Sorcerer Software Users Newsletter Issue 0307 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. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- July 31, 2003 CONTENTS: 1. The Abacus 2. Envelope Printer 3. Results just in! The 2003 Bulwer-Lytton contest! 4. Where have we been the last 4 months? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Abacus http://www.TheAbacus.biz When I started developing the first version of Abacus back in 1999, one of the features I wanted to add was the ability to let Abacus calculate your charges based on the number of lines counted and your charge in cents per line. On the first go-around, I assumed users would charge x cents plus perhaps one decimal point, like 11.5 cents per line. And that worked fine. Then I found that some users wanted to charge using 2 decimal places, like 9.25 cents per line. But recently a user wanted to charge 16.25 cents per line, and could only get Abacus to give her 16.2 cents per line because I hadn't yet taught Abacus that it may have to deal with 4 numbers (2 on each side of the decimal point). I have fixed this problem with the latest release so that now you can charge up to 2 digits to the left and 2 digits to the right side of the decimal point, and Abacus will do the calculation accurately. By now some of you may be asking yourselves, "So what's the big deal about a hundredth of a cent per line"? At first I certainly didn't see a big difference between charging, say, 10.2 versus 10.25 cents per line. But I'm finding out that transcriptionists are, generally speaking, perfectionists who know what they want, and they want to be paid for exactly the work they have done. So if they want changes made to Abacus that will more accurately reflect the work they have done, bring it on and I'll do my best to include them! Also a note about help. If you have questions or need assistance with Abacus, the best ways to get it are to email us or to post you message on the MT Daily Abacus board (www.mtdaily.com). When you do so, please be sure and include the version of Word and of Windows you are using, and the version and build number of Abacus. The current version 3.0 Abacus build is 030723. If you have an earlier build of version 3.0, you may want to download and upgrade to this build. This is the Word "add-in" version. To get your Abacus version and build number, start Abacus and click on the copyright message at the bottom of the main screen. The current Abacus SE build is 030720. If you have an earlier build of Abacus SE/4.0, you may want to download and upgrade to this build. This is the freestanding version. To get your build number, start Abacus and click on "Help- >About". -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Envelope Printer http://www.sorcerersoftware.com/envelope.htm Another update on the newest release of the Envelope Printer program, version 7.0: An alert program user spotted a bug recently, and we have fixed it up and sent the program back out onto the playing field with its new build number of 030629 (now available on our web site). The bug had to do with using font colors for the envelope's address. Envelope Printer was refusing to remember the new font color when you click the "Save Settings" button on the program's toolbar. If you changed the font color from the default black setting to for example, blue, the program would print blue just fine. But if you told it to remember to print blue in the future by clicking on the Save Settings button, the color would ignore you and revert back to black the next time you started the program. So now we have fixed this problem. I also want to remind you about using the "Convert" utility when upgrading from version 6.x to version 7.0. The new version of the program can't read address databases from earlier versions of the program. You will need to convert your databases to the new database format that version 7.0 can read and write to. The new database uses the .ep7 extension rather than the .env extension of version 6.x. To convert your databases, you just need to download from our web site the free "Convert" program. It's simple to use and takes only a few seconds. You can download the "Convert" program from our web site at: http://www.sorcerersoftware.com/convert.exe You don't need to convert your return address database. If you have trouble using the Convert program, just let me know and I'll either help you get it working or email me your address database and I'll convert it for you. To purchase your upgrade, and assuming you have an earlier version of the program: 1. Send us a check or money order for $10; or 2. Log onto PayPal (www.paypal.com) and send $10 to bill@sorcerersoftware.com; You can read more about the upgrade process on our web site at: http://www.sorcerersoftware.com/envelope.htm And if you purchased the program AFTER January 1, 2003, you can upgrade to version 7.0 free of charge. One last note. A current program user recently wrote and asked me: "What would you recommend as the best PRINTER for handling envelopes. I'm tired of the lousy afterthought most manufacturers give to printing envelopes?" So all of you out there... what would be your answer? What printers would you recommend that John either use or avoid? Just email your suggestions to me. The current Envelope Printer build is 030629 of version 7.0. If you have an earlier build or version, you may want to download and upgrade to this build. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Annual Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest results! Regular readers of this newsletter know that we like opening lines of the world's great -- and sometimes not so great -- literature. Our patron saint (or maybe anti-saint) is Victorian novelist Edward George Earl Bulwer-Lytton, on whose behalf we are double-dipping this month. Not only is it the 200th anniversary of his birth, but earlier this month the results of the annual Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest were released. If you are unfamiliar with this contest, you may want to take a look at the web site for the contest which is held each year by the English department at San Jose State University. If this all sounds unfamiliar to you, I have one thing to say: "It was a dark and stormy night." Snoopy didn't write that. Bulwer-Lytton did, in 1830. Need I say more? By the way, this is not your high school English class. This is intended to be comedy. Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest web site: http://www.sjsu.edu/depts/english/2003.htm -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I admit this newsletter has been brief, but it's been a strange summer. And I admit I have been negligent in my newsletter writing over the last four months. But I have been swamped with special projects, both professional and domestic. Things like... - Teenage daughters learning to drive; - Teenage daughters "needing" a car; - Keeping dogs from eating chickens; - Keeping horses from eating dogs; - Keeping gophers from eating yard; What about next month? Shall we try more literary adventures? Movie? Music? Let me know what you would like to see, or maybe a good web site we can recommend to everyone! And next month I'll address some of the questions and problems that users have been emailing me about over the last few months. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 To be removed from our mailing list, send me an email with the word "unsubscribe" in the subject line.