ImPower
Frequently Asked Questions
The following is a list of ImPower Frequently Asked Questions. Periodic updates will be made to this list, so check back often!
If your question is not answered in this document, or if you require further technical support, refer back to the Support Page for contact options.
Note: Prior to making any adjustment, change, or correction to the software, please be sure to have a valid backup of your current programs and data.
Automated Marketing
How can I get a report of all the people that a marketing track was run for today?
Company/Contact/Activity
How do I combine activity for duplicate company/contacts?
How can I change the activity date from today's date to some other date?
How do I display all activities for all the contacts in a company?
Lookups
How do I turn a custom field into a quick lookup field?
How do I remove something from my "ToDoList"?
How do I add more fields to the query display screen?
Report Manager
Letter Wizard
How do I add an existing WORD document to the Letter Wizard?
I want to use a scanned in signature on my letters through letter wizard, how can I accomplish this?
General/Installation/Utilities
How do I transfer a company, contact, report, letter or task from one database to another?
How do I obtain a listing of the field names on my system?
Task Manager/Imports/Exports
How can I protect my task from being modified by another user?
Automated Marketing
How can I get a report of all the people that a marketing track was run for today?
Create two custom fields in change database. Call one field Marketing Track and call one Date Track Run. In each Marketing track for which you wish to track this information for, set the first step up to update these two fields. The marketing tracks name will be updated with this marketing track name, and the date track run would be updated with today's date (dd/mm/yyyy). Once the track is run, then a report can be run printing contact company, contact full name, and contact phone; grouped by the marketing track field and selecting on date track run field equal to today's date.
When I run my Automated Marketing tracks, I get the message "Cannot create activity, not data specified". Why is this happening?
The Marketing Track being processed has a step that is set to add an activity but no Activity information was entered. (i.e. activity code, reference etc…)
I am having problems periodically running my Automated Marketing Tracks when printing large groups of letters from Letter Wizard. The process will stop before printing all of the letters.
Check your background printing option in the TOOLS section of MS Word. Word has
definite problems running large batches of merged letters in background. If background is set to "On" or marked, turn the option off & try the Auto Marketing process again.
My automated Marketing tracks are running slow and my letters from letter wizard take a long time to process. Why is this happening?
It has been found that many times external problems on the system may cause a general
System slow down which will also effect our product. Check the other products you are
using and verify that there is not an excess of files on your hard drive. For example a
setting in MS Outlook can cause every message sent to also create a backup copy of the
message. What this does is causes an overload of files and could bog down the
processing of the letter wizard and automated marketing processes.
How can I get a report that historically tells me which contacts have moved from one track to another and on what date?
Create two custom fields in change database for each track type. Call one field the track type i.e. Intro or Follow-up, and call the other field "Track type" Date i.e. Intro Date. In each Marketing track, set the first step up to update the corresponding two fields. The track type field will be updated with this marketing track name, and the track type date would be updated with today's date (dd/mm/yyyy). Any report that is run, will only show the contacts whose tracks have been run from this point forward. If you need to have past history included in the report, you will have to contact Advanced Concepts, Inc. and have one of our support technicians assist you in creating and running a task which will update these fields based on past activity.
I had problems with my printer last night and my automated marketing letters have to be reprinted. When I choose Run Marketing Tracks, the system tells me there
is nothing to print. What do I do now?
If you had done a backup prior to running the marketing tracks, the easiest thing to do is restore. If you had not run a backup prior to running the process you will have to manually reprint anything that did not print out correctly. To assist you in doing this; check your system for a report "DAILYACT". This report will print out the activities generated for any given day. You can specify yesterday's date to select the items to reprint.
I print all of my letters to a multi tray printer. I want the first page of my letters to go to tray 2, then all subsequent pages to go to tray 1. Is there anything I can do to accomplish this?
In Letter Wizard, pull the document up and click on the change button on the setup tab. You will now be in WORD, click on page setup, then paper source. Make sure that the paper source for first page is set to tray 2, and the paper source for others is set to tray 1.
I print all of my reports and correspondence to a multi tray printer. What steps must be taken in order to do to get all of my reports to print to a specific tray?
In Report Manager, select a report, choose edit, then choose output. On the output screen, there are three options buttons, select the second option button. You should be on a screen that has a heading of "Printing Options for Reports and Labels". Click on the modify button, change source to either be "autoselect", or the appropriate tray. The "autoselect" setting often pulls from the appropriate tray, but if you have a specific tray that all reports need to pull from, specify it here. If this change needs to be applied to all reports, click on the "Save Print Options as Default" button, and these setting changes will be applied to all reports in the Report Manager.
Company/Contact/Activity
How do I combine activity for duplicate company/contacts?
With the Duplicate ID processes for companies & contacts. The system will automatically combine activities for records marked as deleted with the records that had been their duplicates. When done with the process, each process (company or contact) require that you run a task to delete the records marked for deletion. (Call our office for printout of the tasks)
How can I change the activity date from today's date to some other
date?
When adding a new activity, press the ESC key prior to making any entries in the activity screen. Note the activity date cannot be changed once the activity is saved.
How do I display all activities for all the contacts in a company?
In the activity screen, click on the box "View all company activity"
I have a contact record that should have had it's own company record. Instead, I accidentally put it under an existing company. What is the easiest way to create a new company & transfer just this contact and it's activities?
When on the contact's screen, hit F9 to pull up the contact system fields screen. There is a check box to add a new company; if you check this box, the system will automatically create a new company record for this contact & all of the activities will transfer automatically.
What is the easiest way to find out how many company, contact and activity records I have on the system?
From the ImPower 97 Menu Bar, choose Help, and About This Database, it will display the number of records and additional database information.
When I double click on the email address of a contact in my database to send an email and create an activity, the activity does not get created. Why is this not working?
First, make sure that outlook is activated on your PC. Second, verify that the outlook is interfacing with the network (if you are on a network). If these two conditions are true, check the database defaults and make sure that in the option screen the option to add an activity when sending email is checked.
Lookups
How does "quick lookup" work?
Move your mouse to a field caption, if a magnifying glass appears, the field is a lookup field. Double click on the caption, and a quick lookup screen will appear. The search engine is key sensitive so type in your search criteria, and press the Return key or double-click on the record you wish to display. You can change the search order by double-clicking the left mouse button on the field heading button.
How do I turn a custom field into a quick lookup field?
Have everyone log out of the database you wish to add the lookup to. Next, close any database windows that you have open, go to Admin, Database, Resort this Database. In the resort this database, locate the field you wish to add as a lookup in the available fields section, double click on the field name to add it to the selected fields section and proceed to finish the update.
Re-open the database. The cursor should change from an arrow to a magnifying glass when moved over the field caption. See Q4 above to activate the lookup.
How do I remove something from my "ToDoList"?
Call the activity up by double clicking on it, and complete it by clicking on the complete button or blanked out the Follow-up date and Follow-up code.
How do I add more fields to the query display screen?
While in the query, select change, then select advanced, then choose the additional fields that you would like to see on the query display.
Report Manager
I really like a report that I use in the Report Manager. How can I copy this report to another report name so that I can use it as a base for another report?
Pull the document up in Report Manager, choose "Edit" and then choose "Save As". When the system prompts for report name, specify a new report name.
I have created a report and then made custom changes through the output, customization section. I removed the reports group footers and totaling section, I now want to get that information back in the report. How can I accomplish this?
Although there are certain items such as grouping and adding fields, that can be accomplished without too much effort in the actual customization screen, other options are best modified outside of the customization screen. However, in order for you to change those options outside of the customization area, the custom layout changes will be lost. When you attempt to go into the sort/group options section you will get a warning letting you know that customizations have been
made for this report, and you will be asked if you wish to keep customizations or run autoformat to revert back to standard format. Choose autoformat to revert back to the standard format, then make your totaling additions, and manually reapply your customizations.
I used to be a SalesCTRL3 user, now I've converted my data to Impower97. Do I still have to run my reports from the Task Manager?
There is no need to run reports out of the Task Manager in Impower97. In most Cases, it is easier to run the reports directly out of the Report Manager, where they were Created. Some situations where you may wish to run the report(s) out of the Task Manager are as follows: If you have multiple reports to run at the same time as in Month End; or if you wish to run the report with a mass mailing of letters, faxes or emails. In These cases, it will save time if you run everything all together from the Task Manager.
I want to run a report for all contacts who purchased product within a specific month and a report for all contacts with a birthday within a specific month, both regardless of day or year. Is there a way to accomplish this?
Assuming the custom fields already exist & have been filled out for the contacts, there is a way to accomplish this. Create the reports to your specifications, but leave the filter criteria in report manager blank. Then create a task by the same name as you gave the individual report. In the selection portion of task manager, choose field, then on field selection criteria, you need to create a statement line like CONT purchase date EQ 12/??/???? or CONT birthday EQ 01/??/????. The question marks perform as wildcards and enable the user to select based only on the month.
I print all of my reports and correspondence to a multi tray printer. What steps must be taken in order to do to get all of my reports to print to a specific tray?
In Report Manager, select a report, choose edit, then choose output. On the output screen, there are three options buttons, select the second option button. You should be on a screen that has a heading of "Printing Options for Reports and Labels". Click on the modify button, change source to either be "autoselect", or the appropriate tray. The "autoselect" setting often pulls from the appropriate tray, but if you have a specific tray that all reports need to pull from, specify it here. If this change needs to be applied to all reports, click on the "Save Print Options as Default" button, and these setting changes will be applied to all reports in the Report Manager.
Letter Wizard
I went into letter wizard, selected a letter & tried to change it. When I exited the letter, and tried to print, the changes weren't saved.
Make sure that when editing a letter wizard document, that you leave WORD by minimizing the screen rather than hitting x to exit.
How do I add an existing WORD document to the Letter Wizard?
Copy the existing document into the /IM97/LETTERS/"Database Name" directory. Next, go into Letter Wizard, choose "New" to add a new document name, enter the document name that was just copied over, when you return, IM97 will find the document in the Letters directory & will attach this name to it. (The maximum characters for a letter wizard document is 8 characters).
I want to print labels for a group of people that I'm sending letters to. What is the best way to handle?
The best way to handle this is through the Task Manager. First, create the label request through Report Manager, then run both the Letter and Label Request together in Task Manager.
My contacts' suffix fields are not printing on my letters and should be. The letter that I am printing is using address blocks 4 - 11.
Go into Country Code maintenance, address block 4 and add a space [AN] to the end of the line & the letter will now include the suffix field.
I want to secure a group of letters off from being changed or viewed by other users, how can I accomplish this?
In letter Wizard, after creating the letter under your user name, click on the protect button. Then, make sure that the users that you wish to be secured from the letter are set up in System Security, User Maintenance, Word Processing tab, as view only this users' documents.
I have a letter which I need others to view and copy, but I don't wish anyone to edit them. I want to use this letter more as a template. Is there any way to accomplish this?
In Letter Wizard, create the letter to your specifications, then change the user to USER and click on the Protect button. This will change the document to read only for all users.
I am having problems periodically printing large groups of letters from Letter Wizard. The process will stop before printing all of the letters.
Check your background printing option in the TOOLS section of MS Word. Word has definite problems running large batches of merged letters in background. If background is set to "On" or checkmarked, turn the option off & try the Letter Wizard again. Letter Wizard grouping again.
I want to use a scanned in signature on my letters through letter wizard, how can I accomplish this?
NOTE: Please see system administrator before attempting any of the following procedures!
To use a scanned in signature on letter wizard letters; you must first set up a custom field, type of OLE object, and name it signature .BMP. Next, add this field to the account Rep code maintenance on the custom fields tab with screen wizard. Next, scan the Signature into the system with a scanner and save it as a .BMP file. Now, the system Is ready for you to assign the .BMP file name through account rep maintenance to the appropriate account rep. In letter wizard, go to the setup tab, select fields button and add this new custom field to the list of fields available to use in a letter. Now, add the new letter & select merge fields. Where you would normally have a blank space, you will specify this new merge field.
Sometimes when I am in Letter Wizard editing a letter, I get notified by MS Outlook that I have new mail. Once this occurs, the minimize function will no longer save and close the document and take me back to Letter Wizard. I will get errors saying that the word document is still open. Why does this happen and what can I do about it.
Outlook's email notification feature may cause problems with any outside software package that interfaces with MS products. To rectify, the only option is to turn off the notification feature. In order to do this, you need to go to Outlook, then choose tools/options/email options button. After clicking on the email options button, you should see an option "Display a notification message when new mail arrives", uncheck this item. This will take care of the problem in Letter Wizard and any other outside product which this notification interferes with, but it will necessitate that you check your email messages on a more frequent basis, as Outlook will no longer notify you.
I'm using address blocks in several of my letters, what data do these blocks pull and where does it get pulled from?
The definition of the address blocks come from country code maintenance. Each country has it's own set of rules for what gets printed in an address block. The data comes from the actual contact record. Country code maintenance displays codes which indicates to the system what data to pull. See below for a listing of what pulls for US.
Address Block 4 - Contains Prefix, First Name, Middle Initial, Last Name & Suffix
Address Block 5 - Contains Title
Address Block 6 - Contains Company Name
Address Block 7 - Contains Address Line 1
Address Block 8 - Contains Address Line 2
Address Block 9 - Contains Address Line 3
Address Block 10 - Contains City, State and Zip
Address Block 11 - Contains Country (Where applicable / Not for US)
I print all of my letters to a multi tray printer. I want the first page of my letters to go to tray 2, then all subsequent pages to go to tray 1. Is there anything I can do to accomplish this?
In Letter Wizard, pull the document up and click on the change button on the setup tab. You will now be in WORD, click on page setup, then paper source. Make sure that the paper source for first page is set to tray 2, and the paper source for others is set to tray 1.
General/Installation/Utilities
How do I transfer a company, contact, report, letter or task from one database to another?
Choose Maintenance, then Transfer. You may transfer codes, companies, contacts, letters, imports, exports, and reports.
I've changed my Account Rep by Zip Code Table, but the changes are not being reflected when I add new company records. Why?
When the Account Rep by Zip Code Table is changed, you must exit the database and re-enter it to make the changes take effect.
I'm looking at my Impower 97 menu bar & I see several options that are "grayed" out and I am unable to access them. Why does this happen?
There are several reasons that a menu option may be "grayed" out. The first possibility may be that the user's security will not allow access to that option. The second possibility may be that the menu option is a single user function and someone else is already accessing it. The last possibility is that the menu option is not active for your company.
How do I obtain a listing of the field names on my system?
Go into Admin, Database functions and choose change database. Type in YES and click on the continue button. On the second screen, you will have the option to click on the print button, this will provide you with your database listing complete with a field listing.
I reinstalled IM97, now all of my security is gone & I'm getting the message "enter new user ID" yet no user ID will work. What do I do from here?
This happens when a full install is run instead of simply an update. To resolve, copy the files P0.DBF,P0.CDX and P0.FPT from your backup media into the appropriate database directory or login as ADM and re-enter the user-id's. Be aware that if you are restoring these files from a CD, that the attributes of the files will need to be changed from read only to read/write. To accomplish this, type in ATTRIB P0.* -r at the DOS prompt.
I need to copy my database from one drive to another, what do I need to do in order to handle this successfully, without any data loss?
There are several things to keep in mind when copying from one drive to another. First, you must not only copy the database, but also the letters directory. Second, you must copy the database with the /s command in order to successfully include all report directories. See below for an example:
COPY C:\IM97\LETTERS\{database name} S:\IM97\LETTERS\{database name} - where S: is the other, or network drive.
XCOPY C:\IM97\{database name} S:\IM97\{database name} /s **/s is to copy the subdirectories. This will copy out the REPORTS, OUT and FF (or foxfire) directories. On the directory that you copied to, run a Change Database to effect the changes.
Task Manager/Imports/Exports
How can I protect my task from being modified by another user?
By holding down the Ctrl Home keys simultaneously, you can protect a task. To remove the protection, simply hit Ctrl Home again.
I created an export file that I'm attempting to import into MS Excel. When I open the export file in Excel, it asks me if this file is delimited or fixed length. When I set up the export, I selected CSV format, so why is Excel asking what format the file is in?
When you create the export definition in Impower, you must not only choose set the export format to CSV, but also, the extension of the export file must be set to csv. For example, the file could be called "excel.csv" and the export format would be set to CSV. If you set both of these items, Excel will not prompt for the file format.