Microsoft Office Tips

I recently ran across this great article from PC Magazine:

100 Essential Tips for Microsoft Office 2010
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2387115,00.asp

Old Windows Tip, But Still Useful

Most people use a handful of Windows applications and files with great frequency. Having a keyboard shortcut to launch those items would save a lot of time and mouse clicks. This website details how to make shortcuts to files/applications in Windows.

I do this for many items in my Start Menu (Word, Excel, Outlook, etc.) and map them to Ctrl + Shift + W, Ctrl + Shift + E, etc. and it saves me a lot of time throughout my day.

Advanced Scripting for MAS 90 / MAS 200 - default ship dates

Advanced Scripting in MAS 90 / MAS 200 saves time and money. Here is another real-world example of how we've helped a customer use it to improve their daily operations in a simple way:

Company XYZ typically ships its products 3 days following the order. Every day, the person entering the sales order changes the "ship date" on the sales order header to the current date + 3, or uses their "sales order defaults" window to set the new date, so that the ship date does not default to the current date.

A script automates the process by setting the ship date to the order date + X, where X is any set number of days. A script can also be configured to take weekends into account, so X days does not include Saturdays and Sundays. This simple customizations saves time and reduces errors!

SMI Performance Patch

Sage has released an update for the Sage MAS Intelligence (SMI) product to decrease the time it takes to process reports. The patch can be found here:

http://www.sagesoftwareonline.com/sw_attach/kdb.asp?isresolutionconceptid=531437

The update applies to those users integrating SMI with Sage MAS 90 / MAS 200 ERP version 4.40. One user who applied the patch reported a 5-minute decrease in time to process a report.

It is highly recommended that any user running SMI should apply this patch. Please contact us for assistance in running the installation.

Quick way to create short Win7 tutorials for friends and relatives

Ever wanted to create a short, quick tutorial for someone on how to do a certain Windows task, but were stuck doing screenshots into a Word document? There's a better way!

The engineers built a little troubleshooting tool into Windows7 that captures windows and mouseclicks into a nice little html document that you can easily edit and then pass to those needing assistance. The tool is called the Problem Step Recorder, and you get to it by opening the Start menu and typing "psr.exe" (without the quotes) into the Search field.

Once the tool is launched, click on Record and march through whatever process you want to capture. After you've stopped recording, the html file is saved which you can easily edit and then send off to the friends or relatives asking for your assistance! If you go to YouTube and search on Problem Step Recorder, there are a number videos that demonstrate exactly how to use this neat little utility.

Advanced Scripting for MAS 90 / MAS 200 ERP - automatically changing warehouses in data entry

In a prior blog post, we summarized a feature in Sage MAS 90 / MAS 200 ERP called "Advanced Scripting". Here is a real-world example of how to implement a script in version 4.40 (or above) that can save a company time and money:

Company XYZ has multiple warehouse codes. When line items are entered on a sales order, sometimes the user entering the order enters the wrong warehouse. As a result, if they wish to change the warehouse code, they must do so on each line.

To save our customer time, we attached a script to the warehouse code on the sales order header. When this warehouse code is changed, it prompts the user to change the warehouse on all the lines. With this simple script, the company saves time for their employees and avoids orders that inadvertently contain line items with different warehouses.

What is Advanced Scripting for Sage MAS 90 / MAS 200 ERP?

Advanced scripting is a feature that was significantly enhanced in version 4.40 of Sage MAS 90 / MAS 200 ERP. This feature of the Custom Office module allows for "user defined scripts" to be added to the system, just as user-defined fields and user-defined tables are also possible.

Advanced scripting allows for event driven actions, so the system can "automatically" do something as opposed to waiting for a user to take manual action such as clicking a button. This also reduces the possibility of the user forgetting to 'click a button' that would be required to perform a necessary action.

We will present some real-world examples on using Advanced Scripting in future blog posts. The possibilities for scripting are endless, and they can truly save a company money by saving time and preventing potential errors.