=================================== Ministry Assistant Last Minute News and Information Version 1.51 =================================== --------------------------------------------------------------------- Contents --------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. What is Ministry Assistant? 2. Installing Ministry Assistant 3. Upgrading from Previous Versions 4. What's New In This Version 5. Purchasing Ministry Assistant 6. Distributing Ministry Assistant 7. Technical Support --------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. What is Ministry Assistant? --------------------------------------------------------------------- Ministry Assistant offers many of the features you would expect from church management software, such as tracking membership, visitors, activities, equipping, pastoral care, meetings, library items, and contributions. In addition, the program also helps you keep track of all that is happening in your small group structure. --------------------------------------------------------------------- 2. Installing Ministry Assistant --------------------------------------------------------------------- To install Ministry Assistant, simply insert the Ministry Assistant CD into your CD-ROM drive. If the installation does not start automatically after a few seconds, select Run from the Start menu, then type d:\setup.exe and click OK (if your CD-ROM drive is not drive d: then replace it with the appropriate drive letter). If you downloaded the evaluation version, simply run the file that you downloaded to install the program. The installation program will prompt you for several pieces of information. If you unsure of what the program is asking for, simply accept the default setting. ** Note: If you are running Windows Vista, Windows XP or Windows 2000, Ministry Assistant requires administrative privileges to install. --------------------------------------------------------------------- 3. Upgrading from Previous Versions --------------------------------------------------------------------- Version 1.xx can be safely installed over version 1.00 or higher. There is no need to uninstall the previous version. --------------------------------------------------------------------- 4. What's New in This Version --------------------------------------------------------------------- Version 1.51 (October 6, 2007) --------------------------------------- ** Fixed: unable to check Households in the temporary table when importing data from another application. ** Fixed: dates and times did not print correctly when printing from a Browse window. ** Fixed: copied records in Pastoral Care Manager have the follow-up date set to '1899-12-30'. Version 1.50 (July 28, 2007) --------------------------------------- Changes: ** New Household Photo Directory. ** The ability to specify a 'Media Folder' for pictures added to People Manager. ** Windows Vista compatibility. ** User security is now applied to the dataset instead of the program. ** A navigator bar has been added to the main window for easier navigation. ** Updates to user interface 'look and feel'. ** Added the ability to check for new versions over the Internet. ** Mail servers that require an SSL connection (e.g. GMail) can now be used to send e-mail. ** New filter tool (any saved filters must be recreated). ** Record filtering can now be done from the manager browse windows. ** 'Load All Records' is now enabled by default in manager browse windows. Version 1.43 (January 21, 2006) --------------------------------------- Bugs fixed: ** Exceptions sometimes occurred when closing the program. ** In Meeting Manager, it was possible to move the splitter bar up high enough that the 'Visitors to this Meeting' list disappeared. ** An error occurred when trying to print from any Browse window. ** Other minor enhancements and bugs fixes. Version 1.42 (March 5, 2005) --------------------------------------- Bugs fixed: ** Attempting to send e-mail from within the program did not work. ** Attempting to print a Visitor's Report caused an error message to be displayed. Version 1.41 (February 5, 2005) --------------------------------------- Changes made: ** Added ability to remove duplicate contributions (select File->Remove Duplicate Contributions from the main menu). Bugs fixed: ** Running the Contributions Report caused duplicate contributions to be created. Version 1.40 (January 28, 2005) --------------------------------------- Changes made: ** Posted Contributions are now fully editable. ** The option to email report after printing has been moved to the same dialog where the Print Destination (Printer/Preview/File) is selected. ** Minor improvements to printing to file. Bugs fixed: * Small Group List - unable to set sort order to meeting day. * Small Group List - sort order did not initialize correctly. * Small Group Leader Form - unable to select an individual small group. * Contribution Report - did not print multiple pages if necessary. * Contribution Report - contributions were not always in chronological order. * Contribution Report - contributions not assigned a fund did not appear in summary totals at bottom of report. Version 1.31 (December 18, 2004) --------------------------------------- Bugs fixed: * Contributions Report - debug message box is displayed. Version 1.30 (October 23, 2004) --------------------------------------- Changes made: ** Added ability to enter contributions by name instead of envelope #. ** People Manager - status codes are now sorted alphabetically in drop-down list. ** Filters - "contains" has been added as an operator. Bugs fixed: * People Report - saving reports sometimes caused program settings to be lost. * Small Group Meeting Report - members were not sorted in alphabetical order. * Small Group Meeting Report - unable to select a single group to print. Version 1.21 (May 17, 2004) --------------------------------------- Changes made: ** PDF 'Font Encoding' and 'Background Display Type' settings are now being saved in INI file. Bugs fixed: * Error message regarding missing MADATA.INI file when attempting to open a dataset created by selecting 'Save As' from the menu. Version 1.20 (February 9, 2004) --------------------------------------- The following items have been added or changed since version 1.12: Changes made: ** Program will now run correctly under limited user privileges. ** Notes, User Date 3, and User Date 4 have been added to the available field when doing an import. Bugs fixed: * Small Group Manager - error message when adding or changing group members. Version 1.12 (January 21, 2004) --------------------------------------- The following items have been added or changed since version 1.11: Changes made: ** Added Diagnostics selection to Help menu to aid in solving technical support issues. Bugs fixed: * Error message when trying to open Posted Contributions Manager. Version 1.11 (January 9, 2004) --------------------------------------- The following items have been added or changed since version 1.10: Changes made: ** Backup file names now include both the date and time, allowing multiple backups per day without overwriting file. Bugs fixed: * Importing a CSV file failed with an error message. * People Manager - Small Group Name not displayed in group or attendance list. * People Manager - Activity name not displayed in activity list. * People Manager - Date not displayed in equipping session attendance list. Version 1.10 (December 12, 2003) --------------------------------------- The following items have been added or changed since version 1.02: Changes made: ** Program settings that were previously shared over the network are now stored on each workstation. ** Added option to backup program settings in addition to data files. ** User must now be 'Administrator' to access Pastoral Care Manager. ** Improved output when exporting reports to Excel file. ** People Manager - added ability to merge together two People records. ** Sorting the People lists in Meeting Manager and Activity Manager is now case insensitive. ** Activity Manager - now displays the number of persons in each activity. ** People Reports - added ability to enter SQL instead of using filters. ** New filter tool. ** New splash screen and toolbar bitmaps. Bugs fixed: * Several problems related to the export to Outlook. * Meeting Manager - in the All Visitors/People list, the e-mail address did not display. * Date Report - birthdays or anniversaries on the first or last day of the selected range did not get included. * E-mail - unable to delete attachments. * Previously generated reports were sometimes printed when printing from preview *after* printing to file. * When a user with 'Administrator' checked was logged in, they still had access to the Program Users setup and the Contributions Manager. Version 1.02 --------------------------------------- Version 1.02 is a maintenance update. The following items have been added or changed since version 1.01: Changes made: ** General - manager windows open slightly faster. ** Window Menu - removed 'Tile' and 'Arrange All' items, added 'Minimize All' item. Bugs fixed: * People Manager - error message when attempting to assign a new activity. * Library Manager - error message on Find when sort order is by Category. * Small Group Manager - error message on Find when sort order is by Meeting Day. * Edit (E-mail) Recipients - not always able to select an Activity group. Version 1.01 --------------------------------------- Version 1.01 is a maintenance update. The following items have been added or changed since version 1.00: Changes made: ** Mail Merge - default extension for mail merge file is now TXT. ** The dialogs used for selecting a folder have been changed. Bugs fixed: * Contributions Report - report sometimes contained duplicate entries. * E-mail - Drop-down lists for People and Activities in the Edit Recipients window were empty if the dataset was not stored in the program folder. * E-mail - authentication settings were not saved to INI. * People Manager - trying to add a new activity failed with an error message. * People Manager - when viewing the Photo page, changing the current record did not update the Household photo. * Meeting Manager - visitor notes were truncated in ‘Visitors to this Meeting’ list. * Small Group Manager - extraneous page title appeared at the top of the Leader Weekly Report form. * Pastoral Care Manager - note field appeared small if window had never been resized. --------------------------------------------------------------------- 5. Purchasing Ministry Assistant --------------------------------------------------------------------- If you are using the evaluation version of Ministry Assistant, the program is fully functional for 30 days, with the addition of a reminder screen upon startup. After 30 days, all printing is disabled. The cost of purchasing Ministry Assistant via Electronic Software Distribution (ESD) is $99 USD. Upon purchase, you will be sent a license key. When this key is entered into the evaluation version of the program, all features are enabled, there is no time limit, and the reminder screen is no longer displayed on program startup. Ministry Assistant is also available for purchase on CD-ROM for $119 USD (plus shipping). The program contained on the CD-ROM is the same as the licensed download version. To purchase the software, select Help->Purchase Ministry Assistant from the main menu of the program, or visit our web site at http://www.churchassist.com --------------------------------------------------------------------- 6. Distributing Ministry Assistant --------------------------------------------------------------------- Please see the file VENDOR.TXT for information on distributing the evaluation version of Ministry Assistant. --------------------------------------------------------------------- 7. Technical Support --------------------------------------------------------------------- There are several ways to obtain support for Ministry Assistant: ** Frequently Asked Questions ** A FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) for Ministry Assistant is maintained at http://www.churchassist.com/mafaq.htm. Please check this location before pursuing other methods of support. ** Help Desk ** The Help Desk system can be accessed at http://www.churchassist.com/helpdesk This is the primary and preferred means of support. While we try to answer all questions in a timely manner (within 24 hours), registered owners of the program will be given top priority. Please provide the following information when requesting support: the operating system you are using, the program version (select Help->About from the main menu), and as much detail as you can about the problem you are experiencing. ** Mailing Lists ** The Ministry Assistant mailing list is for announcements and news regarding Ministry Assistant and other products from ChurchAssist Technologies. To join the mailing list, send a blank e-mail to announce-subscribe@churchassist.com. There is a also a peer-to-peer mailing list for general discussion on using Ministry Assistant. To join this mailing list, send a blank e-mail to ministryassistant-subscribe@yahoogroups.com. Please do not use this mailing list for technical support issues. ** Lost Registration Codes ** If you have purchased the program via ESD, and you have lost your registration code, please visit http://www.churchassist.com/support.html. You will need to supply the e-mail address you used when you purchased the program. ** Feature Requests ** We are very interested in how we can make the program more useful for you! Feature requests should be submitted using the form found at http://www.churchassist.com/marequests.html