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March 2021 | Issue #101

Current Releases: SM 8.0.097 (3/1) | AW 3.5.062 (2/4)

Radical Reporting Functions Series - 3/18, 4/15, 5/20 - 10 AM

ACEware Software Update - 4/7 2:00 CST

ACEware Systems Newsletter

Information to Run Your Program

Email Template Writing Becoming Easier

This month's release of Student Manager includes an update to the email module that I hope will make lives easier. Templates should be more natural looking in the future.

First, let me subside any panic you may feel about rewriting your existing templates. The system is backwards compatible, so the umpteen million currently existing templates don't need rewritten. In fact, going forward, if you like the current way of writing templates, then keep writing them that way.

What Student Manager now does is similar to what ACEweb has done for years; you write your HTML or plain text and then surround any codes from Student Manager with ##s. For example, cocrsenm you would have to put in something like:

"Course Title: "+cocrsenm+crlf

Of course, you would need to concatenate (+) this with whatever you were doing before and then after. Line feeds in plain text are done with the crlf (carriage return, line feed) designation. With ##s, the snippet becomes:

Course Title: ##

Gone are the quotes (because everything is assumed to be a string literal unless it is in ##s). No more concatenation. Heck, even line breaks are now allowed, so just hit the enter key where you need one. Note: In HTML, you would do a line feed with a <br> tag, so needs to stay in place with the new style too.

Here is an example receipt template body with the new style:

Student Name: ##namer(rgid)##

Dates: ##

Time: ##

##iif(!empt(ewkshop),"Workshops: "+ewkshop+cr2lf,"")######str(rgcrsefee,7,2)##

##iif(!empt(eoptfees),"Additional Fees: "+eoptfees+crlf,"")##Location:

Amount Due: ## Amount Paid: ##

I still put quotes around the workshop information and additional fees as there are iifs (inline ifs) conditionally bringing those in (so, using code here). Here is that same template body with the old style:

"Student Name: "+namer(rgid)+cr2lf+cocrsenm+crlf+ "Dates: "+edates+crlf+"Time: "+cocrsetm+cr2lf+iif(!empt(ewkshop),"Workshops: "+crlf+ewkshop+cr2lf,"")+RGFEEDESC+str(rgcrsefee,7,2)+cr2lf+iif(!empt(eoptfees),"Additional Fees: "+crlf+eoptfees+crlf,"")+"Location: "+crlf+prettyloc+cr2lf+"Amount Due: " +edue+" Amount Paid: "+epaid+cr2lf+epymsg+crlf

I hope you agree that the new way is easier to use. I think that it is, at the least, easier on the eyes. Have fun writing templates in the future!

For more information, Cheryl has written a wonderful page in the help guide on the new style!

Contributed by Matthew Olson

Spring Training Opportunities

Webinar Series:

March 18, April 15, May 20, 10 AM CT

This Thursday at 10:00 AM CT, we begin our Radical Reporting Functions webinar series. Chuck will give a panoramic view of functions - what do they do, where to get help, and then he'll zoom in on those "Add" functions. Join the group today!

Student Manager Bootcamp:

April 19-22, 12-2 PM CT

Look no further than Student Manager Bootcamp to warm up for June Conference! Attend these four days of training to be in great shape for the big event in June! These topics will be covered:

Introduction to Student Manager & How to Use Online Help
Adding and Editing Courses and Names
Registering Individuals in Courses & Applying Payments
Running Reports

Additional detail on what is covered in the four days of training is available here.

Contributed by Sharon Brookshire

REGISTRATION IS OPEN!

The countdown for conference begins! We look forward to being together online June 8-11.

A featured session you will enjoy is our panel session. Continuing Education representatives from university, community college, technical college, membership programs, community education and arts programs will share their success stories and lessons learned form The Great Shift of March 2020. Panelists will have follow-up sessions to share more program information, answer your questions, and tell how ACEware has been a part of their course development, registration, and student communication.

Conference sessions will feature ACEware tools that support the "new normal" of courses. Be sure to register by April 30 to receive your conference goodie bag before the week begins!

Conference registration is FREE (with a current support agreement)

Pre-Conference Workshops (Basic Report Writing OR Creating Supplemental Data Capture Pages) are $75 and are limited in attendance.

Contributed by Sharon Brookshire

Lucky Winners!

In the January Newsletter we offered a couple of chances to win an Amazon gift card from us. The first opportunity was by finding the catalog code that was created by us at our Annual Retreat, the second was for completing a development survey for us. We have received your responses to both and would like to announce the winners.

Amazon Gift Card for finding the ACEware Retreat Course Code:

Leslie- Grand Valley State University and Amy- Main Line School Night

Amazon Gift Card for completing our Development Survey:

Rachel, Whatcom Community College

The course code that was created at retreat was FCS17 Housing Technology. Thank you to all who participated in the fun!

Contributed by Susan Kraft

New Help on Functions

In preparing for the Radical Reporting Functions Webinar Series, we did some online help spring cleaning and reorganizing. in a moment of inspiration, we found that categorizing functions would help our customers (and ourselves). Cheryl went to work and has come up with something that we feel is very close to being what it needs to be. I'm sure as customers begin using it, you'll find ways to make it better. Check out the new functions by category page here. If you have any suggestions, comments, or questions, send those to your technician or Cheryl. Remember, the first part of functions is FUN!

Contributed by Matthew Olson

Tech Tip of the Month: Online Registration, Student Manager, Maximum Enrollment, & Allowing Waitlisting.

Just a tip if you use course maximums, waitlisting and ACEweb. Online Registration will not allow Add to Enrollment Cart IF the Number Enrolled PLUS the Waitlisted Number equals or exceeds the Maximum Number allowed in the course.

Example: Maximum is set to 20 on a course. You get 20 registrations and start to Waitlist registrants. If any cancellations happen, your Online Registration takes into account that you do have people on the Waitlist. Even though to the back office there appear to be openings for the course, we are assuming your organization will take notice that there are students on the waitlist and will give them the first crack at the open seats and not let registrations slip in before.

Contributed by Mike Lowry

Report of the Month: Course Statistical Report

Due, Paid & Income

A customer asked for this report and we thought it was worth sharing. You can download it here. Instructions to upload are here.

Reports >> Statistics >> Courses >> Course Data Summary

This was created specifically for looking at subject codes, though you could, in theory, use it with any of the course demographic statistics. Select subject code in the dropdown, pick your query poison, and then choose the additional report titled, “Due/Paid Income Report.” This is slightly different from the default, in that it’s not calculating any expenses—just due, paid, and the income based on what was paid (so you could extend this report to also show balances due for each class if you want to be fancy!)

What you get:

Courses offered for each subject code, and the percentage of all courses offered with each subject code
Courses canceled for each subject code, and the percentage of courses canceled within that subject code
Total enrolled and canceled for each subject code, and the percentage of registrations canceled within that subject code
Average enrollment, course fee, and gross income per class within the subject code
Total due for all courses by subject code
Total paid for all courses by subject code
Total income for all courses based on due/paid by subject code

NOTE: This report does not account for any expenses, so if you’re using Pocket Ledger, this report is not for you!

Contributed by Lindsey Lieberman