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dealio

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Everything posted by dealio

  1. dealio
    In either the 2020 or 2019 version, the ability to add labels to images was added, which I very much appreciate! Thank you! I've been using that capability much to help identify what the image is and explain how/why it's important to the item it documents. I've found an issue with it that I don't have a solution for. The text description for the image is always black. If the image is also black in the spot where the text label will show up, the label is obscured because they are both the same (or close) color. Can this be remedied? One solution I thought of (don't know how possible it is) is to place a white outline around the black text so that no matter what color is underneath the label, it will show up. TIA David
  2. dealio
    The setting in the subject can be found under the View menu, Customize item. In the dialog box, select the Toolbar tab and near the bottom on the right is a check box labeled Show text labels that enhances the toolbar buttons by placing short text labels beneath the icon. Very helpful for remembering what some of them do. However, this labeling goes away after I close the application. The next time I run it, the labels are not there and the setting has reverted to unchecked. Can this be fixed? TIA David
  3. dealio
    Does no one use this capability? I did run into some quirks when using the Clone capability that caused me to rework some of my entries -- I'm still not certain those entries are ok. Does Clone (or any of the copy methods) leave lingering link between the original and the copy so that when an attribute (which attributes?) of the original is changed, the same attribute of the copy changes as well? Seems like there is some utility here, just having difficulty figuring it out. Help! TIA David
  4. dealio
    This is great news, and I'm looking forward to this feature. Once it's here, that means I'll need to move all my attachments to the new Attachment folder. And that means that I'll need to manually edit hundreds of item records in HomeManage to tell it where the attachments were moved to. That will take hours of manual and tedious effort. Will you also provide a way to automate this process? TIA David
  5. dealio
    The Font setting you mention only affects lists displayed in the app...it does not affect the size of the menu text, dialog box text or the main screen HTML window pane, which has a summary of the information for the selected item. All of these other UI (user interface) elements are painfully small to read on 4K monitors and they are not adjustable.
  6. dealio
    Lately I've been adding several hard disks to my inventory for my NAS. Since they are all practically the same except for serial number, manufacturing date, purchase location and cost and details like that, I've needed to enter basically the same information many times. So I noticed the Duplicate function on the context menu when right-clicking an item in the list. I also noticed the Clone function on the toolbar. I noticed that both of these have the same icon associated with them. Then I noticed on the Actions menu a Move/Copy Item(s)s... option. I didn't find explanations for these functions in the PDF manual or the help file. As I don't want to experiment with my data, a few questions came to mind about using these options which are apparently intended to allow copying an item in some fashion: What are the differences between Duplicate, Clone and Copy Items(s)? What is the use case for each option? When would you use them to maximum advantage? What if any drawbacks/limitations are there with each option? Anyone figure this out? Please share. Thanks in advance! David
  7. dealio
    New feature suggestion: When creating a query after selecting a field to filter on, allow the user to select values for that field from a dropdown list of all possible values for the field. For example, if CATEGORY is the field, allow me to choose a category from a list of all possible categories rather than having to remember the category, spell and type it correctly. This would make the process of creating queries more foolproof. Second suggestion: make queries viewable and editable. David
  8. dealio
    Looking for way to edit a group of duplicate items that I added to inventory without having to sort through the list of items in the room. I thought a query would be a good way to do this, and it probably still is. Except I created the query with the wrong category, and now I cannot edit the query to correct my mistake. I know I can just create a new query, but was wondering if there was a way to edit queries. I can imagine creating a complex query, making a mistake like the one I made (misspelling), and having no way to edit it, having to recreate it all over again. Is there a way to edit queries? David
  9. dealio
    I have a NAS for which I bought several HDs (hard drives) of exactly the same brand (WD) and model (Red) but different capacities (10 or 12TB), and from three different vendors. I wanted to add the HDs to inventory with the proper product details such as order number, S/N, P/N, model, dealer, warranty, etc. as well as cost details. I created an item with all the this information in the designated fields, then linked the NAS unit as the parent item using the Linked Assets tab of the Item Properties dialog box. Then I duplicated the item several times. The duplicates were smart enough to blank out the S/N field so I could fill it in with the actual serial numbers; but unfortunately it unchecked the Insured and Taxable fields as well -- not the desired outcome. Not a huge problem and easily corrected. As not all of the HD are installed in the NAS (some are spare drives), I didn't want all of them linked to the NAS because that doesn't reflect their true status as spares. So I went to the Linked Assets tab, and in the Parent Asset with this item as a child box, I clicked on the only asset listed there (the NAS) which enabled the previously grayed out Unlink button, which I clicked. The NAS disappeared from the Parent Asset box and I clicked OK. But the Parent Asset still showed up in the summary pane to the left of the Images pane. I figured it might not have updated so I clicked on another asset, then back to the original asset, but the Parent Asset was still present. Then I opened the Item Properties box for the HD and on the Linked Assets tab, the NAS was listed as a Parent Asset, as if I had not unlinked it. I know no way to unlink the asset short of deleting the asset and creating it from scratch, which is a lot more work and which defeats the purpose of using Duplicate. Anyone know a work-around for this problem? Anyone else having trouble using the Duplicate feature? TIA David
  10. dealio
    I attempted to put the words "Manufacturer's Limited" in the Warranty Type field on the Additional tab of the Item Properties dialog box and received a technical error. See below. I have noticed before that this error also happens when I try to put a single quote in the Description text box of the Add an Attachment dialog box. My guess is the single quote is a string delimiter in internal code and placing a single quote in a text entry confuses the code because of the special meaning of single quotes. The presence of of single quotes as text delimiters in the error message seems to support my theory. Should be easy enough to escape the single quote to fix this if I'm right. Also, if it fails in these two fields, I wonder what other fields and what other special characters (&, [, ], #, *, ", ., ?, etc.) will fail to accept a single quote (special character) in text. UPDATE: Just for giggles I tried adding the text "Manufacturer''s Limited" (note that I used 2 consecutive single quotes between the r and s, not a double quote) in the Warranty Type field and the text was accepted without error. I think this verifies the nature of the single quote issue and points out how to escape it simultaneously. But I found something else odd. After accepting my entry, I opened the dialog box again and in the Warranty Type field there was only one single quote (the desired outcome). After closing the dialog box, I noticed on the lower left display pane on the main form that the Warranty Type field displays "Manufacturer''s Limited" with two single quotes rather than just one. Very odd and not the desired outcome. David
  11. dealio
    I haven't had the problem with field changes not being saved, but on my laptop, which now runs Windows 10 1909, the program does crash when I click on the Item Pictures tab of the Item Properties dialog box. It's really odd as there are no error messages, the window doesn't freeze or stutter, it simply disappears. Since it's a Jet database (MS Access), I sometimes have to delete the lock file assets.ldb in the same dir as assets.mdb.
  12. dealio
  13. dealio
    I had the same experience creating a subfolder under home manage and it didn't get backed up. I'll take your advice and move the folder under the Data folder to see if I get the same results. Good tip! Thanks David
  14. dealio
    Following the directions on the install process, I upgraded HM2019 to HM2020 by supplying the same directory information for the 2020 upgrade as I was using for the 2019 version. The application installed into the old program directory with no issues. However the installation process deleted my Assets.mdb data file and all images in my AssetImages folder and replaced both with the stock demo Assets.mdb data file and the accompanying 2 images. This is an outrageous upgrade process! This would have been DISASTROUS has I not had backups of the data file and the images available through Windows 10 recovery. When I pointed the installation to the old program directory, it read the Assets.mdb file to find the location of the Data, AssetImages, and Reports directories, automatically filled them into the appropriate installation fields, then happily deleted everything in those folders with no warning or notification. It's just inconceivable that the installation process would go through the trouble of reading the old Assets.mdb file to determine the old file locations, to then delete all of them!! I also find that no images appear in the main window next to the AssetNum. field like they use to. Dunno what happened to them -- even with the black bars that use to plague those images, they were still helpful in identifying assets quickly by image. Is this a bug? It appears so. In version 2019, the exact same data setup had no issue with the images displaying in the main window. Hoping I don't regret this upgrade, but I'm already headed in that direction. David
  15. dealio
    This is still a bug in the 2019 version. Will this be fixed in the upcoming upgrade?
  16. dealio
    Ed, You are not alone. I have exactly the same problem on my laptop. I have the HomeManage database on a local NAS on my home network and I can access it from either my desktop or my laptop, both of which run Windows 10 x64 (but previously ran Windows 7 successfully). Only my laptop exhibits this behavior and I have no idea why. It is just as you say...as soon as I click the Item Pictures tab on the Item Properties dialog box, the application disappears from the screen with no error messages, no notification of any kind. And upon restart, all my data is as it was before the incident. Although it's good that it doesn't lose data, I cannot add or manage pictures from my laptop. That's a hassle. Clearly the app doesn't like something, but its not clear what that is or how to remedy it.
  17. dealio
    One other thought. Although it may be too late to include this request in the upcoming release, I suggest it would be nice to allow attachments to be added to line items in the notebook. I typically scan my receipts for service and attach them to the main item, but they really belong with each maintenance event instead. After a large number of line items accumulate, sorting out which attachment goes with which line item becomes laborious and error-prone unless you name the attachments in a way to help associate them with the right line item. It would be simpler and easier to just allow associating an attachment with each line item in the notebook. my 2cents
  18. dealio
    Thank you! Looking forward to seeing all the improvements.
  19. dealio
    Though I've had the software for years, I just noticed that the details panel (on the lower right side of the main interface to HomeManage) does not display all of the line items in the Notebook. I track the details of auto maintenance in the Notebook, as that seems an appropriate use of the notebook. Although I have 34 line items in the Notebook, only the most recent 11 entries show up on the details panel. This is an issue because it is in the details panel that the Notebook entries are readable, not the Notebook entry dialog box. The Notebook entry dialog box, the box where I add line items, is cramped and doesn't allow me to see more than one entry at a time, so the details panel is better for an overview of service to my vehicle. And unlike the Comments box on the Additional tab of the Item Properties box, pressing the Enter key closes the dialog box instead of inserting a new line. By trial and error I learned that only CTRL+Enter inserts a new line. Is this the intended behavior? Another issue with the Notebook occurs in the dialog box where entries are added/edited. The description box is extremely limited in the amount of text it will accept, making it difficult or even impossible to capture enough details to describe a fairly typical maintenance event.
  20. dealio
    I've had the same problem. It's quite frustrating to see it there but yet cannot move it anywhere, and cannot even delete it. And AFAIK there is no user guide to tell you how the program is designed to handle disposed assets so you can do what it expects.
  21. dealio
    Thanks for such a quick response! I've sent an email to the address above with my code. Hope to hear back soon. David
  22. dealio
    Just yesterday I upgraded the CPU in my computer and as part of the process of validating a successful upgrade, I ran most of the apps that I use frequently. When I ran HomeManage, I got an activation request screen, as you do when you're running the application in trial mode. So I chose to activate now, put in my license code and got the response that my license code is already in use! I am the only one who uses the software (for years) and I don't know why the activation process won't recognize me. I'm not aware of any other changes on my machine, so I'm tempted to conclude that the CPU upgrade triggered this. I don't understand this approach. It's the same machine, same user, same operating system -- Windows 10 x64 1809 (10.0.17763.503) -- that I've been using with HomeManage 2018 since I upgraded to this version. Anyone else have this issue? Any help would be appreciated! HomeManage version is 18.0.0.13 David
  23. dealio
    Any information as to what features, changes or fixes we might anticipate in this "major new version"?
  24. dealio
    I noticed the same thing about the file format -- it's MS Access, and I can access it with Access and if needed manipulate data. But I have hesitated to do that because I don't know what the code base does with the data. I could guess, but that would be dangerous. Did you write an app that uses the Access format or abandon that for something else?
  25. dealio
    I see you still haven't gotten a response. That's too bad. Looks like the question is being ignored.
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