Create professional quality documents with Microsoft Word by taking advantage of the software’s exceptional formatting tools.

The cardinal rule of word processing should be followed by students and businessmen alike: “Key in your data first, format last.”

Why? Efficiency – by typing up your 30 page research paper, 20 page report or two page memo, you will be able to focus on content without the distraction of stopping, highlighting (selecting your text) and applying formatting on the fly. Since Microsoft Word is designed with powerful formatting tools, you will be able to apply paragraph and character formats later with simple clicks of your mouse. Save valuable time by sticking to this rule.

Formatting when used in this context is simply the appearance of your text, e.g., font size, bold, italics, underlines, color etc.

The following guide should be followed AFTER you’ve completed your deliverable, e.g., essay, thesis paper, or letter. Once it’s been proof read, you can then take full advantage of MS Word’s formatting tools.

Let’ say that you plan on placing emphasis on specific words throughout your document using an underline, making the word(s) bold or a different color. MS Word will speed up this task by enabling you to format once and then to reapply it over again with a click of your mouse. You can use Format Painter on the Standard toolbar to apply text formatting and some basic graphics formatting, such as borders and fills. Note If you don’t see the Standard toolbar (Standard toolbar: A toolbar that performs some of the most common tasks in a Microsoft Office application, such as opening, saving, and printing files.), on the View menu, point to Toolbars, and then click Standard.
1. Select the text or graphic that has the formatting that you want to copy.
2. On the Standard toolbar, click Format Painter . The pointer changes to a paintbrush icon. To apply formatting to more than one block of text or graphic, double-click Format Painter.
3. Click the text or graphic that you want to format.

If you’re creating a lengthy document, e.g., term paper, thesis or newsletter you may want to incorporate Word styles. A style is a set of formatting characteristics that you can apply to text, tables (table: One or more rows of cells commonly used to display numbers and other items for quick reference and analysis. Items in a table are organized into rows and columns.), and lists in your document to quickly change their appearance. When you apply a style, you apply a whole group of formats in one simple task. For example, instead of taking three separate steps to format your title as 16 pt, Arial, and center-aligned, you can achieve the same result in one step by applying the Title style. The following are the types of styles you can create and apply:
1. A paragraph style controls all aspects of a paragraph’s appearance, such as text alignment, tab stops, line spacing, and borders, and it can include character formatting.
2. A character style affects selected text within a paragraph, such as the font and size of text, and bold and italic formats. If the Styles and Formatting task pane (task pane: A window within an Office application that provides commonly used commands. Its location and small size allow you to use these commands while still working on your files.) is not open, click Styles and Formatting on the Formatting toolbar (toolbar: A bar with buttons and options that you use to carry out commands. To display a toolbar, click Customize on the Tools menu, and then click the Toolbars tab.).
1. In the Styles and Formatting task pane, click New Style.
2. In the Name box, type a name for the style (style: A combination of formatting characteristics, such as font, font size, and indentation, that you name and store as a set. When you apply a style, all of the formatting instructions in that style are applied at one time.)
3. In the Style type box, click Paragraph, Character, Table, or List to specify the kind of style you are creating.
4. Select the options that you want, or click Format to see more options.
By utilizing styles throughout your document, you will be able to create professional indexes or a table of contents (TOC) more effectively. The biggest benefit of applying styles in your document is consistency. Main topics, headings all the way down to sub-topics will have identical formats. Moreover, your table of contents will become dynamic, i.e., if you add or delete pages to your document, the TOC can update with the click of the mouse without having to manually renumber your pages.

Anthony M. Magno, president of MMC, Inc., has 10+ years experience developing and implementing successful corporate learning, leadership and development programs. Learn about getting a Free Needs Analysis at: http://www.MagnoConsulting.com Anthony can be reached at 949.350.2872 (e-mail: amm@magnoconsulting.com)

Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains is now renamed into Microsoft Dynamics GP, as well as Microsoft Navision into Microsoft Dynamics NAV, Microsoft Axapta into Microsoft Dynamics AX, Microsoft Solomon into Microsoft Dynamics SL and Microsoft CRM into Microsoft Dynamcis CRM. Of course Microsoft has the plan to select the most marketing attractive name for its ERP products, however the other side of the renaming may be in the plan to move Project Green forward. At the final phase of Project Green Microsoft might drop GP, NAV, AX, SL and CRM extensions and make final version name to be simply Microsoft Dynamics. Interesting fact that Great Plains Software, which was the first candidate for Microsoft ERP software acquisition had Great Plains Dynamics brand, so probably Microsoft is plying retrospection card, in any case Microsoft technically owns GPS Dynamics brand anyway. In this small article we will give our retro view on Great Plains Dynamics customization, development and reporting.

1. Great Plains Dexterity – this is proprietary programming language and technology, designed back to earlier 1990th with the goal to build platform independent graphical accounting package – Great Plains Dynamics. Dexterity itself is written in C (following popular those days hope – that C will provide platform independence). You can install Dexterity from Great Plains 7.5 CD #2. Obviously it requires a lot of learning / training, but it allows your custom piece be seamlessly integrated with Great Plains interface. Nowadays, however – and this is a good thing – most of Great Plains installations are moved to SQL Server – so you can use Dexterity for custom forms drawing only and make the buttons run SQL stored procedures.

2. Modifier with VBA. Unfortunately you have to purchase this tool and get new registration keys. If you are familiar with VBA customization for Access or Excel – you have all the skills needed – then you just attach your scripts to the buttons and fields on GP forms (you can modify these forms with Modifier – or just tough them with it).

3. Continuum for VB/Delphi – we don’t recommend this tool, because it is using Great Plains as OLE server – and you probably don’t want to be trapped by old technology.

4. Crystal Reports. Great Plains has its own ReportWriter, but its functionality is limited – you can’t do cross modules reports (you can’t link Sales and Purchasing tables in one report, for example). So – you use Crystal. The GP tables structure is in Tools->Resource Description->Tables … and you are in control. Feel free to create views and stored procs directly in the companies databases – it doesn’t hurt the Dexterity engine

5. Direct web publishing from Great Plains SQL databases, using Visual Studio.net and your language of choice (VB.Net, C#, J#, etc). Plus you probably want to have several SQL stored procs.

6. eConnect – this tool is type of SDK with VB.net samples. It allows you to feed data into Great Plains and was primarily created for eCommerce developers.

7. Integration Manager – it is end-user tool for importing to GP, however if end-user meets some challenges in the integration – you as a developer can help with VBA scripts. IM validates 100% of business logic and uses hidden GP forms – so it maybe slow for big on-going integrations, when you have thousands records per day – in this case you rescue to eConnect or directly to SQL store procedures.

8. SQL queries - as a developer you have unlimited potential in using SQL queries, because the database in MS SQL Server. Be careful, it is kind of surgery - you can easily delete all your customers, by executing: DELETE RM00101 Happy customizing! if you want us to do the job - give us a call 1-866-528-0577! help@albaspectrum.com

Andrew Karasev is Chief Technology Officer in Alba Spectrum Technologies – USA nationwide Microsoft CRM, Microsoft Great Plains customization company, serving clients in Chicago, Boston, San Francisco, Seattle, Minneapolis, Los Angeles, Houston, Dallas, Atlanta, and Miami and having locations in multiple states and internationally ( http://www.albaspectrum.com ), he is Dexterity, SQL, VB/C#.Net, Crystal Reports and Microsoft CRM SDK developer.

There are numerous types of parameters but some of the most useful to know are:

1: Selecting All or One item from a list
and
2: Selecting The Year and Month or Year, Month and Week.

The more you plan your reporting system, the less reports you need to write and the less you need to modify. One reporitng system I was recently involved with had 15 reports but only 5 reports were required. With parameter driven reporting, you can allow the user to generate their information filtered, sorted or visible in many different ways.

1: Selecting All or one item from a list First Create a Dataset to return @Parameter1:
SELECT DISTINCT Name FROM Organisations
UNION
SELECT ‘.All’ AS Name
ORDER BY 1

Then the main dataset add to the front IF @Parameter = ‘.All’ SELECT And after the SQL, add ELSE and repeat the SQL

2: Selecting The Year and Month or Year, Month and Week. For This a set of Datasets where one is filtered by the other, provides the final Parameters for your main dataset.

Dataset Called Year
select distinct year(date) as Year from vTimes
order by 1 desc
Note how this is sorted in descending order. This is so the latest Year ( parameter) is displayed.
Also note, is one of the columns returned in another dataset is also Year, then Reporting services will return an error. Change the name of the dataset to fix this. E.g. Year1

Dataset Called Month
select distinct month(date) as Month from vTimes
where year(date) = @Year
order by 1 desc

Dataset called Week
select distinct datepart(wk,date) as Week
from vTimes
where year(date) = @StartYear and month(date) = @StartMonth
order by 1 desc

Note how we used the datepart and not the datename function as this doesn’t sort the Weeks properly.

Tom Bizannes
(B.Business Accounting and Information Technology)
Tom is a Microsoft Certified Professional Specialising in Database and Reporting Systems
http://www.smartbiz.com.au

Microsoft Dynamics CRM is the new name for Microsoft Business Solutions CRM. Other Microsoft ERP product were renamed as well: Microsoft Great Plains into Microsoft Dynamics GP, Microsoft Navision into Microsoft Dynamics NAV, Microsoft Axapta into Microsoft Dynamics AX, Microsoft Solomon into Microsoft Dynamics SL. In this small article we are giving our retrospective review of Microsoft Dynamics CRM customization tools and options.

If you are software developer, database administrator or web designer who is asked: how do we customize Microsoft CRM – we are giving you directions in this article.

1. Microsoft CRM SDK – this is software development kit with C# and partly VB.net code samples – it is supported by Microsoft Business Solutions technical support. It is based on web service calls, if you are C# .NET developer – you are excellently positioned to do this type of customizations. This is the preferred modification scenario and this should be easily upgradeable customization. VB.Net examples will be available soon.

2. Legacy SQL Data integration. This is also easy and safe. If you have SQL database, sitting on the same or linked SQL Server – you can create ASPX .Net application and simply integrate it into CRM. You can place it on the navigation bar or menu in isv.config – please refer to MS CRM SDK

3. Legacy ASP integration – this is somewhat more sophisticated. You have to deploy HTTP handler to be a middle party between CRM which is .Net based and ASP which is legacy IIS. The trick is – you have to have INI file with security settings to penetrate into MS CRM with proper credentials, calling web service.

4. Microsoft Exchange Programming. Microsoft CRM has Exchange connector – which moves CRM incoming email to MS if it has GUID in its subject. You can alter this logic (for instance - move email to CRM if it doesn’t have GUID but it is from the sender who is contact or account in MS CRM). Refer to MS Exchange SDK onsyncsave event handling. Then simply apply some MS CRM SDK programming - you need some COM+ objects creation and VB programming experience.

5. Direct SQL touch – in #4 above I described you the scenario with MS Exchange handlers – this would be ideal world if MS CRM SDK does the job. But – in real world this is not always true – you have to do direct flags correction in CRM database (like making Activity closed, moving email attachments/octet streams, etc). This is not supported by MBS technical support – but you can rescue to this technique if you have to get job done.

6. MS CRM Customization tool – this is rather end-user tool and we don’t describe it here – read the manual. We’ve described above the options to use when this tool doesn’t do the job

7. Crystal Reports - feel free to create Crystal report - tables and views structure is self explanatory. Try to avoid the temptation to create your own SQL view or stored procedure in MS CRM database, instead - create custom database and place your view and stored proc in it.

Happy implementing, customizing and modifying! If you want us to do the job - give us a call 1-866-528-0577! help@albaspectrum.com

Andrew Karasev is Chief Technology Officer at Alba Spectrum Technologies ( http://www.albaspectrum.com ) - Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains, Navision, Axapta MS CRM, Oracle Financials and IBM Lotus Domino Partner, serving corporate customers in the following industries: Aerospace & Defense, Medical & Healthcare, Distribution & Logistics, Hospitality, Banking & Finance, Wholesale & Retail, Chemicals, Oil & Gas, Placement & Recruiting, Advertising & Publishing, Textile, Pharmaceutical, Non-Profit, Beverages, Conglomerates, Apparels, Durables, Manufacturing and having locations in multiple states and internationally. We are serving USA Nationwide: CA, IL, NY, FL, AZ, CO, TX, WI, WA, MI, MA, MO, LA, NM, MN, Europe: Germany, France, Belgium, Poland, Russia, Middle East (Egypt, Saudi Arabia, OAE, Bahrain), Asia: China, Australia, New Zealand, Oceania, South & Central America: Mexico, Peru, Brazil, Venezuela, Columbia, Ecuador, Chili, Paraguay, Uruguay, Argentina, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico

Microsoft is currently on the way to release Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0. Current version is MS CRM 1.2. Why Microsoft Business Solutions skipped one version (2.0 or the like)? One of the Microsoft answers was – version 1.2 had too many new features (as developers we may guess – MS CRM SDK redesign – some functionality was deprecated – joke – of course MS CRM 1.2 is very impressive progress comparing to the pioneer – 1.0), so 1.2 was playing the role of skipped 2.0. This article is targeted to IT departments who do self-implementation and self-customization and we’ll try to give you the info on new release, which is expected in December, 2005.

• Migration Tool. There will be migration path from MS CRM 1.2 to 3.0. According to Microsoft it should be relatively straightforward upgrade

• Pre-Callouts. N MS CRM 1.2 as you probably know – you can use post call-outs to place your custom logic. In 3.0 you can deploy he possibility to call your custom code before the commitment and so if needed roll-back the change

• Duplicates merge. Well – you probably noticed the fact that in 1.2 you can’t clean up duplicate records with one or another automation tool. In 3.0 – duplicates merge is finally realized and you can merge activities and decide which phone number, or address to pick for the consolidated record.

• Marketing Module. Now you should be able to do marketing campaigns and place criteria to pick the targeted audience.

• Scheduling. You will see more features, available in MS Outlook to facilitate your work. Now you should be able to schedule “field service” type of appointments with your customers

• MS Outlook-like interface. Microsoft Outlook users worldwide count is probably something astonishing and it is logical marketing idea to capitalize on this. If you make your products to use intuitive (or trained in your alma mater university) Microsoft Office Outlook interface – clients may expect their users to speed up with the learning curve

• Installation, Administration, Support. These should be a way more simple. It is hard to believe, because MS CRM uses MS Exchange, Active Directory, etc. – but this is what it is.

• Technical Highlights. One of the most astonishing should be the possibility to integrate one-to-many custom table relationship, including MS Outlook client synchronization. Imagine – you have cargo tracking system and you use MS CRM order as shipment object. Then you can have multiple shipment one-to-many relationships, such as shipment statuses, shipment items, etc.

• MS CRM Suite. With 3.0 you do not have to purchase MS CRM Sales or Professional to get, say service module. Now you have the option to add modules in the future. However if you purchase MS CRM Professional before December 2005 – you will get full set of MS Dynamics CRM 3.0 modules

Please, do not hesitate to call us: 1-866-528-0577, 1-630-961-5918, help@albaspectrum.com

Andrew Karasev is Chief Technology Officer at Alba Spectrum Technologies ( http://www.albaspectrum.com ) - Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains, Navision, Axapta MS CRM, Oracle Financials and IBM Lotus Domino Partner, serving corporate customers in the following industries: Aerospace & Defense, Medical & Healthcare, Distribution & Logistics, Hospitality, Banking & Finance, Wholesale & Retail, Chemicals, Oil & Gas, Placement & Recruiting, Advertising & Publishing, Textile, Pharmaceutical, Non-Profit, Beverages, Conglomerates, Apparels, Durables, Manufacturing and having locations in multiple states and internationally.

We are serving USA Nationwide: CA, IL, NY, FL, AZ, CO, TX, WI, WA, MI, MA, MO, LA, NM, MN, Europe: Germany, France, Belgium, Poland, Russia, Middle East (Egypt, Saudi Arabia, OAE, Bahrain), Asia: China, Australia, New Zealand, Oceania, South & Central America: Mexico, Peru, Brazil, Venezuela, Columbia, Ecuador, Chili, Paraguay, Uruguay, Argentina, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico

Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains, Navision, Axapta, Solomon and CRM are strategically renamed into Microsoft Dynamics GP. NAV, AX, SL, CRM respectively. We had huge number of calls from current and potential customers who needed to know the answers on a set of very obvious and logical questions. In this small article we’ll try to communicate our opinion and what we know from Microsoft channel. As an example we will be focusing on Microsoft Dynamics GP and CRM.

• Versioning. You should not expect version nullification (or coming back to version 1.0). All the products will be released with their expected versions: Great Plains 9.0, Microsoft CRM 3.0, etc. So – you should not expect revolution – it will be evolution as it should be.

• Pricing. This is more delicate questions, and we need to wait a bit with Microsoft to confirm the price schema for the Microsoft Dynamics products. As we know Microsoft SQL Server Standard and Enterprise price list will increase in average 25% in December with the release of MS SQL Server 2005. So if you plan to optimize the cost – you should purchase MS SQL 2000 or if you have it – be sure that you have (or purchase) software insurance – in this case you will have upgrade to MS SQL 2005 and you should do it before December.

• Customization. The paradigm shift is toward Microsoft Business Portal, especially for Great Plains and Solomon, where you will see employee self service functionality, plus Fixed Assets (GP). Also BP is Microsoft Sharepoint application and so it is ready for your developers (compare to IBM Lotus Notes Domono – now you can go ahead with Workflow and document approval cycle design). Also applications will be exposed to XML web services – GP through eConnect or Object Integration manager

• Upgrade. Great Plains is strong in its upgrade path. You should expect Microsoft Great Plains Utilities to do upgrade – we will confirm the versions path in the future releases. Microsoft CRM 1.2 will have direct upgrade to Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0

Pease do not hesitate to call us: 1-866-528-0577, 1-630-961-5918, help@albaspectrum.com

Andrew Karasev is Chief Technology Officer at Alba Spectrum Technologies ( http://www.albaspectrum.com ) - Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains, Navision, Axapta MS CRM, Oracle Financials and IBM Lotus Domino Partner, serving corporate customers in the following industries: Aerospace & Defense, Medical & Healthcare, Distribution & Logistics, Hospitality, Banking & Finance, Wholesale & Retail, Chemicals, Oil & Gas, Placement & Recruiting, Advertising & Publishing, Textile, Pharmaceutical, Non-Profit, Beverages, Conglomerates, Apparels, Durables, Manufacturing and having locations in multiple states and internationally. We are serving USA Nationwide: CA, IL, NY, FL, AZ, CO, TX, WI, WA, MI, MA, MO, LA, NM, MN, Europe: Germany, France, Belgium, Poland, Russia, Middle East (Egypt, Saudi Arabia, OAE, Bahrain), Asia: China, Australia, New Zealand, Oceania, South & Central America: Mexico, Peru, Brazil, Venezuela, Columbia, Ecuador, Chili, Paraguay, Uruguay, Argentina, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico

Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains could be considered as generic ERP platform to be tailored to fit specific industry and market niche. Being mature MRP system and so having a lot of third party modules, Great Plains could fit the unique industry requirements combining these third parties and custom coding. New version: Microsoft Dynamics Great Plains 9.0 will have more options for C#/VB.Net developer, including more exposure to .Net XML web services and Visual Studio. However the GP workstation client code is Microsoft Dexterity written application and we will be focusing on Great Plains Dexterity customization.

• Industry Specifics. Recycling containers are rented to customers and based on the balance customers might become vendors – we send customer or vendor invoice and receive or send payments. Clients typically pay for container rent and at the same time – we pay to the client for the recycled materials collected

• Service Module. We can use GP Service Advantage Suite or WennSoft Service module to account sending service crews onsite.

• Fixed Assets. We also could deploy Great Plains Fixed Assets module to account and depreciate leased and insured equipment. Fixed Assets serves as assets depreciation tool, so it might not be enough to track assets by projects

• Invoice/Credit Memo. Based on the net results for the month – we should issue invoice or credit memo to the customer and the challenge is – it should be all originated in one screen to automate the user interface. The best way is – Dexterity screen where you get Service Invoice/Order from WennSoft or Service Advantage Suite (in some cases you should send it first to Great plains SOP). In this screen you should be able to enter positive and negative quantities and net it to either invoice or credit memo.

• Customer/Vendor Consolidation. In Great Plains in order to return money to the client you should use customer/vendor consolidation and transfer credit memos to vendor invoices. Please note that Customer/Vendor consolidation module is available for Great Plains Professional (it is not available for Great Plains Standard)

• Payroll and Contractor Expenses. Great Plains Business Portal has employee self service and you can have your contractors and employees to enter their expenses, such as driver tolls and mileage. Another way is to use Great Plains Integration Manager to feed expenses into Payroll or Accounts Payables module

Please do not hesitate to call us: 1.866-528-0577, 1-630-961-5918, help@albaspectrum.com

Andrew Karasev is Chief Technology Officer at Alba Spectrum Technologies ( http://www.albaspectrum.com ) - Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains, Navision, Axapta MS CRM, Oracle Financials and IBM Lotus Domino Partner, serving corporate customers in the following industries: Aerospace & Defense, Medical & Healthcare, Distribution & Logistics, Hospitality, Banking & Finance, Wholesale & Retail, Chemicals, Oil & Gas, Placement & Recruiting, Advertising & Publishing, Textile, Pharmaceutical, Non-Profit, Beverages, Conglomerates, Apparels, Durables, Manufacturing and having locations in multiple states and internationally. We are serving USA Nationwide: CA, IL, NY, FL, AZ, CO, TX, WI, WA, MI, MA, MO, LA, NM, MN, Europe: Germany, France, Belgium, Poland, Russia, Middle East (Egypt, Saudi Arabia, OAE, Bahrain), Asia: China, Australia, New Zealand, Oceania, South & Central America: Mexico, Peru, Brazil, Venezuela, Columbia, Ecuador, Chili, Paraguay, Uruguay, Argentina, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico

Although in my previous article I may have made mention to the disadvantages of using Windows Update, lately I have noticed other things about the software that give it both merit and further thought.

Recently I worked on my Dad’s new PC after he tried to switch the ram in his old one while it was on and wound up frying the mainboard, and I noticed a couple things about Windows Update. His girlfriend made sure that his copy of Windows XP home was completely up to date; installing just about every update that existed.

While I tried to explain to her that this was a somewhat paranoid way of protecting his PC, I noticed that without SP2 certain functions of his PC would be disabled, or not work as well as they should. You may notice this as well. For example, if you have a ATI Radeon card and would like the newest drivers - the manufacturer website recommends having SP2 installed as they work best with that platform.

Recently I was also working on a friend of the family’s PC. It was a IBM Thinkcenter PC; and his USB, audio, and VGA drivers were not working properly. This could be fixed easily with a motherboard system disk, but he didn’t have that. I visited the IBM website to get the right drivers, and it mentioned that the USB drivers were in SP2. As he had a pirated version of XP and could not download SP2, I had to install a stock version of SP2 I had with me.

After that, his USB port worked fine. So, to re-iterate: Windows Update is nessecary, most definetly, for updating to new service packs. Also, windows update is also very useful for finding drivers you might need for legacy devices and onboard devices. For more information related to finding drivers for legacy/onboard devices, refer to my guide on that topic.

Other then that - security updates - not all of them are completely nessecary. I will be writing an article on security updates shortly, so check back soon.

I am a young, aspiring computer engineer into Internet Marketing, hardware, software, web design, SEO and just about anything related to computers. Please come check out my growing PC forum at http://www.markspcforum.com

Running Applications in Compatibility Mode With Windows XP, you can run programs as if though they were being run under a different operating system. (This is known as "emulation".) Simply right-click a shortcut, select "Properties" and then check "Run in compatibility mode" and select the operating system you wish to make the program believe it is being run under. This fools or tricks the program into thinking you are really using a previous version of Windows, such as NT, 2000, 98, or 95. This is especially useful for certain games that won’t run properly. Be careful *not* to use this with certain system utilities, such as antivirus, defrag, registry, and disk tool applications.

Customizing the Start Menu Right click on the "Start" button and left click "Properties". From here, you can select the new Windows XP style Start Menu, or return to the Windows 2000/Millennium style one. You can also customize the two possible choices using their corresponding "Customize" buttons. This also allows you to turn on or disable cascading menus and other options that are useful, such as large or small icons and more.

Bring Back Those Desktop Icons After you install Windows XP, you probably noticed that some of your icons from previous versions of Windows you’ve used are missing. Microsoft did this intentionally to help simply and reduce clutter. Of course, for some people, this isn’t the best choice or the user preference. So, if you want those icons like "My Computer" and "My Network Places" back, just open Display Properties (right click Desktop Wallpaper, left click "Properties") and click the "Desktop" tab. Click the "Customize Desktop" button and on the "General" tab check the items you want. You can also change the icons used by these desktop items in the same screen. One final tip related to this screen is the "Clean Desktop Now" button, which notifies you of unused icons on the desktop and offers to remove them if you choose.

Give Me My ClearType Windows XP includes a great new visual technology, called "ClearType" which increases horizontal legibility by approximately 300% and it looks great. Go back into "Display Properties" [see tip: "Bring Back Those Desktop Icons" for instructions] and this time, go to the "Appearance" tab. Click "Effects" and for the second drop down box, labeled "Use the following method to smooth edges of screen fonts", select "ClearType". Click OK twice and you’re all set.

Lock Computer vs. Welcome Login Screen You must go into Control Panel and open the "User Accounts" applet to change this setting. Click "Change the way users log on or off". For maximum security, uncheck the "Use the Welcome screen" option. This re-enables the use of the "Lock Computer" option from the ALT CTRL DELETE menu, but prevents multiple users from being logged on locally at a single time. This also returns to the Windows 2000 style login screen. If you’d rather have the ability to *not* be able to use "Lock Computer" and would rather allow multiple users to logon to the computer at a single time locally, leave this setting checked and also check "Use Fast User Switching".

www.ICTtutorials.vze.com

Microsoft Great Plains and Microsoft Retail Management System (Microsoft RMS) are getting new market share due to the Microsoft strong marketing campaign. Both products: Microsoft Great Plains and Microsoft RMS are coming from the same Microsoft subdivision - Microsoft Business Solutions (MBS), however due to the fact that both products were bought by Microsoft from different vendors, the integration between the two is not an easy thing. At this time MBS has RMS integration on the General Ledger and Purchase Order level into Great Plains out of the box. This integration has some advancements in comparison to old product: QuickSell, but it is still GL and PO only. We do understand the need for midsize and large retail companies, structured as clubs and selling on account to their members to have more adequate integration when you can synchronize your Sales information and have robust Great Plains reporting. There is the product on the market, which is integration on the Receivables Management level from RMS to Great Plains, written by Daniel Sionov and Andrew Karasev and maintained by the alliance between LightEdge Solutions (www.lightedge.com) and Alba Spectrum Technologies (www.albaspectrum.com). In Alba Spectrum Technologies we actually do coding and product tuning for specific client needs.

If you are developer you can end up with your own custom solution, we would like to give you directions.

1. Great Plains Integration Manager - if the sales volume is very low, say 100 transactions per day - then you can do data export from RMS and import it into Great Plains via Integration Manager. This is rather end-user tool - it is very intuitive, it validates 100% of business logic, brings in/updates master records (accounts, employees, customers, vendors. etc.) brings in transactions into work tables. The limitation of Integration Manager - it does use GP windows behind the scenes without showing them - so it is relatively slow - you can bring 100 records - but when you are talking about thousands - it is not a good option. By the way you can program Integration Manager with VBA.

2. eConnect – You can create VB.Net application which will be pulling info from RMS and then uses eConnect to move it to Great Plains. eConnect is kind of Software Development Kit with samples in VB.Net. Obviously the development environment should be Visual Studio.Net. eConnect will allow you to integrate master records - such as new customers, vendors, employees, etc., plus you can bring transactions into so called Great Plains work tables (eConnect doesn’t allow you to bring open or historical records - you need to post work records in Great Plains, the same limitation applies to Integration Manager above) eConnect is rather for ongoing integration. It was initially created for eCommerce application integration to Great Plains.

3. SQL Stored Procedures. The product we’ve mentioned above is collection of stored procs. Obviously you have unlimited control and possibilities with SQL queries. You need to know Retail Management System Headquarters and Great Plains tables structure and data flow. Launch Great Plains and go to Tools->Resource Description->Tables. Find the table in the proper series. If you are looking for the customers – it should be RM00101 – customer master file. If you need historical Sales Order Processing documents – they are in SOP30200 – Sales History Header file, etc. Do not change existing tables - do not create new fields, etc. Also you need to realize that each GP table has DEX_ROW_ID - identity column. Sometimes it is good idea to use inbound/outbound XML in the parameters - then you can deploy web service as a middle party between two systems. RMS tables structure is self explanatory.

4. Data Transformation Services (DTS) – Good tool for importing your third party data into staging tables in GP - then you can pull them in using either stored procs of Integration Manager. You can also deploy this tool for EDI export/import.

5. Great Plains Dexterity Custom Screens. You can create the window, which will have integration settings in it - RMS store ID matching GP Company database, etc. Sometimes users prefer to have seamlessly integrated into GP interface custom screens - for parameters settings and initiating integration. Dexterity is a good option, however remember - it is always better to create new custom screen versus customizing existing one - due to the future upgrade issues. Also - Dexterity is in phasing our by Microsoft Business Solutions.

6. Modifier/VBA custom buttons on the existing screens - alternative to Dexterity is you are comfortable with VBA and ADO. Happy integrating! if you want us to do the job or use our product - give us a call 1-866-528-0577! help@albaspectrum.com

Andrew Karasev is Chief Technology Officer in Alba Spectrum Technologies – USA nationwide Microsoft CRM, Microsoft Great Plains customization company, based in Chicago, Boston, San Francisco, San Diego, Los Angeles, Houston, Atlanta, New York, and Miami and having locations in multiple states and internationally (www.albaspectrum.com), he is Dexterity, SQL, VB/C#.Net, Crystal Reports and Microsoft CRM SDK developer.