April 18: ODB 1.1 RC6 is now out! Sorry about the delay but we have been busy moving clients to version 1.1, and in the process of doing so we identified some issues that required some more work on the software!

The result is a version of ODB that is the most powerful we have ever put out. Just last week I received a call from the Farmworker Association of Florida. They were using 1.0.2 and the problems they had vanished when they installed version 1.1RC6. RC6 will be the last release candidate and 1.1 should be out in 3 weeks, after we make some updates to the user manual.

In addition to fixing bugs, the new release adds a couple of goodies which will make several things easier for ODB users to do. If you install the new version you will find:

* a search/replace on text for doing mass updates without using Access or openoffice
* a Skype/IM field (eventually it should be possible to make skype calls with a single mouse click)
* a slick feature to run the conversion utility from the mass Action menu
* a redesigned shortcut for setting up thank you note batches that actually works.

To install 1.1, do not uninstall the existing version. Instead, run the following installation program and install on top of your existing version. The download link is:

http://organizersdb.org/1.0/odbinstall-1.1RC6.exe

When you run the program for the first time, it might ask you to convert your older database. Please do this and let us know if you encounter any issues. As far as we know it should be glitch-free and take just 10 seconds. The exception to that is if you are upgrading from 0.9. This should work but we recommend that you do this on the same machine that you are using to run the conversion utility.

If you are already using 1.1 you must manually run the utility. Assuming that the new utility is installed (it is part of 1.1RC6.rar) in the right place -- the converters folder -- then you can simply right click on the Mass Action button and choose Re-Run Conversion Utility. This will boot you out of ODB into the converter and then the converter should return you to ODB when it is done.

We are very excited about this release the promise of the 1.0 version is finally being realized.

-rich cowan
Organizers' Collaborative / ODB Project Director
14 Beacon St. Suite 720 - Boston, MA 02108
rich@oc-tech.org [email] - 617.720-6190 x20
http://organizersdb.org * http://organizerscollaborative.org

P.S. A list of fixes is available on our bug tracker at:
http://mantis.organizersdb.org/changelog_page.php

The list of items changed in 1.0RC6 consists of issues 669 through 685 inclusive.