Wow, writing a user manual of over 100 pages is hard work! Finally, we've got a version of the Studio Manager user manual that goes all the way up to Studio Manager 7.7. It's better written and more accurate, since we went over every sentence with a fine tooth comb. Plus, our graphics maven, Scout Tomyris, made sure it looks good. Customers, please just drop me a line if you want a copy by clicking Email Me in the left column at the top.
Our new release of Studio Manager is still compatible with FileMaker 7 and is also fully compatible with FileMaker 8 and FileMaker 8.5. Besides our usual ongoing tweaking of the interface, back-end and performance, we have chosen to beef up the Job Specs capability we introduced in Studio Manager 7.6. Now you can:
To make it easy for you, we've created a dedicated page describing the features in detail. We've also created a free Studio Manager 7.7 demo with all the features of the 7.7 product.
I am pleased to announce that I passed the certification test for FileMaker 8 on July 24th. Details are on my FileMaker Fever blog.
OK. We finally got this release out. Doing the programming is only the tip of the iceberg. The time you announce the product is the time you get a lot of free publicity. So, you better have everything else ready so that people can find out about Studio Manager and the new release. Once you create the product, you have to create the demo. Then you better have the demo manual up to date. And update the Getting Started guide too. Then update every single web page to reflect the new version, find any other errors you've got online and write a good description of all the new features.
We've been selling 7.6 discreetly for a few weeks now but couldn't announce it until now. Now we have all our ducks in a row or at least we are pretty close. The demo is new. The Demo Readme is even new. The Getting Started manual isn't brand new but at least it doesn't say Studio Manager 7.5 all over it.
Anyway, take a look at our Studio Manager site. Download the free demo and see for yourself perhaps.
Oh, I almost forgot. Here are the new features:
Job Specs. We have a whole screen for job specs. And this isn't any old screen. This is state of the art technology so that you can have your specs exactly the way you want them with a report and there aren't gaps in the report when certain specs aren't relevant. You just delete them and they disappear from the report - which looks better.
Timesheet Stopwatch. We did it. If you've been waiting, the wait is over. And if you don't like stopwatches anyway, they've been implemented so as to not get in the way of those who don't appreciate them.
Client Billing Statements. This took us a while to add. Most of our customers haven't found that they get a good response from billing statements. They say that hounding clients to pay when they are late paying doesn't cause the client to pay right away. Sometimes the client just gets mad and more stubborn. However, some of our customers seem to have better-behaved clients and they showed us a way to doing client billing statements that will work if anything will. So we gave the feature away to our lucky customer for submitting such a brilliant idea and then lost no time putting that feature into our new version of Studio Manager. You could be so lucky about your favorite missing feature if you let us know what it is.
Client Profitability Report. Again, by popular demand. A prospective customer said they wanted a single page report that showed them the status of their jobs. The big reports for each job were good, but they wanted a quick overview. Well, now it's here for your pleasure.
We've fixed the problem with our Studio-Manager.com website. However, it can take a little while for the buffers to be refreshed some places on the internet, so you may still see problems sporadically for a couple days. I found that you could try refreshing the link and that seemed to help.
By the way, the same problem that affected studio-manager.com also has affected tokerud.com. We've also changed that. So, the same problems of delayed updates could happen on the tokerud.com site for the next couple days.
Thanks again for your patience.
Hi folks. Sorry. Our domain registrar has gone out of business. So we've ordered a transfer of our studio-manager.com domain to a hopefully more reliable, long-lasting registrar. We expect that between Friday, April 7 and Sunday April, 9, service may be spotty. After that, we should be back in business and rock solid. Sorry for any inconvenience. If you need anything in the mean time, please email me personally. We'll respond to the very best of our ability even if it is over the weekend. Thanks again for your patience.
I brought in the heavy artillery this month and got Kathy “Scout” Tomyris to help me finish up the demo user manual for Studio Manager 7.5! The new manual is completely revised and improved. We are very pleased to announce that the manual was uploaded tonight and is available as a free download.
You'll need to fill out our simple form with real or imaginary data in order to get access to the downloads page. We love to find out where interested people are located around the world and like being able to notify you when we release upgrades and other cool stuff.
Anyone who has wished there was more information about Studio Manager 7.5 should download this little 23 page manual. It has lots of screen shots.
If you are running Studio Manager 7x on FileMaker 8, we advise you to use FileMaker 8 version 1 until version 3 is made available. FileMaker Inc. issued FileMaker 8 version 2 to address some issues that were found in version 1. They addressed these successfully but introduced some architectural changes that created other new issues. The original issues in version 1 should not be a problem for Studio Manager users unless you are aggressively customizing the application in ways that version 1 had problems with.
If you aren't already aware of the now well-documented issues, take a look at today's post on my FileMaker Fever blog entitled: Documented Issues in FileMaker 8 v1 and v2.
Hi folks. FileMaker Inc. has recently written a story about one of our Studio Manager customers in Australia. Brains Design is a cool 14-person design firm in Sydney. If you are a Studio Manager customer, you might want to see how Brains is using Studio Manager and what they get out of it -- just to make sure you aren't missing anything. If you are a prospective customer, this story is an accessible little piece that may help you evaluate whether Studio Manager is for you.
FileMaker 7 dramatically improves the speed of remote access. This means that if you are running Studio Manager 7 or above, you could be accessing your Studio Manager database from wherever you are. As long as you have a home computer or notebook running FileMaker, you can log-in and get really good performance even when you are away from your office.
I have a big Studio Manager client on the East coast that I support remotely. I am not limited in what I can do. I do major work for one or more hours cross-country without a problem. If I need to double-check something offline, my clients will send me a copy of their version of Studio Manager for testing purposes, but that's actually a fairly rare requirement. Usually I can safely work live.
I would love it if every one of my Studio Manager 7 or 7.5 customers set themselves up for remote access. That way when you need me, I'm able to log-in and discuss the issue and fix it for you right then and there. It's really convenient.
Also, when you have a question, I can look at your database live rather than struggle with you explaining exactly what's going on even though I can't see the screen.
If I can access remotely, you don't have to take the time to compress your file and send it to me for an overnight review or upgrade. The problem of making sure you don't change the database or need it while I have it and am working on it goes away. No need to wait for a weekend when work needs to be done. I can just log in and get it done for you painlessly.
See my post on FileMaker Fever for details on how this can be easily set-up.
If you are still running Studio Manager on FileMaker 5 or 6, this is one big reason you might want to seriously consider upgrading to FileMaker 8 and Studio Manager 7.5.
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