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MJ_Christensen
(stranger )
11/25/04 10:00 PM
Beta Suggestions  

Hello!

Okay, it's time to put my two cents in on the Beta version, which I have actually used off and on (was using beta, had a major crash and was using the non-beta, then upgraded to beta again.). I'm sure some of these suggestions have already been made by other people, but I wanted to chime in with my suggestions / comments, etc.

1. This was a problem with the non-beta version, too, but it's something I would like to see fixed. If AW2K is "updating auctions" or "checking email", or "listing auctions", as well as other processes that take place in a seperate pop-up type window, and you switch to another program, that pop-up disapears when you switch back to AW2K until it is done with the process. This is particulary annoying when I have AW2K set to update all lots and switch to another program... I come back and have no idea how much longer I have to wait. I also see the potential for corrupting the database if you forget that you are updating and start listing or something else... I don't know if this would happen, but it seems like there might be that potential.

2. What is going on with the customize printed invoices screen? I hated the fact that you couldn't TRULY customise the printed invoices in the non-beta version (ie: I really want to be able to add the lot numbers to printed invoices, and I would like to move the addresses around so that the customer address would fit in a window envelope, etc.), but now I can't even add invoice notes anymore....

3. I have noticed that AW2K doesn't keep very good track of what emails have been downloaded off the server. I actually have Outlook setup to leave mail on the server, and AW2K setup to delete it, but when I go on the road, I transfer my AW2K DB to my notebook, and have it setup to NOT delete email. For some reason, Outlook handles this fine without redownloading emails, but AW2K always redownloads the email if it has been trashed. I thought that was one reason for a trash folder... the software already has one copy of the email... Yet AW2K consistantly downloads emails I've already trashed if they are still on the server.

4. Support for HTML email would be really nice. I tend not to send HTML email because some people's email software can't handle it, but this is becoming more and more rare (other than AW2K). I really don't care about sending HTML email, but it's quite annoying not to be able to read many customer's email without a lot of markup language mixed in. Sometimes, this can make it near impossible to read a message, and I have to have my partner read it in Outlook to figure out what they are saying.

5. Direct support for PayPal payment links and optional insurance in email invoices would be really nice.

6. The ability to have Auction Wizard automatically research the items we have for sale, list them, record all payments, package the items, meter the mail, and put them in the car would be nice. I don't mind driving to the post office. :-)

I would like to add a thank you to Thom and the entire AW2K community. This is simply the best software of its kind available. The automation, ability to host images somewhere other than eBay, total auction management, and unparallelled support make it well worth the cost of the software.

M.J. Christensen
Technical Staff
Kiwiman's Collectibles
Boy Scout Patches and Other Collectibles on eBay
http://kiwiman1.net

Tradeguy
(member)
11/26/04 04:54 PM
Re: Beta Suggestions new [re: MJ_Christensen]  

Good points...

1 - I found that the window is just covered up by aw2k itself. If you size aw and move it around, you'll find the update window. I use 2 monitors, so now I just grab the aw update window and move it to my second monitor while I do other stuff :-)

2 - Not sure what you mean - the beta lets you alter every aspect of every report - the only trick is that you need to work on a copy of the original. I modified my invoices, and aw is even smart enough to remember to use the updated invoice (once I selected it the first time).

3 - We all handle mail differently. I have all my mail go to outlook first, where I screen what I want to send to aw2k. The ones I need, I forward to a special email address which is picked up by aw2k. All aw2k outgoing mail is BC'ed to my outlook (so I have another copy, and so I always know that email is working).

4 - no biggie since I screen everything first, but it would be nice.

5 - I've been doing this for a long while (minus the insurance part), but I'm actually considering removing my paypal link from my ebay sales notification emails. Ebay is so nicely integrated with paypal right now - right down to payment status info - that any aw2k link bypasses this and ebay doesn't match up the payment. In other words, the invoice generated by ebay is actually better in many ways. I may alter my aw2k notices to take account of this...

6 - You need to pay the big buck for the super-enterprise edition for that :-) But actually, one feature that would be very very useful would be some automatic interface with USPS and UPS. I'd love to input the weight and postage type on an invoice, hit a CONTROL-<something> and have my printer spit out my priority mail label. Hmmm...it's actually almost that easy now...

About the only thing I disagree with is the trip to the post office. I want Thom to come by my house every morning and hand deliver my packages. Now that would be service...heh.

Thom, seriously, I couldn't live with this program...

Rich



MJ_Christensen
(stranger )
11/27/04 12:05 PM
Re: Beta Suggestions new [re: Tradeguy]  

Rich,

Thank you for the response. Your suggestions were helpful. As for the invoices, once you said that "reports" were cusomisable, I realized that to cusomise the invoices, you had to go under "reports" and not "customise printed invoices" to make a customisable copy. I did this last night, and am very happy with the results. It's amazing just how much of a difference small details can make. The ability to put auction lots on my invoices means that I can process all of the payments, print the invoices, and then my partner can fill the orders, instead of my having to switch gears constantly. It literally means that we can list almost twice the number of auctions!!

Thom, thanks again for such the great software. If I had to do eBay without it, I wouldn't be able to have 1/4 the number of auctions online at once.

Thanks,

M.J.

M.J. Christensen
Technical Staff
Kiwiman's Collectibles
Boy Scout Patches and Other Collectibles on eBay
http://kiwiman1.net


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