The changes in this release are much more than just skin deep. There are many new additions and improvements. However, there have been changes to the file structure so users of earlier versions will not be able to just use their existing data "as is". Registered users of earlier versions who would like some assistance in converting their old data files can contact me at dennis@dbandsons.com
This is version 7.0 of Church Secretary for Windows 32 and I hope you will this program to be a possible software solution for church membership management. The first release of Church Secretary for Windows was developed before Microsoft Windows 95 was available. That program was a 16-bit application. It would run on Windows 3.1 or higher. Sometime after Microsoft released Windows 95 I developed the next version which was 32 bit only (would not run on Windows 3.x) so the program was then referred to as Church Secretary for Windows 32. Over the years I have made a number of version upgrades, hopefully, each better in some way that the prior release. I have worked hard to make version 7.0 the best version to date.
CSW 32 7.0 was developed to be an inexpensive, easy to use program for recording, updating and reporting on various church management tables. The main files are Family Information, Individual Member Information, Member Attendance, and Tithes (giving, contributions, however your church describes the monetary donations made my members). Other tables in the program are used to speed data entry providing the source for drop down list boxes. An example of a lookup table is Marital Status. Rather than type the words: married, single, divorced, or widowed each time you add a member record these values can be stored in a table which is used when entering a new value. When you first start using the program, you may want to start by editing the look up tables. If you have already set up these values, it will save you some time, however, in most cases if you type a new value into a drop down list box, you will be able to add this new value to the lookup table at that time, then be returned to the main file you were editing.
New in version 7.0 is integrated Backup and Restore. Earlier versions did not include this capability and users were expected to manually backup their data files.
Version 7.0 also offers improving importing capability. In prior versions you may have been limited to importing data from CSV (comma separated values) formatted files. Now you will be able to import data from Microsoft Excel and Access files, as well as .dbf files and other file formats.
The Query Wizard and Report Wizards are also improved in this version. When simple list style reports are not adequate a more powerful Report Builder is now included to let you create more sophisticated reports, including mail merge type fields, and to print family and member photo images. When previewing reports you now have the ability to save the report as a PDF file.
This will let you email reports or upload reports to your web site. To view PDF reports you and your members will need to have the free Adobe PDF reader software installed. This can be downloaded from Adobe's web site.
In addition to the standard drop down menu, this version adds a new explorer bar to offer an alternative method of navigating the different parts of the program.
When you have a browse screen open, the arrow keys shown above let you move backwards and forwards through the records in the file. The button with the + sign will bring up an update form so you can add a new record. The button with the pencil on it is used to Edit the record currently selected in a browse screen, while the X button will delete the selected record. The ? button will call up the online help system. The next 4 buttons are to quickly access the main files. The first will let you browse Family information, the next is for individual member records, followed by member tithes and then member attendance. A backup manager button is also new in this version, and if you have enabled it a light bulb icon to indicate if data has changed since the last backup was made.