Studio Manager Bulletin

Coming Soon: Studio Manager 8

We are getting really close to releasing Studio Manager 8. It has a new look which took many woman hours to hammer out. It is based on FileMaker 8.5. So it's not for the faint of heart. It requires the commitment to purchase or upgrade to the very latest FileMaker technology that's only available in version 8.5.

When we created this new version, we had the choice to support FileMaker 8 but it really didn't make sense because FileMaker 8.5 included essential new features that, when taken advantage of, make Studio Manager a better tool.

The main feature we are running with in Studio Manager 8 is what FileMaker calls Tab Controls. Tab controls let you create a tabbed interface in minutes. Well, one tab interface, we've got a whole bunch of them and we put tab controls within tab controls, so it took us longer than a few minutes to re-do all our entry screens with the new tabs.

Tab controls were introduced in FileMaker 8 but they needed a few auxiliary features that didn't come out until 8.5. I've been wishing for an easy tab-making tool in FileMaker for years because they are essential when dealing with a lot of information. And, drum roll please, they look better now that they are native in FileMaker.

The interface of Studio Manager 7 was already modifiable. But, tab controls, make it falling-off-a-log easy. You can simply sit down and do it right now without breaking a sweat. It's like flipping a switch.

The advantage to our users is that you now have this amazingly flexible interface architecture to work with. You can say to yourself. I sure wish that those Studio Manager folks would have put the Tasks tab after the Estimates tab, and then just drag and drop to make it so. It takes about 30 seconds to add a whole new tab that you decide you want. Really.

By putting more tab controls on the screen, I can tuck away less frequently used functions and reference information. This helps create sanity. You don't have to see everything at once. Just the stuff that you think is important. We've set up the screens in Studio Manager with a lot less of the information shouting for your attention, but it's still safely tucked away if you should ever want it. And, you can drag items out from hiding in a back tab, if you need them. Drag and drop.

If we haven't hidden complexity to your satisfaction, you can make your own tab controls or extra tabs in a couple minutes and hide anything you want.

So, this new product is targeted for release on November 15th. We wanted you to have time to consider Studio Manager 8 before holiday madness sets in. We'll do our best to have the Studio Manager 8 demo ready for evaluation by November 15th as well.

There's lots to do to get this baby out the door, so I better get back to work. Even now at the eleventh hour, designers are working to put in some critical finishing touches. Stay tuned.

We Overhauled our User Manual

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.

Studio Manager 7.7 Released

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:

• Save and name sets of specs for future use.
• Duplicate them.
• Insert specs just where you want them in the list.
• Grab the specs from a previous job to use on your current job.
• Delete unused specs in a particular job situation.

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.

Janet Got FileMaker 8 Certified

I am pleased to announce that I passed the certification test for FileMaker 8 on July 24th. Details are on my FileMaker Fever blog.

Studio Manager 7.6 Released

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.

Studio-Manager.com coming back online

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.

Studio-Manager.com Website down for 48 hours

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.

New Studio Manager Demo Manual Available

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.

Studio Manager Users Should Stick with FileMaker 8 v1

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.

Studio Manager Customer Brains Design FileMaker Inc. Story

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.