Subscribe via email - FeedBurner

So I thought that setting yourself up as a follower of a blog automatically would send an email to that follower when something new was posted. Wrong - it does send an email to the follower if someone comments on a post but not when the post is first pushed out - so in order for our posts to get noticed by our followers, we'd have to post the post and then comment on it ;-) Seems a bit awkward - figured there had to be a better way. There is - FeedBurner.

If you'd like to be notified when we post a new post, put in your email address and click the 'Subscribe' link in the box to the right. You'll get a pop up with some info and eventually an email to verify that you are who you are (are you?) and then when we post something new, you'll get an email so you can read it without having to check back to us every day or RSS it if you aren't into that sort of thing. Hope that helps!

Better Ways of Communicating

In this day of spam, sending out emails to a large group of people (i.e. our user base) has become increasing difficult and time consuming. With so many users in our list, sending out an individual email to everyone is impossible as is sending the same email to all our registered users at once. Our first try when the 2009 release was posted gave us numerous email addresses that bounced back even though we knew they were valid. We even got blacklisted (sorry to Amiee McCaffrey who runs WMIT Studio A Design as we got her server mixed up in it!). Amiee recommended using phpList which allows us to build our database of users and send the same message to everyone properly - it does it in the background, one at a time. We are in the process of subscribing all our registered users from the past few years to our phplist so all our messages will get to you correctly and in a more timely manner ;-)

Brother printer issues fixed with an updated driver from Brother

For those of you who had printing issues with Brother printers (preview looked fine on the screen but then either printed only one page of a multi-page report or printed blank pages), some research on our part showed that the software Brother uses for their printers (versus other companies) is not compatible with all programs - but apparently they fixed the problem on their end and have posted new printer drivers.

A user who tested it for us said that she downloaded an updated driver from their website and everything worked correctly. Here's a link to their website where you can select your particular printer and download what you need.

Thanks to Rick for his original post on one of the many news groups I reached out to regarding the issue as he had a client who also had the problem - and thanks to Cheryl for being our tester since we don't have any actual Brother printers here in our office!

v7.64 Now Available for Downloading

As previously blogged, a few issues were reported from v7.63 that needed cleaning up. We've also added several other things that didn't make it into the first release for 2009. One new Vista issue came up since the list we posted in the last blog and has been addressed. Everything has been posted to the website for downloading. Remember that you should have a current license that expires in 2009 - if you haven't yet updated, you'll receive an message that you aren't licensed for this version so be pro-active and get yourself a new Maintenance Contract.

You'll also see the addition of the field Slot Owner on the Horse screen and the ability to have it included on the Announcer's Report - this was something specified to us from a particular user - it's noted here for two reasons; the first is that it's something new and we wanted to make sure that you realized it was supposed to be there ;-) and the second is to remind you of the changes we regularly make to the software to make it better for our users - many of the additions that we do come from requests and we do our best to include those that we can. If it's something that no one else will use but you really would like to see it, we'll quote you a price of the time it would take us to get it added and leave it up to you to decide if you are willing/able to do it. If it's something that would benefit the majority of our users, we'll add it to our 'to-do' list and see about getting it in to future releases. If it's something we really can't do; either because of time constraints or because it can't be done within the constraints of our programming, we'll let you know - we're not shy about that!

Anyway, here's the update - we're taking a much needed break from programming to work on other projects that have been left to the wayside while we cleaned this up but, as usual, we're always around for tech support. Happy Showing!

Fixes

• Reports - Announcer/Draw Report - owner information on the first horse of the report was missing
• Awards - Circuit/Hi Points - if there is an owner missing from a horse, a syntax error occurred (you can verify you have owners for all horses by running a Back Number List report)
• Classes - several of the new ABRA class names had the incorrect sex of the horse listed
• Vista issue - Utilities - Association Disk Creation - some configurations of Vista don't allow creation of files to the root directory so an adjustment was made to select a drive as well as a directory to save the file
  

Additions

• Paso Fino Module - classes included with error checking (allowing adjustment on age as of Sept 1 instead of Jan 1) and association disk creation
• Classes - AQHA Select classes will do and age check on the starting date of the show instead of January 1st
• Financial - NRHA Tally Report implemented
  
• Reports - Labels for Photographer - exports to CSV file which can then be opened in Excel
• Reports - People by Name - exports to CSV file which can then be opened in Excel
• Shows - Show Information - allow the editing of the alphanumeric show ID for printing on reports
• Payback/Checks - Pre-check report - if separate page for each payee is selected, the total of all the checks pushes to a separate page as well
• Horse/Announcer's Report - addition of Slot Owner to each horse and ability to include it on the Announcer's Report under each horse
  

Next release coming soon

There are a few small glitches from v7.63 that are being cleaned up and a new version will be released shortly with those fixes along with a few other things that didn't make it into the first one. Here's the list of what will be in v7.64 when it's posted.

Fixes

• Reports - Announcer/Draw Report - owner information on the first horse of the report was missing
• Awards - Circuit/Hi Points - if there is an owner missing from a horse, a syntax error occurred (you can verify you have owners for all horses by running a Back Number List report)
• Classes - several of the new ABRA class names had the incorrect sex of the horse listed

Additions

• Paso Fino Module - classes included with error checking (allowing adjustment on age as of Sept 1 instead of Jan 1) and association disk creation
• Classes - AQHA Select classes will do and age check on the starting date of the show instead of January 1st
• Financial - NRHA Tally Report implemented
  
• Reports - Labels for Photographer - exports to CSV file which can then be opened in Excel
• Reports - People by Name - exports to CSV file which can then be opened in Excel
• Shows - Show Information - allow the editing of the alphanumeric show ID for printing on reports
• Payback/Checks - Pre-check report - if separate page for each payee is selected, the total of all the checks pushes to a separate page as well
  

v7.63 Now Available

Sorry for the delay - between computer issues and illness, this update took longer to get posted than originally expected. Unfortunately, I think that's par for the course on computer stuff - nothing ever takes the time you think it will ;-)

Anyway, version 7.63 of the software is now available for downloading if you are a current license holder (service date after 12/1/2009). You can view the added items and download it from our HSW Update page on our website.

If you still need to update, see the blog entry below for information on doing so. Those who have purchased the mailed version, manuals are currently being printed and CD's burned - they will be mailed later this week.

I am heading away from my development computer for a few days on a much needed break with my family. As usual, I will still have access to voice and email so if you need to get a hold of me, you know how!

Who's Thinking About Horse Shows?

Well, as I sit down to write another blog entry, I'm finding myself mesmerized by the falling snow outside my window. Those of you in southern states/countries likely haven't enjoyed this in a while (if ever ;-) but it's beautiful and I have stared at it for too long already.

So...back to work...here in the office, we are going through old emails and notes to prioritize our to-do list for the first release of HSW in 2009. We've got notes out to the national associations in the hopes that they will pass on any rule changes that might affect our show managers (if you know of any, feel free to post away). We are gathering information to add a few new breed modules to our list.

We expect our first release to be sometime in the next 3-5 weeks. Be ready for it by purchasing your Maintenance Contract now...with a credit card through our website at www.funnware.com or by sending a check to where it's currently snowing:
FunnWare Development
3292 Atlin Ave
Dublin, OH 43017

Cost is $150 to download all updates from our website or $200 to have us mail you them on CD's. Both options include $200 credit toward technical support for 2009.

Holiday Break

With kids off from school and many other businesses shut down, we have decided to also take a break from programming until the new year ;-) I have the phone so if you have tech support questions while at a show these next two weeks, feel free to give a call but know that we aren't officially in the office until January 5th.

Look for our 2009 update to be released in late January/early February with some additional reports, new features, and updates to judge's sheets and rules per association changes.

We hope that everyone has an enjoyable holiday season.

HSW and Vista

Okay, so you need to buy a new computer but no one will sell you one with XP on it. Will Horse Show for Windows work on Vista? Good question.

We've had mixed results with usage of HSW on Vista. We purchased a new machine with Vista for testing (although currently it's in the shop for other issues ;-) and we've listed what we have found so far. Not every user has experienced each of these (which makes it all the more frustrating to find solutions). If you have had other difficulties using HSW on Vista, feel free to comment to this post.

Problem - Installation - depending on the processor in your new Vista machine (and potentially some older machines but less likely), you may get an error when trying to install HSW. As it turns out, the program itself has no problems running on the higher bit processors but the installation program to load it isn't compatible with the higher bit processors.
Solution - we are working on getting either an upgrade to the installation program we have been using for 10 years or a different one; either way, it will be compatible and installation should again run smoothly. If you need something immediately, let us know and we can send you an installation that was generated on a demo that will work but we can't distribute at this point.

Problem - Adding more than one show to the database - this one is a stumper...the database has multiple tables in it...all but the show table are updating correctly. Microsoft says there is no problem. We have upgraded to the newest version of Access to no avail but expect to do more research on this issue with the Access group since the Vista group has been no help.
Solution - you can send us your database with the information on your additional shows and we will add them in ourselves and send back the database to you for continued use. If you have Microsoft Access, we can walk you through the process on your own. Ironically, once you have more than one show in the database through another source, there seems to be no problem adding more in through the program. We will continue to work on this issue until it is resolved to the point of adding all shows through the program.

Problem - connecting horses/people already in the database to new records from the drop down boxes - this is a new one just recently discovered and not yet confirmed that it's a Vista issue as we had seen this in older versions of Windows98 also. Update - looks like this issue is only with the sire and dam information so if you are not tracking those you should be okay...we are continuing our work on this issue.
Solution - at this point, the only thing to do is to add those horses/people to the database multiple times. Once we can duplicate the error and verify the problem, we'll come up with a better solution to keep things rolling properly.

Happy Thanksgiving!

In this season of thankfulness, I am thankful for many things...one of them is all the awesome show managers and secretaries that use Horse Show for Windows!

To those of you in the states...have a blessed Thanksgiving.

Coming to the end of one season and the beginning of the next

As fall comes to a close and the weather here in Ohio gets colder, our phone rings less and less. Horse shows across the country and around the world are winding down. Not that there aren't shows being held (I know several that will take place over this coming Thanksgiving weekend...hopefully you won't need my help through them ;-), but that there are fewer shows overall being held any given weekend this time of year. Those of you in the warmer climes are still plenty busy while those of us up north are gearing down for the winter.

Here in the office, it means the time of year where we work to put together our first release for the next show season; contacting the breed associations to see what rules changes they have up their sleeves, going through the wish list we've compiled from users, and updating our development environment with the most current tools.

This year we hope to develop some 'how to' video clips to post online to help answer the most often asked questions we get in the office regarding show set up. Our plan is to walk you through different types of shows and how we would set them up. We are putting together some tools to help us do this smoothly and once we get that completed we'll start working on the clips and post them as they are finished. If there are particular set up issues that you find difficult or confusing, please let us know so that we can generate a clip for it. As usual, our purpose is the make the lives of our show managers a bit easier!

Welcome to our new blog

In the new world of blogging and keeping people connected via the internet, we decided to start a blog for horse show management information specifically geared for the Horse Show for Windows user. We hope to use this blog as a way to offer tips and tricks in the usage of HSW. Feel free to send your comments our way...our software has grown over the years (see we've come a long way baby! post) largely due to information and requests from you.

And not to leave anyone out, certainly feel free to push out our blog (as well as our products ;-) to other show managers that might not be using HSW but might get some useful information from fellow managers on how to run a better horse show.

We've come a long way, baby!

I started working in the horse show industry almost 15 years ago. It's a little know fact that other than riding in camp when I was growing up, I've never actually shown a horse so I came in to this field fairly blind. I have learned so much about this business over these years; both from the co-workers I've programmed with and the users I program for.

The original version of this software was written as a DOS program for the Ohio Quarter Horse Association as their All American Quarter Horse Congress got bigger and bigger year after year. This was all before my time; Tony Lewis got it all started through his first company that I can't even remember the name of (it will come to me in the middle of the night...anyone else remember?...not CyberTech...before then even). When I first began working with Tony in 1994, he had 'remade' the Congress software to accommodate OQHA's weekend show managers. Word of the software to run horse shows easily spread from Ohio managers to surrounding states and Tony started selling his Horse Show System to managers across the country.

Over the years that I have been working with this program, a lot of changes have taken place. We've grown from usability for AQHA shows to encompass basically any breed or open show. We've moved from selling largely in Ohio to hundreds of users across the country and around the world. The development platform has changed several times along the way as we moved from DOS to Windows. We've been through several versions of Microsoft's Windows that has made the usage and technical support of our products a challenge (don't get me started on the issues we are still trying to work through with Vista).

Each of these changes has improved the software. I'm working through some new things now that will continue to allow the program to grow and help you run your shows more efficiently. As noted in a previous post, keep the comments coming...the software gets better because of them. I won't promise to incorporate every new idea but many items that we might not be able to add in lead us to others that are similar or just as important.