Suzy B Software 2

home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search

/ Suzy B Software 2 / Suzy B Software CD-ROM 2 (1994).iso / finances / megachk1 / megachk1.txt < prev

Wrap

Text File | 1995-04-25 | 144.8 KB | 3,609 lines

========================================================================= (C) 1993 by Atari Corporation, GEnie, and the Atari Roundtables. May be reprinted only with this notice intact. The Atari Roundtables on GEnie are *official* information services of Atari Corporation. To sign up for GEnie service, call (with modem) 800-638-8369. Upon connection type HHH (RETURN after that). Wait for the U#= prompt.Type XTX99437,GENIE and press [RETURN]. The system will prompt you for your information. ========================================================================== ************ Topic 6 Fri Sep 13, 1991 C.MULLER3 at 21:08 EDT Sub: MEGA-Check, finance manager This topic is for sharing helpful hints/tips and questions about MEGA-Check. Download file #20914 for version 1.0. 200 message(s) total. ************ ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 1 Fri Sep 13, 1991 C.MULLER3 at 21:13 EDT My name is Chris Muller and I am the author of MEGA-Check (file #20914). I will be offering technical support on the program at this topic for anyone who has any questions. Orders for the program can be placed by simply sending 29.95 + 3.00 s/h to: Chris Muller #5 3rd Ave. Belton, MO 64012 ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 2 Sat Sep 14, 1991 J.FURUKAWA [SHMOGI] at 07:33 EDT Uh... what is Mega-Check? End of line. ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 3 Sat Sep 14, 1991 DARLAH [RT~SYSOP] at 12:44 EDT Chris in all his excitement must of forgot the description. Here it is from the Library (file# 20914). If you've ever wondered, "Where has all my money gone?" then this program deserves a look. Version 1.0 of MEGA-Check, probably the most complete and full-featured personal finance manager for the Atari ST boasting over 100 functions and up to 90 user-definable functions. It will print checks on any pre-printed check form. High speed menus and dialogs are used for fast and easy oper A sample file is included to demonstrate some of its capabilities. Due to the nature of this application, it can only run in high-res. One meg+ is required. Unless you have a proper validation file, the program will revert to demo mode (30 record maximum). ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 4 Sat Sep 14, 1991 HCOLLINS [H-MAN] at 14:14 EDT Chris, Outstanding program, looks like something that I really might want to use. What are the chances of making this program work in TT Med Rez Mode??? If it did it would be a definit sale. Again, nice job. H-Man ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 5 Sat Sep 14, 1991 C.MULLER3 at 20:19 EDT H-Man, Hmmm... That's a tough one, seeing as I don't even have a TT. I really just wrote MEGA-Check (it took an entire year to develop and write) for my own usage and never intended to attempt to distribute it. But a friend convinced me that I should try to sell a few copies. Anyway, UNTIL demand warrants, all enhancements are going to have to be either just things that I would like to see put into it anyway (like the ability to copy reports from one slot to another just by dragging it there), OR enhancements which are fairly minor and wouldn't take a lot of re-coding. Unfortunately, this modification (TT medium) would be fairly major in addition to requiring me to purchase a TT for testing. So, although there is a distinct possibility that it will run in TT medium sometime in the future, I must be honest and say that there will need to be a demand for it ahead of time. Shmogi, MEGA-Check is a program which should help in figuring out where all of your money goes (just in case you've ever wondered). It could also help you manage a checking account by performing such tasks as printing checks and balancing your checkbook. A demo of the program is available, file #20914 which includes a README file describing some if its other features, as well as a sample file which can be loaded into the program and used to see some of its features. ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 6 Sat Sep 14, 1991 A.WESTON [Alan] at 23:22 EDT "Due to the nature of this program, it will only run in high-res?" I can see no reason for a financial program to require high resolution other than the programmer didn't include it. This program sounds interesting, but I'm afraid a lot of users will be locked out by the high resolution requirement. Please, can we have this in medium resolution? ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 7 Sun Sep 15, 1991 J.MEEHAN3 [>> Joe M << ] at 08:51 EDT Chris, Is this a full feature personal finance program like Pha$ar, of is it a more limmited checking program? >> Joe Meehan << Don't forget to send in your shareware payments if you use shareware! ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 8 Sun Sep 15, 1991 TOWNS [John@Atari] at 12:30 EDT Well, I looked at the demo and I really like the look and feel of this program! If you ever decide to do enhancements to it, please let me know. I would be happy to test on TT machines and get back to you with results. I have been looking for a package similar to this for awhile. Hopefully, a few people will pop for it so that you will be encouraged to continue improving it. -- John ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 9 Sun Sep 15, 1991 C.MULLER3 at 15:50 EDT Alan, Well, have you downloaded and looked at it (I suppose not if you don't have a mono monitor)? If/when you see it, you will understand why there just isn't enough room to fit everything on the screen. Believe me, I spent quite a few hours trying to get it to run in medium res, but things just looked to sloppy. I, too, am sorry about having so many users locked out by the high- res requirement. Now, TT medium does have enough res... :) It would be easy to convert, I think, but I have no idea since I've never even SEEN a TT. Joe M, I tried using Pha$ar 3 once when it came on the STart monthly disk. But I never really took the time to give a through looking over so I really can't compare the two programs. I would guess, however, that MEGA-Check is far easier to use, as well as containing some features that would allow it to more easily track your money outlets (via the hierarchical accounting structure). However, MEGA-Check doesn't have any of the tax laws built into it, you have to enter your tax liability for it to keep track of it. I'm sure there are other differences. Take a look at the demo and you be the judge... :) Oh, I don't want to label this as shareware please. It is labelled as a commercial program (I know, what's the difference with a demo right?) John, Thanks. But I didn't want anyone to get the wrong idea about upgrades. There *ARE* upgrades being worked on right now, but I was just comment- ing about the upgrade to TT medium. If my local dealer can get his hands on a TT then I will definitely convert it to run in TT med. But I feel that I really need to be the one to do the testing, since uploading to someone else who has a TT would take quite a bit of time to get all of the finishing touches. ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 10 Sun Sep 15, 1991 TOWNS [John@Atari] at 19:46 EDT Just thought I would offer! Anyway, hopefully in the near future, I will be able to give the commerical version a whirl. -- John ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 11 Sun Sep 15, 1991 A.WESTON [Alan] at 22:24 EDT I do have a mono monitor, and after seeing how good Mega-Check looked, I thought a pitch to get other resolutions supported would be worth a try. I haven't had a chance to really tear into the demo yet, but my first impression is very good and I suspect I will be ordering the program very soon. If you're avoiding medium res because you can't fit all of the information on the screen at once, maybe you could consider putting the function key menu on another screen for the medium res version. ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 12 Mon Sep 16, 1991 C.MULLER3 at 00:08 EDT Alan, Hey! Good idea. How about even just putting the first five down at the bottom and then whenever the user presses a 6 - 10 function key, it automatically jumps over to the 6 - 10 function display? I'll tell you what, I'll consider giving medium resolution another shot. BUT, I can tell you right now that it is going to have to be a separate program. That is, the high-res version and the medium res version will be two different programs. Otherwise I feel like I would be wasting memory for high-res users by putting the code to jump between two different function panels for each model set. Thanks again for the idea. ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 13 Mon Sep 16, 1991 C.MULLER3 at 00:11 EDT Just a note to anyone who is putting MEGA-Check through its paces. I have identified a few fairly minor bugs and they have already been fixed. But before uploading 1.0a, I am going to wait and see if anyone else comes up with any others that I haven't been able to find and fix those too. So, if you see any bugs, please post them here. Thanks. ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 14 Thu Sep 26, 1991 C.MULLER3 at 02:00 EDT Boy, it sure has gotten unnervingly quiet in here since the initial release of MEGA-Check 1.0. Well, hopefully it will pick up because I have an announcement to make. Due to a clever user idea and a miracle, MEGA-Check has been able to be converted to work in medium resolution. I just finished it tonight. and will upload before the weekend is over. I want to clean up the sample file I whipped up in about 30 minutes before as I can see that I had some reports labelled differently, but were actually the same report. Version 1.0a of both the mono and color version will be uploaded htis weekend. All known bugs are fixed and a few extra features have been added. Look for them soon! Chris ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 15 Fri Sep 27, 1991 C.MULLER3 at 22:36 EDT I've just uploaded version 1.0a of both the mono-chrome and color versions of MEGA-Check. All known bugs are fixed in these versions, and a couple of features have been changed. Both of these are free upgrades, your validation files will work with them. ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 16 Mon Nov 25, 1991 M.ABREU [Abe] at 20:35 EST Chris, I downloaded the most recent demo and tried it on my color 1040ST. It looked really good, and it was obvious that this isn't a program to be evaluated in just a few minutes, so I quit and decided I'd look at it again later when I had more time. I just tried to fire it up again and keep getting an ERROR 8 alert box after the initialization (it displays the full screen, then the error). I don't recall changing or saving anything the first time, so I'm a little confused about what might have happened. I also deleted the original .LZH file (or was that ARC?), so I'm a little reluctant to download the demo again without hearing from you first. ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 17 Mon Nov 25, 1991 M.ABREU [Abe] at 20:42 EST Oh, and I forgot to add that I'm extremely excited about this program. I bought a used copy of PC DITTO so I could run just one application, CheckMate. I've never been able to find an ST program to manage my bank accounts that I was happy with, so I tried a DOS program that works pretty well, although the speed is horrible. Maybe MEGA-Check's for me? ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 18 Sat Nov 30, 1991 C.MULLER3 at 22:54 EST Abe, You are out of memory. MEGA-Check requires just over 500K of free memory to run so running it on a 520ST is very difficult, if not impossible. If you have more than 512K memory, make sure that you aren't using so many accessories/AUTO programs that it brings you down below 600K (just to be on the safe side). Thanks for the compliments, Chris ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 19 Tue Dec 31, 1991 F.OLIVAS [Fred O.] at 00:06 EST Help! I can't seem to run the demo on my 16Mhz Mega4. The bootup screen below the word MEGA is all screwed up and when I try to load in the demo file I get the message: "ERROR #26" then I'm dumped to the desktop. What's my problem? I'd like to try out this program but can't seem to. Fred Olivas ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 20 Fri Jan 03, 1992 C.MULLER3 at 02:05 EST Fred, It sounds like your files have somehow become corrupted. I am going to be uploading version 1.1 this weekend and you can try it again if you like. The problem is in either the file MEGACHEK.PU2 or MEGACHEK.PU3 depending on whether you are trying to boot it in medium or high res? Which resolution are you running it from? Chris ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 21 Tue Jan 07, 1992 F.OLIVAS [Fred O.] at 00:33 EST Chris, I tried running MegaCheck in mono mode. What I saw of it I liked. Will d/l version 1.1 tonight and give it a whirl. Fred Olivas ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 22 Thu Jan 09, 1992 A.COKER [Allan Coker] at 23:19 EST One quick question, just how do you print a check, such layingout the output. Thanks in the advance. Allan Coker ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 23 Sat Jan 11, 1992 C.MULLER3 at 00:27 EST I believe I included detailed, step by step instructions in the READHELP.TXT file. I'll double check and get back with you... ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 24 Sun Jan 26, 1992 D.GROSS1 [Dave G.] at 03:38 EST Chris, Been up all night with this thing and I've finally got a handle on it. A little overwhelming at first with all the initial setups, but I'ts laid out SO logically, it just all of a sudden kicked in. I really do appreciate the personal time and support you've given me. It's nice to see you take on my case as such a challenge. Since I'm sort of using it in a way it wasn't really designed for, and since you seem to be able to make it do whatever I want it to do for my company, I'm sure Ill be around to enjoy all the future updates!! We'll dive into the report stuff ASAP. I'll start posting my NORMAL questions on this BBS from now on... Thanks again for the great support! Dave Gross ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 25 Thu Jan 30, 1992 C.MULLER3 at 02:02 EST Hi Dave, Glad to hear that it seems to be falling into place for you. I would like to say that, actually, MEGA-Check WAS written to double as a small business double-entry general ledger system. In fact, I use it not only to track investments, but to also manage my own "software company" (which only has one product right now). Since I designed MEGA-Check the way I wanted it to be, it absolutely work perfectly for me. I do know, too, that it will work for other people to. Later, Chris ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 26 Thu Jan 30, 1992 D.MCNAMEE [Dan @ Atari] at 14:56 EST Hi Chris. I finally got sick of balancing my checkbook, so I downloaded you demo to take a look at. I haven't had time to look through everything yet, but I had a couple questions. 1. Are there any limits to the number of entries, and if so, what is the limit. 2. I didn't see anything that gave you a balance on just the transactions that cleared. (for the purpose of balancing against the bank statement) I assume that is there? 3. I there any way to get a listing that looks like the check register in the checkbook so that if there is an error in the written logs it can be traced? All I saw was a report that just showed check amounts and then totals at the end. I'd like something that showed totals after each check. Thanks! Dan ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 27 Thu Feb 06, 1992 D.GROSS1 [Dave G.] at 01:35 EST Mr. M. Just thought I'd check to see if you had a chance to play with the file I sent you. Haven't had much time this week to finish entering any new data, but I seem to have gotten a better handle on things. Hope all new projects and wrapping up smoothly and development continues on an upward climb. Don't work to hard... dave G. Florida ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 28 Tue Feb 11, 1992 C.MULLER3 at 01:21 EST Mr. G, Sorry, I haven't had a chance to look at your file. I've been SOOOO busy with the new manual and with the NEW VERSION 1.40 of MEGA-Check. This one will do away with that jerry-rigged way you have to use those TWO record models to transfer money from one account to another. Progress on this new version has been excellent and I hope to have it completed soon (perhaps you would like to be a beta-tester for a free upgrade?). Dan, Hi, thanks for your interest. To answer your questions: 1. The only restriction on the number of entries is how much memory you have in your computer, or 32000, whichever is smaller. If you have 32000 entries, however, you probably need to reduce your "accounting period", the time you stay with the same file until you move on to a fresh file with balances cleared out. Most people manage their personal finances with a one year accounting period. To give you an idea of how many records you can store, you will need about 350K for the program, 30K for your "models" and other internal things, and then about 10K per 100 records. So if you have a 1 meg machine, you should be able to store more than 5200 records and still have about 100K left over for AUTO programs/accessories, etc. If you have a four meg machine, I would estimate that you could fit about 20000 records in memory. Again, however, most people won't have NEARLY this much in a one year file. 2. Hmmm... I'm not sure about your question, but I'll go ahead and explain exactly how MEGA-Check determines the balance on your bank statement. First, you tell MC what classifies a record as having cleared the bank. For most people, it is all records where "Cleared = Yes". Oops. Excuse me, we want to find checks which HAVEN'T cleared the bank, that's "Cleared = No". MEGA- Check cycles through all records which have a "No" in the Cleared field, and you press one of two buttons two tell it if it is on your bank statement. When that's all done, you print a report (which is completely customizable by you) in which the Selection Criteria is "Cleared = Yes". MC takes all of the deposits for these records, sums them up, and subtracts all of the "withdrawals" (which includes checks, of course) and gives you the difference. It has always worked like a charm for me. 3. The report models that you saw were just ones that I whipped up using the built-in report generator in MEGA-Check. They are NOT hard coded into the program. You are free to change them however you wish. Just use the report menu. First, SELECT all report components you want on the report using the "Page headings", "Record Components", "Fields" and "Totals" panels. Then use the "Layout" function to PLACE AND POSITION all of the components however you want them to look. Hope this helps. Sorry I took so long in responding, as I told David, the new version has had me very busy, but it is going to be WELL worth it. Thanks again, for your interest. Let me know if you have any more questions. ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 29 Tue Feb 11, 1992 D.MCNAMEE [Dan @ Atari] at 14:12 EST Thanks for the info! Only 32000, huh? Le's see, with my wife that would last about...oh... a week <G> (just kidding). Sounds good. I'll probably be getting a hold of you soon. Dan ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 30 Fri Feb 14, 1992 D.GROSS1 [Dave G.] at 01:20 EST Chris, I'd be glad to be a tester for you. I obviously have already figured out how to make it try to do things you hadn't thought of...(gee, my ignorance is your blessing)...send me a disk as soon as you can along with whatever reports things you can figure out for me...Looking forward to the manual and new version! dave ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 31 Fri Feb 28, 1992 D.GROSS1 [Dave G.] at 00:13 EST Chris, Just thought I'd check in with you to see how things are progressing. Have you had a chance to play with my files at all? I'm anxious to get rolling with it all again.. Dave Gross ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 32 Sat Feb 29, 1992 C.MULLER3 at 01:13 EST David, Hi, did you have a specific question you wanted to ask me about them? I looked at them briefly a while back. I give them another look. I am uploading version 1.21 of MEGA-Check in about 5 minutes here. BE SURE to get this! It has some pretty nice enhancements and it is now TOTALLY compatible with every accessory I tested it with, including Maxifile 3 run from MultiDesk 3.3! Also, David, I have added some new things to the READHELP.TXT file that could be very helpful in setting up your accounts and such. This new version 1.21 is VERY solid. I know of NO bugs in it and my main beta- tester is a very happy camper because he hasn't found anything in over a month with it (he is an EXTENSIVE user). It will probably be the last upgrade before the awesome version 2.0 that is scheduled release by summer. This one will have a MUCH BETTER manual than the current 1.0a or 1.20 manual (Oh, your 1.20 manual is on its way to you tomorrow!). I'm very excited about the features that are going into 2.0. For a partial list, check the end of the READUSER.TXT file in the new version I'm about to upload. Talk to you later! Chris ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 33 Mon Mar 02, 1992 D.GROSS1 [Dave G.] at 23:56 EST Chris, I'll DL it tonight. I just wanted some help setting up reports and stuff, and I wanted you to look at how I'm set up to see if it's "right" for my purposes. I'll still be glad to beta test for you if you wish...more after I DL and play! Dave Gross ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 34 Tue Mar 03, 1992 D.GROSS1 [Dave G.] at 10:31 EST Chris, Dl #22966 last night. When I un-lzh'd it, it was version 1.1D. Is this the latest? I thought I read about a 2.0... Dave ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 35 Tue Mar 03, 1992 D.GROSS1 [Dave G.] at 11:25 EST Chris, Pay no attention to my last message...I'm an idiot...I zapped the LZH file (oopps) so I'l DL it again today and try again...My mistake had to do with the .APP file you sent...duh... ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 36 Tue Mar 03, 1992 D.GROSS1 [Dave G.] at 21:37 EST Chris, Had trouble downloading earlier today...got a Bad Header reading. Will try again tonite...did get to read some of txt files and I think I'll need your Convert.Prg for my file. It's not on the disk you sent, so please F-Mail me one ASAP...THANKS! Also, maybe cause of the bad header, but a verbose list of the LZH file showed NO Megachek.prg...only the Med rez one...did I do something wrong? Dave Gross ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 37 Sun Mar 08, 1992 C.MULLER3 at 02:27 EST Hi Dave, Hmmm... I'll ask the sysop if the file has a bad header. I think they would have found it when they checked it out though (they check all files before putting them up in the libraries). You will need the conversion program if you were using a version earlier t earlier than 1.20. I'll also make sure its in the LZH. Uh, make sure that you just use a normal LZH'er. I didn't arc it with the new "Quester" utility. Maybe that will make a difference. Let me know if you have anymore problems. Chris ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 38 Mon Mar 09, 1992 ST-REPORT [Lloyd Pulley] at 13:33 EST Chris, Is there any way to write Mega Check so you only need one version no matter what resolution you're in? To me the that's the biggest draw- back to Mega Check...having to tie up almost 600k so I can boot it in either Mono or Color mode (I use both). Your's is one of the few pro- programs (of any size) around that still has to have two versions. Lloyd E. Pulley, Sr. ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 39 Mon Mar 09, 1992 C.MULLER3 at 21:09 EST MEGA-Check 2 (coming this summer) will alleviate this problem... well, in a way. You will only have to worry about running one .PRG, but it will call upon one of to executable modules depending on what resolution you're in, so you will still be tying up 600K of disk space. However, most people usually do all of their work in one res or the other and only use one version. The reason this is necessary is because there are extra features for the high- res version that couldn't go into the medium res version simply because of the vertical resolution limitation. Though I now find myself with two programs to change every time I want to make an update (not too fun), at least I didn't have to put extra code in to try to remove menu options, check keystrokes, etc. if they are in medium res and bypass execution if they were. I'll give it some more thought and see if I can't think of any more feasible method. Thanks, Chris ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 40 Sat Mar 21, 1992 C.MULLER3 at 01:18 EST Well, programming on MEGA-Check 2 is going very well. I doubt there will be anything out of the scope of this program but if anyone has anything they want to see in this product then now is the time to make your suggestions. I'll check the list of features (the tome sitting on my podium lists them all) and see if it isn't already in there. Some of my favorite things that I've been wanting to have which are going to be added are the ability to compare the progress of up to 8 investments side by side, all on one report! The negative sign requirement on the Amount field is totally done away with. We'll now have three scrolling windows of models to choose from for unlimited number of models (well, limited only by your available disk space). A full mailing address system will be included. A "Classification selector" will be added to select classifications just like you select accounts. The "Special Totals" panel will give MANY interesting things about an account like its MAXIMUM balance, its MINIMUM balance, its average balance or its percentage growth (absolute OR annualized). All of this information can be obtained for any time period. We will now have the ability to have a FULL budgeting system with which we can compare OUR actual financial picture to a planned or hypothetical one. Finally, the program is being completely recoded from scratch. The new program (version 2) will be smaller, tighter and faster and have much fewer bugs than version 1 had. Current users will be able to upgrade for a reasonable upgrade fee. Owners of Home Accounts 2 may also upgrade to MEGA-Check 2 for 50% off the list price (99.95). We are that confident that MEGA-Check 2 will positively BLOW AWAY ALL OF THE COMPETITION! Chris Muller ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 41 Sat Mar 21, 1992 D.GROSS1 [Dave G.] at 10:15 EST Chris, SOUNDS GREAT! I haven't had too much free time to play with my update, but I've loaded in some new data any. (all old files WILL be compatable, won't they?). Looking forward to the new version and manual. Take your time with the manual and include a Full, Complete tutorial with it. I guarantee it will make all the difference in the world. Nothing irks new users off more than a manual that makes you go "HUH?". I've gotten a few owners manuals for my studio equipment that weren't worth the paper they were printed on! Just assume that we know NOTHING and go from there. It's worth the wait!!! I'll be waiting and practicing with the version I've got. I love it! Dave Gross ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 42 Sat Mar 21, 1992 C.MULLER3 at 16:08 EST Glad to hear your positive feedback. Regarding the manual, you should be happy to know that we have actually HIRED a contract writer to write the manual for version 2 for us! He is a professional teacher and has written many lesson plans and other documents and we feel he is very qualified to do the job. And yes, a FULL tutorial will be included in this 150+ page manual as he follows Joe and Maggie in East Overshoe Missouri as they run their business and manage their personal finances. I' veI'vew seen the layout for the new manual and it is VERY attractive. All in all we are just as excited about the manual as we are about the program. Oh, we are also looking into some more professional binders, the top vote right now being a three ring notebook like binder with possibly a COLOR insert. I'll try to take the time to post regular updates here. Programming has me pretty busy. ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 43 Sat Mar 21, 1992 R.NOAK at 18:26 EST Will Mega CHeck 2 be sort of like a Quicken clone? And will it run in TT med res? Randy @ Southlake, Inc. ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 45 Sun Mar 22, 1992 C.MULLER3 at 22:23 EST R.NOAK, MEGA-Check is ALREADY superior, in many ways, to Quicken 4 (we havne't seen 5.0 yet but have seen a list of features and still believe that we have an edge in many areas). There are only a couple of things that Quicken will do that MEGA-Check currently won't do, many of which MEGA-Check 2 will address. The main feature being direct access to CheckFree to pay your bills electronically. We are looking into it for version 2 but need to get some more information about the data format for the upload from Checkfree. I have contacted them personally for this information and they haven't been willing to just freely let me have the info. I must first submit a letter explaining purpose etc. and they will review it and "make a decision". At any rate, it is kind of a low prior- ity due to their reponse and the fast approaching deadline of summer taht we are trying to meet for version 2. If we can get the file format, however, it WILL be added. The only other thing that Quicken will do is link to TurboTax. However, MEGA- Check can export ASCII files in ANY format, so any ST tax package (Tax Wizard?) that will accept ASCII data (any good one SHOULD) will be able to use MEGA-Check data. Joe, No, believe it or not, Bob tells us that Joe and Maggie are REAL people who run their Catering and Shoe Repair businesses off of MEGA-Check and (as well as their personal finances) and he is going to take the reader throught a months worth of transactions. It sounds like it should be very educational. Back to R.NOAK, Sorry, about your question on TT medium res. Yes, we are going to make every attempt to get it to run in TT medium by the release date. The only thing slowing us down is... well, not having ANY local access to a TT. We will be looking for someone who can help us test but it might be slow going. I'll let you know. Of course, until then, anyone can run it on a TT in the ST resolutions. Chris ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 46 Sun Mar 22, 1992 R.NOAK at 22:55 EST Thanks for the answers. Looks like I will have to check out Mega Check. ;-) Randy @ Southlake, Inc. ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 47 Mon Mar 23, 1992 R.GLOVER3 [Rob] at 19:37 EST Chris, I just started reading this topic, and I haven't downloaded any of the demos yet, due to the high cost of GEnie as it is, but I have a question: I've been using Quicken under Spectre for a few years now, and I'm really sick of having to pop into Spectre to deal with my bank accounts (especially since my mono monitor is dead). Does Megacheck offer a way to read in Quicken data files, so I don't have to start from scratch? Rob ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 48 Wed Mar 25, 1992 C.MULLER3 at 01:47 EST Rob, No, not directly. However, does Quicken have some way to export your files as ASCII data? I ask because MEGA-Check CAN import ASCII data created by other packages to allow you to convert from one to another. As far as we're concerned, if your financial doesn't allow you to format your output reports in ANY format you wish (e.g. the format needed to import into MEGA-Check) then you are using the wrong package. If Quicken 3 for the Mac is anything similar (or less?) than Quicken 4 on the IBM I think you would be very pleased with MEGA-Check. We've gotten very positive feedback so far on the program and use it ourselves, of course, to manage Muller Automation. In addition, it is currently undergoing a MAJOR rewrite that will be MEGA-Check 2 by middle summer (we hope) that will remove ALL doubt that it is positively the most powerful, flexible and easy to use account and finance manager available for the ST. (we are very excited about this upgrade). ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 49 Sat Mar 28, 1992 M.ABREU [Abe] at 16:52 EST Hmmm.... This is very interesting. Like a previous poster, I use PCDITTO and CheckMate to do my bank account management, but I'd like to find a ST native- mode application to do the same thing. Unfortunately I've tried the MegaCheck demo quite a few times and have failed to figure the darn thing out. All I need is checking and savings account management, not debits and credits. CheckMate was something I could use out of the box without looking at the docs (although some of the finer points required it), but I haven't had the same luck with MegaCheck. Maybe the docs. that come with the demo could guide me through setting up a checking account? ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 50 Sun Mar 29, 1992 C.MULLER3 at 21:36 EST Hi Abe, Sure, MEGA- Ch (oops..) MEGA-Check appears to be a bit much, at first. But it comes together all at once for most people. MEGA-Check is designed not only to help you manage a checking and savings account, but to also help you figure out things like WHAT the majority of your expenditures go on. If you wanted to just manage the checking and savings accounts, thats easy enough though. Just add the two accounts under the "Assets" parent via the Account Selector (to get to the account selector right click anywhere on the Entry Panel while the cursor is one of the Ledger fields). Type in "Checking" and click on Add Selection. Then select Assets as the parent. Then type in "Savings" and click on Add selection and select Assets once again. Then, whenever you withdraw money out of your checking or savings, just fill in all the blanks on the Entry Panel and DEBIT whichever account is being withdrawn against. CREDIT your "Owners Equity" account. This will always show your net worth (though, unless you enter your debts, it won't show your TRUE net worth). Whenever you make a deposit, simply CREDIT the checking (or savings) account and DEBIT your net worth. Most people get nervous just from the words "debit" and "credit" but I'm ;trying to get them away from that fear. There is absolutely NOTHING complicated about it. The guy who is writing our manual for version 2 didn't know ANYTHING about debits or credits and I sat down and explained it to him in less than 10 minutes. It really is very simple. But if you don't care to know where your money goes, there are several PD checkbook managers that will probably handle the job you need quite nicely. Hope this helps, Chris ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 51 Sun Mar 29, 1992 C.MULLER3 at 22:14 EST David Gross, was that you who asked for adjustable field positions on the Entry Panel? You got it bud. Coming your way in MEGA-Check 2. I just finished up testing that portion last week. Looks great. You can, of course, save the field positions so that it comes up the same way every time. The fields snap to a 4-pixel grid to help you out in lining them up with other entry fields. I was also considering allowing you to adjust the ORDER in which the cursor jumps from field to field, or, at least the order of the three entry sections (Check section, ledger section and Memo section) or something. I was also thinking on allowing you to set the field SIZE to one of three different sizes, this might be a little less important since there is more than enough room for all of the fields on the entry panel. Later, Chris ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 52 Wed Apr 01, 1992 D.GROSS1 [Dave G.] at 21:47 EST Chris, COOL! I like the idea of making my field positions look like either my checkbook or my register. Honestly haven't play much...kind of waiting for MC 2!! Field size would be cool, but just as a toy. Main concern is SIMPLICITY for the begginer and ease of use. Keep all the cool heavy stuff for advanced users as they progress!!! ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 53 Fri Apr 03, 1992 C.MULLER3 at 01:04 EST It will remain ABOUT as easy to use as it is now (I hope that's good). BUT, two things will make it much easier. First, as I've already mentioned, Bob Heald is writing our manual. He's written countless lesson plans for countless subjects and has even taught them. He seems pretty good. I've been working over time, staying up until at least 2am on weeknights to work on MC 2 so that he will have something concrete to write about. His work is kind of slow going right now because he doesn't have the finished program to write about. The second thing that will make version 2 much easier is that it will have a MUCH better help system. I'm talking a pop-up scrollable window with a list of subjects you can get help on. When you get to the subject you're interested in there will be PARAGRAPHS AND PARAGRAPHS of excepts right from the manual! No need to keep pulling the manual down off the shelf! This help system will be similar to Microsoft Windows help system (which I have to admit is pretty impressive). You will also have the option, right on thedialog, to print out that section help text to your printer, if you wish. Oh, one more thing. We're considering allowing the user to use a text editor to modify the help files so that can add things to it as "reminders" of how to perform a certain function. Since it would be in their own words there is no doubt they'll understand it. Neato, eh? Still going to be a few months though. Later, Chris ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 54 Fri Apr 03, 1992 D.KERR1 [Drew] at 20:13 EST Chris: I am a registered owner of Megachek 1.21. I am currently having redraw problems. When I right click on a blank account, the right screen comes up but then instead of closing, it stays where it is while the arrow turns into a cursor (as if I was entering numbers on the main screen). I'm thinking this has to do with my new Atari 14" monochrome monitor because I don't seem to recall this happening on my old one. I just bought this program recently and I'm just beginning to learn it. It looks very promising. The manual is not the most comfortable. While it explains accounting procedures, I wish you'd included a few real hand-holding tutorials on starting and maintaining different types of accounts. Thanks, Drew ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 55 Mon Apr 06, 1992 C.MULLER3 at 00:45 EDT Drew, Could you please explain the problem in a little more detail? Are you saying that you are on the main screen and you right-click on the Entry Panel while the cursor is on one of the Ledger Account fields? After doing that, the Account Selector should appear, allowing you to select an account and then click on OK to carry it back to the Ledger Account field on the Entry Panel. I'll experiment with this process with 1.21. You might also want to download version 1.22 right here on GEnie. Off the top of my head, I can't remember what the enhancement to that version was. About the manual, as I've said here before, I can bet you'll be looking forward to the MEGA-Check 2 manual. It will have a full tutorial while it follows two persons running their personal and business finances for an entire month. Please clarify your problem, thanks, Chris ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 56 Wed Apr 08, 1992 B.GOCKLEY [Brian G.] at 21:50 EDT Hi Chris, Big request is the ability to run M-Check on a 19" moniter. I have been using the old ST Onewrite (Cash Disbursements module) from 1985, and would like to change over. My biggest problem is changing the way I'm used to working in the other program, which was a WYSIWYG Onewrite check register, with a very simple entry screen. Of course that's all well and good since the company is out of business, I guess it just spoiled me. Brian D Gockley ST Informer ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 57 Fri Apr 10, 1992 C.MULLER3 at 01:56 EDT The next release of MEGA-Check is going to be 2.0, which will give you the ability to customize your Entry Screen to your tastes. If you like WYSIWYG entry screen, you'll be able to drag the fields to their proper locations to get that affect. Support the the 19" monitor is also planned IF I can find someone to do a little testing for me (who has a 19" monitor, of course) as I don't know anyone in town who uses one. ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 59 Fri Apr 10, 1992 TOWNS [John@Atari] at 13:53 EDT I use a 19" monitor on my TT (in TT High Resolution). If you need me to help you test.. Just send me some Email, I would be happy to do it. -- John PS. I have been using Quicken under Spectre to handle my financial management. While I really like Quicken, I would rather use an Atari ST program to do it. I would welcome the opportunity to switch! Just say the word. ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 60 Sat Apr 11, 1992 D.FINTON [d/Thor] at 20:39 EDT I recently got Mega-Check and, aside from the lack of tutorial, I've got one major problem... When I click on Quit, it locks up the machine. This is on a 1040 STF, mono monitor, one floppy, system, with no D/As or auto programs running. Whats the problem? Thanks. -=|THOR|=- ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 61 Sun Apr 12, 1992 B.ZAHN at 13:40 EDT Chris, We've been looking into your MEGA-Check product and have been impressed. We'd like to get started with it right away. However, we've heard that Version 2.0 will be coming soon for over 2X the cost of the current version. Is there a separate upgrade cost for users of 1.2? ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 62 Sun Apr 12, 1992 R.GLOVER3 [Rob] at 16:46 EDT TWO TIMES the cost of 1.2? 1.2 was $40! Guess I'll stick with Quicken... Rob ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 63 Mon Apr 13, 1992 C.MULLER3 at 00:20 EDT Joe, Ok, "the checks in the mail". <grin> John, What's the magic word to get you to switch? (grin) Is there anything that Quicken does that's missing in MEGA-Check? Other than support for the CheckFree service, we know of none. About the testing, I'll send you a short program that just displays some system registers that I'll need reported back. I'll F-Mail it to you. Thor, What version do you have? This problem was inherent only in TOS 1.0 machines many eons ago but has long since been fixed. If you got it "recently" then it must be something else. What version of TOS are you running also? Anyone else run into this problem? B.ZAHN, Yes, did I forget to mention that? It will be quite a bit cheaper to buy the current version and upgrade than it will for people who get version 2 outright. Though pricing hasn't been finalized, we guarantee that the upgrade fee won't be more than $29 and may even be less than that. The most critical factor in determining this upgrade cost will be the production cost of the new manual. The upgrade fee DOES include our new 150+ page binded manual (which will probably be a three ring binded (for easy updates) manual). So the TOTAL cost of owners of version 1.x at the time of release for MEGA-Check 2 will be a maximum of $69.95, which in today's software market is not at all unreasonable. Believe it or not, one of the main reasons we arrived at a $99.95 (besides the MAJOR work that is going into it) is because we wanted to be equal in two areas (price and function) with "another" product in the ST market. Rest assured, the similarities end there, however. We are going to try to get a PUBLIC comparison review of the two products with no "justification" for MEGA- Check being the price. We want only power, ease of use, flexibility and speed to be the deciding criteria. For sci-fi buffs, we want to pit the Terminator (CSM-101) against Robo-Cop. Rob, Well, not quite. As I was just telling Mr. Zahn (Ms. Zahn???), users of version 1.x at the time version 2 is released will be able to upgrade for less than $29. That means you can buy it now (or in the near future) and get version 2 for a total price of less than $70. Not bad considering you get MORE than 2X the power, eh? Perhaps you'll change your mind about the Quicken vs. MEGA-Check 2 cost/benefit ratios when you see the MEGA-Check 2 demo. Chris ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 64 Mon Apr 13, 1992 R.GLOVER3 [Rob] at 21:33 EDT Chris: If someone would be so kind as to post the latest MegaCheck demo on atari.archive, I'd download it. It's too big for me to D/L from GEnie. My monthly bill is already over $40 with minimal use. Besides, I'm severly broke. :( Rob ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 65 Mon Apr 13, 1992 C.MULLER3 at 23:50 EDT Can someone help Rob? I'm not familiar with atari.archive, don't even know what it is. Rob, if you leave me your address in GE-mail, I'll be happy to mail you a demo disk along with our brochure that describes MEGA-Check. ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 66 Tue Apr 14, 1992 B.GOCKLEY [Brian G.] at 09:52 EDT Hi Chris, I am running my TT with a 19" moniter and would be gald to help ANYONE who wants to make their program work on it! PLease send me E-mail regarding this, as well as upgrade info for the review. Thanks, Brian D Gockley ST Informer ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 68 Tue Apr 14, 1992 R.GLOVER3 [Rob] at 21:48 EDT Just for the info, atari.archive is the nickname of atari.archive.umich.edu, the internet address of the University of Michigan Atari Archives. You connect to it via FTP (file transfer protocol), and can download lots and lots of files (though not as many as from GEnie) for the ST and 8-bit. I'll send you my address in Email... thanks! Rob ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 69 Fri Apr 17, 1992 D.FINTON [d/Thor] at 01:35 EDT Thor, What version do you have? This problem was inherent only in TOS 1.0 machines many eons ago but has long since been fixed. If you got it "recently" then it must be something else. What version of TOS are you running also? The version which came in the package I purchased was 1.20, and the version on the disk you sent when I registered it was 1.22. oth copies crash when I quit the program. My machine is an old 1040 with TOS 1.0. Anything I can do about this aside from upgrading my TOS? (I'd >love< to get the TEC board with 2.06, but cash is tight. I just spent all my ready on a hard drive.) Thanks for any help you can give. -=|THOR|=- ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 70 Sun Apr 19, 1992 C.MULLER3 at 19:10 EDT Thor, Ok, I'll look into it. I'll have to go to a friends house who has a 1.0 machine. Also, please tell me if you are running color or mono. ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 71 Tue May 12, 1992 C.MULLER3 at 23:58 EDT I just decided, on the spur of the moment, to implement a user-interface function similar to the new Calamus SL. At your option, you can specify that all dialog boxes appear either centered on the screen like most programs do, or you can choose to have them centered under the mouse pointer so you have a minimum of required mouse movement. The system work very nicely. ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 72 Fri May 22, 1992 B.GOCKLEY [Brian G.] at 09:29 EDT Chris, Dan Simpson's phone # is 914-248-1058. He is looking forward to your call. Keep up the good work, we've needed a package like this for a while now. Now if you could add in an "export to Tax Wizard" feature... Brian D Gockley ST Informer ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 73 Sat May 23, 1992 D.FINTON [D/Thor] at 23:09 EDT Atari-ST RoundTable Category 6, Topic 6 Message 70 Sun Apr 19, 1992 C.MULLER3 at 19:10 EDT > Ok, I'll look into it. I'll have to go to a friends house who has a 1.0 > machine. Also, please tell me if you are running color or mono. Chris, Sorry About taking so long to get back to you. I've been moving recently and everythings been a mess. Okay, I'm running Mega Check on a mono system. I discovered that the program only crashes in a specific circumstance, which is quitting without saving the data. It also locks up if I run the program, look at ti a bit, then quit with out loading any data files. That's a little less annoying, as when I actually start to USE the program, I will surely save my data. THOR ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 74 Sun May 24, 1992 C.MULLER3 at 22:22 EDT Ok, that is quite helpful because that means it is blowing up on the Alert that alerts you that your data is not saved. Maybe I'm using a character in the alert box that 1.0 doesn't like. I'll give it another look. Thanks for elaborating, it is VERY helpful for weird situations like this... ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 75 Sun May 24, 1992 C.MULLER3 at 22:24 EDT Brian, A *LONG* time ago I tried to get some info on a way to contact the author of Tax Wizard from Rod MacDonald but he couldn't help me. It appears that his software company is selling it, right? Can you help? ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 76 Thu May 28, 1992 C.MULLER3 at 02:23 EDT Ok THOR, I think I have your TOS 1.0 problem figured out. I sent you a little tiny program in F-Mail. Please run it and see if you have any problems. Report back to me here or in E-Mail. If it works, I'll fix MEGA-Check and send it to you. ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 77 Thu May 28, 1992 D.GROSS1 [Dave G.] at 08:01 EDT Chris, oooo,aaahh,oohhh... can't wait for the next version with all the new goodies...have been a little dormant with the program as business is picking up...one the new one is out, I'll have tons of stuff to input!! Keep us informed! Dave Gross ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 78 Wed Jun 03, 1992 B.GOCKLEY [Brian G.] at 12:10 EDT Hi Chris, Look for the review to run in the July issue, as per your suggestion. The update sounds like it will give us a good reason for a second look. BTW, The number I gave you for the reviewer had a transposition in it. The correct number is 1-914-248-7058. Sheesh, another typo from an editor! Re: TAX info, you should contact Tyson Gill. Brian D Gockley ST Informer ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 79 Thu Jun 04, 1992 C.MULLER3 at 23:29 EDT Brian, Ok, thanks. I'll contact the reviewer. Chris ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 80 Wed Jul 22, 1992 J.LEMLEY [Jack] at 22:58 EDT Hi All! I haven't heard anything in a while on the major Megacheck upgrade. Where is it? Jack ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 81 Sun Jul 26, 1992 C.MULLER3 at 22:36 EDT Hi Jack, We're still around. Working on version 2 has us SO busy that we haven't even had time to GEnie around very much! We just started to go to work on the new manual. The program is looking VERY fine! Reports can now be displayed in windows. Clicking on any report line will jump back to the Entry Panel where you can edit that record. There is a complete mailing list manager built in. Each transaction can refer, by name or company, to a record in your mailing list table and pull it up on your reports. Mailing labels can be printed one at a time, straight from the "Associate Selector" (that's what its called) or in a batch mode, including only those which are needed to print off that months (or weeks???) bills. It's pretty neat. You can now also define up to 7 additional fields that describe each transaction. I will be using these to expand my Memo description of each transaction up to 8 lines of text each. Of course, each of these fields can be searched and reported. We have also included a "Classification Selector" which will allow you to keep track of all of those Classifications. Literally, there will be NO holes in tracking your money paths. Online help for each panel is available in a scrollable window on each screen. Much better than the current limited help system. Balance warnings, Growth/Depreciation multipliers for EACH account as well as keeping track of the balance, number of affecting transactions, and last activity date (to generate Accounts receivable reports). Models are now chainable. When one model is finished, another model can automatically be set to take off. An additional model type is now also available ("Update models", a la Change Records panel in ver 1, hint hint). The manual is being written by Bob Heald. He has written and taught many lesson plans in several subjects (mostly in law enforcement topics) in various parts of the country. He is undoubtedly much more qualified to write the manual and all of the online help will be excerpts from the manual (which, by the way, are accessed randomly from disk, meaning it doesn't eat up your machines memory). Well, I gotta get back to work on it... Any ideas, questions, or suggestions, please holler... But we are DEFINITELY still here, Chris Muller ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 82 Fri Jul 31, 1992 D.GROSS1 [Dave G.] at 00:33 EDT Chris, Nice to know you're still around. I've kind of shelved the thing till the next version...(got spoiled with Quicken on my buddies MAC...) Send me demo's and beta's! I'll try to put them to the test! Just remember what I said a long time I go...Assume we know nothing and make us understand the BASICS in less than an hour or two. Then once we're amazed at how cool it is, take us to the bells and whistles! You'll sell a bunch of them... It's a cool product! Dave Gross ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 83 Sun Aug 02, 1992 C.MULLER3 at 21:23 EDT I don't know if anyone else reads ST-Informer, but we just had our first review and it was very positive. Very happy with it, overall, though they could've shown a little better variety of screen shots and gotten a little more detailed on some of the functionality. But I ain't got no dissatisfaction here... ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 84 Mon Aug 31, 1992 J.LEMLEY [Jack] at 00:13 EDT Hi All, I've got the opportunity to purchase a copy of Mega Check for a very reasonable price. Don't know the version number. What will the upgrade cost to 2.0 be? and when will the upgrade be shipping? Thanks Jack ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 85 Mon Sep 07, 1992 C.MULLER3 at 15:35 EDT Jack, We are still working on version 2.0. It is absolutely phonomenal (sp?)! The upgrade price from version 1 will be $29. The purchase price of version 2 will be $99. Our UNOFFICIAL release date for version 2 is November 1st, 1992. We'd like to put the program through an entire month of testing, but if we can get a few extra testers we may be able to cut that down. - Chris PS - the $29 upgrade fee INCLUDES a brand new 3-ring manual with a COMPLETE tutorial and a nice slip case to shelf the whole thing. Very attractive! ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 86 Wed Sep 09, 1992 D.GROSS1 [Dave G.] at 19:52 EDT Chris, WWHHAAAAAA!!! Nov. 1...we want it now!!! The upgrade fee seems pretty fair...need any more beta testers <g>??? dave Gross ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 87 Sun Sep 20, 1992 C.MULLER3 at 22:42 EDT Well, I'm very excited to announce that MEGA-Check 2 will have M U L T I - T A S K I N G ! ! ! That's right! The despite the sophistication of the report generator (uh, that's the NEW REPORT GENERATOR) ALL reports in MEGA-Check 2, regardless of their complexity, will be generated in the background. You will be able to enter records, view other reports, even perform database updates or balance your checkbook! The only thing you can't do, of course, is attempt to modify the report currently being generated with the report generator (because the file format of the report file is already defined and open, and it can't be changed while the print is in progress. It can, of course, be changed AFTER the print is complete). All reports are completely generated before they are printed to the screen, and the method of viewing them on the screen is in a scrollable window. Despite this, the text of the report DOES NOT, repeat, DOES NOT eat up your memory! That's because the reports are actually stored in temporary file that is accessed RANDOMLY. As your scrolling down through the report window, you may notice that your drive light lights up momentarily. That's because it is bringing in the next block of report lines into the Atari's disk I/O buffer. Of course, reports can also printed to an ASCII file or to your printer WITH PRINTER CODES (e.g. bold, italic, underlining, proper page breaks...) either automatically OR ONLY after you've had a chance to view it and make sure everything looks o.k. Oh, the report window view is also W.Y.S.I.W.Y.G., meaning all the underlining and bolding and italicing appears on the screen also. It can even be "Zoomed-in" or "Zoomed-out" to see more or less of it... Without a doubt, the report generator in MEGA-Check 2 was the most diffi- cult to code, but it has been worth it. I doubt you'll find any report generator that even comes close, ANYWHERE! - Chris ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 88 Mon Sep 21, 1992 B.GOCKLEY [Brian G.] at 22:40 EDT Yikes! Will it Multitask with MultiTOS? Brian D Gockley ST Informer ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 89 Wed Sep 23, 1992 TOWNS [John@Atari] at 00:11 EDT Wow, Chris.. you have been busy haven't you? Do you need a TT 1280x960 MultiTOS Beta-Tester? <grin> -- John ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 90 Wed Sep 23, 1992 D.GROSS1 [Dave G.] at 01:15 EDT Chris, OOhhh, AAAhhh...I'm anxiously awaiting the arival of MEGA CHECK 2. I'll be glad to put it through it's paces in the studio for you! Dave ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 91 Thu Sep 24, 1992 C.MULLER3 at 23:48 EDT Brian, I have no idea... Is there a such thing as MultiTOS yet? John, Well, I guess that might be helpful. Our deadline is very quickly charging us head on and testing with machines/OS's that we don't have will probably be pretty time consuming. I *DO* plan to support all resolutions at the first release, but I have *NO* information on Multi-TOS. All I know is that you CAN operate any other portion of MEGA-Check while reports are being generated in the background INCLUDING your accessories (if they are GEM "event" driven, which most are). From a user perspective, how does Multi-TOS work, are the programs that you are multi-tasking available from the accessory bar, kind of lik e that other "multi-tasking" thing that Rimik was distributing? (though I'm sure it will work much better than that one...) Thanks, Chris ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 92 Sat Sep 26, 1992 K.BROOKS1 [New Horizon] at 02:03 EDT Ooooooh! Chris..... I want! I use Quicken for the Mac using Spectre. Cost us $49.00 Canadian ($40 US) and works GREAT. Sounds like MegaChek will match or beat it except in price. Sure you can't get the price down a bit? Although, I guess with the market potential of Atari vs Macintosh, price might have to be higher for us. That aside, do you need another beta tester?/???? If not, will Pacific be carrying it? EMail me the dealer pricing please! Have been waiting for this awhile. Keith New Horizon EMail KBROOKS1 ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 94 Mon Sep 28, 1992 C.MULLER3 at 01:48 EDT Keith, The CURRENT version of MEGA-Check is already cheaper than Quicken, and in a lot of ways, a better product. There are a couple of things (like Checkfree) that Quicken does that MEGA-Check doesn't, but version 2 is so far above Quicken 5.0 that it will be worth the extra dough, if you want the best finance tracker. Unfortunately, the price of $99 is pretty set, mainly due to the ENOURMOUS amount of work that has gone into it. There is not a single detail overlooked in this version and I feel that it is congruous with the price of most other high-end finance packages. Pacific has been carrying the original MEGA-Check for quite some time. If you are a dealer, you can obtain from them. Most dealers carry version 1 right now, we're confident that this will carry over to version 2. We have a lot of offers for beta-testers, thank you very much. Please let me know what system you have and I'll E-Mail you if you can help. thanks, Chris ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 95 Tue Sep 29, 1992 D.GROSS1 [Dave G.] at 00:22 EDT Chris, I've got 4 megs in my 1040 with tos 1.4 and a 52 meg hd...I'd still like to try to put MEGA 2 through it's paces running the recording studio...I'm also the treasurer for the Orlando Area Advertising Federation...I'd like to try to set up an account for it on Mega 2.. Dave gross ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 96 Tue Oct 13, 1992 C.MULLER3 at 01:10 EDT Well, I'm ready to create some printer drivers and can use your help. I need to know the codes your printer needs to perform the following functions: Turn on Underlining Turn off underlining Turn on bold Turn off bold Turn on italic Turn off italic Skip to next page This is a total of 7 codes. Usually (at least for Epson compatibles, this code starts with an Escape code (dec 27). You can give them to me in ASCII, hex or decimal. For every printer that I get a response for, a printer driver will be created and included with the commercial package. All other printers will need to use the built-in "Printer Configuration" panel where a driver can be created by just entering the values I'm requesting now. Thanks a lot, - Chris PS - I currently have values for Epson 9-pin printers and the HP DeskJet 500. I need them for HP Laser, Atari laser, and any others you all might have. Thanks again. ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 97 Wed Oct 14, 1992 R.NOAK at 07:44 EDT Chris, Here is the info for the HP IIIP: Turn on Underlining: 027 038 100 048 068 (100) Turn on Bold: 027 040 115 051 066 (98) Turn on Italic: 027 040 115 049 083 (115) Skip to next page: 027 038 108 048 072 (104) Turn off underlining: 027 038 100 064 Turn off bold & Italic (normal text): 027 040 115 048 083 (115) Hope that helps. Randy @ Southlake, Inc. ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 98 Wed Oct 14, 1992 D.GROSS1 [Dave G.] at 17:41 EDT Chris, I've got a Panasonic KX1123...I looked through the book and couldn't really find much...From what I understand, it EPSON 950 compatable...don't know what that means...hope it helps anyway...LOOKING FORWARD TO THE UPGRADE!!!! ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 100 Thu Oct 15, 1992 TOWNS [John@Atari] at 18:44 EDT Any chance for GDOS support? I would be willing to help.. -- John ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 101 Thu Oct 15, 1992 K.BROOKS1 [New Horizon] at 21:30 EDT Yeah! Gimme MegaChek with the ability to use my FSM! Way to go John!!! Keith New Horizon ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 102 Mon Oct 19, 1992 C.MULLER3 at 00:08 EDT Randy, Thanks, we'll include a IIIP driver... Jim Moses, yes, your order shipped out last week. You should get it any day if not already... John and Keith, GDOS won't be supported in the intial release, but we'll consider it if we get enough requests. For the most part, if you want to use various fonts, etc. you should import the report into a page layout program to get the full use of all of its capabilities. MEGA-Check reports are designed to provde INFORMATION in an easy to read format, not a document that looked like it was produced with a DTP program... Thanks, Chris ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 104 Sun Oct 25, 1992 J.LEMLEY [Jack] at 17:11 EST Hi All! I've been away for 6 weeks. What's the status of Megacheck 2 and what will the upgrade cost from version 1.2 be? Thanks Jack ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 105 Mon Oct 26, 1992 C.MULLER3 at 01:25 EST Hi Jack, The status of version 2 is "very close". I told everyone a while back that Nov. 1st would be the release date. I am now sure that that is a little optimistic for release. That will more-likely be the date for the start of beta-testing, which will probably take a couple of weeks. But we should still be able to make the middle of November. It defnitely looks very good and I promise everyone that the wait will be more than worth it. As promised, we will keep the upgrade price *very low* (I'm almost losing my shirt on it). It will be $29 plus a small shipping fee. I'll try to keep everyone updated on my progress, but I'm trying to spend 100% of my time getting it out the door. - Chris ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 106 Sat Nov 07, 1992 C.MULLER3 at 00:50 EST Another nice feature of MEGA-Check 2: Whenever models are activated, MC2 can be set to ask you questions (which YOU define) that will prompt you for various inputs to that model. For example, say there is a report that you like to look at on a regular basis. Well, with version 1 you create the report and your selection criteria (say you create it for a specific month) and you save the report model. But if you want to see the same report for a DIFFERENT month, you have to select the report, go into your Select Records panel and change the criteria and then print the report. Well, with version 2 that stuff is all changed. Now you can set it to ASK you for whatever it is you want whatever month you want the report for. So when you select the report, a box appears asking you, you simply type the answer and that's what you get. Multiple questions can be asked for a report too. There are now FIVE model types instead of just three. And each of the five types supports this dynamic querying facility. Each type also supports a single alarm system, where in version one, only two of the model types supported their own alarm system. Progress has been good, though I'm afraid that Nov. 15th is still too optimistic. Its done enough that I've converted my version 1 file over and am now using it to track the company, but it still isn't ready for you guys. I still have to "fill in the cracks", so to speak. I'll try to keep you all updated. - Chris ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 107 Sat Nov 07, 1992 J.MOSES2 [moses] at 11:38 EST Chris, Keep it going!! I got M-Check a couple of weeks and LOVE it. The flexible structuring is terrific - something I haven't seen anywhere else,i.e. Quicken, Tobias,etc. Looking forward to 2. Jim ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 108 Mon Nov 09, 1992 C.MULLER3 at 01:53 EST Glad you like version 1. I think I'd have a little trouble going back to it now that I've been on version 2. Oh, unless there is a big complaint about it, I think the conversion process from version 1 to version 2 data files will be a two step process. First, you will have to load in a model file into version 1 (using "Load Models only") and execute a model that I have set up. Then you will use the "Import" function on version 2 to simply import this file. This is a much "safer" way than a simple file conversion because it assures that all of your data gets past all of the "edits" (checks for valid data) in version 2. Theoretically, there shouldn't be any problems with a simple conversion, but this way is a lot safer. And its something that you'll only have to do once. I hope that everyone will be doing it very soon. I'm sorry to say that the program is still not totally complete, but unit testing has been going very well. We'd rather release a solid product a little late than one riddled with bugs. It will save you AND us time and headaches. Thanks, everyone, for you patience. - Chris ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 109 Tue Nov 17, 1992 J.PERRY13 [John Perry] at 19:15 EST I'm looking for a new financial program for my Mega STe. I have been using PHA$AR for the past year (and have enjoyed it alot!); there is, however, one feature that I'd really like to have. I'm not sure if this is "double entry" bookkeeping that I'm refering to, but I'll describe it as best I can and maybe someone will be able to help me out. I want to deal with each of my expense categories as "accounts." I hope to be able to PRE-DESIGNATE money for each expense. This way, if I have a big expense (let's say my car breaks) and all the money I had designated to the "Car Repair" account is gone, I need to TRANSFER money from another account that I have a little extra in (maybe "Home Improvement" or something like that) TO my "Car Repair" account. What I want is a way to pre-assign our funds into various accounts (Home Improvement, Car Repair, Entertainment, etc.). The catch with that system is how to make it compatible with my bank. I didn't physically transfer money from my chequing account to "Car Repair" or "Groceries" accounts, so this might create a problem when it comes time to reconcile my bank account. Does MEGA-Check (or any other package for the ST) do this? I hope its clear what I'm trying to say; if it's not please ask and I'll try again. Thanks. ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 110 Sun Nov 22, 1992 C.MULLER3 at 18:06 EST John, yes, I think I follow you. It sounds like you are allocating money to separate logical accounts, even though it resides in only one physical account. That is peanuts for MEGA-Check. In fact, if you want to make a monthly contribution to one of your expense accounts (rather than one big one at the beginning of the year) MEGA-Check will handle the transfers AUTOMATICALLY. If you go over one month, it will get a "nega- tive" balance, but the next automatic contribution would bring it back up to positive (HOPEFULLY!). This doesn't create any balancing problems since the money is still in your Checking account. Chris ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 111 Sun Nov 22, 1992 C.MULLER3 at 18:13 EST Well, I had a little fire here last week. I was lucky. Only did about a grand in damage, but it is a pain in the butt. MEGA-Check 2 should be starting beta-testing this week. We checked memory consumption last week and it definitely will not run on a 512K machine unless we have time to split the initialization into a separate module. HOwever, that will make it impossible to do a "New" on a file, so I am going to have to weight that... The only other questions that we're tryiong to answer are what to do when two models activated at the same time are in conflict. There are a lot of possible combinations and some cause problems stepping on each other. For example, the report generator can only generate one report at a time, so if another report is selected at the time one is being generated, you won't be able to. You'll be able to select any detail line in a report and bring it up on the Entry Panel for editing, or, even better, select multiple detail records and put them through a global change (this is great for balancing your checkbook, you just select all the checks that have cleared and then click on "Change" and it tells you the balance on your bank statement). Well more later, Chris ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 112 Fri Dec 04, 1992 C.MULLER3 at 01:47 EST Well, everything seems to be in place and beta-testing is going well on everything except the report generator. Some of its special features are still in need of some cleaning up (but it works for the most part) and I'm still going to add some special report components. This is pretty easy to do since all of the available report components are defined in an internal table in the program and it is pretty much just a matter of adding a line to that table and writing the small section of code to support it. Averages and continuous averages for any account will be in there, and are proving to be a little challenge. Back to work... - Chris ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 113 Sun Dec 06, 1992 D.GROSS1 [Dave G.] at 23:55 EST Chris, When you get an extra moment, please post a SHORT statement comparing the new features of MC II with other programs like Quicken... Will you be posting a Demo version of II? Dave Gross ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 114 Mon Dec 07, 1992 C.MULLER3 at 02:05 EST Yes, there will be a demo, just like version 1. I'll post a fairly extensive list of features on version 2 shortly and possibly include a few comparisons to Quicken. Some people might think that that would be a comparison of Apples to Oranges, however, since MEGA-Check 2 is geared more toward double-entry accounting and Quicken seems to be positioned toward people who just want to balance there checkbooks, even though the program will do more. People who are looking for more power would probably lean toward an accounting package. Hopefully this weekend (the weekend of the 12th) I'll have time to do it. First priority is to get beta-testing completed. Later, Chris ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 115 Mon Dec 07, 1992 C.MULLER3 at 02:11 EST I will be contacting some of you who volunteered to beta-test soon. I really will need someone with a TT since we have enough ST testers. However, I am a little concerned that the TT version may end up needing to wait until GFA comes out with their 3.7 (due at the turn of the year) version of GFA. The current version that supports the TT, they claim, has bugs and is not reliable. Therefore I am not going to release the version compiled with 3.6 (the current TT compat version) mainly because if it starts crashing your machine due to a compiler error, I don't want to spend time looking into the problem and then find out that it was a compiler error all along. MC 2 is very modular and so far VERY stable. It is resolution independent, so when GFA comes out with their 3.7 (which may be even be within a couple of weeks) MC 2 will be immediately compiled to run on the TT. Later, Chris ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 116 Mon Dec 07, 1992 R.NOAK at 19:48 EST Chris, If you recall, I have a TT030. Randy @ Southlake, Inc. ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 117 Wed Dec 09, 1992 K.BROOKS1 [New Horizon] at 01:30 EST Me Too! Three of them including a TTM195. And I was here first, wasn't I?????????? Randy and I could beta it in tandem! Hey let's go for it!!!! Keith @ New Horizon ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 118 Thu Dec 10, 1992 C.MULLER3 at 00:39 EST Down boys! :) Both of you are on the list. I'll be contacting some of you HOPEFULLY within the next week. It'll be when I ca n no longer find anything taht needs to be added/fixed. I am realizing that I took a HUGE bite with this report generator. It is the only thing left that I'm finishing up (other than the help text of the help windows, which will be direct excerpts out of the manual, so I'm still waiting on Bob for those). Anyway, as far as the report generator goes it is AWESOME, but I'm glad reports are generated in the background because I've added so much that it is starting to bog just a little. Compiled version is more than twice as fast though... The only thing left to add is are some special report components including some special totalling and computational components. Something that is unique and really neat about MEGA-Check is that you can have a Total component be at the DETAIL level OR at the REPORT END level. That means if you use a total on each detail record, that it will give you the total THUS FAR (e.g. as far as that report line). The simplest example of what I'm trying to explain is to use the record count total. If you put this as a REPORT END level, it will simply give you the total number of transactions that were selected for that report. However, if you put it at the detail level you will get: 1 2 3 4 5 6 etc... Anyway, "average balances" and other stuff will work this way too. later, Chris ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 119 Fri Dec 11, 1992 K.BROOKS1 [New Horizon] at 01:27 EST OK CHRIS! Does this mean I can finally stop running to Macintosh Quicken to do the cheque book????? Keith ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 120 Sun Dec 13, 1992 C.MULLER3 at 23:57 EST Keith, of course! Well, report totals and sub-totals are finally working. The only thing left is to make make sure that your Account Table reports and Mailing List reports are working correctly (they're coded, but all testing has been with reporting from the Transaction table so far, that is, your check and ledger entries). Can't wait to get into production. "Real soon now..." - Chris ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 121 Thu Dec 31, 1992 J.MOSES2 [moses] at 22:45 EST Chris, I'm having a problem with some of my starting balances not showing up after entry - that is, the amounts don't show up on the record even though they are counted in the ledger??? Specifically, if I have an asset account for my home mortgage and credit it with $75000 then debit my Owner's equity account for the same amount, the record is accepted and proper totals show up when I list accounts, but no dollar figure shows up when paging thru records - just the account names. Any ideas? This makes it difficult to follow starting balances, to say the least. I didn't use a check # or amount - just selected the accounts to debit/credit and entered the amount in the first ledger field. Thanks, Jim ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 122 Sun Jan 03, 1993 C.MULLER3 at 17:44 EST Jim, Yes, you have hit a small bug in MC in which numbers that are as big as the size of the Ledger Amount field -1 (including three digits for the decimal point and cents), it won't show up on the Entry Panel. Can you leave your serial # to me in E-Mail (to make it easier to find you) and I'll send you a patched version. If you can live with it for just a little longer (version 2 does not exhibit this problem) then that is fine. It was never found in our original testing because no one here is rich enough to have such big numbers!!! :) It does take about an hour so let me know in GEmail... Chris ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 123 Tue Jan 05, 1993 J.MOSES2 [moses] at 20:56 EST Chris, Thanks for the quick reply! Unfortunately, the starting balances in question were mortgage figures (ouch) not income...but the fix will be welcome. I'm enjoying getting to know this program! It's pretty effortless. A couple of ideas.... how about including automatic principle/interest payment amounts to proper accounts for mortgage handling. That is, a mechanism to track the change in the size of the principle owed and interest paid based on terms of the mortgage? I think this would be helpful. Also, inclusion of tax tables for automatic payrol generation would make this a more useful product at the commercial level. Keep going! It's the most intuitive system I've seen so far ( I have Quicken, Moneycounts at work). ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 124 Sun Jan 10, 1993 C.MULLER3 at 23:34 EST MEGA-Check 2 MAY be able to handle the interest you are talking about. Specifically, for each account, you can specify what is called a "Growth/Depreciation Factor" that can be combined with a monthly trans action model (or whatever frequency of compounding you want) that will take the balance of that account at that time and debit or credit it by the Growth Factor times the balance. The simplest example application of this would be a simple 5% interest checking account. Say it is compounded monthly. Using the new Account Selector, specify a "Growth/Depreciation factor" of .00417 (which is simply .05/12). Then set up a transaction model which will simply debit this account using an asterisk character: 01/10/1993 Checking * Net Worth [leave blank] The asterisk will tell it to use the balance of the account*the Growth/ Depreciation factor as the ledger entry (leaving the Net Worth amount blank tells MEGA-Check to use the same amount that is computed on the top line). Does this make sense? If the balance of your checking is $1000, then it will automatically debit your checking account for $4.17 automatically this month. - Chris ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 125 Sun Jan 10, 1993 C.MULLER3 at 23:35 EST Well, I will be testing the other resolutions this week (actually just medium, I'll have to use our beta-testers to test in TT, but, as I said in an earlier message, it may not work at all on the TT... we'll see...) - Chris ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 126 Mon Jan 11, 1993 J.LEMLEY [Jack] at 20:16 EST Hi All! I have a 1.2x version of Mega Check and am very interested in version 2.0. What is the upgrade cost and anticipated release date? Thanks Jack BTW I'm a long time Phasar user but need more power! ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 127 Thu Jan 14, 1993 D.ALVEAR1 [Dom Alvear] at 04:16 EST Chris, I just purchased Mega-Check from somebody here on GEnie. I was wondering what the procedure would be to transfer the ownership? Also, what is the latest version? Dom ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 128 Mon Jan 18, 1993 C.MULLER3 at 00:47 EST Hi Jack, Version 2.0 is coming along very well. Alpha-testing has been going very smoothly, although I am going to have to make some adjustments to several of the dialogs to get it to look a little "cleaner" in medium resolution (some of the panel buttons are running up against other panel buttons due to the lower resolution). Have spent the last week fine-tuning medium res and I should have it wrapped up in the next couple of days. I must say that estimating projects is an art that I have yet to master because I have grossly underestimated the time required by version 2 when I said November 1st. Oh well, that seems to happen at a lot of companies. Anyway, I would say that a SAFE release would be first quarter of this year. The only thing is that Bob has had some unexpected duties come up that is going to disallow him from being able to continue working on the manual enough to get it completed on time. I am going to finish it and he will typeset it on Calamus SL. It will be printed on an HP LaserJet IV at 600 dpi (with Resolution Enhancement) which should make for a nice looking manual. One other thing, we will be closed from January 27th through February 7th, and will re-open February 8th. Oh, the tentative upgrade price is going to be $29 plus a small shipping fee, depending on how heavy the manual turns out, since that price does include the brand new 3-ring bound manual (with a slipcase like LDW Power) but will probably be about $5, so $34 with shipping. This price is practically set in stone. We have already looked into production costs and it looks like we'll be able to pull this off at the low $29. Hi Dom, Well, we have never had a transfer of ownership, but I suppose leave me an E- Mail message telling me who the previous owner was and I'll leave you instructions from there... - Chris ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 129 Mon Jan 25, 1993 C.MULLER3 at 01:24 EST Hi all, just taking a break to say that medium res took a lot of work to get to look exactly right, and still needs a few finishing touches. I hate to let this go with less than perfect cosmetics. Basically, just a few of the dialog buttons are too close together (i.e. edges touching) when scaled in medium res. Shouldn't take but another night or two to touch 'e'em up. I'll be leaving for Switzerland for 13 days Tuesday night. Looking forward to the trip a lot and hope to see one or two Atari's over there. At any rate, it will probably not delay the project any since Bob will be working (and hopefully finishing) the manual while I'm gone. I'm going to leave a copy of the program to my main beta-tester so that he'll have a list of bugs (hopefully he won't have any!) to fix when I come back. After that, I'll pass out a demo copy to others who requested to beta-test and, depending on how that all goes, will release the product a couple of weeks after that. We just got our HP LaserJet IV printer which will be printing our manuals at 600x600dpi, so it should look pretty decent. Later, Chris ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 130 Thu Jan 28, 1993 J.LEMLEY [Jack] at 19:55 EST Chris, RE: >...After that, I'll pass out a demo copy to others who requested to >beta-test and, depending on how that all goes, will ....... Does that mean I'll get a demo copy ha does it ha :-) please pretty please!!!! I'll send you the upgrade cost now if you want. Thanks Jack BTW I did request to beta for ya. ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 131 Sun Feb 07, 1993 J.MOSES2 [moses] at 13:04 EST Howdy! Haven't heard anything here for a while - what's up with Mega-check 2 and has that limitation in the income/deposit field been fixed? Thanks, Jim ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 132 Sun Feb 14, 1993 C.MULLER3 at 17:41 EST Sorry all, I just got back from Switzerland / Germany. Pretty neat over therethere. We are back in full swing now. A couple of new items. I will be taking over the manual at the end of this week and it will be transferred to a PC to finish it up (there just isn't very much support for the HP LaserJet IV on the Atari). There is quite a bit to be finished, however, so hopefully a month is pessimistic. I converted my financial file manually (from version 1.22) and still need to write a conversion program for the user. It'll be quick and dirty, with just a fileselector for input .MC file and a fileselector for the output .MC2 file. I hope to have that done in one night. I will add support for 600dpi of the LaserJet IV in MEGA-Check 2. The codes appear to be in the manual. Jack, I'll try and get you a demo copy this week. It would be VERY helpful (and save me some time) if you could distribute it to others who would like to beta-test so I won't have to find my list and do it. It may seem a little weird but I don't even have time to blink if I want to get thsi out by yesterday (duhhhh...). Jim Moses, Which limitation are you speaking of? The negative for deposits? Or the shortness of the field? Sorry, can you refresh my memory. BOTH of those are fixed. There are enough digits to make entries in the millions (99 million, if I remember correctly). Also, the negative sign is long gone. You don't even have to make deposits a check entry anymore. It will recognize a debit or credit to your checking account and allow you to get a running balance based on the ledger entries (rather than the just the Check Amount field). Sorry to be gone so long everybody. I'm back and hope to deliver you the Ultimate Ultimate Finance Manager "Real Soon Now". - Chris ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 133 Mon Feb 15, 1993 B.GOCKLEY [Brian G.] at 10:43 EST As far as I have heard, Calamus SL has a driver for the HP4, and the old HP3 driver in PageStream works very well. I believe that PageStream has just uploaded a new driver for the HP4 within the last few days. Good luck! Don't forget to breathe! Brian G. @ ST Informer ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 134 Tue Feb 16, 1993 J.LEMLEY [Jack] at 00:05 EST Chris, I'll be happy to get the demo to those who wish to help out! Those of you who have expressed an interest in beta testing this tremendous financial package for Chris please E-Msil me (J.LEMLEY). Chris please E-Mail me any particulars regarding distribution ie restrictions of the demo when you send the demo to me.. Thanks Jack BTW Glad to have you back!!!!! ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 135 Mon Feb 22, 1993 C.MULLER3 at 03:20 EST Brian, ok, thanks, I'll call Ditek this week... Jack, I'll leave you E-Mail soon. All, MEGA-Check 2 was requiring quite a bit of memory (about 800K) so tonight I got all of the internal "resource" information out of the program and into an external file. No reason to have that stuff take up memory twice. This should cut down memory consumption by at least a couple hundred K, I'm hoping. Haven't had a chance to recompile to check it yet. The new validation method is in place and I believe it is now complete enough to put into the hands of beta-testers. I want a limited number, I'll talk to Jack about it, since I can only fix bugs so fast. I' I'll get all of the required files together and a brief instruction .TXT file to him hopefully one night this week. I still haven't had a chance to finish the conversion program and I wanted you guys to be able to convert your existing files so you have some good sample data to work with. But I think the conversion program is only going to convert your accounts and I'll include a special Report for version 1 that will "export" your version 1 data to an ASCII file that will be Imported into version 2. Slower, but your data integrity will be higher, which is very important. It will also allow you to build your Classification and Associate lists as you import, rather than needing todo it all at once. that's all for now... - Chris ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 136 Wed Mar 03, 1993 C.MULLER3 at 00:34 EST Well, good news. The conversion program *WILL* convert your entire MEGA- Check version 1 file and still maintain complete data integrity. This took a little bit of doing but and the conversion takes a little longer (about 30 to 60 seconds per 100 transactions) but you'll only have to do it once, and it is much easier than creating an export file with MEGA-Check and then importing it into MEGA-Check 2. I have been personally doing the beta-testing and annihilating bugs left and right. It looks like they're pretty much out and its time for you beta- testers to start searching. You can do this while I'm finishing the manual. The '486 just came yesterday. Ditek said that the LaserJet IV driver won't be available for "a couple of weeks at least". So I'm going to import what Bob has done into Word and finish it there. I've also been working on creating some FREE modules (reports, update modules, etc.) that will come with the package. I have amazed myself at some of the "functionality" I can add by just using a little creativity with the module creator. Yet its all point and click! I still want to beta-test for another couple of nights and then it will take me one night to gather all of the files (data files, resource files, modules, conversion program, etc.) into one place and write the beta-tester a .TXT note. I want to keep the bug list short or non- existent from the beta- tester, that way I can concentrate 100% of my time on finishing the manual. Look for it next Sunday (March 7th). Also, can someone help me. I was thinking about distributing the files in DC Squish format. Since DC Squish is now public domain can I do this? Can someone find out and report back here? Thanks. Also, what do you guys think of getting a disk with DC Squished files on it? What about including the utility on the disk? Thanks, - Chris ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 137 Wed Mar 03, 1993 B.GOCKLEY [Brian G.] at 09:00 EST Great News Chris! Sounds like Mega Check has gotten a _host_ of new features. Has the interface changed, does it have the ability for several accounts to be tied together? How about MultiTOS and Falcon compatibility? Can it run across a network? Whew! That's quite a list of questions! Oh yeah, my favorite question: does it run on a 1280 x 960 monochrome screen? As far as DCSquish, I _think_ you could have distributed your files squished even when it was commercial. There was nothing in the manual that stated otherwise, was there? Now regarding including the Squisher itself, send email to K.GERDES and ask about whether it's PD or not. If it is, I would say definitely squish them, but include the squisher for those who want to unsquish them. Good luck, Brian G. @ ST Informer ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 138 Wed Mar 03, 1993 K.GERDES [TraceTech] at 19:50 EST Sorry Chris, you are mistaken. My program Squish (formerly distributed by DC) is not public domain, or "released in the public domain", as possibly inferred by that article. And the policy of restricted distribution of _squished_ executables is still in place. BTW, further info on Squish & Squish II is available in CAT2 TOP12. - Keith [TraceTech] ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 139 Thu Mar 04, 1993 E.WISNIEWSK1 [Jeff - ST'er] at 08:36 EST And yes it is/was/still is stated in the Squish docs that squished files cannot be distributed... ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^ JSW ^^^^ ^^^^ ST'er ^^^^ ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Thursday, March 4, 1993 - 8:25:42 am ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 140 Mon Mar 08, 1993 C.MULLER3 (Forwarded) OK Keith, thanks for setting me straight. Brian, The interface is roughly the same, with a few added enhancements. Accounts can be tied together in the same manner that they could in version 1, through a parent-child hierarchical relationship. Debits and Credits to children also affect the parents. I haven't tested it on a Falcon030 or under MultiTOS but the entire program DOES run in a window, so it might. But it does have a menu bar. I'll have to wait and see. Network? It doesn't directly support a network, but I see no reason you couldn't put it on a peer-to-peer. But only one person could work on a file at a time (which is true in many environments) since there would be "version" problems of that data file when people started saving over it. One thing that is neat about the new version is something I've been calling "Interactive model building". This is where models that have been previously defined can be dynamically modified by answering a series of questions that apply to your particular business or home finance situation. One common example would be a model which pays your utility bill, say your eleectric bill. It would probably be set up to activate automatically every month, but since it varies from month to month it would ask you, "How much was your electric bill this month?" And you would respond. It might then ask you, "What check # are you going to write it with?" if you keep different sets of check #'s (most people don't). Another example is on a report. Say you want to see a report of the performance of a particular investment you're in, so you press that report button. It might then ask you, "For what month do you want to see this report?". The neat thing is, YOU decide what part you want to be asked and you even decide HOW it asks you. Well, back to work. - Chris ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 141 Sat Mar 13, 1993 D.ALVEAR1 [Dom Alvear] at 04:43 EST To Keith Gerdes: Nice to hear from you! Which programs at DC were yours and which were not? And is Mike Vederman alive? Dom ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 142 Mon Mar 15, 1993 K.GERDES [TraceTech] at 19:22 EST Dom Alvear, Please see my reply in CAT2 TOP12... - Keith [TraceTech] ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 143 Mon Mar 29, 1993 C.MULLER3 at 02:09 EST Well, beta-testing is completed. Version 2 is VERY solid now. Crashes were eliminated a long time ago and now it looks like the data and operation of the program is correct in every way. We have been running Muller Automation off of it for the last few months, which has been a very good test of it. The manual is almost completed. I'll be putting together an upgrade "newsletter" very shortly to all registered owners and uploading the demo here. Most of the "interactive models" (which provide a "question/answer" operation of MEGA-Check 2) that I wanted to include with the package are done. I'm thinking about adding a couple more. If you want to multi-task, you'll definitely be better off with an accelerator of some kind, MEGA-Check 2 will tax a stock ST to the max by running a complex report in the background (especially investment comparisons!). But you can still do it and it IS usable when generating a report, even on a stock ST. Look for it soon! - Chris ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 144 Wed Apr 14, 1993 C.MULLER3 at 01:16 EDT Well, we will officially be taking orders for MEGA-Check 2 starting May 1st At that time, all registered users will receive a newsletter detailing some of the new enhancements. A demo will be uploaded the weekend of the 24th. Look for it! - Chris ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 145 Thu Apr 15, 1993 K.BROOKS1 [New Horizon] at 00:59 EDT But Chris, is it going to run on a TT? Keith New Horizon ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 146 Sat Apr 17, 1993 C.MULLER3 at 16:16 EDT It will definitely *run* on a TT. The question of whether it will run in TT medium remains to be answered. MEGA-Check 2 is 100% resolution independent, so the only thing that would stop it from working is if the compiler can't generate code that works on the TT. GFA says it "may or may not" work, depending on the things the program does. I feel fairly confident since we're not doing anything very low-level. If anyone as a TT out there, I'd be happy to send you a demo if you'll report the results back to me in GEmail (not here, yet. I'd like to have at least one crack at fixing any problems, if there are any). GFA said that the 3.7 compiler *will* support the TT resolutions directly, so when it comes out all we'll need to do is recompile it and it should work no problems. The majority of our users are ST owners. I think I don't even remember more than 5 or so registration cards coming back that were TT owners (where do they get them?). At any rate, TT owners will be able to test the demo on their machines before they buy. - Chris ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 147 Sat Apr 17, 1993 K.HEINRICHS [K.Heinrichs] at 22:55 EDT C.Muller3, If you are looking for someone to test MEGA-Check 2 on the TT, I would be willing to give it a try. My present setup is a TT030 w/3.06 TOS, 4 meg of ST and 4 of TT RAM. Although I have the PTC1426 color monitor, I have the TTM195 Monochrome hooked up 99% of the time. I have been using another program that works in the TT High mode with parts of the display not showing on the screen and would like to find something that was compatible with that mode. BTW I have been meaning to checkout the earlier version but was unable to find a demo here. K.Heinrichs ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 148 Mon Apr 19, 1993 C.MULLER3 at 01:34 EDT K.Heinrichs, OK, the demo will be up by April 25th. I may upload it sooner. I am just getting all of the files together and typing up the README's etc. Leave me some mail if you have any problems with running it on your TT and I'll look into them. The demo of version 1 is called MEGACHEK.LZH and is in the demos library the last time I looked. I'll check again and make sure its still there. I'll give you the file number. later, Chris ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 149 Mon Apr 19, 1993 C.MULLER3 at 01:36 EDT The file number for version 1 of MEGA-Check is 23143. ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 150 Mon Apr 19, 1993 B.GOCKLEY [Brian G.] at 11:10 EDT Hi Chris, glad to hear the upgrade is done, I can't wait to see it. Brian G. @ ST Informer Magazine (Thanks for all your work) ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 151 Sat Apr 24, 1993 A.B.SMITH [Barry] at 06:01 EDT Chris- Glad to hear that the upgrade is doing well. Can I send my upgrade funds now? If so, how much? We have this years business books well established on your system and like it. I expect that this data will be readily convertible to the upgrade? Thanks. - Barry ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 153 Sat May 01, 1993 C.MULLER3 at 16:51 EDT Well, after two and a half years of blood, sweat and tears, Muller Automation is proud to announce the immediately availability of MEGA-Check 2, the Ultimate Ultimate Finance Manager. This program is sure to provide all the power you'll need to track any of your personal, investment or business enterprises for years to come, all under an easy-to-use GEM interface. - Never forget another important bill, transfer or financial report with the built-in Alarm/Scheduler. - Fully automated checkbook balancing - Print checks on any printer - Automatic warning whenever any account balance gets too high or too low. (Never incur another bank service charge, or, for investors, set auto- matic "stop loss" points for your speculative investments). - Track "hypothetical" investments and run side by side comparisons to real life investments. - "Extended Notes" is available to let you enter long descriptions of each of your transactions (up to eight lines). - Keep track of all of your names, addresses, phone and other info on all clients, suppliers, customers, creditors and other associates. Associates can be added, changed or deleted at any time using the built-in "Associate Selector," similar to the GEM fileselector you're used to. - MEGA-Check 2 gives you THE most powerful report generator of ANY finance manager for the Atari (probably for other computers too!). Any report definition can be saved to be printed later, and any report can be "interactive" allowing it to be customized on the fly by simply answering one or more PLAIN ENGLISH questions. - And don't worry about having your computer tied up while MEGA-Check 2 generates a complex report because we've also included MULTITASKING! That's right, all MEGA-Check 2 reports are generated in the back- ground, allowing you to continue to enter transactinos, view other reports, balance your checkbook, or use any of your desk accessories. - Online context sensitive help is available at all times by pressing the HELP key. Almost the entire manual has been put online with a full help index to take you quickly to any topic you need help on. Of course, we're always here to answer your questions too. - A 140+ page manual complete with a "How Do I...?" section that talks you through, step-by-step exactly how to perform various real life operations. MEGA-Check 2 will run on any ST or TT with at least 1MB of RAM, a hard disk is recommended, but not required. ALL THIS FOR ONLY $99.95!!! (+$5 shipping) Owners of the original MEGA-Check may upgrade for an unheard of $29 (+$5 shipping). All registered owners will receive a brochure with an order form very soon. The demo is in the demos library, file #28595. If you have any questions, we can be reached via the following: GEnie: C.MULLER3 or Page 475, Category 6, Topic 6 Phone: 816-322-4919 Mail: #5 3rd Ave. Belton, MO 64012 We hope you enjoy this state-of-the-art program as much as we do. - Chris ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 154 Sun May 02, 1993 M.STEFANI [MCH] at 21:52 EDT Chris: Congratulations! Just downloaded the MEGA-Check 2 demo and the improvements/enhancements over the original version are really impressive! I've been using MEGA-Check for only about 5-6 months now, but it has become my favorite financial program, hands down. Hard to believe you could improve a product this good but I can't wait for the upgrade. I know, according to past posts, that the manual was somewhat of a struggle. Putting it within easy access via the program's help is a great idea! Looking forward to receiving the upgrade brochure. Mark Stefani ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 155 Tue May 04, 1993 C.MULLER3 at 00:19 EDT Thanks Mark, Glad to hear that all that work is going to make someone happy. It sure has been great for me to aid in my own financial business. The upgrade brochures are all printed and their at the print shop being FOLDED (tri-fold deal) and will be done tomorrow. I plan to mail them all out Wednesday. Attention TT users, It has been brought to my attention that MEGA-Check 2 DOES have some problems in TT high-res. I'll take a look at the code but we don't currently have a way to test this in house. Also, as I've said before, the current version of GFA doesn't support the TT resolutions, so correcting any code may not help anyway until the new version is avail- able (IF it becomes available, they've been promising for quite a while, but, then again, I've got no room to talk...). It does seem to run fine in the ST resolutions on the TT, however, so you can drop to those resolutions for the time being (ST mono is the best, for sure). - Chris ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 156 Wed May 05, 1993 H.SCHEIE [HALS] at 21:47 EDT I bought mega-check from you about a year ago I don't remember if I sent a card in or not. Are all direct sales automatically regestered? Hal ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 157 Thu May 06, 1993 K.BROOKS1 [New Horizon] at 01:30 EDT HeyHo Chris! Doesn't run on a TT without 24BIT.PRG running first and only in ST mode. Back to Quicken I guess..... Keith Brooks New Horizon ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 158 Tue May 11, 1993 C.MULLER3 at 01:16 EDT Hal, yes, if you purchased directly from us then you have a registered copy and a card was not included. You should be getting a brochure detailing the new version. Let me know if you don't get it in the next couple of days (say by Thursday) since they all went out last Sat. To upgrade, you need only fill in your serial # on the order form (no need to send in the original disk). - Chris ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 159 Tue May 11, 1993 C.MULLER3 at 01:53 EDT Oops! Looks like an old version of the CONVERT.PRG, the program which converts your MEGA-Check version 1 files to version 2 was included in the demo. I just uploaded the real version, file #28705. Run this program if you want to see how MEGA-Check 2's new report generator can tell you all kinds of things about your finances that version 1's couldn't. - Chris ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 160 Sat May 15, 1993 A.B.SMITH [Barry] at 06:02 EDT Chris- Got my mailing concerning MC 2 this week. My upgrade funds will be in the mail today. As the latest messages scrolled by I thought I saw some thing about a CONVERT,PRG. I assume tghis will convert my current entries to the new format? Sounds great! Thanks. - Barry ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 161 Mon May 17, 1993 C.MULLER3 at 01:34 EDT Yes Barry, a program called CONVERT.PRG is included with the upgrade to allow you to easily convert your version 1 files to version 2. It only has to be done once, after which you can just load them directly into version 2. On the first upload of the demo, an old alpha version of the conversion program got included, which had a couple of bugs. The new CONVERT.PRG I uploaded is the correct version. Later, - Chris ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 162 Sat May 22, 1993 J.LEMLEY [Jack] at 01:20 EDT Chris, What service!!!!!! I got my upgrade thursday and am studying the manual. Nice Job!!!! Thanks Jack BTW Are you sure you couldn't have thrown in the kitchen sink ;-) This program has everything ELSE. ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 165 Wed May 26, 1993 C.MULLER3 at 02:55 EDT Had a call from someone with a slight problem w/ TOS 1.2. I think I found it and sent him out a new copy, but would anyone else having any compatibility probs, please let me know. I also have worked on adding a few report components and plan to add a few more and release version 2.1 in the near future. - Chris ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 166 Sat May 29, 1993 A.B.SMITH [Barry] at 06:14 EDT Chris- Got your package and have been reading the manual this week before trying it. I want to make sure the data conversion goes smoothly. Looks like a great effort and I guess today we'll give it a real try. Thanks. - Barry ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 167 Sun May 30, 1993 A.B.SMITH [Barry] at 13:35 EDT Chris- Well we got started with MC II yesterday and it was relatively painless getting used to the new format. Couple of questions: 1) Is there a simple key combination to skip through the unused ledger slots on the entry panel to get to the check entry fields below? I tried several cominations of Shift keys and the down arrow but didn't come up with anything. 2) MC I had a nice feature for printing out a list of accounts with their respective balances beside them. I haven't come across this feature in MC II. Is it there? 3) I've got to fool with this report generating stuff a lot more. I never really understood it in the short time that we used MC I. This operation in MC II has really got me baffled. I'm probably just making it to difficult. I'll RTM somemore and fool with the sample and see if I can get it through my thick head. A great job, Chris, and I like the new feature for a listing of associates as a data base. Looks great. ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 168 Sun May 30, 1993 C.MULLER3 at 20:50 EDT Hi Barry, 1) Yes, you can skip to each new "section" on the Entry Panel by pressing CONTROL+RETURN. You can bet that someone as impatient as myself wouldn't tolerate having to tab down through all of those ledger fields. It *is* in the manual, buried on page 12, in the last Entry in that table. 2) Yes, you can print that list of accounts, as well as much more sophisticated Account Table reports. You need to define a report using the Create/Edit Report... option under the Report menu. I know you have been shying away from that but it really would be to your advantage to jump in and learn it. As a matter of fact, the Account List report that you want would be an *excellent* way to learn it. If you need any help, please don't hesitate to call and I can talk you through it, step by step. You can also look on page 128 of the manual and there are step by step instructions for creating another kind of report. 1 - 2 - 3. Hope this helps. Again, please call anytime if you want. - Chris ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 171 Sun Jun 06, 1993 C.MULLER3 at 23:04 EDT A new version of MEGA-Check 2 is about to be uploaded to the demos library.. It adds some report components, enhances compatibility with very old versions of TOS and fixes a couple of bugs in 2.0. The help files have not changed, however. ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 172 Sun Jun 13, 1993 P.NEREO [Philip] at 02:02 EDT I'm very intrigued by what I could see of this program and would like to play with the demo and possibly purchase it for keeping the books of my small business. 1) The demo of v2.0 doesn't seem to work on my Moniterm monitor. Does the full program? 2) How suitable is the program for keeping the books of a business? ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 173 Tue Jun 15, 1993 M.SKIPPER1 [SKIPPER] at 07:10 EDT I can't get your demo to run. I followed the instructions in read me and even moved it to drive A trying to get it to work. The program loads and draws the first screen with two bombs in it and then kicks me back to the desk top. Am I doing something wrong or is there a problem with the demo? Miachel Skipper ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 174 Tue Jun 22, 1993 C.MULLER3 at 02:45 EDT Philip, Right now ST Medium and High are the only two resolutions supported. We coded to be resolution independent but we have discovered that it takes more than just positioning your dialogs differently etc. TT medium is on the list. Currently there are no plans to support the Moniterm, however. As for keeping books, it has been perfect for running Muller Automation. The best thing is that you can make changes so easily. Even if you decide you wanted to structure your accounts differently, its no problem. Thanks for your interest! - Chris ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 175 Tue Jun 22, 1993 C.MULLER3 at 02:48 EDT Skipper, We have had another guy with a problem and I think it's his version of TOS. Do you know what version you have? 1.2 has problems but we already have a fix on its way to our new TOS 1.2 beta-tester. Look for 2.03 later this week. - Chris ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 176 Tue Jun 22, 1993 M.SKIPPER1 [SKIPPER] at 21:50 EDT Chris I am trying to run your demo on a TT030 with TOS 3.05. I have 4 Meg of fast ram and 4 of slow ram. I have tried to run the program in all five resolutions. I still get two bombs and back to the desk top. I copied all the HLP files into the HELPLIB folder and still get the same results. Thanks Miachel Skipper ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 177 Wed Jun 23, 1993 A.FASOLDT [Al Fasoldt] at 07:05 EDT Skipper, Make sure the fast-load bit is off when you try to run MEGA-Check. Al ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 178 Wed Jun 23, 1993 R.WHITTAM at 22:04 EDT WHERE is the MEGA CHECK demo? WHAT library, WHAT number? Does it run on an classic ST? What are the RAM an Storage requirements? Can I interface with CHECK*FREE? Will it produce NACHA formatted files? Do you have a NACHA Payroll (PPD/CCD) product in the works? Ron ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 179 Fri Jun 25, 1993 C.MULLER3 at 02:28 EDT Skipper, 2.03 is done and it fixes a lock up problem with old TOS's but your TOS should be fine. As a matter of fact, the problem with the old TOS's wasn't bombs, it was a lock up. I'm not sure what is happening I'll be uploading version 2.03 this weekend so you might give that a try. We have others running MEGA-Check 2 on their TT's (in the ST resolutions) and haven't heard any problem reports yet. It could be that something happened in the download or something. Let me know if 2.03 still gives you problems. You shouldn't need to set the Fastload bit off, I always have it turned on on my machine and it works fine. Sounds like it might be something else. 2.02 has problems running on TOS 1.0 and 1.2. For some reason, they can't handle the WIND_UPDATE calls I was doing to make accessory handling better. But disabling those on the old TOS versions has cleared up the problem and 2.03 will be uploaded in the next couple of days. The new file will be in library 10 (demos) of page 475. You can do a search (using option 3) for files uploaded by me (C.MULLER3) and it will take you right to it. MEGA-Check 2 will not interface with Checkfree. I have never heard of NACHA. Unless the file format can be done in complete ASCII MEGA-Check 2 cannot create these files. If they are in ASCII it should be no problem, but you'll have to know the format and use the report generator to create them. Oops. All of these paragraphs are not addressed to you Skipper. Only the first two. The third one is addressed to Al and the remaining ones are addressed to R.WHITTAM. - Chris ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 180 Sat Jun 26, 1993 R.WHITTAM at 01:07 EDT Chris, NACHA: National Automated Clearing House Association. The file is ASCII on PC's and converted to EPCDIC on IBM mainframes. It has a variety of record types: File header, batch header, transaction record, addendum record, batch trailer, file trailer. (the file trailers have a HASH number for verification). You should be able to research this at any respectible library...in the banking/electronic funds section. NACHA files are used by many business to do PRE-PAID DEPOSITS (PPD) that pay their employees directly to any bank account they have anywhere in the federal reserve system. Banks can accept any NACHA file with proper authorization. Although PPD has been a luxury of Large Corporations, the home PC makes in available to small businesses as well. While it might not be cost effective for employers with 1 or 2 employees, it would be for those of 10 or more. You could check with your local bank (and their data center) as to what would be required in a NACHA format for them. Many of them offer (sell) PC software to do this via modem or diskette delivery. However, they don't really care what "makes" the file, as long as it follows proper NACHA format and has proper authorization. It might be something worth looking into to make MEGA-Check a handy tool for small business with a payroll. However, maybe you could put together a payroll program that does this. I have been working on one for about a year in "C", but I have only been programming for about that long too. I have a front end, but I am still working on the internal database engine to make it work with the input. Having made MEGA-Check, you are light-years ahead of a novice like me. Thanks for the info on the location of the DEMO. I am also a novice on GEnie. Ron Whittam Atari Boise User Group President '93 ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 181 Sun Jun 27, 1993 C.MULLER3 at 21:43 EDT I'm about to upload version 2.03 of MEGA-Check 2, which essentially just corrects a lock up problem that occurred in old TOS's. It may also cure the problem that some people were having on their TT's. Unless you have had lock up problems, there probably isn't enough benefit in the new version over 2.02 to warrant downloading it. - Chris ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 182 Sun Jun 27, 1993 C.MULLER3 at 21:45 EDT Ron, Thanks for the info. That will prove to be interesting reading. I can't make any promises on whether we'll support it or not though. - Chris ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 183 Sat Jul 10, 1993 C.MULLER3 at 00:46 EDT Thanks to Tim Hebel for finding the fastload bit details and the requirements for MEGA-Check 2. I wanted to share what he reported to me in E-Mail with everybody. I usually change Fastload and such flags using the FILE INFO Config CPX. This CPX had TT RAM(Mem), TTRAM(Prog), and fastload options greyed out. So I figured I could not adjust them on your program as I had on others. I read all of the Mega Check Messages on GEnie and I saw that one person had similar problems with the two bombs thing. The recommended action by another user was to turn off the fastload bit. So I tried using NEOdesk to look at the file and its "show info" allowed me to change those three bits on the file (Fastload, TTmem, TTprg). After trying all combinations I found that the program WILL run with fast load and TTmem bits set, but not with the program in TT RAM. Sorry for any confusion earlier about the fastload bit setting. - Chris ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 184 Sun Jul 11, 1993 T.HEBEL [Spud Boy] at 20:18 EDT Who is printing Laser Checks using MC 2.03? I used to use Quicken and I am trying to use Quicken Laser Checks. If you are printing checks out could you please E-mail (or just plain upload) the configuration. I am having problems using the report maker <grin>. Thanks in advance. Tim ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 185 Mon Jul 12, 1993 C.MULLER3 at 01:12 EDT What sort of problems Spud Boy? ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 186 Mon Jul 12, 1993 T.HEBEL [Spud Boy] at 21:48 EDT I am having problems in the report editor. It is difficult to work in. It might just be a TT thing, but the components don't automatically deselect themselves when you finish moving them. I realize the menu bar tells you how many items are selected, but sometimes things are selected and not highlighted on the screen. (I am running in ST high, BTW). It seems that I always have to unselect the last thing I worked with. Also I am having problems with the [LGAL] command. It always defaults to 90 characters (which is too big) and when I lower the length from the pop up menu (the one you get from right clicking on it) to say 75, the length will snap to some other value (49 or 50). Also after about 15 minutes of clicking and dragging it sometimes will draw the zones off of the "page" even though I did not put them there. Occasionally the zone will even disappear. What I am getting at is that the report generator seems a bit finicky. When I try to print from the screen to do the checks it seems that I get different results each time. IE if I move a line down two rows to put it on the right spot on the check it doesn't go there if I have the report generated to the screen and then use the print function. So I tried to generate a report directly to the printer and I get bombs and the program quits to desktop. With all of these things put together it makes for slow going trying to get checks printed. Also, I do not quite have a handle on how to make three checks print on one page. If I put the [TO ] function three times it prints the same thing in each entry. I tried setting the page length but ran into the printing problems described above, so I decided to see if anyone had jumped this hurdle it would save me some time. Once I get this working, I will upload it for anyone else who uses Quicken laser checks to use as a template. ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 187 Mon Jul 19, 1993 C.MULLER3 at 02:30 EDT Hi Tim, Say, have you had a chance to read through the manual? A lot of the "problems" you've been having are not problems at all, but just the way the program was designed (for reasons documented in the manual). Anyway, let me see if I can help with your report generator issues you've brought up. The components are not meant to deselect automatically. That is so you can select multiple components and move them all as a group. You can easily deselect all components by clicking anywhere in the report layout window. The LGAL component should be able to be sized to any size you wish, either by dragging the sizer tool or by entering it manually in the "Change Report Component" panel. I'll look into this and see if I can find any problem with it. As for things getting off the page, you need to be careful about dragging things that are extremely large. As a rule of thumb, make sure the component that you want to move is in view before dragging it and you'll never encounter this. As for moving something down and it not having any affect, my suspicion is that you have the "Detail suppress" option in the Report Options panel set to "Blank", which suppresses blank detail lines. You need to set this to "None". This is explained on page 104 in the manual. Is it still bombing when you print directly to printer? If I remember correctly, it calls the same internal print module when you print direct or if you print from the View Report window so they should behave the same. If that problem persists, try removing all AUTO programs and Accessories and see if that makes a difference. I assume the reason you want to print three checks on one page is because your checks are each one-third of a page high. For this, you simply define your page height as the same height of EACH check. Again, this is done in the Report Options panel. You then only need to set each check field ONCE (not three times). I hope this helps. Printing checks does take some trial and error to get set up, and a ruler can make all the difference in the world. Let me know if you need any more help. - Chris ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 188 Wed Jul 21, 1993 T.HEBEL [Spud Boy] at 20:47 EDT I think it would be more GEM-like to select multiple items with a shift click, rather than not using it. It makes for what seems to be extra clicks outside the selected items which results in extra screen redraws... I realize how the interface works, I was just suggesting an improvement. What do other users think? As far as the LGAL thing goes, It has a mind of its own. It will not let me change to different values as described in the manual. Also I have been keeping well clear of the borders and I still run into problems with some components being moved by MC so that they are off of the screen. Even though they were in the right place to begin with. ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 189 Tue Jul 27, 1993 C.MULLER3 at 01:59 EDT Hi Tim, I looked into the LGAL problem. I absolutely cannot duplicate the problem you are having. Let me tell you exactly what I'm doing. 1. Right click a blank area in the report window. The "Add Report Component" dialog appears. 2. Select [LGAL]. Press TAB to put the entry cursor in the Length field. Enter 40. 3. Press Control+Return to get back to the Create/Edit Report panel. The [LGAL] component appears, with a length of 40. Is this what you are doing? Another way you can resize the LGAL component is to set your report width (using Report Options) to a width that exposes the right side of that component (and thus exposing the sizer tool). Otherwise, you can't resize it, and moving it will "center it" under your mouse, which will cause it to be off the left edge of the report. The best thing to do is to just enter a small value and then size it bigger with the mouse, if you need to. Asterisks! So THAT was the reason I had previously allowed report components to overlap! I couldn't remember at the time, but this is a good reason. The solution was, just lay down a row of asterisks, then lay down LGAL on top of it. It would put the asterisks, then it would put the LGAL on top of it. If LGAL was shorter, the asterisks would show through. I'll be sure to remove that requirement in the next release. However, can you tell me? What is the reason people always like to do this? Even if you could run it back through a printer, I don't see how you could add anything onto the end and have it make any sense. The reason for the 34 line minimum was mostly arbitrary, half way to save some coding for display problems I was having with reports smaller than that during development. However, 21 line checks should be no problem. Just set your Bottom Margin to 0 (on Report Options) and it won't make any difference (since you aren't printing any headings). - Chris Let me know if you have any other questions. ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 191 Sat Aug 14, 1993 R.KRAUSE6 [Ralph Krause] at 19:36 EDT Chris Muller, I recently purchased MEGA-Check 2.03 and have used it for a couple of weeks. The program appears to be very powerful and comprehensive. I have, however, run into a few problems that I would like to run by you. My system is a 4 meg 1040STe, TOS 1.62, 85 meg HD, with Warp 9 and Data Diet, and NeoDesk 3.04 enabled. I have been reading the manual but it is a bit difficult. In addition to the How do I..? section, would you consider a tutorial section leading the user from setting up accounts, entering transactions manually, and then generating a report? My account tables differed so much from yours that I could not use any of your existing models. Questions I have: 1. While setting up my first few account lists, I deleted an account from the Net Worth category. There were no transactions in this accout, and I think the entire file had maybe 3 transactions. When I performed a transaction for an account below the one I deleted, the transaction was done to the wrong account. The debit appeared two accounts below the one I specified in the transaction table. The account table had 49 entries at the time and I set my maximum number of accounts to 100. 2. After having problems with deleting the account, I elected to hide it. Later, I wanted to unhide it and use it. When I selected the account and then unhide, the program generated an error on the top line under the menu bar: <'tl' or 'tbl' other text>path not found<other text> and dumped me back into NeoDesk. I have tried this several times both unhide and unhide all. Sometimes everything works perfectly, other times I get dumped from the program. 3. Can DAs only be accessed during printing? When I clicked on the Warp 9 DA from the main screen to change the system fond, any selection I made after opening the DA, brought a response from MEGA-Check and other attempts to access the DA were ignored. I had to re-boot my system. 4. I also have a question about the report generator: is it possible to generate a report that is unsorted? I would like to generate a report containing some entries from my account table in the order they appear in the table. I cannot find any information in the manual about that, just descending and ascending. 5. Finally, is there a way or will there be a way in future releases to include basic formulas in a transaction model? For instance, I want 10% of every check automatically transferred to a savings account and right now I have to enter the amount manually. Thank you for any help you can give me. Ralph Krause P.S. With my work travel schedule, it could take up to two weeks for me to reply to any questions you have. ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 192 Sun Aug 15, 1993 C.MULLER3 at 17:03 EDT Hi Ralph, Yes, it was nearly impossible for us to create models that would be suitable for everyone's financial situation, since everyone's is SO different. Let me try to answer your questions: 1. Can you please be more specific about the account you tried to delete? What do you mean by "performed a transaction for an account below the one I deleted". Do you mean a CHILD of the account you deleted? This would be impossible since, when you delete an account, all of its children are also deleted. Please clarify. 2. This error definitely sounds like something has corrupted your account table. Can you please be more specific on how you got this to happen? I can't seem to re-create it. 3. I don't use Warp 9. Is it a window or dialog box that appears when you select it? I might suggest that you should wait for the screen to redraw before attempting to click on anything else, though this would just cause whatever you clicked on to be unresponsive until the screen was redrawn. Warp 9 seems to me to be a major hack, using intercepts to low- level system routines and redirecting them to optimized versions of those routines. A utility with this much low-level system control is usually suspect (to their credit, though, the Codeheads have done a very good job of making it compatible). Do you have any other accessories that have problems? I double-checked the ones that I use and they seem to work fine. 4. Unsorted reports? No, all reports are sorted in some way. It sounds like what you want, however, is your account table report to be sorted by "Path" rather than "Account". This is very easy to do. On the Create/Edit Report panel, just select the "Where" button and then select "Path" as the "Order by" located at the bottom of the panel. 5. The 10% transfer you mention can also be done, to some extent. You can set up a transaction model to automatically enter the transfer at your specified interval. If the amount of the check is constant, the process can be totally automated. Otherwise, you'll need to have MEGA-Check prompt you for the 10% amount. Although MEGA-Check can compute percentages based on the balance of an account (for interest earning purposes, or for depreciation of Assets), it can't compute percentages based on the single transaction that is currently being entered. Formulas are a great idea, but how would they be entered? - Chris ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 193 Sun Aug 15, 1993 R.KRAUSE6 [Ralph Krause] at 20:46 EDT Chris, thank you for your prompt reply. Here is some more information as you requested: 1. This is a simplified version of my first account set-up: Net Worth Expenses Expense checks Memberships Subscriptions I deleted the Expense checks account and then entered a transaction that affected the Memberships account. After CTRL-A, I used the VCR keys to review the transaction, and instead of Membership, the amount was debited to Subscriptions. Checking the Maintain Acounts table showed that indeed the transaction was debited to Subscriptions. This is not the actual set-up, unfortunately I deleted my first attempts. 2. On the sort by PATH: When I selected it and tried to generate a report I got the error: Account tables are out of sync! Discovered in FUNC rpt_line$() What does this mean? Are they out of sync within the program? Transactions seem to work just fine and update correctly when I add transactions. I also get this error if I re-start the program and make up an account list with three entries (Aa, Cc. Bb) and try to print it. The selection criteria for printing an account is any characters in the 4th description line. 3. Unhide accounts bombs: since it does work for me pretty often, I think you're right that I corrupted the table somehow. I'll work on this and see if I can repeat it. In my last 10 trials or so, it unhid correctly. 4. DAs: Again, you're correct, all my other DAs work correctly. Sorry for not checking thoroughly before asking. 5. Entering formulas: Possibly when setting up a model, when the user selects a field in Ask for field value, in addition to entering a question, they could also have the option of entering a simple formula(+,-,*,/) that interacts with the first ledger amount. There would be a problem making sure the debits & credits are equal. Let me think some more on this. Thanks again. RJK ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 194 Sun Aug 15, 1993 M.STEFANI [MCH] at 21:24 EDT Chris, Just wanted to let you know that I was successful in 'removing' the activation date from my models through the use of a hex editor. As you recall, I couldn't find a way of 'zeroing' them out. Thanks for the advice! Ralph, I also have WarpNine installed when using MC2. One thing I noticed through experimentation (after reading your post), was that WarpNine has little if any effect on speeding up the screen redraws within MC2. I haven't tried anything like alternative screen fonts while using the program. I can call up the DA inside of MC2 and it's never bombed. Mark Stefani ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 195 Wed Aug 18, 1993 C.MULLER3 at 01:42 EDT Ralph, "Account Tables out of sync" message? Oohhh, that is NOT good! I hate to say it, but you may save more twilight zone headaches by starting fresh with a new file. Do you have very much entered? MEGA-Check actually stores TWO account tables... Well, actually, one is a "secondary index" which allows accounts to be quickly accessed either via path or by Account name (thus enabling the Auto Copmlete feature). Both tables can be accessed by the internal "Account number" which is something that you never see. What the "Account Tables out of sync" message is saying is that there is an account # in one of the account tables that isn't in the other one. This should NEVER happen and I am at a loss to explain how you got it to happen. There is a program called ANALYZ20.PRG on the disk which may tell you if you have DUPLICATE account #'s, but not missing ones. This would account for why it was debiting the wrong accounts. It can't hurt to run it. If you don't mind me seeing your financial file, you can send it to me and I will try to repair it manually. But if you don't have a lot of transactions yet, it would really be easier to just re-enter it. Another option is to EXPORT your transactions using the report generator to the MEGA-Check 2 import format. Then you would only have to re-create your account table and you could import all of your transactions. Hope this helps, Chris ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 196 Wed Aug 18, 1993 C.MULLER3 at 01:42 EDT Hi Mark, Glad to hear that you were able to get rid of those light dates that you didn't want. It never occurred to me in the design phase to allow getting rid of those. Are you sure that Warp 9 doesn't affect MC2? I think that QuickST does and it is an older version of Warp 9. Did you try comparing to Warp 9 not installed? Take care, Chris ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 197 Wed Aug 18, 1993 M.STEFANI [MCH] at 10:54 EDT Chris, The Warp 9 DA allows the user to 'toggle' the accelerator on and off from within a program. Every time I did this within MC2 and exited the DA the screen would redraw, allowing me to see the approximate speed difference in each mode. In most cases the difference is quite dramatic, but I just couldn't detect any 'significant' change while in MC2. I have an alternative boot configuration that still uses one of the final versions of QuickST, so I can try that out just for the sake of curiousity. Btw, one future change that I'd recommend for MC2 would be the ability to delete a model within the program itself without having to rely on a third- party file selector utility like UIS or LGS/MaxiFile. I happen to use MaxiFile as a DA so it's no problem for me, but for the sake of convenience (and for those users who have to exit to the desktop to perform this task) I think you should consider this small addition. Mark ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 198 Fri Aug 20, 1993 R.KRAUSE6 [Ralph Krause] at 20:23 EDT Chris, I guess I can understand my current accounts getting messed up with all the fooling around I've done, but I also got the 'out of sync' message when I created a NEW account table & three accounts (2 under assets, 1 under liabilities) and no disk saves, etc. I just added the three files & ran my report genarator (just prints accounts with any chars in description line 4). While there's nothing top secret about my accounts, I want to hear more about this out of sync error on a new table before we try to correct it by hand. If the fact this error pops on a new file w/no transactions & no disk saves & loads is a fault or confilict on my system, please let me know. >There is a program called ANALYZ20.PRG on the disk which may tell >you if you have DUPLICATE account #'s, but not missing ones. This There is no such fily on either the disk I received from Toad or the one I received from you with the validation file. The only .PRG files are MC20.PRG and CONVERT.PRG Sorry it took me so long to respond, I had to travel this week for work. Mark, My main reason for Warp9 is a new system font. I like your suggestion about deleting models. I also use LGS/MaxiFile in those instances. One other improvement could be to not let Auto Complete complete the name until 2 characters are typed. My associate table has only a few entries and I find it usually puts the wrong one up when I try entering a name not on it. (I like really Auto Complete on the other areas though!) Ralph Sorry folks if this got posted twice. My phone went out in the middle of the session. ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 199 Fri Aug 20, 1993 R.KRAUSE6 [Ralph Krause] at 21:27 EDT Chris, I FOUND SOMETHING. (Just not sure what.) While trying many things to make this work, I loaded my account table and re-made the report model. This time it printed correctly. Now this leads me to a question: Since it's possible that my account structure changed after I made my initial report model, does this mean that a new report model should be made after every change? The only thing I'm using in the Where section for this report are any characters in description line 3. This could, I think, be used pretty globally. Is the report linked to the account table in any way? Thanks, Ralph ------------ Category 6, Topic 6 Message 200 Sat Aug 21, 1993 R.KRAUSE6 [Ralph Krause] at 19:37 EDT Has anybody tried using a file after a 'Save Next Generation'? I saved the next generation of my accounts and then tried to open it. Everything went fine until the 'Process>' line says 'Loading database'. Then the program bombs with an Error 35 (file not found?) I have no problems loading any other files, just the next generations. This also happens if I save the next genaration of the empty account table when the program starts & then open it. Thanks, RJK ------------