Athenaeum Pro 7 brief changes list

Athenaeum Pro 7 is based on FileMaker Pro 7 technology. We have tried to make the transition to the new technology as smooth as possible by making Athenaeum Pro 7 generally look the same as Athenaeum Pro 6. However, FileMaker Pro 7 offers some very nice new features as well as a complete internal rewrite.

• Fast Find is the default screen for users
• Accounts and Passwords: There is a new security model in the form of the traditional accounts and passwords. That is, you log on with a particular account, such as the librarian and enter a password for that account. The old versions of Athenaeum only used passwords. The 'Options' password is still present.
• Re-login: A benefit of the new accounts model is the re-login function. Re-login allows changing accounts on the fly. That means that if a computer is logged in as a guest to allow browsing, then you, as the administrator for example, can relog-in immediately as the the library administrator without restarting Athenaeum.
• Bar code font is stored directly within the program, so no separate download to get the font. Note: If you are going to print your own bar codes, then you must print at the highest resolution possible on your printer. On all modern printers, this means at least 600 dots per inch (dpi).

• Container Objects: Every catalogue item may now store a container object.

  A container object is a picture, movie, sound, or document (such as Adobe Acrobat .pdf format documents) that can can be stored inside Athenaeum or as a reference to a location on a server. If you store pictures in Athenaeum, anyone can browse the picture along with the catalogue information.

  If you set the "anyone can export containers" preference in the System Tab in the preferences, then they can export a copy of the stored object to their local hard drives (not available to web users).

• Fast Navigation buttons: a tiny, but useful feature. Most catalogue, circulation and borrower screens three buttons that will quickly take you to the list views of the catalogue, borrower and circulation databases.

• Spine Label printing: There are two types of spine labels you may print.

  The first prints on standard labels and have the call number and dewey number printed horizontally - along the long axis of the label.

  The second turns each character of the dewey and the call number (up to the first 7 characters) 90 degrees so they appear upright when viewed on the spine of the book. The labels are designed to print on Avery L7158 labels (A4, 3 columns 10 rows) or Avery #05810 labels (US Letter, 3 columns 10 rows).

• Change Passwords: The library, script and edit accounts can change their passwords on the fly. Once you have changed passwords, they can not be recovered by SumWare Consulting nor FileMaker Inc.
• XML data backup: Export of data in XML format is supported. This is a textual representation of the raw data, excluding photos and containers, stored within Athenaeum Pro. These text files can be compressed in zip format and easily emailed. It serves as a 'cheats backup' but does not replace your existing backup procedure.
• Giant databases: The maximum database sizes have grown by up to 4,000 times with FileMaker Pro 7. That means that one copy of Athenaeum might theoretically be able to store information on every book in every school library in New Zealand!
• Fewer files to manage: Athenaeum Pro 7 now has only 10 data files compared to the previous version's 17.
• Faster networking: It is our experience that networking Athenaeum Pro 7 with FileMaker Pro 7 is significantly faster than networking Athenaeum Pro 6 with FileMaker Pro 6. Performance on low speed networks is great (e.g. wireless networks). The speed increases are more noticable when using FileMaker Pro Server 7. On a well configured network, networking with FileMaker Pro 7 is akin to running the databases on the local computer.
• Increased Robustness: FileMaker 7 has proven dramatically more robust than previous versions. In the past, if a computer crashed while running Athenaeum, damage would likely occur and you had to go to your backup. Now, the chance of damage is far less likely - however we still recommend a strict backup strategy.
• Not for issue bar codes in red: Items that are marked "Not for Issue" will display their bar codes in a red colour, to assist in alerting users that such items are not available for issue.
• A4 and US Letter: Most print scripts are now cognisant of the "Use A4 or Letter for labels" setting and will use this for general purpose printing to better fit your standard paper. Please ensure that you use the correct setting of this switch.
• Latest Due date and holidays: When starting previous versions of Athenaeum Light simply displayed a message that the latest due date or one of the holiday dates had passed. Athenaeum Pro 7 now prompts you with specific values stored within the program if any of these dates has passed, making this message much clearer and giving you the opportunity to change them immediately. The message is only displayed for the administrator.
• Letters preserve text formatting: When editing the content of generic letters, any style characteristics applied to the text (bold, italic, font, etc.) is preserved.
• Email overdue/recall letters: of course you may e-mail correspondence from Athenaeum.
• Bar Code modification on issue/return/extend/stock-take: Athenaeum Pro 7.0v4 reveals to end-users the ability to modify the input bar code, by defining a calculation formula during some processes. This is an advanced feature that is only needed in certain situations. An example usage is where your bar codes have embedded a code (e.g. your school code) which are not stored with the bar code in the Athenaeum catalogue. In this situation, you normally would not match any item in the catalogue when scanning the code. You can use the modification function to remove the embedded code before Athenaeum Pro processes the bar code.
• Instant Web Publishing: By turning on FileMaker Pro's Instant Web publishing, you can then do simple searches of the catalogue using a web browser on up to 5 computers, simultaneously. To obtain more than 5 simultaneous connections, you must use FileMaker Server Advanced. *the run-time version of Athenaeum does not support Instant Web publishing. You must open the Athenaeum databases with FileMaker Pro 7.0v2 or higher.