PastPerfect 5.0 has multiple ways to quickly search and find your collection and contact records.

From the main menu, you can access Quick Find, which allows you to find a catalog record or contact record by typing in their ID number. If you have the Barcode Printing or Inventory Manager Upgrade, you can scan the item's barcode to find the catalog record.

In each catalog (Objects, Photos, Archives, Library) and in Contacts, the navigation bar has both Find and Query options. By choosing Find, you can do an Instant Find, which is a "begins with" search of indexed fields. The indexed fields are the same fields you can sort records by as well. The Find screen also includes a Field Search, which is a "contains text" search of any field in that catalog.

By choosing Query, you can perform more fine tuned searches using filter statements. To build a filter statement, you first select a Field, then a Condition such as Contains, Does Not Contain, Is Empty, etc., and then enter the text you are looking for in Value. You can create simple filters with one field/condition/value, or build compound filters with multiple statements to refine your search. Multiple filter statement lines are connected by using "and" or "or". Our Knowledge Base offers more information on building compound filters.

The fields you can query by and the fields in your search results can be changed in Setup | Query Fields. For step-by-step instructions or to watch our video tech tip, check out our Knowledge Base article.

The Research section on the main menu enables you to search across multiple catalogs in various ways. If you select All 4 Catalogs, you can build filter statements that will query one or more catalogs. You can simply uncheck the catalogs you do not wish to include and then build filters using fields that are common to all catalog records.

Other multiple-catalog search options are By Keyword, By Lexicon, By People, and By Search Term. By Keyword allows you to search for a word(s) across multiple fields in your catalog records. You can setup which fields are included in Setup | Keyword Search. By Lexicon enables you to find all records within a Lexicon Category, Classification, or Sub-Classification or records with a specific Object Name. By People helps you find records related to people important to your collection. These are the names found in your catalog records' People field. By Search Term enables you to find records using the terms entered in your catalog records' Search Term field. Both the By People and By Search Term searches give you a count of the number of records in each catalog where that name or term is found. Check out our Research Series video tech tips for more information about using these search options.

Since Microsoft released Windows 11, we have received frequent questions asking if PastPerfect is compatible. The answer is yes, PastPerfect 5.0 is compatible with Windows 11. However, PastPerfect 4.0 is not compatible. If you are a current Version 4.0 user, you can install on operating systems up to Windows 10. Or you may decide now is the time to upgrade to PastPerfect 5.0 or Web Edition. To learn about the differences between these two options, visit our comparison page or call us with any questions.

Curious about upgrading to PastPerfect Web Edition? We invite you to register for our hour long, on-demand or live webinars that walk through the collections and contacts capabilities of our cloud-based software. During our live webinars, you can ask questions and have our staff show features more in-depth. Our on-demand webinar is a previously recorded live webinar that you can watch at any time that is convenient for you. Register for either webinar here: https://museumsoftware.com/demo.html.

After the webinar, if you think Web Edition is the right choice for your organization, contact the team at webedition@museumsoftware.com to get started on the next steps.

If you have new staff or interns this summer, we also recommend they attend our webinar as an introduction to all of the features and functions of the software they'll be using.

Public Access gives you the ability to share your collection with the public via a fully searchable, online database. You select the records and images to share, as well as what data fields are shared from each catalog. You also have control over various site settings, including the navigation buttons, built-in email forms, search settings, and styling.

Each Public Access site is customized by our staff to complement an organization's main website. This includes a home page that can be further customized with images and links or additional information about your collections.

Public Access is an additional annual cost based on your Web Edition hosting level. For pricing information, please visit https://museumsoftware.com/publicaccess.html#pricing.

Curious about other organizations sharing their collections via Public Access? Check out the list of public sites here: https://museumsoftware.com/publicaccess.html#collection-list.

In Web Edition, you may have users you would like to restrict from certain program areas and functions. Creating Roles enables you to set restrictions for these users. For example, you may wish to set up a Role for "Intern", which has access to collection records, but not development records.

Roles and restrictions are managed under Settings | Roles & Restrictions on the Main Navigation Bar. Once a Role is created, check boxes next to the program areas and functions you wish to restrict for any user who will be assigned this Role. You can restrict users from entire program areas like Accessions, Development, or Pledges & Receipts. You can also restrict users from individual accordions like Appraisal Information on catalog records and Membership Information on contact records. Functions like deleting records or exporting data can also be restricted. After you have set the restrictions, save the Role, and go to Settings | User Accounts. You can then add a new user and assign the Role at that time, or assign existing users to this new Role.

For step-by-step instructions and more information about Roles & Restrictions, please visit our Knowledge Base article, "How do I set up security?" You can also visit the Getting Started section of the Web Edition User Guide, which is available on our website or right from your software by clicking the question mark icon in the title bar at the top of your screen.

We are asking each of our staff to choose a favorite item from one of the many online collections. This artifact was selected from the online collection of the McLeod County Historical Society & Museum by Kate because:

"I like finding old office equipment that shows how things have changed. Calculators have come a long way in the last 100 years, and I am very grateful I don’t need to make space on my desk something this large. These pieces have such wonderful history because they were used constantly and were a part of everyday life in an office or shop."