that you may already have set up.
• Save Database As: This enables you to save an exact copy of your current database under a different name (perhaps for archival purposes)
• Display Log Files: This displays error and other log files (where we use them) for your program.
• Check Existing Databases: This function will identify all of the current databases that you have on your system along with the date and time that they were last used. You might use this to locate an archived database.
• Edit Ini Files: This function enables you to view and/or edit your windows and program INI files which contain information about how your system is set up. Don't change this without checking with us first.
• Change User ID: if you have the security system turned on then you can use this function to log off as one user and log back onto the database using a different user name.
• Printer Selection: This enables you to change your Windows Default printer which is used for printing reports etc from within this program and all other Windows programs.
• Setup Printers: This function is used to tell the program which printers to use to print receipts, cheques, statements etc if you have multiple printers available to use.
• Exit: Clicking on this option exits the program totally (or you can use the X in the top right hand corner of the screen instead).

• Import/Export Data: Enables you to EXPORT data from the database to CSV format files which can be read into MS Excel or other databases or you can IMPORT data into your database as well.
• SQL Execute Statements: Enables you to use Structured Query Language (SQL) to automatically update the data in your database - normally only used under our instructions.
• HTML Queries: Predefined queries into your database which display the output data as a web page
• Install Program Update: Attempts to install a program update automatically for you
• Update Data Definitions: Updates your database structure to match the format required by the current program version. Normally only run after you have installed a program update when it is done automatically by the program update.
• Network Program Update: This function will copy a program plus any changes to your standard letters from whichever computer has the latest version(s) to all of the other computers that your computer can see on your local area network. It can save you having to install the program update on every single computer.
• Initialise Misc Codes: Normally only required after a program update has been installed.
• Repair/Compact Database: This function will use a Microsoft Access function to attempt to repair any minor database errors and/or corruptions. Use this function if strange things start happening to the program before you call us to report a problem.
• Repair Database (Alternate Method): Use only under our direction - similar to the previous function.
• Backup/Restore/Format Options: Runs our backup and restore program which will backup your database to floppy disk, Zip Disk, LS-120 disk or CD-RW disks. (You can't use the CD-RW disks using this method if you are running Windows-NT, Windows-2000 or Windows-XP)
• Zip Up Current Database: This function compresses your database and saves a copy to your hard disk. You would use this function if you needed to email a copy of your database to us (or someone else) as it will generally reduce the size of your database to less than 20% of it's normal size. You can then use WinZip or PkZip to expand it back to the original size later on.
• Initialise Data: This function clears ALL of YOUR data out of the database. Only used if you want to scrap your current data and start all over again.
• Clear Financial Info: This function clears all financial information only - eg receipts, cheques and balances information - without deleting the rest of your data. Only use this if you need to scrap your accounting details for some reason.
• Convert Data: This function will convert your data from a previous MS-DOS (or Unix or Qantel) version of our software

When you are in a screen which enables you to edit data files you will see that the top of the screen changes and you will now have FILE, SEARCH, INQUIRY and HELP menus and the toolbar buttons will have changed as well.

The Data Navigation toolbar appears on the data entry screens and can be used to move back and forwards through the data records. In addition there are functions for creating a new data record, saving or deleting an existing record, printing a screen dump of the current screen and a function to close the current screen and move back to the main screen.

The buttons are used for (starting from the left)

	Move to the first data record
	Move to the previous data record
	Do a search (usually by name) to help locate a data record
	Move to the next data record
	Move to the last data record
SAVE	Save the currently displayed data
DELETE	Delete the currently displayed data
CLEAR	Clear the currently displayed data from the screen only
PRINT	Print a screen dump (not print a report)
EXIT	Exit the current screen Display

The same functions can be found in the program menus (usually the SEARCH menu).

When you see a date entry box like this one you can enter a date. If you only enter the day (eg 23) or the month (eg 23/04) then the program will assume that the rest of the date is the same as today's date and fill it in for you when you TAB out of the date field. If you enter the year using 2 digits only then the program will convert this to a 4 digit year automatically as well. You can't enter the slashes or dashes when you enter dates - you only enter the numbers. Also you must enter 2 digits for the day and the month and so for the third of May 2004 you would enter 030504 which would be re-displayed as 03/05/2004.

Where you see a combo box you will often also see a [?] button after it. A combo box allows you to select from a predetermined list of options by clicking on the drop arrow button at the right of the combo box. When you do this a list will drop down to show you your available choices. Sometimes this list may have a scroll bar on the right of the list. This scroll bar indicates that there are more entries in the list than Windows can display in the drop down box but you can use the scroll bar to move the list up and down.

If there is a [?] button to the right of the combo box it means that the program will allow you to jump into another screen where you can add new entries to the combo box or delete or change existing entries. When you exit this editing screen then the combo box should be automatically updated with your changes.

If you press the F4 key on a combo box the drop down list will automatically open for you (or close if it's already open) to save you having to use the mouse to drop it down.

Sometimes you will see text boxes which have a spin button and a [?] button after them. This means that the data you enter is checked against another data file and must match data in that file. An example is the suburb text box where you must enter a valid suburb from the post codes file. You can enter just the first part of the suburb name and then click on the spin button (at the top to go back and at the bottom to go forward). The program will then scroll through the list of suburbs which match what you have typed. Instead of clicking on the spin button you can just press the PAGE-UP or PAGE-DOWN keys instead to move back and forwards (provided that the cursor is still in the suburb text box.

If the suburb that you want is not in the list then you can click on the [?] button to jump into the edit postcode screen and you can then add the details into the postcode file and exit that screen. You will then be able to select the new suburb and postcode that you just added. These features are used often in the program - not just for the suburb entry but everywhere that you see a spin button and [?] button together.

The majority of the reports in our software are provided using Crystal Reports and are accessed through a standard report activation screen. The screen shows the name of the report selected and the output format (which should be set to DISPLAYED REPORT for normal use). If you don't want to view the report on the screen first but just to print it then you can change displayed report to DIRECT TO PRINTER. There are also other options available to export the report to an Excel spreadsheet or to a word document etc.

You can also select the number of copies that you want to print if you require more than one copy of a report.

Sometimes a date range can also be specified. If you DON'T tick the boxes next to the dates then the dates are ignored. If you tick only the FIRST date box then the report will list all data ON or AFTER the first date while if you tick the SECOND date box only then the report will list data Up UNTIL the second date while if both boxes are ticked then data between the two dates will be displayed. There is a formula box to the right of the date boxes which contains the formula for generating the two dates for each report. You can change this formula which consists of two parts separated by a comma. Each part consists of a number and a letter. The letter can be D=Days, W=Weeks, F=Fortnights, M=Months, Q=Quarters, Y=years and the number is the number of days, weeks months etc. The first part of the formula tells the system how to calculate the first date based on today's date while the second part calculates the second date. negative numbers mean in the past while positive numbers mean in the future and so -1m,1m means from one month ago to one month in the future while -7d,3 means from 7 days ago until 3 weeks in the future.

Sometimes there are also additional restriction criteria and in some cases you can change the sort order of the report (eg alphabetic by name or by code). There can also be further selection and restriction criteria available if you click the MORE SELECTIONS button.

You can change the printer on which the report is printed by clicking the PRINTER button, display or print the report by clicking the PROCEED button or cancel the report by clicking on the EXIT button.

The reports were originally designed to print on a laser printer. Some ink jet printers cannot print down the full length of the page like laser printers can. Typically a laser printer can print up to about 5mm from the edge of an A4 page on ALL sides while some inkjet printers may not be able to print any closer to either the top or the bottom of the page than 15mm or even 20mm. If you have an inkjet printer like this then you might find that you have to tick the box marked FIX PRINTER MARGINS FOR INKJET PRINTERS otherwise some reports may spill each page over onto two pages and so wasting a lot of paper. If you find a report that does this on your printer then it is a good idea to let us know the report name (printed in the bottom left hand corner of the report) and what type of printer you have and we will attempt to redesign the report so that it no longer causes a problem with your printer.