Procedures

Contents

Data Flows in MyManagers

General

Opening MyManagersAdmin

Directory Set Up

Importing Orders

Manually Entering Orders

Creating Documentation

Checking Progress

Updating Pricelists

Producing a New List for the Internet

Producing New Photographs for the Internet

Data Flows in MyManagers

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General

                The current version of ‘MyManagers’ will only work on Excel 2000. We’re working on the 2007 version but Microsoft made significant changes and it is taking some effort!

Try to use the grey buttons at all times when manoeuvring through the admin system .

Using the top menu or the sheet tabs can miss out vital steps in the processes.

                Try and type in only the white cells with black borders.

Do check the data coming in the email order system and edit it directly or using ‘Massage’.

Omissions can be a problem best addressed early. Remember – ‘Rubbish in – Rubbish out’.

Also do audit the email records to see if they tie in with what you are doing here.

Don't try to solve the problems on your own. We can help. 

If all else fails there is always the backup. Files are backed up when you open MyManagersAdmin so if you go awry shut down and copy the backup files to MyManagersSupport overwriting the existing files.  This might be a bit bumpy.

If you would like to change anything please call – the consequences of any change need impact analysis and testing.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  

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Installing MyManagers

Create a folder called ‘MyManagers’ and install the uncompressed files in that folder.

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Opening MyManagers Admin

Transfer the shortcut to MyManagersAdmin to the desktop and click on this shortcut or find the file MyMnagersAdmin on your computer. The associated files are opened and backed up by opening MyManagersAdmin and save and closed by pressing any of the ‘Save and Exit’ buttons in the workbook

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Directory Set Up

The directory set up can be approached in two ways.

1. Set up the directories as the following layout.

Backups will contain the backup of MyManagersAdmin.xls, MyManagersRecords.xls and MyManagersMacros.xls. These are created and updated when MyManagers Admin is opened.

AcceptedOrders contains all files held in the MyManagersRecords

OutlookOrders contains text file copies of orders received in MSOutlook (see ‘Importing Orders’)

MyManagersProcedures_files contains files used in this document

RejectedOrders contains all email orders which you have rejected.

MyManagersAdmin is the backbone file of the admin system

MyManagersAdmin – Shortcut is a file you place on the desktop to speed up access to the admin system.

MyManagersRecords contains all the records entered into the admin system. These are separate to allow updates of the other two xls files used in the MyManagers Admin System

MyManagersMacros contains all the Visual Basic Macros used to drive MyManagersAdmin. These are separate to facilitate updates.

2. Choose a new set up. This will require amendment of the names in the System Admin window of MyManagersAdmin.

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Importing Orders

Orders arrive from the hosting server as an e-mail message.

In Windows Live Mail: 

These are automatically diverted to the Junk Mail folder in within Windows Live Mail (or equivalent). Set up a new folder for these orders and set up a rule to force these messages to your chosen file. This file name needs to be entered in the ‘System Admin’ page

Note that this is a unique folder name for each computer and so to avoid errors the file name will need to be amended for your computer in ‘System Admin’.

The Mail software should be closed to prevent conflict.

In Outlook Express:

Things are a little more complex. This is because this older version stores email messages in a database rather than as separate files.

Firstly, as a one off operation, create a folder in ‘C \MyManagers’ called ‘OutlookOrders’ or if some other folder is used change the folder name in ‘MyManagersAdmin’,‘System Admin’.

Open Notepad

In ‘Outlook Express’ open the message and click 'Edit', 'Select All' , right click in the selected area and select 'Copy' from the short menu table. 

Paste the clipboard contents into notepad and save the file as ‘yyyymmddnn.txt’ where ‘yyyy’ is the year, ‘mm’ is the month , ‘dd’ is the day and ‘nn’ is the number of the order received that day. 

To import an order to ‘MyManagersAdmin’ –

Open ‘MyManagersAdmin.xls’ and from the 'Menu' in this workbook click the 'Enter Email Order' button.

                In this window, first click the button 'Get Email Files'. This fills in the drop down list so you can select which order to enter next or to ensure that order entry is up to date.

When this is done view the Email orders and select one. Hit the 'Import File’ button and wait for the order to appear on the left. The boxes in the lower middle of the window give some indication of the state of the order. If you can’t make the order sensible by using the ‘Massage’ facility, directly editing the data and/or contacting the sender move the file to the rejected directory by hitting the ‘Reject File’ button.

When the order has been manipulated or if the order comes in complete hit the ‘Create Record’ button and wait for the message. Other buttons and an audit table allow some idea of the traffic being handled so don’t delete any messages. When all orders are complete you can go to the 'Menu' or 'Save and 'Exit' by hitting the appropriate button.

The most obvious thing to do is to process each order as it appears in the drop down box and not select individual orders but it’s up to you. Remember, if a further order is to be imported you must click on the 'Get Email Files' button again to refresh the drop down list. The order last entered should disappear from the list. When there are no orders in the list you should be up to date.

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Manually Entering Orders

                From the 'Menu' window, hit the 'Input Manual Order' button and directly enter the information as required in the white cells.

When the information is input hit the 'Create Record' button.

When the message box appears and you have clicked OK your order record is complete.

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Creating Documentation

                Creating a work note, a dispatch note or an invoice all use the same window with different parts greyed out.

To go to the documentation window click any of the buttons for the above tasks situated in the ‘Menu’ window.

Once in the window, type in the record number for the document you want, click ‘Refresh Note’ and it will be revealed. If you do not know the record number check in ‘Order Records’ or ‘Progress’

Print it off on the default printer and exit to the menu using the appropriate buttons.

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Checking Progress

Clicking the 'Check Progress' button takes you to a work management window which allows you to check many aspects of your work and cash flow. When cash arrives you must update your records to reflect the revised position using this window.   You may also check the invoice for this reference or record and from the invoice the contact details.

Input either the customer reference number or the record number in the appropriate cell and hit the ‘Retrieve Record’ button. The details of the dates of documentation creation will be shown.

If an invoice has been paid, retrieve the record, enter the date the invoice was paid and hit the ‘Update Record’ button. When the transaction is complete hit either the ‘Go To Menu’ or ‘Save and Exit’ buttons.

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Updating Pricelists

Click the 'Pricelist' Button to check and amend many aspects of the information displayed on the internet.

Do not create any new Divisions of this table but you can create as many items in each division as you need. There are ten divisions which can all be edited

As circumstance require enter additional or delete redundant rows in each part of the table by hitting the 'Insert Row' or ‘Delete Row’ button as appropriate, inserting in the box displayed the number of the row to be inserted or deleted and hit OK. Watch the action.

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Producing a New List for the Internet

Once you have made all your amendments to your pricelist, to produce a new 'MyProducts.html' (or its derivative based on each currency) document, it’s simply a matter of selecting the currency required and hitting the 'Update On Line Pricelist’. You should also produce new printable and downloadable pricelists. This can be achieved by clicking on the ‘Update Printable Price List’ button.

It is always worth checking what the output is by finding ‘MyProducts.html’, ‘MyManualPriceList.htm in the folder ‘MyManagers’ and viewing them browser. MyManualPriceList.xls in ‘MyManagers’ is best viewed using MSExcel.

You will then need to transfer these three documents to your Web Host. The method I've used is web based. I use a free piece of FTP (File Transfer Protocol) software called ‘Coffee Cup’

Again, you will need to check your document via the internet. We do not live in a perfect world. So open another tab in the browser and check what you’ve done.

Close all open windows and log out. 

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Producing New Photographs for the Internet

The method perfected to date seems to be:

1. Take the best quality photograph possible and download the file to the folder ‘C :\MyManagers\Pictures’

2. Open ‘Faststone Image Viewer’ and locate the folder in the displayed file structure.

3. Select the particular photograph with a double click.

4. View the photograph.

5. Right click on the photograph and select ‘Edit’ and ‘Enhance Colours’. Here procedures do not work. Use your artistic temperament to decide what’s best and click ‘OK’ .

6. Repeat the right click ‘Edit’ and select ‘Crop Board’ and change the size to maximise the size of the object maintaining, where possible a 3:2 ratio (which fits the picture frame in ‘MyProducts.html’).

7. After cropping again repeat the right click and ‘Edit’ this time selecting ‘Resize/Resample’ and make the size 225 x 150 pixels and hit ‘OK’.

8. Save the file by right clicking and selecting ‘Save As’. Save the file as the product number with the suffix ‘.jpg’ in the file ‘C: \MyManagers\Pictures. Delete the original picture or refile.

9. Open or refresh ‘MyProducts.html’ to view the photograph.  MyProducts.html only contains links to the photographs, not the photographs themselves, so a new ‘MyProducts.html’ is not required.

10. Move the original file to ‘C:\$Webs\Maggies Webs\MyManagers Archive\MyManagers Old Pics’. 

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