garlin007

I have encountered similar/additional problems with the reports. I have not done extensive testing of the reports, but only one of the reports I have tried hasn't failed in one way or another. I also have some suggestions for improving the usability of the reports. 1. This is not a bug, but rather a usability suggestion. I wanted to run a report for the items in a single room, like Druditsky, so I first selected the room in the location list and then went to the reporting menu and ran the Items Grouped by Category report. I expected to get only the items from the room I selected, but instead I got all items. Only later when I figured out how to run a report for a single location and compared it to the original report did I figure out that the title on the report with all the items clearly states "All Assets" in the title. The issue is that it's not obvious when you run the reports from the main menu that they will include all items. Item 5 has my preferred suggestion, but if you don't adopt it, perhaps the menu titles on the main menu should include "All Items" or "All Assets" in them. 2. Another usability suggestion. On the Print Options dialog, it was not obvious to me that the printer selection was in support of the "Direct to" option of "Printer", since its change button was always available to me, even when I selected something like Adobe PDF Format in Direct to. I think that the "Direct to" drop down should be first in the list, and that the printer selected and its change button should be dimmed when the Direct to is not directed to the Printer (or Pinwriter (TTY)?). This would make it more obvious that the printer selection is in support of the Direct to Printer selection. 3. On the positive side, kudos to HomeManage for the extensive range of export formats. I am still trying to figure out which one will work best for my own purposes, but with such a choice I am confident that at least one will do the job. 4. When I ran the Items Grouped by Category report, the report is indeed grouped by Category, but the items are sorted by Description so the categories are not listed alphabetically and the category names repeat many times, each with only one or a few items in it. I thought maybe the report used the sort order in use on the displayed list of assets, so I sorted the list by Category. This had no effect on the report order. 5. For Druditsky's benefit, you are able to run a report for a location or room by right clicking on the location or room and running the report from the context menu. I admit it's not the easiest to discover; and I would have preferred to see some basic filtering capability on the Print Options dialog that displays when you run the report from the main menu. If that were implemented, then running the report from a Location, Category or View could open the same dialog with that chosen Location, Category or View pre-selected. In this way I think it would be more obvious to the user how to select items to include on the report. 6. That being said, the option to run the Assets Grouped by Category (sic - not Items as it is in the main reporting menu) report does not work from the Location context menu. I tried three other reports and they all opened the Print Options dialog, but Assets Grouped by Category does nothing; not even generate an error. 7. On the positive side, by selecting "Run Report Using..." from the context menu I was able to run the AssetsByCategory.lst report and it worked as expected. 8. I then ran the report Items Grouped by Location/Category from the main menu, so it included all items. That report appears to be sorted by Location, then Category, then Room, then Asset#, and the subtotals are triggered by Room, even though the room isn't one of the fields in the report. This creates a lot of unexpected subtotals. At a minimum, the report definition should be fixed so items are sorted by Location, then Category, then Description and subtotals should be triggered by Location/Category. I have better suggestion in the next item, though. 9. I would suggest that the user should be able to choose the sort order on the Print Options dialog which opens the report, with restrictions on the first one or two sort orders depending on the categorization defined by the report. Using the report by Location by Category as an example, I would like to see: Sort Order Categorize Subtotal Location X X Category X X Description <choose a sort order> I.e., I have chosen to sort by Location/Category/Description and to categorize and subtotal by Location and Category. I have not used the option for a fourth sort order, but the system will always add (the unique) AssetNumber as the final sort order to improve the repeatability of the report. 10. I see that there is a reporting module which I haven't tried, yet, but from the documentation it appears that it has this kind of capability described in item 9. I don't know if the pre-defined reports use this module for their definition, but I think maybe not since the report from the menu doesn't work correctly, while the report using AssetsByCategory.lst does work correctly. Admin, can you enlighten me? Can the sorting/subtotaling problems be easily fixed by editing/replacing some of the .lst files?

I have checked "Disable desktop composition" on the compatibility tab of the program's properties and this has almost completely eliminated this bug. Whereas before I would have experienced the bug before creating a dozen items, I can now add 20 or more items without problems. I actually only encountered the problem once after adding about 70 items in about 4 sessions. The problem occurred after editing the properties of one of the manufacturers during which I opened several web pages and images in and outside the program. I had also just copied and pasted one of the existing images from tab 2 to tab 3 and cleared tab 2 in anticipation of a new image, something I probably did not do for any of the previous 70 items. I have not confirmed a repeatable sequence which makes the images fail.

When I add items with images I am usually continuing to add items using images from the same folder or a folder near to the one I previously used to add items. I would like the program to remember which location was last used to add images, like when you select Load Image from the Item Picture(s) dialog. Actually, I would be satisfied if both options remembered the same "last used" folder, since for me it is the same one.

Create a new room, then try to select in in anticipation of adding new items. If you click on the folder icon, nothing happens. If you click on the room name, instead of selecting the room the system tries to edit the room name. To select the room you need to first select another room and then the room you just added. Also, the new room is at the bottom of the list instead of in the list alphabetically. If you close the application and reopen it, it will sort alphabetically.

I am adding items using Add Items using Images and I like the first image to be the overall picture of the item, and sometimes I have additional pictures with details, such as with a signature on a painting. If it so happens that the detail picture is "before" the overall picture in alphabetical order; e.g. the signature is in IMG0001 and the overall photo is in IMG0002, then HomeManage makes IMG0001 image 1 for the asset and IMG0002 the second image, even if I select them in the opposite order before adding the new item. Regardless of how images come to be in the wrong order, I can see users wanting to be able to reorder them. One way I see to be able to change the order is to edit the Item, Clear both images, and import them one at a time in the order I want them. I think I might be able to use copy and paste to re-order the images, but it looks like it could be a lot of work if there are already several images and you want to insert one. I suggest that you allow the user to drag the tabs to reorder the images. Alternatively, add some arrows to the dialog to allow the user to shift the image tab left or right. Question: Can I just renumber the files in AssetImages to get the order I want? E.g., swap Asset74(1).jpg with Asset74(2).jpg? Do I need to swap the THUMB files, too, or can I just delete them and then HomeManage will regenerate them? Do I need to explicitly run Create Thumbnails for All Images?

Using Category as an example, if you start to enter a category like "L" the program shows the word Ladders with "adders" highlighted. You can't use the backspace key to erase the L to enter another letter. As you continue typing, as long as you match the spelling of an existing category, you can't erase any of the letters which match the category. Using the same example, if you move the cursor between "L" and "a" in Ladders and press Delete, the program deletes the "a" and moves the cursor to the end of the field, leaving you with "Ldders". The only way you can edit the field after you start typing is to highlight all the letters you want to replace and type over them. The other alternative is to drop down the list and make a choice, but my issue here is with trying to type into a field. The program does not follow the "standard" way which Windows allows you to edit fields. This problem affects other fields which are drop down fields.

I am inventorying the assets in House1. I have a second house, but haven't started to inventory it, yet. After inventorying the items in the Kitchen in House1, I decided to take a painting from the House1/Kitchen to House2. I have not decided where in House2 I will put it. Since I haven't inventoried anything in House2, yet, all I have in HomeManage is the Location House2 without any rooms. I moved the painting from House1/Kitchen to House2. I expected the asset to be stored at the House2 level (no Room). Instead, HomeManage created a Kitchen in House2 and moved the item into House2/Kitchen.

I noticed that Replacement Cost is in the 2014 version.

I have a similar situation and opted to use room names like: Dining Room Dining Room Curio Cabinet Dining Room China Cabinet Dining Room Sideboard I put the Curio Cabinet asset in the "room" with the cabinet's name, but I could see the justification for putting the cabinet itself in the Dining Room room (using my example). By the way, Admin, I can't se the posted image.

In addition to confirming this bug in a Windows 7 environment, there is the additional problem that if you change the quantity, then switch to another tab in the Item properties dialog, and then return to the General tab the quantity resets to 1.

I have been encountering a similar problem. Also using Windows 7. I am using "Add Items using Images" and can successfully add about a dozen items. Then, without any indication from the program that it is failing, items are being added without images. In some cases all items after a certain point don't have image. In other cases we might have one item with an image and then another item without an image, then one with an image, etc. I can see that the images are missing since the thumbnails are missing in the asset list. Once the program stops saving images it doesn't seem to recover; although I didn't test waiting a bit like DanB did. Once images aren't added via Add Items using Images I also can't add images by editing the item and dragging photos into it. In every case where the images stop getting added, shutting down the program and restarting it fixed the problem. I could then edit the existing items and add the images,and then continue adding new items which would have images. I can't be 100% sure of this, but I think that in some cases the images were being added and then "disappeared". I have started to watch the thumbnails as items are being added so I can restart the program when it stops adding images. I wouldn't see a missing image, and then I would have 3 or 4 missing images. I am wondering if I just forgot to look or if they were deleted after I entered new items. I am going to pay more attention to see if this happens again.