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-
- Introduction
-
- The ProDev*MEMBER Church Membership System is designed to allow you to quickly
- and easily add and modify Members, Spouses, Children and Visitors to your
- membership data files. You can track all talents and accomplishments. You can
- easily print a variety of Mailing Labels and Reports to help manage your
- church.
-
- When you are asked for a Password in the Tools Menu, the un-registered password
- is the word PASSWORD.
-
- When you are asked for the Giving Password, the starting default is the word
- GIVING. You can change this password in the Modify Giving sub-menu.
-
- PLEASE NOTE - As you are building the Member/Visitor records, you MUST fill in
- the "Date Joined" to indicate to this system that the person is a member of
- your church. If you are not sure of the date, I suggest that you use
- 01/01/1899 so that the system will realize the person is a member. "Joined"
- may be changed to "Confirmed" or some other term by the "Change Field Titles"
- selection in the Setup Menu.
-
- If the date is BLANK (" / / ") the system assumes the person is NOT a
- member of your church. If you wish to blank a date, locate the cursor at the
- beginning of the date field and press Ctrl/Y (while holding down the Ctrl key,
- tap the Y key).
-
- BE SURE you look at the bottom of the screen if you don't know what to do next.
- The messages there usually tell you all of the options available at any time.
-
- When All Else Fails - Press F1 for Help!
-
- If you have below DOS 3.3, the F1 Help screens are not functional and some
- parts of the program won't function.
-
- Insert the ProDev*MEMBER disk in drive A: and type ...
-
- INSTALL C: (Enter)
-
- This will run the INSTALL program that will create the C:\MEMBER sub-directory
- and copy (and un-compress) all of the necessary files to the C:\MEMBER
- sub-directory (or whatever drive letter you type).
-
- To run the ProDev*MEMBER system from the hard disk, type the drive letter of
- the hard disk followed by a colon. For example "C:". You should see the hard
- disk prompt (such as "C>"). Then, type:
-
- CD\MEMBER (Enter)
- MEMB (Enter)
- System Files
-
- The CONFIG.SYS File
-
- THE MEMBER PROGRAM WILL CRASH with a "DOS Error 3" at the middle of the screen
- when you try to Create, Modify or Print Labels or Reports, you will need to
- re-start the computer with a CONFIG.SYS file as described below. It will
- contain information that tells the PC that there will be more than 3 files open
- at the same time.
-
- To create the CONFIG.SYS file, use the MEMBER program "Tools Menu", "Modify
- System Files" Sub-Menu to create or modify your CONFIG.SYS file. Highlight
- that selection and press Enter. You will be asked for the Password. This is
- the Password you specified when you registered the program. Press C to
- Create/Modify the CONFIG.SYS file.
-
- If you are creating the CONFIG.SYS file, just type in the following two
- commands and press F10 to save. If you are modifying the CONFIG.SYS file,
- either modify these two lines (if they exist) or add them to the end of the
- CONFIG.SYS file. Press F10 to save the changes. YOU MUST RE-START YOUR
- COMPUTER for the changes to take effect.
-
- FILES=30
- BUFFERS=15
-
- The FILES command can be higher than 30 if required by other software on your
- computer. Having a large BUFFERS command usually slows your system and higher
- than 15 is not recommended.
-
- IF YOU HAVE BELOW MS/IBM-DOS VERSION 3.3, the program can have only 15 files
- open at a time. To stay within this limit, the program will disable the HELP
- screens to keep from opening too many files at a time. However, some parts of
- the program that opens a lot of files may not function.
-
- The AUTOEXEC.BAT File
-
- Your computer looks at both the CONFIG.SYS file and the AUTOEXEC.BAT file at
- start-up time. The AUTOEXEC.BAT file contains the commands that usually take
- you into a hard disk menu, Windows or some other shell type hard disk manager.
- If you have DOS 3.3 or higher, you need the command SET CLIPPER=F:30 in your
- AUTOEXEC.BAT file.
-
- As above, use the MEMBER program "Tools Menu", "Modify System Files" Sub-Menu
- to create or modify your AUTOEXEC.BAT file. Highlight that selection and press
- Enter. You will be asked for the password. This is the Password you specified
- when you registered the program. Then, press A to Create/Modify the
- AUTOEXEC.BAT file.
- If you do not already have an AUTOEXEC.BAT file, just add the command SET
- CLIPPER=F:30 and press F10 to save. If you are modifying an existing
- AUTOEXEC.BAT file, move to the beginning of the PATH line and press Enter. This
- should open up a blank line just above the last line. Use the Up Arrow to move
- to the beginning of the blank line and type SET CLIPPER=F:30. If you will be
- running ProDev*MEMBER as a DOS application from Windows, add the command
- SET MEMBAK=Y after the SET CLIPPER command. Press F10 to save.
-
- First Time Program Set-Up Options
-
- The first time you run the MEMBER program, the program to ask you for the
- program Set-Up defaults. Highlight the "Set-Up" Main Menu. Highlight each
- Sub-Menu with the cursor arrow keys and press Enter.
-
- Color/Monochrome Monitor - Highlight the "Monitor (Color/Mono)" Sub-Menu and
- press Enter. Press C for a color monitor or an M if you have a monochrome
- (non-color) monitor. Highlight "Save New Set-Ups" and press Enter to add this
- to the MEMBER.MEM file.
-
- Data File Drive & Path - Highlight the "Data File Drive & Path" Sub-Menu and
- press Enter. The program will display the Drive and Sub-Directory where the
- ProDev*MEMBER system is installed.
-
- Printer Action Table - Highlight the "Printer Action Table" Sub-Menu and press
- Enter. Using the cursor arrow keys, highlight the name of your printer. If
- you do not see the name of your printer and have a dot matrix printer, start
- with the EPSONFX file. Appendix A of the manual will describe how you can
- create your own Printer Action Table file if you have a printer not shown.
- After you select your printer, you will be asked for the default number of
- lines for report pages. Use the default of 59 unless you are using paper stock
- longer than 11 inches. Highlight "Save New Set-Ups" and press Enter to add
- this to the MEMBER.MEM file.
-
- Label Printing Defaults - There are many types of label stock for both dot
- matrix and laser printers. You need to select the type of stock for your
- printer and needs. After you select the paper stock, and if you are in the
- USA, indicate if you have an HP compatible laser or Epson compatible 24 pin dot
- matrix printer so you can print ZIP Code bar codes.
-
- Establish Church Name - Highlight this Sub-Menu and press Enter. Type the name
- of your church. This will appear at the top of many reports. Although the
- screen field is only 35 characters wide, you can type up to 50 characters for
- your church name as the field will scroll. When you press Enter, you can type
- in the name or two letter abbreviation for your State. This is so the
- Pictorial Directory will only print the State if it is different than your own.
- Change Field Titles - Highlight "Change Field Titles" on the Setup Menu and
- press Enter. If you intend to use Titles, such as Mr., Mrs., etc., place a Y
- in the Use Titles field. Otherwise use N. Some churches use "Joined" where
- your church may use the term "Confirmed". Spec Info Code Width can be 1, 2 or
- 3 depending on how many codes you wish to create and how many you wish to
- assign to each person. Two is recommended. See the detailed discussion of
- this under Special Information Codes in the manual.
-
- Some churches use "Flier List" to indicate those that are to receive the
- monthly newsletter. You may wish to call it "Mail List".
-
- Many churches have a building improvement fund. Thus, the "Bld List" title.
- You may want to call it "Mem List" for a Memorial Fund list. When you get to
- Section 7 on Giving Statements, you will find that giving is tracked under 3
- categories (General, Bld Giving and Other). The title on the Post Giving
- screen and on the Statement could be changed from Bld Giving to "Mem. Fund".
-
- The Sunday School list is used by many churches to send letters or newsletters
- to the parents of Sunday School attendees. You may want to call it "Bus List"
- for those that should be picked up by the Bus each Sunday morning (children
- and/or adults).
-
- The Service Titles are the titles of up to 3 events for tracking attendance.
- These titles will appear on the screen while you post the attendance.
-
- The Giving #4, #5 and #6 are the titles of 3 additional categories of Giving.
- If you leave ALL 3 of these titles blank, your Giving posting screen and
- statements will show only the General, Building and Other categories of giving.
- If you use at least one of the extra Giving Titles, the Giving Posting screen
- and the Statements will be expanded to show all 6 categories of giving.
- Compressed printing is used if all 6 categories are printed to keep the
- statement to only one report line per giving day.
-
- Status Code Table - When you are working with the Create Member or Modify
- Member (not Browse Member) screens, you can pop-up a Status Code table, pick
- the code you desire and press Enter to use that code in the member record. Use
- this selection to manage this pick list table.
-
- Special Information Code Table - When you are working with the Create Member or
- Modify Member (not Browse Member) screens, you can pop-up a Special Information
- Code table, pick the code you desire and press Enter to use that code in the
- member record. Use this selection to manage this pick list table.
-
- On the upper right of the "Change Field Titles" Setup screen, you can specify
- if you want 1, 2 or 3 character Special Information Codes. One character codes
- would really limit you to A-Z and 0-9 for codes. Two character codes give you
- AA-Z9; LOTS of codes. Three character codes give you even more combinations.
- However, each person has a 21 character field for Special Info Codes. With 1
- character codes, EACH person could have up to 21 codes. With 2 character
- codes, you can have 10 codes per person and with 3 character codes, you can
- have only 7 codes per person. Pro Dev Software recommends the compromise of 2
- character codes. This allows over 1200 possible codes for the Special
- Information Code table and allows you to assign up to 10 codes to each person.
-
- Save New Setups - After changing any of your Setups, be sure to highlight Save
- New Setups and press Enter. This will save the new setups to the file
- MEMBER.MEM.
-
- Highlight the "Create Member Record" Sub-Menu and press Enter. Press the PgDn
- key when you wish to create the next record. If you press F10 or PgDn on a
- blank record, you will be returned to the Main Menu. Fill in each of the
- fields (or windows). If you do not fill a field, press Enter to move to the
- next field. You can use the Down Arrow to move to the next field and the Up
- Arrow to move back a field. After the last Spouse field, you will move to the
- first field on the screen (Last Name). Press PgDn to move to the next new
- record.
-
- When you are printing labels, you will be given the choice of printing the
- Street Address (probably in the first Address field) and/or the PO Box
- (probably in the second Address field). To do this, the program looks for
- either "P.O." as the first 4 characters or "PO " (PO and a space) as the first
- 3 characters in the field. Therefore, you must be careful to enter PO Box
- addresses using one of these two forms. The line (Address or PO Box) printed
- just above the City, State and ZIP will be used by the Postal Service to
- deliver the piece.
-
- The "Zone" is a designation for a geographical area around your church. You
- may have certain persons designated to call on certain zone(s).
-
- If a person has officially joined your church, you MUST show a "Joined" date.
- Many reports trigger on if this field has a date or not to tell if a person is
- a member or not. The same is true of the "Joined" field in the Spouse's and
- Child's section of the screen. If you wish to blank a date, place the cursor
- at the beginning of the field and press Ctrl/Y (while holding down the Ctrl key
- tap the Y key). If you wish to call this something other than "Joined" be sure
- to read Page 2-9 of the manual to find out how to change the title of this
- field.
-
- If you are on the Status Code field, you can press F7 to pop-up a table of
- Status Codes. Press the first letter of the desired code description and use
- the Down Arrow to select the exact code and press Enter to pick.
- Special Information Codes - DANGER - Be sure to use the F7 pop-up table to pick
- Special Information Codes. Although you can type them manually, the spacing is
- VERY important. If you have selected (with the Change Field Titles Setup Menu)
- 2 or 3 character codes, your manual spacing must be exactly 2 or 3 characters
- per code and codes shorter than the selected 2 or 3 character width must be
- right justified in the 2 or 3 character spacing. When reports are written, the
- program expects the proper spacing and your errors at this point will cause
- scrambled reports. Thus, let the F7 pop-up table do all the work accurately
- and easily. It will insure the correct alignment. With the blinking cursor on
- the Special Information Code field, press F7. Press the first letter of the
- desired code description and use the Down Arrow to select the exact code and
- press Enter to pick.
-
- The M/F field is used to indicate the gender of the person. F=Female and
- M=Male. If the wife is shown on the upper part of the screen because the
- husband is not a member and he is shown on the Spouse portion of the screen, it
- is VERY IMPORTANT to put an "F" in the upper part of the screen for the wife.
- On certain label runs and reports, you will be given the option to print the
- husband's name first, even though he is on the lower or Spouse part of the
- screen. Only if an "F" is in the M/F upper field, when the wife is on the upper
- part of the screen, will the names be optionally reversed when printed.
-
- There is a "Spouse Last Name" field in those cases where the spouse's last name
- is different than the upper screen Last Name. "Husband Name First" reports
- with the different Last Name husband on the lower part of the screen will print
- out of order.
-
- A "Y" is required in the Directory field to have the record included in printed
- directories.
-
- The Reference Number (you can change this field title) is used by some
- denominations with this number being assigned when a person "joins" the church.
-
- A "Y" in the Flier List field will cause this member's record to be used when
- printing the Flier Labels. These are labels for your newsletter. A "Y" in the
- Bld List field will cause this member record to be included on the Bld label
- run. Section 2 shows you how to change the screen name for this field. A "Y"
- in the Sunday School List field will cause this record to be included in the
- Sunday School List label run. See Section 2 to change the screen name for this
- field.
-
- Child Records - When you wish to create or modify a Child Record, press F6 WHEN
- you have the Parents member record on the screen. All of the information about
- children are kept in records in the CHILD.DBF data base file. The Spouse
- portion of the screen is replaced with the Child record. A new blank CHILD
- record is displayed. Use the Last Name field ONLY if the child's last name is
- different from the last name on the upper part of the screen. You can PgDn to
- add additional records. PgUp to see existing child records.
- If the child (children) has joined and live(s) with non-Member adult(s), be
- sure to put "F" as the Status for the adult part of the record. This will
- cause just the child name(s) to be listed in the Directory reports. The
- non-Member adult(s) will not be listed. To get the Flier labels to list one of
- the child names, rather than the non-Member Adult(s), place the name of the
- oldest child as the first name on the Adult part of the record.
-
-
-
- When you register, you will receive a 112 page bound manual.
-
- Or use the INSTALL program or MEMBER program Tools Menu to print the full on-
- disk manual. It will take about 120 sheets of paper.