Just about when everything on my computer is working well, another major release is announced!  Actually, Oct 2012 isn't yet announced by Microsoft but those who report things such as this say that's when it'll be.

I've always felt it's best not to upgrade to a new Windows version until it has been proven dependable and has been available for well over a year.  By then the bugs will have been worked out, or at least identified.  Will Windows 8 affect JwSoftworks software?  Not at all.  The version of Windows is not an issue but the version of Access is. 

JwSoftworks software is developed in Access 2007 and runs very well in both Access 2007 and Access 2010.  That's because 2010 is downward compatible.  It's being reported that software developed in 2010 is not fully compatible with 2007.  Has to do with whether new features in 2010 are used. I haven't looked into developing in 2010 yet, but am about to do just that. 

No doubt, many of you have already upgraded your Office package that includes Access to 2010.  And those who are currently using the 2007 runtime can easily upgrade to the 2010 runtime at any time.

Several have asked whether The Android Connection feature in The Secretary will be made available for the iPhone. At first it appeared that it would not be.  However, two things have recently happened. 
 
An iPod, which is an iPhone without the phone, has been promised to be made available to me to mess with and a database product for the iPhone similar to Memento was found.  Like Memento, the iPhone database product advertises that data can be imported into it.

Stay tuned!

This is to let you know that a six month printed summary report is "broken".  That is, it is not working as it should.  It's reporting both sexes, and all ages.  Should be reporting only males over 17.

The report is the Summary choice of "Last X Mths-for Recomendations", selection 3 on the Service Reports menu. It's been rebuilt and is now working well.  It'll be in the next update. :-(

 

Have you seen the national news reports about the Texas tornadoes that went thru here on Tuesday, April 3rd?  It was confirmed this morning that a total of 13 tornadoes in and around the Dalllas / Ft Worth area “touched the ground”.   Rain was expected, but tornadoes were not.  Imagine, 13 tornadoes were powerful enough to touch the ground!  During the storm’s passing over us, three tornadoes reportedly touched the ground at the same time – one in Ft Worth and two in Dallas.  

Our group overseers were asked to contact their service group’s members and report the status to our coordinator.  This was done and a status report was sent to our CO.  Just as the branch outlined.

The purpose of mentioning this is to emphasize the importance of having readily available and up-to-date local, emergency, and disaster contact information.  This storm created much damage and can rightfully be classified as a disaster situation.  It passed directly over many of our congregation member's homes.  Contacting them was not a practice drill!

The Overseer software helped with this task considerably.   It displayed the names and phone numbers of my service group members, it dialed them, and allowed me to check off those contacted.  All group members were contacted in an orderly fashion.

And now, this same emergency contact information is available on an Android Smartphone and can even be displayed by publisher name or by service group!

Several brothers reported experiencing difficulty with the x month summary report "Last 6 Mths-All Pubs By Name" which is found on menu "Service Reports", selection #1.

It's been fixed.  Download and install the patched program.  It's version is Mar 2012a.

The Mar 2012 version of The Secretary is now posted on the website.  It contains the capability of exporting contact information suitable for importing to an Android Smartphone.  There is a full help file explaining how to set up the Android Smartphone.  (Blog Edit Test)

The next update of The Secretary has been held up due to working out a method to provide correct date formats to the Android Smartphone for non-USA locations.  The date format issue has been resolved with a "work around" and the next update should be posted by Mar 15.

The next release of The Secretary will have the feature called the "Android Connection".  Last week the export - import process was working perfectly ... but I then I updated the Android compatible data base product that will store publisher contact information.  

You probably can guess the next comment.  Extracted data files from The Secretary which previously processed smoothly, no longer do. The import process fails.   And I haven't a clue where to look.  But I'll keep on looking.......

JW

The plan is to release the next update of The Secretary sometime in the Feb/Mar timeframe.  It will include the capability of producing custom CSV data files designed for importing contact information to Android Smartphones.  The local tests here in the USA have gone very well.  The only concern has to do with the compatibility of non-USA date formats.

So, I wonder if someone in a country that uses the Euro date format would be willing to test the new feature.  You would receive an advance update copy of The Secretary and detailed instructions regarding the process of preparing the Android Smartphone.  To make the test easier to accomplish, the volunteers should be the congregation secretary and have an Android Smartphone.

Please let me know via email  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Thanks,  JW

Just to let you know ... another Android compatible emergency contact information database important to all elders has been created and is under test now.  The storage "structure" needs a bit of touching up, but the first release is under test now by two brothers.  I'd like to hold off saying what the information is until it's finished (most of you will be able to figure it out).

The capability of storing this information has been a part of The Secretary for almost two years.  The ability to export it in a compatible format will be included in the next release of the The Secretary software.