Here are the improvement, new features, and fixes contained in the
0.9.3 thru 0.9.4 versions of ODB.  Click here
for the latest release notes.


NOTE: An interim version labeled 0.9.4b containing the fixes that are
not dated above was released on 1/22 for inclusion in the CD
distributed by NOSI (Nonprofit Open Source Initiative).


Version 0.9.4a is a maintenance release:  some important
bugs were detected and corrected. (This was initially released
on 12/15/03 to address some issues with the SRC and VID code features;
additional changes were added as late as 1/8/03, including
some important enhancements of the membership renewal date and
last gift date logic made between 12/29 and 1/4/04.)

New Features
a) When printing a large number of donation slips (more than 12
   at a time), ODB will offer to print them so that the first
   grouping of slips comes out on the top thirds of the pages,
   so that the second grouping comes out on the middle thirds,
   and the last grouping comes out on the bottom third.  This
   enables you to use a large paper cutter to cut the donation
   slips, and stack the piles and they will be magically in
   order!  This is useful when you need to match up the slips
   with labels or envelopes printed from the same mailing list.
   Note: in the initial version of ODB where this feature
   was included, it would print incorrect phone numbers for 2/3
   of the slips.  This was resolved on 12/18/03.
b) Added a "preview" button to allow someone installing the
   software to preview any template using Notepad.  (12/20/03)
c) Added a link so that you can go to the web page to view
   documentation on settings with a single click from the
   admin screen. (12/20/03)
d) Complete revamp of thank you note printing.  Now it is possible
   to set the top margin to be used on your thank you letter,
   using the "topmarginpoints" setting.  ODB is also a lot more
   intelligent about the last gift date.  Finally, it is possible
   to print 100 different donation letters and have different
   messages on the letters depending on the donation category. 
   (12/30/03).  This will need a bit more documentation work to
   be easily used, but here are some details:  By default, both
   thank you note pull down lists will show the default thank
   you note which is always (?) named "thankyou.txt". Another
   option called  will show up if the
   thankyoudefs setting is enabled.  This setting will use the
   thankyou note that is defined in thankyoudefs, based on the
   category of each gift you are generating a thank you note for.
e) Now ODB will automatically set the focus to the list
   of found records if the search returns at least one
   record; if the search returns 0 records the focus will
   revert back to the search box so that the user can
   revise what they are searching for.  (1/7/04)
f) In the Select Records area, donation reporting is now
   improved so that when you save your reports, you get
   a much larger list of fields in the two "save donation
   data" options so that you can use the information for
   a mail merge letter that might include the total of
   the gifts someone gave for the year.  (1/8/04)
g) The program will offer to go to download the new ODB
   conversion utility now; previously it was going to the
   0.9.3 version (1/8/04)
	 
Minor Glitches Fixed
a) The Checkoff settings for checkoff lines on reply slips only
   allowed 80 characters; sometimes you need more so now 90 characters
   are permitted.  For existing databases, you will need to change the
   field length, which must be done in MS Access97. ^
b) In the Record Selection Tool, when you removed sort fields, the
   last "(nothing)" button would have tooltip text that was incorrect.
c) In the Record Selection Tool, when you had 4 sort fields, and you
   clicked on the last one to change it, you could not set it to "nothing".
d) In the Record Selection Tool, if you removed ALL sort fields, ODB
   would still leave the "Order By" clause in your query, which you
   really didn't need any more.
e) The label for Tooltip text on the labels of categories under the
   VID screen referred to "check boxes," which was incorrect.  The
   tooltip text was modified to apply to this screen, so now there
   is tooltip text on the text boxes and on the labels. ^
f) If you tried to Add a SRC code and typed a name for the code
   longer than 50 characters, ODB would generate a run time error
   and quit.  This is fixed: the code will be truncated to 50 chars.
   (In the future we might prevent entering so many chars.) ^
g) When you delete a donation, ODB was giving you an incorrect
   message asking if you wanted to go to the "payment view."  It
   should have said "People Entry" view. ^
h) When you are in the Record Selection Tool and you have the check
   box to view the custom query checked, ODB was not always updating
   the query when you made changes to it.  The problem only occurred
   when you had a date in the Memexpire, Entered, Updated, or Lastgave
   box and you then erased it. ^
i) Minor fix in the "voter contact" template.
j) When printing donation slips, the 2nd column of info was moved over
   to make room for the message about the person's expiration date.
k) The zip code lookup was not working reliably on a fast computer
   when Internet Explorer was already open.  ODB now will wait an
   extra second for IE to respond and it works more often. ^
l) If you modify a donation, ODB is now smart enough to check the
   "LastGift" field to update it intelligently.  Thus if you had
   donations on December 5, 15, and 25, and you changed the one on
   the 25th to the 10th, ODB would then use the donation on the 15th
   as the "last gift".  This was important to fix because the user
   cannot manually adjust the "last gift" field in ODB.  Note that
   the "lastgift" and "lastgave" fields use the "giftcategories"
   setting to determine whether a donation qualifies as a gift.
   So if you enter a payment as as a donation and then you
   realize that it should have been for merchandise, ODB will
   correct the problem of treating the merchandise as a gift... (12/29)
   Note: This fix was not perfect: it handled changes in donation
   dates, but it did not handle changes in donation amounts, and
   it could fail to update the date when there were many gifts
   from other donors on the same date.  Fixed again on 1/4/03.
m) ODB was beeping too much.  This was caused by using the Enter
   key after you did a search for something.  Now ODB will no
   longer beep after you complete what you started with the enter
   key in the main menu (12/29).^
o) The tab order in the Add Gift window was fixed to a more sensible
   order (12/29).
p) The help text in the Select Records screen was missing the
   fields City and State!  (1/8/04) ^

	 
Usability Enhancements
a) If you set up a custom query incorrectly, ODB was still using the
   confusing Microsoft error message "Too Many Parameters: Expected
   1" instead of a more friendly ODB substitute error message.  Now
   The error reporting in the Record Selection Tool, and in other
   places where there are queries was consolidated and it should now
   be much friendlier.
b) When you delete a donation, ODB was always erasing the membership
   expiration date.  Now ODB will ask you a question to allow you
   to preserve the expiration date if you want to.
c) When you click on the button for "SRC" codes before you have
   defined any, ODB will now tell you both of the ways you can
   start creating these codes, instead of just one way to do so.
d) In the Add Gift window, if you click on the box to print a
   thank you note, the cursor will automatically move down so that
   you can then select a thank you note without the mouse.  This
   is an accessibility feature.  (12/29)
e) Setting up thank you notes properly was very difficult because
   ODB was requiring that the file name match exactly, and it was
   case-sensitive.  The fix was to make this case-insensitive in
   two places -- the setcombo routine and in cmbcat_click. (12/30)
f) On the main menu, tooltips were improved to be more informative,
   and the text 'Enter Last Name, Partial Email...' now is more
   clear to avoid possible confusion.  The tooltips for the
   main results display, for the search box, and for the 'Enter
   last name...' text were all changed.  (1/8/03)
	 
Major Bugs Fixed
a) A serious problem was found on 12/13/03: if you remove VID
   codes from ODB, ODB will not clean the code from any
   records which might be using that code.  This means that
   if you had 10 records using a VID code of 'E' and you erased
   it and then you started using the 'E' code for something else,
   you might end up with some people already assigned to use that
   code.  This has been fixed as of 12/15.  Workaround: whenever
   you assign a new VID code, make sure that your records are
   not already using that code, in both people and in groups.
b) A serious problem was found in the SRC code feature on
   12/13/03: if you create a SRC code that contains another
   SRC code, ODB would check off the shorter code whenever you
   turn on the longer code.  I.e. if you have HP1, HP2, HP3, etc.
   to signify house party attendance, you will notice this issue
   when you reach HP10 or HP11:  every time you check these
   off HP1 will also get checked off.  Workaround:  Use HP01
   instead of HP1, i.e. use all 4-letter codes.
c) A problem was found on 12/29/03: if you added a donation
   for someone and they were not quite up for renewal yet,
   one of the options would be to click on "no" to not update
   their renewal date at all.  If you did that, the renewal
   date was getting updated anyway.  This is fixed (12/29/03).
d) Note: we added the fix to the 0.9.5 "major bug c)" to 0.9.4.
   If you download ODB after 3pm on 1/28/04 you will get this
   fix. 
	 

Note: An 0.9.4 conversion utility (beta version) was uploaded on
November 26, 2003.  See the main ODB page for the link.


Version 0.9.4 is a major maintenance release.  It makes
a large number of incremental improvements and fixes to ODB, to
meet the needs of consultants and campaigns setting it up.  There
was a particular focus on printing features and features needed
by electoral campaigns and voter participation projects.  Note that
this version includes a user guide with major revisions, and five
additional pages.  We want to express our gratitude to the 
the 6 organizations who upgraded before the release date, and
helped us locate a few remaining bugs!  Another version of this
release with enhanced thank you was released on November 18th.
Released: Nov. 8, 2003.  Updated: Nov. 18, 2003.

New Features
a) Added to the right-click option to find people with one or
   all of the "same codes" (for Activit, Issue, Constit, or VID).
b) Added a "Voter Participation Project" template. (11/18)
c) When you save a donation report, the last two options under
   "Save As Type" now save additional data.  The options read,
   "Donation Data Tab Delimited" and "Donation Data Comma
   Delimited," and they now save first and last name, title, 
   line 2, suffix of your donors.  Note: in prerelease version,
   this fix made it impossible to run the first two ODB donation
   reports.  This was corrected on 10/29.  Then Carrie Storrow
   reported (thanks) that ODB was not able to save donation data
   in the new version; this was corrected on 11/4.
d) The optional "Country" field available for People will
   now show up when you print "Detailed Info" on a person.
e) The "Voter" checkbox was not really appropriate for entering
   voter registration data, so it was replaced with a text field
   called "vreg" for this purpose. (We don't know of anyone who
   has been using the checkbox, so please tell us if you were!)
   Note: the vreg box was not accepting letters; fixed this 10/29.
f) A table was added to the data structure for future use, to
   increase ODB's flexibility in generating external reports.
g) Additional fields were added to the database tables for
   future use:  a DOB (date of birth) field, and a SCD (school
   district) field.
h) Added ability to change the label of the AddGift button, using
   a new ODB setting AddGiftLabel. 
i) Tested and added documentation to the web site on some of the recently
   added ODB settings:  thankyoucheckbox, requireimportsrc, membercategories,
   giftcategories, maxmembershipdate, and added a setting 'giftcategories'
   for future use.
j) Added ability to turn on display of Appeal tracking information.
   Note that this is currently implemented as a plain text field,
   and you can do donation searches on it if you use a custom
   query like "appealinfo = 'Dinner03'".  Note:  this field
   showed up prematurely in early versions of 0.9.3b; it was
   supposed to remain "off" by default.
l) Added a GiftComment field to the donations table for future
   use.
m) Updated the user manual, adding sections on using ODB for
   fundraising, correcting typos, and more fully explaining some
   of the options for configuration, thank you note printing, etc.
   The most recent group of changes were made on 11/18.
n) There is a new feature: if you right-click on the Export button
   and at least one record is showing, ODB will copy the export data
   to the clipboard in a tab-delimited format without actually
   saving it to a file.
o) Added a 2-line printing feature intended to be used by
   electoral campaigns (10/29). Note: this feature initially was
   incompatible with older databases, but this was fixed on 11/11.
p) Added settings to allow you to show the date of birth and/or
   gender fields (10/29). 
q) Changed the main menu search page to allow searching on a
   single character in the last or first name.  This is useful
   if you are working with a very large database.  (11/4)
r) Now when you are doing donation searches, you can choose
   to omit the results that have bad or incomplete addresses.
   (11/6).
s) A new import specification called CitizenSpeak was added
   which speeds the process of setting up the field order for
   importing CitizenSpeak.org data. (11/11)
t) Added several additional queries to the installer, for
   maintenance purposes:  People whose addresses have been
   marked as expired within the last 3 months, people who
   have been a member in the past but do not have an email
   address, people who have been a member in the past but
   have since had their email marked as expired, and all
   people who had emails that have since been marked as
   expired.  These queries can serve as examples for you
   to develop your own queries. (11/11)
u) Added the 'updated' field to the sort order list so that you
   can sort your search results by the date the records were
   last updated (and focus your organizing energy on people
   with little activity, or not waste your time on people
   who have not had much activity).  (11/11)
v) Within the Record Selection Tool, under Donations, the
   results box now includes the Subcategory column. (11/18)
w) Improved the implementation of the Download Web Signups
   functionality.  The remoteaccount and remotepw settings
   should be set using version 0.9.4 for this to work; ODB
   will warn you if you already downloaded the signups today.
   This feature will not load an import specification for you;
   you still have to set that up manually.  But the good news
   is that you now are able to specify a file "header.txt" on
   your web server that specifies the header row for your data;
   this should make it clear what kind of data you are importing.
   The new implementation alters the behavior of the RemoteAccount
   ODB setting.  Now it should specify the complete path name,
   including the "/" character, of the folder where you want to
   download data.  ODB will look for the file "wrdata.txt"; short
   for "web registration data", in addition to "header.txt".
   The feature will still be enhanced further: it should be
   possible to have the feature automatically assign whether
   the imported person is an individual or an organization.
   When this is completed, we will make the script that
   accompanies the feature more widely available. (11/11/03)
x) More revisions to user manual. (11/18)
y) The implementation of the thank you check box was completed:
   all of the files ending in .txt in the local or the DB
   location mergetext folder will be displayed... There
   is a new ODB setting that allows you to map donation
   categories to thank you notes.  It is called thankyoudefs,
   and the way it works is as follows: if you have a T code for
   T shirt sales you could put T-tshirtack.txt into this category
   so that this letter would be used instead of the default.

 
Usability Enhancements
a) Zip code download location now gives you two choices, so
   that you can immediately save the zip codes database to
   the shared database location where all users can access it!
   This saves you from having to move it manually in Windows.
b) Sometimes a zip code download will be successful but the
   installation of the new zip code file will not work; quitting
   and restarting ODB may solve this problem.  ODB will now
   suggest this workaround to you.
c) Now ODB will automatically put the name of a new record in the
   search box when adding a group, just as it has done for people.
d) The apostrophe was removed from the words "Organizers' Database"
   in the installer program; this means that the new ODB may
   show up alongside the old ODB on your start menu.  You can
   right-click on the menu items with the old spelling and choose
   "delete" from the popup menu to remove them.
e) The default size of the comments field was increased to 1000
   characters (it used to be 255). You can go into settings and
   increase the size further if you want, up to 65535 characters
   maximum.
f) If you add a code that already exists, ODB was making
   you re-enter the entire description.  Now you won't have to
   do that anymore.
g) In the screens, mainly accessed from Groups Entry, to select a
   person or a group, the search results are now sorted.
h) The internal field names used by ODB have been changed to
   a meaningful name that reflects their use in ODB screens, so
   that these names can be used as part of the "field hiding"
   feature of ODB.
i) The message when a monthly backup cannot be performed (because
   other users have the database open) was friendly when you were
   running ODB on the server, but unfriendly when you were
   running it on a client.  Now both messages should be of the
   "friendly" variety. (11/10)
j) ODB did not have a special code for import specifications
   for the "comments" field, so if you set up an import specification
   and later changed the size of your comments field from 255 to a
   much larger number, the import specification would need to be
   edited and changed too.  Now there is a import specification code
   of -16, which will automatically import the whole comments field.
   (11/11)
k) In the import screen, the dialog box when you click the button to
   chose an import specification was opening to the most recently
   accessed folder, not the folder with import specifications. (11/11)
l) In the import screen, the dialog box when you click the button to
   chose an import file was opening to the most recently accessed
   folder, not the desktop as was intended. (11/11)
m) The Export button, the Save Donation Report button, and the Load
   Import File button were all trying to use an invalid location
   for the desktop on Windows NT/2000/XP; thus the desktop would
   only show up as the default location in Windows 95/98/Me. (11/11)
n) Added key filtering so that when you use the optional
   "Appeal Code" feature, ODB will make everything upper
   case and not allow spaces or punctuation.  (11/11)
o) Added Feature to the Record Selection Tool,  so that the cursor
   will automatically jump into the "Add SQL" text boxes. (11/18)
p) ODB will no longer ask you for a password if you try a
   donation search and no donors are found.  The password will
   only come up if the search criteria is able to produce
   results exceeding the threshold you have set up, and if
   there are results (11/18).
q) We added a fix that makes it easier to set up multiple
   installations of ODB on a single computer: ODB is now more
   likely to create a new setup.dat file in the place where you
   install it, as opposed to using the setup.dat file that is
   already present in c:\program files\oc.  (11/18)
	 
Minor Glitches Fixed
a) The 0.9.3 releases had a problem in the "Select Records" area
   where the query displayed in the "View Custom Query" area
   was not updating right away when you clicked on the Act, Iss,
   or Cons buttons.  The correct query would be executed, however.
b) ODB was quitting unexpectedly when you tried to import groups
   and a duplicate group was found.  Thanks to Jon Falk
   of the Pine Tree Folk School for pointing this out.
c) When you modified the description of a type code, ODB
   would cut off one of the characters from the beginning
   of the code in the box allowing you to change it.
d) When you "mark an address as old; enter new" on a record for
   a person, the old address is appended to the text already in 
   the comments box.  If the comments are empty, however, the 
   text "(comments)" was still showing up before the old address.
   This has been fixed.  It was not an issue for Group records
   because Groups records do not show the text "(comments)" when
   the comments box is empty.
e) If you went into the wrench area of ODB and tried to erase
   certain numeric settings (instead of setting them to zero), ODB
   would unexpectly quit.
f) Templates were updated to reflect the change in the format
   for the DefaultCategory setting, and to add additional
   settings.  Two additional templates were added.  [add new]
g) Incorrect popup help for the donation amount search boxes fixed.
h) The number of characters you can import into the House District
   field was increased from 2 to 3, matching the number of
   characters that you can enter from the people entry screen.
i) ODB would unexpectedly quit if you tried to search in 'groups'
   by Record ID number (i.e. enter '#200' in the main search box).
   (fixed 11/4)
j) Some of the printing options appropriate for people only
   should have been disabled in groups mode. (fixed 11/6)
k) Custom queries that searched on user-defined fields were
   not working properly (11/10).
l) The fifth donation report was supposed to sort results by
   number of gifts, and it was still producing the same output
   as the third donation report (sorting by dollar amount).
   (11/10)
m) Setting the taxreceiptamount field to 0 should have turned
   the feature to ask if you wanted to print a tax receipt
   off, but it was not doing that. (11/18)
n) Marking an address as old with the "enter new address" option
   was setting the new address to incomplete immediately.  This
   turned out to be a bad option, because it was then possible
   to completely fill in the info and save it, and ODB would
   not prompt you to clear the "address incomplete" mail code.
   (11/18)
o) The "hide fields" settings were not working for certain
   fields because ODB was hiding them and then making them
   visible later on in the startup procedure.  The order of the
   operations was changed so this will not happen again.  (11/18)
p) If you turned on the Region field without first downloading
   the Zip Code file, ODB was trying to access it anyway, when
   it should not have been doing this.  This is fixed.  (11/18)
q) Sorting by ID was not working in Select Records if your
   query included the "SRC" code.  To make it work, we
   modified ODB so that "People.ID" would show up as the
   label of the first sort button.  (11/19)
	 
Major Bugs Fixed
a) Fixed a problem with one of the advanced configuration
   settings in ODB used to optionally hide fields and buttons.
   The 'optgroup' and 'optdonations' options were not working
   properly, and they also were not completely documented.
   A user in Colorado also notified us that it was possible
   to change one of the settings to a value that would prevent
   you from opening your database.  (11/7)  Later we found another
   problem: if you hid the txtSearch field, ODB would not open
   at all.  Now you can hide the field, but ODB will still open.
   (11/18)
b) The Import SRC Code feature (not part of the default ODB
   installation) was not working if you wanted to have the
   same code added to each imported record. Thanks to Jon Falk
   of the Pine Tree Folk School for pointing this out.


Version 0.9.3b provides a couple of important bug fixes and
many powerful right-click capabilities for searching from
the main menu. This is an extremely stable production release.
Released:  September 10, 2003, re-released on September 11 and
on September 17, 2003.

New Features
a) Additional, modest updates to ODB user manual.
b) The new 'deceased' mail code is fully enabled, so that you
   won't send email to someone who is deceased, and so that
   if you are previewing a deceased person this fact is marked
   clearly, just as it is for expired addresses.  Note: in
   initial 0.9.3b versions, the expired label wasn't immediately
   showing up when you marked someone from the main menu.
   This was fixed on 9/21.
c) "Napster"-style right-click searches.  If you have found one
   address, you can right click on the name, line2, address, or
   city or state or zip to find database entries in the same
   geographic area.  You can even find people with the same
   phone number.  And as of 9/11, the people on the same street
   will be sorted by street number (& at same address by unit.)
d) Added additional right-click menu to the "Details" mode of
   the main menu.  When you right-click on the text displaying
   the type, or the geographic district, you will see a number
   of members that allow you to find people in the same ward,
   precinct, or people with the same individual "type."
e) When you finish entering a zip code, ODB will automatically
   tab over to the Zip+4 field for you. (note: this feature
   worked in 0.9.3a as well, and has been cleaned up a bit
   in the version so that reverse tab (shift-Tab) also works.
f) The donation category now shows up as a column in the first
   two donation reports.  (Note: this was changed caused a bug
   in the other donation reports which was fixed on 9/17.)
	 
Usability Enhancement
a) When selecting a person or a group in the "linking" features
   on the groups entry screen, you no longer have to enter
   any search text at all: searching on 1 character, or on no
   characters in the name at all, will work.
	 
Minor Glitches Fixed
a) The duplicate checking in the "copy emails" button would
   not recognize that joe@aol.com and Joe@aol.com are duplicates.
b) When you have the Title feature of ODB on, the option to
   select "Dr. & Mrs." was there, but "Dr." was missing!
c) When adding a "dated comment" (right-click on the Edit...
   button from the main menu), ODB was not clearing the
   (Comments) field that appears for a blank comment.
d) This is so rare it won't normally happen, but ODB was not
   gracefully handling a situation where one backup file, from
   a year ago, was set to read only.  ODB was quitting upon
   startup when it tried to remove the old backup file to make
   room for a new backup file (Error 75).  Now ODB will report
   the exact nature of the error.
e) The "Parent Organization" feature was not fully implemented.
   In Groups Entry, ODB would not enable the "Save Changes" button
   when you chose a parent.  And after you opened the record again,
   ODB would look in the wrong field for the Parent information.
   It should have been looking in the "ChapterOf" field.  [Note:
   this was cleaned up because the feature will remain in version 1.0.]
f) Incorrect colors in the SelectGroup and SelectPerson window
   (group linking features) are fixed.
g) The automatic testing of the import data for the presence of
   commas or tabs was not working properly, and in rare cases
   would not let you import data.
h) Fix for display bug in Select Records (see 0.9.4 notes) added
   to the 0.9.3b download on September 15.
i) Note: the Appeal Code field was showing up prematurely in
   this version for people who used the version to create a new
   database.  This was fixed on September 17; it no longer shows up.
j) The "SRC" field was showing up in both people and in groups in
   the Select Records screen; it should show only in People (fixed
   on 9/21).
k) If you had no thank you letter called thankyou.txt and you typed
   nothing in the box asking for the name of the letter, ODB would
   unexpectedly quit. 
	 
Major Bugs Fixed
a) The optional region code feature (this is activated when you
   go into settings and you turn on the 'useregion' setting) was
   appearing to work, but after you saved your people record and
   then opened it back up the information in the region field
   would always be blank.  (The information was getting saved to
   the database, but it would never be displayed.)
b) There was a major problem related to deleting records from the
   main Menu screen in Groups mode.  ODB was looking for donations
   attached to the group, even though groups cannot currently be
   associated with donations.  If the Group's ID number was also
   used as the ID of a person, ODB was then deleting donations
   associated with 'this person' permanently.

	 

Version 0.9.3a provides two important fixes: an update in the
method used to look up 9-digit zip codes from the postal service,
and a fix in the printing of thank you notes.  It also adds some
some important new features, and fixes one longstanding problem.
Released:  July 22, 2003

New Features
a) Ability to load and save "import specifications" so that
   you if you try to import a particular file or format of
   data file more than once, you don't have to set up the
   order of fields a second time.  This shows up as buttons
   labeled "Save Spec..." and "Load Spec..." on the import
   screen.
b) Updated USPS zip code lookup; the USPS had changed its
   web site, necessitating a change in ODB.
c) Added robust duplicate checking to importing.  Adjacent
   duplicates are now detected.  Also improved the matching
   capability, and provide for automatic filling in of
   missing address information when an imported record is
   determined to be an exact match.
d) Major updates to the user manual to reflect program changes
   since version 0.9.1.
e) Addition of a "deceased" mail code.
	 
Usability Enhancements
a) When you are importing into large data files (more than 1500
   people) the software will show you a smaller number of
   possible duplicates, to save you some time.
b) Import duplicate reports are more useful format, providing
   details on the kind of duplicates that were detected, so
   the user will have an easier time determing which duplicates
   are worth examining for data to manually enter into ODB.
c) The title box now allows you to type in a choice that
   is not in the drop down list.
d) ODB will now automatically clear out zip plus four extensions
   when you finish entering a new zip code.
e) When you set the donation code, ODB will let you know whether
   the code is one that does or does not affect membership.
f) Better error message when the logo is missing.

Minor Glitches Fixed
a) ODB would unexpectedly quit if you imported more than 32,767
   records at one time.
b) There was an extra informational message appearing all the
   time after you checked for and downloaded a new version of
   ODB, that should only have appeared in situations where your
   PC had multiple installations of ODB on it.
c) In Select Records, changing a ISS/Cons/Act code was not
   automatically updating the query.
d) Fixed misleading tool tip text: when you use the Line2 box
   in the Search screen, the search is at the beginning of Line2;
   it is not a search at any point within the line.

Major Bugs Fixes
a) Printing of Thank-You notes was not working properly in 0.9.3.



Version 0.9.3 is a major new release with a small number of new
features and a large number of usability and quality control
improvements.  Thanks to more thorough testing, this version of ODB
should be significantly more reliable than past versions, including
all of the "0.8" versions. The changes in this release center on ease
of use, importing data, donation reports, "idiotproofing", and the
addition of an optional Country field. 
Release Date:  May 19, 2003  (minor updates on 5/20, 5/23, 5/29, 6/3, 6/9)

New Features
a) At last, it is possible to edit Ledger entries; just double-click to
   Edit.
b) There is an additional reporting option in the Record Selection Tool:
   viewing donors sorted by the total amount they have given.
c) There is an additional right-click option on the Edit Button on the
   main menu: if you right-click on the Edit button you have ODB add
   today's date to the end of a comment and position the cursor
   so you can add a comment associated with an interaction you
   had with that person.
d) In the Record Selection tool, you can right click on any tracking
   code buton to see a menu to Clear the selected codes.
e) The user interface for adding all kinds of tracking codes is now
   a graphical one that makes the process of entering or modifying them
   much easier.  Also, the prompts and error messages have been improved.
f) It is now possible to import SRC codes.  You can have up to four
   columns in your data import file; step 6) in the import screen, for
   people, had some additional menu options that provide you with SRC1
   through up to SRC4 as "virtual" import fields.  (The codes are all
   stored relationally in the SRClink table, not in the people table.)
   The feature is easy to use, and it can be used in combination with
   the feature assigning the same SRC code to each imported record.
g) It is now possible to decide, when you have turned off previewing
   of import data, whether you would like to have ODB accept or reject
   the possible duplicate lines of data.
h) An experimental Country field for international addresses was added.
   The field is only partially supported: you can sort on it but you
   can't yet search on it.  It will print on envelopes or laser labels,
   but it will not show up in the main menu.  If you do not turn this
   option on (and run a conversion utility) you will not see the country
   field.  The idea was to make it available for a few groups that needed
   it, but not provide full support for it at this time.
i) If you change a SRC code to an existing SRC code value, you are now
   given the option to consolidate the two codes.
j) SRC codes can now have either 3 or 4 characters.  They can be any
   combination of letters and numbers.
k) The "About..." box for ODB was updated to reflect new support options
   (June 16).
l) New Queries were added to the setup script and will be installed when
   you upgrade.  They find:
   -people who have an email address
   -people with email but who have no type code
   -people with no phone number
   -people with a phone number
   -people with incomplete mailing addresses who have email
   The purpose, as is obvious, is to facilitate database maintenance. (June 16)
	 
Usability Enhancements
a) The duplicate screening user interface is improved: you no longer
   have a choice whether you want to save the duplicates; ODB will
   ask you if you would like to view the duplicates as soon as it is done.
b) ODB now will automatically separate out middle initials when
   importing data into the "Name" field.
c) Better error reporting if an incorrect file name is given.
d) ODB can now handle import data with 100 columns; the limit was 50.
e) An hourglass will now appear during the Mass Delete operation.
f) ODB is now consistent in its treatment of phone number fields: you
   can enter numbers, dashes, spaces, and periods, but no letters but 'x'
g) The CopyEmails button is 10 times as fast; this is noticeable when
   you are copying more than 1000 emails. 
h) The "mark mailing address as Incomplete" dialogue box is friendlier.
i) Donation slip printing is friendlier in identifying phone numbers.
j) Record limit warning will not come up every time you resort the
   results in Record Selection Tool.
k) You can now cancel out of the "Mark Address as Old" feature.
l) If you remove a donation category, you will only receive a message
   about consolidating codes if your data uses the old code.
m) The name of the setting for default category has been changed to
   "defaultcategory".  Lastcat should still work, if your database
   does not have the "defaultcategory" setting yet.
n) When entering really old donations, a number of dialogue boxes relating
   to membership renewal choices were appearing.  These are not really
   relevant if you are entering historical info, so they were removed.
o) When you are adding a gift, if you press a keystroke that matches
   a subcategory (when the category menu is highlighted), ODB will fill
   in the subcategory box and jump down to the Amount field. 
p) If your "minimumdues" and "defaultdues" settings are out of whack,
   ODB will warn you and offer to fix this.  The defaultdues amount should
   always be at least as large as your minimum dues setting.
q) When you are editing SRC codes, the window will automatically scroll
   to the top.
s) Added error messages in case user tries to use a .jpeg, .bmp, .tiff
   file as the logo.  Only .gif or .jpg are accepted.
t) When you paste in a new 5-digit zip code, ODB will now wipe out any
   previous 4-digit zip code extension (May 20).
u) The position of the window was moved up slightly on the screen, so that
   the bottom of the window will be visible on smaller monitors (June 8).
v) The Export... function and other "Save file" dialog boxes now show
   a "Save" button as opposed to an "Open" button.  (June 8).
	 
Minor Glitches Fixed
a) User defined field was not recognized during the 'Export' operation,
   when you were in 'Code Changes' mode, causing ODB to unexpectly quit.
b) A problem where you couldn't do a backup during an ODB session after
   use of the Record Selection Tool is now fixed.
c) When you switched from People to Groups in the Import screen, ODB
   was not fully updating the options available in step 4) and step 6).
   Now, the choices in step 4 will reflect the Group types and step 6)
   will be hidden entirely.
d) Importing the Entrydate field was not working, and the Updated field
   was not included at all in People import.
e) ODB was not hiding the hourglass cursor when you aborted importing data.
f) Act/Iss/Cons/VID Tracking Code field sizes, in newly created ODB databases,
   are now expanded so the database can save the data when you check a large
   number of boxes, and error checking is improved, so you cannot check more
   boxes than allowed in databases created by previous versions of ODB.
g) In setup, when you create a new database and agree to let ODB move an older
   one out of the way (if the location you selected already exists), ODB
   was not doing what it said it would do when you then clicked 'no.'
h) ODB was not checking for very unusual numeric input:  For example if you
   entered a street number over 210,000 you could cause a Runtime Error.
   If you entered a dollar amount in an Exponential form, i.e. 4E09, which
   stands for 4 followed by 9 zeroes, it would also cause a Runtime Error.
i) The Mark Address As Old; Enter New feature in Main Menu was supposed to
   save the old address to the comments; this was not happening.
j) The checkbox fields in Groups were not enabling Save Changes.
k) In 0.9.2 only, when you cloned a record, the save changes button would
   not immediately be enabled, as it was in all earlier versions.
l) The ledger categories were not sorted in the Add Gift window.
m) Help screen in Record Selection Tool refered to high donor field that
   never existed.
o) The copy email address menu option was including a LINEFEED character
   at the end of the email.  This was removed.
p) When you changed from searching by "Date of Payment" to "Date Payment
   was Entered" ODB was not updating the query.  Now it is doing so.
q) Fixed the language localization feature.  Note that this is only a partial
   language localization, as it now only works on the unchanging text in
   the 5 main ODB screens.  On a future date this will be revamped, but
   for now you can edit the language file, rename it localize.txt, and see
   most of the main ODB buttons with different text on them.
r) SRC code drag problem:  if you clicked in the SRC code window and
   dragged the mouse before releasing, the listing at the bottom of
   the screen of selected codes was not getting updated.  This is fixed.
s) The new "biglist" feature was not highlighting the name of an entry
   even if you typed in its full name, if there was a similar entry that
   contained the full text of the first entry within the displayed list.
t) The feature for loading logos contained some minor bugs which could
   make the loading of the logo unreliable; most seriously, if the logo
   image was not readable at all ODB would not let the user in at all,
   but would unexpectedly quit on startup.
u) ODB was regenerating the settings file and using a "short path"
   in the first line of the file; this was not seen by the average ODB
   user, but it was seen if you moved the location of the ODB program
   files folder.  The effect of this was that several ODB operations
   were unreliable, including saving and loading templates, saving and
   loading a language localization file, and loading a logo that used
   a file name over 8 characters long or with spaces.
v) If the very first thing you did after opening up ODB was to add
   a new name that already existed in the database, and you indicated
   "yes" when ODB asked if you wanted to go to the existing record,
   ODB would unexpectedly quit.
w) If you added a new "SRC" code in the input area, any item selected
   in the "Type" was getting wiped out (reset to "none")
x) If you scrolled down the first list box and then changed the
   file you were importing, the second list box would end up out
   of sync with the first one.
y) If you scrolled down the first list box and then switched the
   import mode, the first list box would also end up out of sync
   with the second one.
z) All the templates were checked for problems and updated.
aa)The "maxcomment" field could be set to a low value and this could
   result in truncation of comments when a record is saved.  This was
   changed so that ODB will automatically reset maxcomment to 999 if
   it is set to a number under 200.
bb)Now ODB will handle the & character properly when used in the
   VIDlabel and SRClabel fields.  When displayed on a button, the &
   character creates a hot key.  Otherwise, the & character is ignored.
cc)In dot matrix labels, ODB was truncating the street number/name
   line to 25 characters (changed it to 37).
dd)In the detail printing, ODB was not printing custom labels for
   VID and SRC if the user had defined those.
ee)In the Record Selection Window, when you clicked the clear button,
   the sort order would display as "Last" then "First" but ODB would
   instead sort by first name when you clicked the Search button.  Now
   it defaults to "Last,First" like it should.
ff)If you printed a range of labels (not all chosen records), and the
   number of labels exactly fit on a page, you would end up with a
   a blank sheet of paper at the end of printing.
gg)In "Groups" (0.9.2 only), the Save Changes button would be enabled,
   even if you just opened an existing record.
hh)When editing the description for "type" codes after code changes
   are enabled, ODB was automatically removing the first character of
   of the code. (fixed on May 20)
ii)When you marked a phone number as bad, ODB was erasing not only the
   phone number but the "h:" or "w:" designation before the phone number!
   (fixed on May 22).
jj)If you started off in "people" and then you went into the import
   screen, and imported into "groups", ODB was not switching the main
   menu display to "groups" when you returned back to the Main Menu
   (fixed on May 22; initial May 20 fix did not work).
kk)Searching by the "Coalition ID" field (in Groups) was not working.
   (fixed on May 23).
ll)Minor update to ODB so that it would still run on Windows 95. (May 29)
mm)Update to the Import section so that holding down the enter key
   would not cause the Import procedure to be called recursively (May 29),
   and another update to prevent the "Select File..." button from firing
   during import (June 3).
oo)During donation import, ODB would say that it had imported
   some number of "People" instead of using the word "Donations." (May 29).
pp)The new "ledger double click" feature was not working properly;
   ODB would always open up the add gift window with the default
   categories showing. This is a major problem, but it was not an
   issue in any prior release of ODB.  Thanks to Marianne McPherson
   for reporting this (June 3).
qq)Incorrect column header "date" in the new report option, show donors
   by Total Given in the donation area of the Record Selection Tool.
   Changed this to "# of payments".  (June 8)
rr)Tooltip text was not cleared out of tracking codes, so that if you
   did a "New Record" the text from the previous record would show (June 8).
   Also the label "None" was not appearing in the SRC/Event field when
   you entered a new record.
ss)If you imported data and there were no duplicates detected, you
   would get a message box with "Yes" and "No" as options instead of
   a simpler message box at the end with the single option "OK". (June 8)
tt)The warning introduced in 0.9.2 that advised you to make sure to
   upgrade ODB in the same location where you first installed it was
   appearing even when ODB was installed in the default location. (June 16)
uu)The Settings area of ODB was allowing you to enter linefeeds. (June 16)
vv)Donations slips were not spacing out properly if a group had no
   web site listed on its donation slips. (June 16)
ww)The Middle name field was defaulting to a 3 character field when
   you created a new database, and 2 characters when you imported data.
   Only 1 character is actually needed, so this was changed. (June 16)
xx)When you imported Boolean data it was recognizing "-1" and "0"
   as boolean values, but it was not recognizing the word "True" or
   "TRUE" as it should have done.  (June 16)
yy)The Title field, when visible, was not allowing uncommon
   values for Titles, such as "Drs." or even "Miss".  The field was
   changed to a combo box that allows arbitrary values. (June 16)
zz)When importing using "Extended Import", the Type field was showing
   up twice in the left hand column.  (June 20)
	 
Major Bugs Fixed
a) Importing is more stable; there were problems when text fields like
   last name or Address Line2 contained garbage, like a single quotation
   mark or numeric data, plus about 5 other very minor problems.
   ODB is much more likely to get through a data file that contains
   a number of hard returns (CRLF characters), where in previous versions
   the presence of these characters could abort the import operation.
   Importing into Groups was causing ODB to quit where some of the new
   options were turned on; this should now be fixed.  Thanks to consultant
   Joel Remigio of Orlando for reporting this.
   Finally, Importing of Donations was not doing a good job in screening
   out bad data (bad OldID import values were handled properly, but problems
   with the regular ID or Date were not reported properly).  With this fix,
   ODB will import a date of "1999" as "1/1/99".
b) Data entry of "1,000" as a donation amount would result in a donation of
   $1.  Thanks to Sister Gail Grimes of the Farmworker Association of Florida
   for reporting this.  The import area of ODB was unaffected by this issue. 
c) The "biglist" feature was not completely fixed:  if you entered a record
   with an entry for biglist and you did not edit this entry, it was possible
   for ODB to pick up the entry from the last biglist item you edited!
d) The "maxcomment" field could be set to a value greater than 65535,
   which could cause ODB to terminate upon startup.  This was fixed; now
   ODB will automatically reset maxcomment to 2000 if it is too big.
e) ODB had a tendency to use up all available memory if you entered a
   large pile (over 25) donations.
f) In "Groups" in 0.9.2 only, cloning and saving would result in ODB
   deleting the next record (if you opened and then cancelled).
g) The user defined field was importing fine, but if you entered it, it was
   not actually getting saved to the database! (fixed on May 20).