Sorcerer Software Users Newsletter Issue 0202 Welcome to our monthly newsletter, covering the latest updates, tips, and user questions about our software programs. If you have an issue or question you would like to see addressed in a future newsletter, either by me or by your fellow users, please email me and I'll include it. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- February 28, 2002 CONTENTS: 1. The Abacus 2. Envelope Printer 3. Warning! A web site to avoid... -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Abacus http://www.sorcerersoftware.com/abacus.htm We frequently receive requests from users to add new features to The Abacus. Sometimes these are features that may be of use to just a few users, but over the last several months we have received several requests for two specific modifications: increased counting capabilities and improved invoicing. Now with the latest build (#020223), we have added these features. First, let me tell you about additions to our line counting arsenal. The Abacus can now count gross lines and/or characters (and convert them to lines) in textboxes, footnotes, and endnotes. If you count gross lines, Abacus will count these new additions the same way as the body of your document. If you count characters and have Abacus convert them to lines, the textboxes/footnotes/endnotes will be counted the same way as the characters in the body of the document except it will not credit you with extra character counts for bold/italicized/underlined characters. But Abacus will give you credit for shifted characters, spaces, tabs, and carriage returns if you selected these options in the "Counting options" page of the Configuration Options screen. You will also notice that in this build we give you a new option for how shifted/bold/italicized/underlined characters are counted. In the past, Abacus would credit you with 1 extra character for each bold (or shifted, italicized or underlined) character it encountered, assuming you selected this option. Now Abacus let's you count these characters in a more conservative manner, if you so choose. If you select the "Only count when turned on/off" option, Abacus will give you one extra character count when a bold sequence starts, and one more character credit when the bold sequence ends. (Same with shifted/italicized/underlined.) Many of our users needed this more conservative approach to counting, so now you can count these characters either way! Now on to the invoice issue. In the past many users have used the log file as an invoice. This is a perfectly appropriate use for the log file and is one of the reasons we have it, but we thought you might like to have the capability of creating a more polished looking invoice. So we added a new macro to Abacus and called it "AbacusMakeInvoice". To use it, first start Word and then open a log file. Next open the macros dialog box (simultaneously press Alt-F8). The macros screen will appear, and one of the macros listed in the "Macro name" box will be "AbacusMakeInvoice". Double click on this macro, and it will read your open log file and create and invoice out of it. The invoice can then be saved as a standard Word DOC, and you can edit it all you want. If you chose to add a message to your log files, the message will appear at the end of the log file. You can add an invoice number, the clients name, or any other information you want to use to personalize it. This, in fact, would be an excellent place to make your own macro to add your personal touch, such as your own letterhead. Now save the invoice or print it out, and send it on its way. As this feature is brand new, we will welcome feedback from users. What can we do to make it more attractive, or more useable for you? And by the way: you can also start this invoice from the menu bar or with a shortcut key combination. You Word documentation explains how to set Word up to perform these tasks. The current Abacus build is 020223. If you have an earlier build of version 3.0, you may want to download and upgrade to this build. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Envelope Printer http://www.sorcerersoftware.com/envelope.htm For about the last month we have been working on a new image feature for the program. This new feature lets you move the image (currently situated just to the left of the return address, if you elect to use one) anywhere on the envelope. You can also resize it, so that a more complex image can be used. We will probably still limit it to BMP images, but in the future may be able to include JPG or other image types. We still have some finishing touches and a little more testing to do before this new release is available. It should be posted on our web site sometime in the month of March, so check with us from time to time if you're interested, and download this new build and give it a try. As always we are very interested in feedback from our users. This new release will continue to be of the version 6.1 family, so upgrading to it will be free for current registered users. The current Envelope Printer build is 020114 of version 6.1. If you have an earlier build of version 6.0, you may want to download and upgrade to this build and version. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A web site to avoid... because they seem to want to abuse their customers, is: http://www.allyoucanink.com This site offers discounted prices on remanufacturered inkjet cartridges. Surely this is important and worthwhile to all of us who use inkjet printers. But let me tell you about my experience with them. After making a purchase using a credit card online (a practice which I believe is normally very safe), they apparently released my credit card information to their partner or parent, a site known as MegaLotto, an online gaming site. Next thing I know I'm getting daily emailings from MegaLotto. That would have been OK -- I can (and did) easily unsubscribe -- but on my next month's credit card bill they charged me a $29.95 subscription fee to their site! I certainly didn't see anyplace on their web site where I agreed to this, and fortunately American Express is taking care of it for me. But I'm quite upset with the way AllYouCanInk handled this issue, and I guarantee you they have lost me as a customer. Do you know of an interesting site you would like to share? Let me know about it and I'll put it in a future newsletter. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- That's all, folks. Look for our next newsletter in about 4 weeks... -- Bill bill@sorcerersoftware.com Sorcerer Software http://www.sorcerersoftware.com To read all the old newsletters, go to: http://www.sorcerersoftware.com/archives.htm