News and Blog
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
As you know, Escape Online is list-based. Every activity that opens a record has a list, no exceptions. What is cool is that most lists are more than just-a-list; they are a resource with a dozen or so columns. Even better, there are some lists that are crazy-full of data, like the Employees list has 44 columns. Now I know you don’t have all 44 columns memorized (I surely don’t) so how do you quickly scroll through those columns to refresh your memory? You could use your mouse, but who wants to do that?! (Do you detect a mouse-averse theme in these Friday Features?) |
The easy way is to hold down your Shift key and then use your arrows to go from right-to-left or left-to-right. This works on every list. (Psst. It also works on our upcoming grid technology, just in case you wondered.)
Check it out. Here is that crazy-full employee list. You can see how small the scroll bar at the bottom is — because it has more than three dozen columns!
Even if I use the handy-dandy Alt+F6 to hide the activity tree, I still have a lot of columns that I cannot see. So, the Shift+ right/left arrows is really the way to go if you like to keep those hands on the keyboard.
Comments are appreciated! Send us an email and let us know what you think.
|
Updating fixed assets is never fun. It requires a lot of coordination and a ton of data entry. If only there was a way to make this easier. Well, if you are feeling nostalgic for the old days of Microsoft Excel spreadsheets, then I have the activity for you! While the Asset Physical Inventory activity was originally created for year-end physical inventories, it has evolved into a master updater tool. |
The Asset Physical Inventory activity can be used at any time as a quick and easy way to update almost any field in the fixed asset record, including location, room number, tag number, description, group, asset category, serial number, model number, disposed date, disposal reason, disposal comment, type, vendor Id, inventory date, status, department, campus, warranty days, warranty start date, responsibility, finance category, and unit cost. Yikes! That is so many fields: I am out of breath just reading it.
As you can see, this is an in-line editor activity. There is no opening of records, no Next/Previous; you just start typing. When you are done, you simply select Post from the Task menu and all changes are written to the fixed asset records. You can also export the list to Excel, make your changes there and then import them back in.
To create the scrambled (no real data) screen capture you see above I used the export/import feature. Let me tell you, it was soooooo easy. I updated 33 serial numbers (copying and pasting them from a web site that generates these things) and a bunch of other fields in less than 10 minutes. No joke!
So if you order numerous computers or other fixed assets, instead of going to the Fixed Assets activity to enter information one-by-one, go to the Assets Physical Inventory activity and get a list of assets in the Pending status and enter them all at the same time!
Comments are appreciated! Send us an email and let us know what you think.
|
Last week we talked about setting preferences for displaying How-Tos. This week I want to show you how to control the display of the entire Escape Online 5 application. In the recently announced 3.10.02 release, you can control the size of the application using the new Preferences option from the File menu. You have several options: normal (this is how it has been displaying), maximized, remember (make the window the same size as the last time you closed the application), and fixed (where you can specify the height and width of the window). |
As you can see, you can also show/hide the picture of the day, which is the picture displayed underneath your activity tree. Personally, I love this. Those pictures always brighten my day!
Btw, if you want to know which release you are using, go to the About Escape Online 5 option from the Help menu.
Comments are appreciated! Send us an email and let us know what you think.
|
Recently a customer called and asked why we had changed Escape Online 5 to launch PDFs in a separate window. Escape Online 5 didn't change, though, the Adobe Reader did. Either way, it is a great question and a great feature because, after all, the way you set up your windows is a totally personal decision. Do you like your windows all stacked up on your task bar or each as a separate link? Now, you can ask this same type of question for Escape Online How-Tos. Do you want the How-Tos to display inside the workspace or do you want them to pop-up in a separate window? |
The way to control it is through your Adobe Reader preferences. Open the Adobe Reader and go to the Edit-Preferences menu, and select the Internet category.
If you check the Display PDF in Browser, your How-Tos will display right in the workspace. If you uncheck this, the How-Tos will display in a separate window.
Display PDF in Browser is CHECKED so the How-To displays in the workspace.
Display PDF in Browser is UNCHECKED so the How-To displays in a separate window.
The cool thing about displaying the How-To in a separate window is that you can have it open while you are working in the activity itself. I really like that!
NOTE: You may need to open and close Escape Online for the new Adobe Reader preferences to take effect.
Comments are appreciated! Send us an email and let us know what you think.
The results of the customer survey concerning changing the leave granting calculation are in. Nine customers responded, including Placer COE and several districts from Tehama COE.
At the beginning of April, invitations to participate were emailed to each customer contact. We included the following scenario with specific examples.
We are proposing that Escape Online now re-calculate the grant if there is a mid-year change: Escape Online would adjust the grant based on years of service for each leaves granting.
Customers hand-selected the individuals to respond to the survey. Individuals were given two weeks to respond.
| Answer | # Resp(s) | Ratio |
Yes. I want to take mid-year years-of-service changes into account. |
8 |
89% |
No. Leave the software as is. |
1 |
11% |
No. I want to take mid-year years-of-service into account but not with this logic. |
0 |
0% |
All respondents use Escape Online's leave granting process. Most are interested in the new method for including mid-year changes. The only respondent that didn't want the change suggested that we create an organization-level flag so that individual districts could decide for themselves.
Several respondents entered comments and posed questions about mid-month proration and how that would affect the calculation.
We are currently following up on the questions posed. We will incorporate the feedback into a change request and schedule the change for a release. The complete results of this survey, including comments, have been posted on the Escape Online Network, accessible through the Online Resources module.
Comments are appreciated! Send us an email and let us know what you think.
The results of the customer survey concerning encumbering time card assignments are in. Eight customers responded, including Sacramento City USD, Modoc COE, Ventura COE, Placer COE, Sierra COE, Modoc Joint USD, Surprise Valley Joint Unified and Lake COE.
At the beginning of April, invitations to participate were emailed to each customer contact. We included the following scenario with specific examples.
We are proposing to change the pay compute to default units for time card assignments for "Future" payrolls, defaulting the number of paid days for the pay period. The pay compute would create "future" records as pay detail. These records would be used for salary encumbrances created when you approve a payroll. We would also modify budget to use these encumbered records, matching the current budget equation.
Customers hand-selected the individuals to respond to the survey. Individuals were given two weeks to respond.
| Answer | # Resp(s) | Ratio |
I don't care. I do not want to encumber salaries for time card assignments. |
2 |
25% |
Yes. I want to encumber salaries for time card assignments using the logic in the example. |
6 |
75% |
No. I want to encumber salaries, but not with this logic. |
0 |
0% |
Of the customers that use encumber time card assignments, all were in favor of the logic proposed by Escape Technology. Of those wanting this new method, there was only one request that this functionality be controlled at the organization (instead of system) level.
We will incorporate this feedback into CR #8496 which has not yet been scheduled for release. The complete results of this survey, including comments have been posted on the Escape Online Network, accessible through the Online Resources module.
Comments are appreciated! Send us an email and let us know what you think.
Escape Online now works with 64-bit servers and clients!
Now Escape Online 5 can be run on Windows Server 2008 64-bit. This OS is viewed as the replacement for Windows Server 2003. It has become the standard for many mission critical business applications worldwide and boasts better security and flexibility than its predecessor. The 64-bit system offers direct access to more virtual and physical memory than 32-bit systems and processes more data per clock cycle, enabling more scalable, higher performing computing solutions.
Escape Online 5 now supports 32-bit, 64-bit and R2 servers. Windows Server 2008 R2 is the latest in Microsoft’s Windows Server line of operating systems. Designed to lower power consumption, improve security, ease management, and increase performance. Microsoft has done away with 32-bit computing in Windows Server 2008 R2 and is only available in 64-bit.
If you have a new computer, like I do, you may have experienced some problems when running Escape Online because it came with a 64-bit version of Windows. We researched and found the solutions for those issues, tested on in-house computers - like mine, and included those fixes in the 10.02 release that became available to customers last week.
But what does 64-bit mean? You have probably heard that many computers being sold today are 64-bit. The terms 32-bit and 64-bit refer to the way a computer's processor (also called a CPU), handles information. The 64-bit version of Windows handles large amounts of random access memory (RAM) more effectively than a 32-bit system.
And, how do I find out if I have it? If you want to know if your computer is running a 32-bit or 64-bit version of Windows in Windows 7 or Windows Vista, do the following:
This is exciting news for users who have purchased the latest hardware that uses 64-bit technology, because now they can use Escape Online without Windows errors.
To learn more, see our Escape Online System Requirements and Microsoft's Windows 7 FYI.
Comments are appreciated! Send us an email and let us know what you think.
Sign up for the newsletter, notices for webinars, trainings, and release reviews. |
