The Training Video Experience

We now have finished posting videos for the new features introduced in the latest ZonePro release. That brings our total training video count to over 50! Some customers have experienced problems with the audio portion of some videos. In particular I have found that the videos from December 2007 do not play well in Internet Explorer. Interestingly, they seem to play much better in FireFox. You can download a free copy of the FireFox web browser from their web site. The quality of the videos does vary from batch to batch. The speed of your internet connection also makes a big difference. If you find videos that are particularly spotty, please let us know.

First New Release of 2009

A new release of ZonePro is now available. Newsletters will go out tomorrow or you can read about it on-line today. I've already written about some of the new features in this journal. Others include the ability to customize Alert Messages; easy access to My Computer from various ZonePro screens; a new way of automatically displaying the notes stored with some maintenance items; several improvements to the Photo Module such as folder linking and smarter image viewing; and much more. A few training videos demonstrating the new features are already posted on our web site and more will follow. As always, contact us by phone or e-mail to request the upgrade.

Printing Photos in the Violation Screen

Right now the only way to print photos from ZonePro is from the Image Viewer Screen and the Image Report Screen, but I've had several customers remark that it would be nice to print violation photos right from the Violation Screen. In the next release you'll have that option. I'm adding a new "Include Photos" option to the Violation Document Screen that will make any linked photos accessible to custom documents. On the Downloads page of our web site is a new Violation custom document called "Photos" that shows how this works. The new ZonePro release should be available in the next week or so.

Customizable Application Buttons

Over the years we've gotten a surprising number of requests from customers who want to be able to customize the names given to the application buttons that appear at the bottom of the Property Screen. In most cases it's one of the five building buttons that someone wants to change. In the next release, coming soon, you'll finally have that ability. I'm using a new technique for this change that involves placing a text file in the main ZonePro folder that tells the program what button names to use. I've posted sample text files on the Downloads page of our web site that demonstrate how this works. You'll find them under the "Custom Button Labels" topic in the Programs section.

Downloadable Contractor Report

I recently created a custom "Contractor" report for a customer who wanted to see all the contractors that had ever worked at a given property address. This report runs from the Building Combination Report Screen and the idea is to use the Advanced Filter Option to select the property that you are interested in. The "Contractors" report is now available on the Downloads page of our web site.

Linking to On-line Photos

Just for kicks today I checked to see what would happen if I used the Photo Module to link to a photo stored on the internet. It worked just fine. When you create a new record in the Photo Module you must select the "Not An Image" option and then cancel out of the initial File Path dialog and paste in the web address to the photo you wish to attach. Clicking on the camera icon in ZonePro will then launch that web page and display the photo. Since there are several photo sharing sites (like Picassa and Flickr) that offer free, virtually unlimited space, this is not a bad option for communities looking to store their violation photos. For customers that are installed on peer-to-peer networks it provides an alternate way of sharing photos through ZonePro without worrying about mapped drives, etc.