Virtual Enrollment Party

I had a question from MaryAnn in Webster County, and it caused me to re-think what I THOUGHT was true. Turns out I was wrong--how amazing is that?

The question dealt with the disability field on the member record. I've encouraged you to use that to record info that would be useful info for leaders & others to know, not just limiting it to identified disabilities. I thought that info did not print on any reports unless you asked for a disability report format.

However, what we found is that the info DOES print on the "complete report" format as well. And it prints whether or not the Disability checkbox is marked. The info in the text box prints next to a header of "special needs". I guess it makes sense that the info would be included on the "complete report", but in some cases, you may not want that viewed.

If it's sensitive info that you do not want in print, but do want on the youth's record, we only have one option at the present time: When you print the report, you will need to locate the page with that young person's information, white-out the section, and run it through your copy machine. No, that is not ideal, or techno-savvy, or anything else. It's just all we've got right now. Someday, there may be another solution, but not now.

Posted by Becky at 09:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

This post is a continuation of the Blue Ribbon and Vista posting earlier today.

By now, there are two important pieces of information from Extension IT that you need to be aware of. The first one is the April 15 deadline for any computers that you want loaded with WindowsXP. After that date, all computers WILL be loaded with Vista, no exceptions. The other information that's important is that Extension IT is coordinating a "bulk buy" of Filemaker 9 licenses for county use. (For more information, go to Tech News Feb. 26.)

Filemaker 7 and 8 will not run on Vista. Well, technically version 8 will sort of run, if you don't mind that the screen turns black every time you click on something, but let's assume that's not acceptable. Version 8.5 WILL work, IF you have installed a Vista update. Filemaker 9 is fully Vista compatible. The really good news is that it is also fully compatible with Filemaker 7 & 8. What that means is that if you have a Filemaker 7 database, you can open it using Filemaker 9 on one computer, then later open it using Filemaker 7 on another one. The extension at the end of the filename will still be ".fp7" as it was in both Filemaker 7 and 8.

So, why would you need to purchase Filemaker 9 this time? Only if you think you're going to have a Vista computer that will need to run Filemaker, truthfully. But remember, Vista is not going away. Not just this year's computers, but all computers from now on, will have Vista installed on them. So plan ahead. The opportunity that Mike Mauton is coordinating for you is a good one--purchasing Filemaker individually is more expensive.

Other tidbits--the state fair entry system will continue to be "runtime", which means that you don't have to have ANY Filemaker to open it. The judges database, however, will only be available in ".fp7", so if you never upgraded to version 7 or 8, now is a good time to buy a license for version 9 so that you can use that database. I'm kind of assuming the same things are true about the staff directory and the pesticide directory, but it's just a guess.

Interested in learning more about how to use Filemaker? I'm tentatively planning that I'll offer some beginner and intermediate workshops next fall. I want to have time to work with my own version 9, and see whether there are new features that I should add to the workshop. I'll send out more information about those workshops as soon as I have a definite time frame.

If you have questions about Filemaker and Vista, please feel free to post a comment to the blog! If you have specific questions about Vista only, you're going to be better off talking to somebody at Extension IT!!

Posted by Becky at 12:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Probably by now, you've seen the messages from Extension IT, telling you that beginning on April 15, all new computers WILL be loaded with Windows Vista--no exceptions allowed. Let's talk about Vista and how it interacts with Blue Ribbon first. There is a separate post about Vista and Filemaker.

In Iowa, we are using Blue Ribbon version 2.5 because 2.6 is buggy and has not been fixed yet. Eventually I'm sure there will be a version 2.7, and I'm hopeful it WON'T be buggy. But, we don't know when that will be released. Stick with me here--this is a trickle-down explanation from this point on. Version 2.5 will not install and work with Vista. There is no work-around or fix. However, there IS a separate installation package for version 2.6 and Vista. One install package for XP, a different one for Vista. This where it gets interesting.

Version 2.6 changes the data file structure, so if one person in an office updates to that version, everyone else will be forced to do that as well. So far I'm seeing two different CDs for that office--one Vista, one XP. It gets worse. Once one county updates to version 2.6, I'm also going to have to do that in order to be able to use the data. Once *I* have updated, the REST of the counties will also have to do that... now we're looking at two CDs for every county, and a forced software update across the state, never forgetting the original problem: version 2.6 is buggy. So everyone would be doing that software update to a flawed product, instead of one that works right. Hm.

What should you do about Vista, then? If you are going to order a new computer (to run BR) this year, you have a couple of choices--if the current BR computer is running well, order a Vista computer, and just leave the old computer set up and running BR until I release version 2.7, then load 2.7 on the Vista computer. If your current BR computer is NOT functional, then you'll have to think about ordering a new computer before April 15, and asking for it to be loaded with XP. I can't guarantee we'll see version 2.7 by April. Or September even. All I know is that I'm not going to release version 2.6 because the problems are significant enough to override any benefits.

If you need more information before the April 15 ordering deadline, please email me or better yet, post a comment to the blog!

Posted by Becky at 11:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)