Creating a Label Template in Word  Top of page
Do you want more flexibility when printing labels? If you need to easily edit a name, address or simply change the font consider creating a mail merge label template in Word. Below is a quick tutorial on how to create a label template as a Mail Merge item on the Mail Merge Choices screen. Each version of Word is slightly different, so you may have to tweak the instructions below accordingly.
Within Exceed! go to Setup -->Application Set up --> Letters -->Mail Merge, click Add.
Word will open with a sample letter template. Do Ctrl + A and delete the sample info. Next, go to Tools -->Letters and Mailings -->Mail Merge.
The Mail Merge panel should open up on the right of the Word template. Go to Step 1. Select Labels as the Document Type.
Click Next to Step 2. Under Change Document Layout, choose the Label Options. Here you can choose from a variety of templates. The standard is 5160 Avery standard 3 Across, but you can choose which ever template best fits your need.
On the Word document, choose the Insert Merge Fields (it’s the icon to the left of Insert Word Field). Double-click to insert the appropriate merge fields, i.e. Name, Company, etc. If necessary edit the merge fields into proper address format.
Click Next to go to Step 4. Click the Update All Labels button under Replicate Labels. This will replicate the label format you created in step 2 but it will add the <<Next Record>> switch which will pull the next record in the extraction during the mail merge process.
At this point go to File and Save as and name your document. Now minimize the labels and click on the OK button in Exceed!. Your new label template is ready to use.
To access this template go to Tasks --> Mailings --> Letters and Labels --> Mail Merge and select your labels label template.
Year End Processing Top of page
The Year End Processing task does a couple things. First it allows you to define your current fiscal
year. Some organizations operate on a
July to June period while others use calendar or some other range. Whatever the case may be you can customize
this by going to Tasks/Year End Processing. It also calculates all gifts within the date range you defined and
updates the YTD Giving Totals field in the Totals table with that number. It also goes back and calculates giving
totals for Last Year, Two, Three and Four Years Ago. If Year-End Processing is grayed out that
means you have a window open within Exceed!. Close all windows and try again.
The Year-End Processing screen is simple. You enter your most current fiscal year date
range and click OK. You will rarely, if
ever, extract a group for this.
This task requires exclusive use of the database so if you
are in a multi user environment have any other users log out.
Once it is finished calculating the totals you will get a
success box, click OK.
So, what just happened? In short, Exceed! went through every donors’
record and calculated a total for all the gifts that came in during the date
range you defined in Year-End Processing, in this case is just used calendar
year 2009. It also calculated totals for
each year for the previous four years as well as the total lifetime giving
amount.
The best way to see the results of the Year-End Processing
task is to bring up a donors’ Gifts and Pledges screen
and click the Giving Summary tab. If you
look in the middle of the screen there is a Fiscal Year box. This shows your current fiscal year at the
top. You’ll also notice that it has
calculated total giving for last year, two years ago, three years ago and four
years ago (you can’t see the ‘four years ago’ line on the screenshot, but it’s
there).
Not only is this nice to see when you are on a donor’s
giving screen, but we have a number of reports that allow you to easily get
information based on these canned totals. For example, the Top Donor List Report allows you to find out who your
top donors are based on these canned totals created by Year-End
Processing. When you click the “Select
field to be used in report” drop box you’ll see a number of options to report
by. The meaning of
most of these totals are obvious. For example, “YTD Total Gifts” is the total amount of donations marked
as a Gift. “YTD Total Pledges” is the
total amount of Pledges. However, keep
in mind that by default “YTD Total” means the total of all Gifts, Dues and
Pledges, not Pledge Payments. So, YTD
Total w/Sales is the total of all Gifts, Dues, Pledges
and Sales. YTD Total w/o Sales is the
total of all Gifts, Dues and Pledges.
In our extractor you will see the option to include “Total
Received” or “Total Giving.” “Total
Received” is the sum of all Gifts, Dues and Pledge Payments, money that has actually
come in, minus Sales. “Total Giving” is
the sum of Gifts, Dues and Pledges, regardless of whether the pledge has been
paid off or has a remaining balance. Sales are also not included in this total.
Donor Listings (Size Category List): Top of page
When you need to get a list of donors based on individual
gifts or cumulative giving totals, the Size Category List is the place to go. Before you run this report you’ll need to
setup your Gift Size Table with the appropriate ranges. Go to Setup/Application Setup and choose Gift
Size Table. Customize your giving
ranges, making sure to order them from least to greatest. When finished close the Application Setup
window.
From the Tasks menu choose Mailings/Export Files/Size
Category List. I recommend clicking the
Include No Mails box so you pick up those people who don’t want to get
mailings, but would like to see their name in your newsletter. You’ll also want to choose Excel as your Mail
Merge Output.
When you click OK to run the report it will ask you which
total you want to use for the report. If
you updated your Year-End Processing dates to calendar 2009 and you want to get
your list based on calendar 2008 numbers you’ll want to choose Last Year as
your total.
Here is an example of what your Excel file will look like.
Help Fix Top of page
Background: Microsoft
released a security patch that disables HTML Help files from running. Our help file is compiled in this format and
is affected by the security patch. Below
is more information about the security patch and below that are the steps to
fix the issue.
Microsoft Security Bulletin MS05-026
Vulnerability in HTML Help Could
Allow Remote Code Execution (896358)
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/MS05-026.mspx
To fix the Help navigation issue open the Exceed or Exbasic
program folder, not the program itself. Inside the folder you’ll see a
Help Fix Folder, open it.
Inside you will find a file called KB896358_FIX.reg.
Double click it.
It will ask if you want to add the info to the registry,
click Yes.
It should register the info successfully. Click OK
then open the Exceed program and click the Help icon. You should be able
to navigate. If you are still unable to navigate then go back to the
Exceed\Help Fix or Exbasic\Help Fix folder and open the Help Reg Program
folder.
Inside you’ll see a file
called HHReg.exe, double click it.
The HHReg program will open. Click the Add File
button.
Navigate to your Exceed or Exbasic folder and highlight the
Exceed.chm or Exceedbasic.chm and click Open.
Once the Exceed.chm or ExceedBasic.chm is in the list of
registered files you can click the X to get out of the HHReg program.
Open the Exceed or Exceed Basic program and you should be able to launch the
help file and navigate with no problems.
Email issues: Top of page
If you have ever used or plan to use the Email merge feature
which allows you to send an email to a group of donors you’ll want to make sure
you are in version 6.5. Previous
versions of Exceed! didn’t have an email
validator. This validator doesn’t check
to make sure the email address is still active, but that the address is in the
correct format. Many mass emails have
been halted midway because of an email address that was entered
incorrectly. Examples include using a
comma instead of a period (sean@telosa,com) or using
the domain suffix “con” instead of “com.”
To validate your email addresses go to the Utilities menu
and choose Check E-Mail Addresses.
If it finds invalid email addresses it will display them in
a window. From there you can either mark
them for deletion or correct them and save the changes.
Version 6.5 also does on the fly validation when adding a
new email address on the Master Biographical/Phones tab. Please note that only email addresses that
have been marked with the Phone Type of Email (Home) or Email (Office) will be
checked.
Once your email addresses are in order you can use Exceed! to send your mass email by going to Tasks/Mailings/Letters
and Labels/E-mail Merge or E-Mail Word Merge.
Many ISPs cap the number of emails a user can send per day or
per blast, so you may want to check with your ISP to find out if or what the
limit is. If there is a limit to the
number of emails you can send then you can utilize our VerticalResponse export
feature and sign up for a free VerticalResponse account. In short, this service allows you to send as
many emails as you want. All the email
goes through them, not your ISP. All
nonprofits can send 10,000 emails per month for free. For more information on VerticalResponse
visit our partner page: http://www.telosa.com/vr
Data Integrity Top of page
Backup/Reindex/Repeat. The 2nd worst thing that can
happen to a database is data corruption. The worst thing for your data is inconsistent data entry, but that’s
another article. Data corruption usually
happens when there is loss of power to the computer while editing a record or
by a virus running around your local machine or network. So, make sure you have a good anti-virus
program and a UPS (uninterruptable power supply) to prevent any data loss. You can also compromise your data if you
close the program while in the middle of running an upgrade or reindexing your
files. I also recommend backing up your
data before doing any sort of global tasks, like global code replacement,
archiving lapsed donors or purging your data of old prospects. If you do find yourself with data corruption
you have two choices. You can restore
from a backup or you can send us your data and for a fee a programmer will look
at it and give you a quote to fix the data. If you have an
automated backup happening on your server that’s great. Just make sure that in the event of data
corruption you know how to restore the data. We do not support 3rd party backup/restore applications. However, we do support our own backup/restore
feature which you can find by going to File/Backup and Restore.
The utility is simple. You can tell Exceed to remind you to backup when you exit the program
every X number of days and I recommend clicking “Include Month/Day in Backup
file name.” Click the Select button and
choose a directory in which to store your backups. If you want to password protect the .zip file
it creates you can do so, but it’s not mandatory. Once you’ve done all that click Backup Now and Exceed will create a .zip file in the destination
directory with today’s date on it.
In the event that you need to restore your data you’ll need
to run the BackupRestore.exe located in your Exceed program folder. The thinking is that if your database is
corrupt you won’t be able to log into the program to access the Backup and
Restore feature from the File menu.
Double click the BackupRestore.exe and log in with your
initials and password. Go to the Restore
tab and select the .zip file you want to restore and click Restore Now. This process renames your current Data
folder, restores the zip file into a new Data folder and then deletes the
corrupt data folder.
Office 2010: Trusted Locations Top of page
Yes, Microsoft has done it again. More security means more work for you. If you have tried doing a mail merge from Exceed! into Word you probably aren't having much luck. That's because Office 2010 comes with a new feature, Trusted Locations. Long story short, if you want to do a mail merge into Word you will need to add the Exceed directory and your C:\Temp folder to the list of Trusted Locations. For more information on how to do this take a look at the following article from Microsoft.
Knowledgebase Article 1
Knowledgebase Article 2 |
