Your Choice 3/Your Choice Software Collection 3.iso/os2/etelr21/whats.new

Text File | 1994-09-15 | 27KB | 476 lines

What's New/Fixed/Changed in Version 2.1ß

NEW - E-Teller now sports a calendar, accessible by clicking on the
      Display | Calendar menu item.
NEW - User can now set the next cheque number manually by clicking
      on the Options | Next cheque... menu item.
NEW - It is now possible to create a multi-category transaction
      without first having entered a credit or debit amount.  The total
      of all multiple categories can be used as the credit or debit.
NEW - E-Teller is now able to print cheques (never having printed
      cheques myself and never having used printable cheques, this version
      of the Cheque Printer may fall short of desired expectations, but
      it's not the final word).
NEW - Users can now get a balance of all accounts -- total of all
      bank account balances minus total of all outstanding ccard
      expenditures -- by  selecting the 'Global balance...' item
      from the account window's 'Utilities' menu.
NEW - User is no longer restricted to the yy/mm/dd date format.
      He/she can select one of three choices from the 'Options | Date
      Format | <format>' menu in the ledger window:  1) European (dd/mm/yy);
      2) Ordered (yy/mm/dd); 3) US (mm/dd/yy).
NEW - User can now enter new transactions directly in the ledger (by pressing
      Ctrl+N to initiate the process and <Tab> or <BackTab> to manoeuvre
      between fields).
NEW - Ledger windows now show the account's icon above the system menu.
NEW - Added a 'Font...' item to the account window's 'View' menu, which
      invokes a standard font dialog.
NEW - Added a 'Font...' item to the ledger window's 'Display' menu, which
      invokes a standard font dialog.
NEW - E-Teller comes with its own calculator (in case the next version of
      OS/2 omits the calculator applet).
NEW - Limited password protection for individual accounts.
NEW - It is now possible to drag transactions from one ledger to another.
NEW - E-Teller now traps such things as syntax errors and the like by
      displaying some relevant information in a dialog box.  If you get
      one of these, I would appreciate hearing about it, particularly
      the information contained in the dialog.
NEW - The button-bar icons have either changed or been made more visually
      appealing -- I think I've finally tapped into my artistic abilities. :)
NEW - A new :hp2.Express report:ehp2. has been added to the Ledger menu
      which sends the contents of the current ledger to the printer
      (except for the 'memo', 'category', and 'multiple category' columns).

FIX - User-defined account icons were not being displayed.
      (reported by Glenn Davies)
FIX - ET_Month.exe was not regenerating the et_fix.dat file properly.
FIX - Recalculation would terminate when attempting to format a
      one-digit number in accordance with international currency
      settings.  (reported Gordon McFee)
FIX - Returning from a cleared transaction display would not format
      the balance correctly. (reported Gordon McFee)
FIX - Cursor would not return to bottom of MLE when editing multiple
      categories directly in the Multi-Category Transaction dialog
      box (reported Timur Tabi)
FIX - The mini icon size menu item was not being checked during initialization
      if this option was selected.
FIX - When pausing a reconciliation and changing the credit/debit value, the
      balance would not be updated.  (reported by Timur Tabi)

CHG - Fixed transactions are now created by first selecting an existing
      ledger transaction.
CHG - Much of the initialization code for the main accounts window and
      the ledger window has been moved into separate threads.  As a
      result, loading is a *little* snappier.
CHG - Moved the 'Options' item from the Transaction menu to the menu bar.
CHG - 'Ctrl+F4' accelerator in the accounts window to close opened ledgers
      has been changed to F3 in accordance with the similar accelerator
      in the ledger window.
CHG - Removed the 'Highlight' item from the 'Options' menu in the ledger
      window -- no longer relevant.
CHG - Removed the 'Auto dropdown' item from the 'Options' menu in the
      ledger window -- not longer relevant.
CHG - Removed the 'Enter key tabs' item from the 'Options' menu in the
      ledger window -- VX-Rexx accepts only the <Tab> and <BackTab> keys.
CHG - Icons in ledger window have been made smaller.
CHG - The way in which a font is selected for the ledger (see above).
CHG - The calculator menu (clicking on it invokes the calculator from the
      ini file; clicking on the 'Select...' invokes a file dialog box.)
CHG - Account items in the particulars list are no longer preceded by
      an asterisk; rather they are enclosed within square brackets.
CHG - Auto-sorting has been re-enabled so appended transactions are
      automatically repositioned if the 'Sort' menu item is checked.
CHG - Increased the "numbers" limit from 5 to 10 (I received mail about
      one Eastern country having cheque numbers as high as 8, and soon
      to be 9).
CHG - The behaviour of the 'piggy-bank' button has changed -- click once
      to create a new transaction (equivalent to 'Create new' in the
      'Transactions' menu); click a second time to confirm the addition
      or emendation.
_________________________________________________________________________
What's Fixed in Version 2.0a

FIX - two bugs in installation routine:  one of the macro files wasn't
      copied to the macros\ directory; an error would be generated when
      the final message about international currency support was inserted
      into the MLE. (reported by Timur Tabi)
FIX - bug in rebaccts.vrm macro - a new installation would go into an
      endless loop.
FIX - bug when creating a new account (abnormal shutdown).
_________________________________________________________________________

What's New/Fixed/Changed in Version 2.0

IMPORTANT NOTICE:
    Because there were so many bugs in 1.9, I haven't taken the opportunity
    of updating the help files.  As a result, new and changed features have
    not been documented, except for this file and the 'What's New' section in
    e-teller.inf.  My apologies.

NEW - resource icons contained in the new et_dll.dll file rather than
      being bound to the .exe.  ET_DLL.dll also contains some functions;
      and so, this dll is as necessary as vrobj.dll.
NEW - E-Teller, Report, and Budget can now use user-defined directories for
      their specific data files (accounts & .dat files, .rpt files, and
      .bgt files).
NEW - User can now change the column order of reports.
NEW - Reports now contain a clear/uncleared column.
NEW - Reconciliation pause toggle button (useful for adding/editing
      transactions during reconciliation process).
NEW - It is now possible to have E-Teller display cleared transactions
      automatically for individual accounts.
NEW - International currency support for E-Teller, Report, and Budget,
      i.e. the user is no longer restricted to the North American
      $1,000.00 format.  E-Teller now uses the values in the OS2.INI
      file to determine currency symbol/location, thousand/decimal
      separator, etc.  In other words, DM 1.000,30; 1,000.00 $;
      $1 000.300 are all perfectly acceptable, as long as you've told OS/2
      to treat currency numbers this way (in the System folder).
      The program defaults to $1,000.00.
      NOTE: the translation procedures are not guaranteed to be error-free.
NEW - Cancel button in the ledger save prompt.
NEW - It is now possible to delete cleared transactions from within E-Teller.
NEW - If the date field is visible but no date is entered when adding
      a transaction, E-Teller asks user if he/she wants the system
      date rather than generate an error prompt.
NEW - Accounts window now keeps track of improperly closed ledgers, i.e.
      the cross-hatch is removed if the ledger is closed because of an
      E-Teller error.
NEW - Commonly used or infrequently used routines moved to external VX-Rexx
      macros.
NEW - New parameter switch for debugging those mysterious abrupt
      closures of ledgers--add the 'con' switch to the parameter
      line and the VX-Rexx console will be active.
NEW - A small little utility called VX-Rexx Sleep that's intended to do
      nothing major except to preload vrobj.dll which considerably
      decreases the load time of E-Teller.  When VX-Rexx Sleep's
      window is activated, it displays the system date and time, and
      the time is updated every minute.  When the window is minimized and
      another window is activated, VX-Rexx Sleep does what its name
      suggests.  Right-click on the window for options.

FIX - Clicking on the 'QIF convertor' item in the 'Utilities' menu would
      generate a file-not-found error, even though the file was in the
      working directory. (reported by Timur Tabi)
FIX - Invoking the 'Category' window from within the Search dialog box
      before the contents of the 'Category' drop-down combobox could be filled
      resulted in an empty list box in the former.
FIX - Adding a new transaction would call on the budget update routine twice.
FIX - Some transaction values were set to NULL before creating a fixed
      transaction.
FIX - bug in E-Teller Report when a tabulation was attempted on a non-numeric
      value (my typo, not an account error). (reported by Timur Tabi)
FIX - a bug in E-Teller Report if the user clicked 'Cancel' in the report-
      file exists prompt.
FIX - Bug in Sort menu item - clicking would have no effect where sorting was
      concerned.  (reported by Carl Graham)
FIX - Arithmetic error when reading cleared transactions.  (reported by
      Kevin Quinn)
FIX - Bug when adding a fixed transaction from an editing session -- some
      of the values were not being written to file.
FIX - Calculator was not getting the focus after invocation (reported by
      Timur Tabi)
FIX - Transactions from previous reports were being written to subsequent
      reports when creating more than one report.
FIX - Double-clicking on a monthly budget item could halt the budget utility.
FIX - Date, Number, Particulars, Credit, and Debit fields are disabled if
      the fields are hidden to prevent nonsensical behaviour if the given
      field is hidden.  (reported by Timur Tabi)
FIX - Menu items & push/toggle buttons were not enabled after adding the
      first record to an account.

CHANGE - Minimize button in ledger to a Hide button.  For some inexplicable
         reason, minimizing and then restoring the window would hide
         transaction records. Hiding and then restoring the window eliminates
         this problem. (reported by Timur Tabi)
CHANGE - Abort transaction accelerator to ESC from Ctrl+Backspace.
CHANGE - Moved pushbuttons from some windows to a menu (produces a less
         cluttered appearance).
CHANGE - Removed the warning message when editing cleared transactions.
CHANGE - Fixed Monthly checkbox in the Transaction Options dialog box
         is disabled if the date field is empty.
CHANGE - Transaction Options dialog box is now modal to prevent user
         from clicking on one of the ledger buttons or menu items.
CHANGE - A transaction date is no longer required.
CHANGE - Double-clicking on a hatched ledger icon no longer prompts user
         to refresh contents.  Instead, it restores the window if minimized
         and sets the focus to the ledger container.
CHANGE - Removed 'Close all' item from the Accounts menu since it is
         redundant.
_________________________________________________________________________

What's New/Fixed/Changed in Version 1.9

NEW - Budget feature building weekly, monthly, and yearly budgets.
NEW - Q2ET now builds a category file based upon the categories found
      during the conversion of a QIF file.
NEW - User-selected descriptive text highlight for various transaction
      fields.
NEW - 'Refresh now' item in the Transactions | Options menu to reread
      the contents of the relevant .dat file into the combobox.
NEW - Pressing <Enter> in the Number, Particulars, or Category field
      expands the entered prefix string to the first entry matching
      the prefix.
NEW - User can now turn automatic combobox drop down on and off by
      clicking on the new 'Auto dropdown' item in the Transactions |
      Options menu.
NEW - Pressing <Tab> from the 'Categories' field now signals the
      routine for appending a new transaction.
NEW - Small error-checking routine for direct edits in case a
      non-numeric value is assigned to either the credit or
      debit column.

FIX - Hint text for piggy-bank button wrongly stated that the button would
      load the calculator (reported by David Weston).
FIX - Display | Memos, Categories, and Multiple categories items were not
      initially checked as they should have been (reported by Timur Tabi).
FIX - Accounts | View item checkmarks were not being properly set (actually
      my ignorance and not a bug) (reported by Timur Tabi).
FIX - Bug when entering a tax-related transaction.
FIX - Cheque numbers weren't being properly incremented (reported by
      Carl Graham).
FIX - Ledger container was being repainted for every new balance when
      recalculating from the current transaction as opposed to the
      entire ledger.
FIX - A bug in etreport.exe which would cause it to crash if no accounts
      were found at startup.

CHANGE - put the system menu for ledgers back
CHANGE - assigned 1.8's Alt+F4 for closing ledgers and E-Teller from
         within a ledger to Alt+F3
CHANGE - number, category fields (and associated listboxes), and category
         field (and associated container) changed to combo boxes.
CHANGE - field highlights removed
CHANGE - memo and category fields are now on a line by themselves (allows
         greater room for displaying information).
CHANGE - Ctrl+Ins for appending new or confirming edited transactions changed
         to Ctrl+Enter
CHANGE - The 'Print...' item in the account window's 'Utility' menu to
         'Report...'
CHANGE - The Ctrl+P accelerator for the 'Report...' item in the account
         window's 'Utility' menu to Ctrl+R.
_________________________________________________________________________

What's New/Fixed/Changed in Version 1.8

NEW - Improved report feature (easier to use with a more versatile
      search/report option).
NEW - E-Teller Report now treats multiple-category transactions as
      individual transactions.
NEW - Complex searches in E-Teller with and/or operators.
NEW - A 'Close' (F3) menu item in the ledger 'Ledger' menu to close the
      current ledger only.
NEW - An 'Exit' (Alt-F4) menu item in the ledger 'Ledger' menu to close all
      accounts and exit E-Teller.
NEW - Added the ability to change the order of the ledger columns
      (or fields) on a per ledger basis.
NEW - Added the ability to hide the various fields on a per ledger
      basis.
NEW - Removed the credit/debit window.  Transactions are added directly
      from the ledger window.
NEW - Right-clicking on the Number, Particulars, and Category entry fields
      now brings up a menu for editing/adding or deleting items.  The
      Former invokes e.exe.
NEW - Added memo field to multiple-transaction window.
NEW - Added a View item to the Accounts Menu to select either Icon, Name, or
      Text view, in addition to Mini or Regular icon size.
NEW - Q2ET now preserves split transaction memos which E-Teller can use.
NEW - New categories added to the multiple-category combobox are now saved
      as they are for regular transactions.
NEW - 'Tax related' checkbox in the multiple-category dialog box.
NEW - Ability to directly edit multiple categories.
NEW - Multiple categories are no longer restricted to the string <Multi>
      as the parent category.

FIX - Intermittent problem in opening ledgers - stream would return
      NOTREADY.
FIX - A few inconsequential and not-so-inconsequential typos.
FIX - A few major and minor bugs in q2et.

CHANGE - Category, multi-category, and memo fields can now be made
         visible or invisible on a per ledger basis.
CHANGE - Removed the system menu from the ledger window.
CHANGE - Fixed transactions are now edited in two separate multi-line
         entry fields in one notebook.  On-line help is available for
         syntax, etc.
CHANGE - It is now possible to select multiple transactions for deletion.
CHANGE - Refresh item in the Accounts menu changed to 'Refresh now'.
CHANGE - Incorporated the Credit/Debit menu items and pushbuttons into
         one.  NOTE: both the menu item and pushbutton serve a different
         purpose in version 1.8 - they add a transaction rather than
         invoke a window.
CHANGE - Editing a transaction (either through double-clicking or direct
         manipulation) now recalculates from that transaction rather than
         the entire ledger
____________________________________________________________________________

What's New/Fixed/Changed in Version 1.7a

NEW - context-sensitive on-line help for virtually every aspect of E-Teller
      in a genuine OS/2 HLP file.

FIX - added the missing <Multi> entry in the Category selection listbox in
      E-Teller Report.
FIX - a bug in the installation/conversion utility.

CHANGE - the 'No.' field name in the credit/debit window to 'Number'
CHANGE - reenabled the field check following a direct edit (Alt+left-click)
         so that editing the credit or debit field automatically invokes
         the recalculation (was disabled due to a bug in VROBJ.DLL 2.0a)
____________________________________________________________________________

What's New/Fixed/Changed in Version 1.7

NEW - user-defined account icons (E-Teller no longer defaults to bank.ico
      and ccard.ico)
NEW - multiple categories for a single transaction and a corresponding SEND
      parameter in E-Teller Report.
NEW - installation utility (required, since file format has changed to
      accommodate multi-category).
NEW - E-Teller Report automatically selects a script called default.fmt.
NEW - 'Save last date' option in Transactions | Options (either use the
      current system date for first transaction entered in a new session,
      or the last, latest date of a transaction during a previous session).
NEW - ET_Month is now able to resolve five instances of a given weekday within
      a month thereby eliminating a second spurious weekday transaction with
      monthly frequency.

FIX - bug for tax-related transactions whereby <tax> would be added a second
      time if the transaction appeared in info.dat and was used again.
FIX - Ledger windows were not being properly cascaded when opened.
FIX - When closing the main window and a ledger required saving, E-Teller
      would close it anyway without waiting for the user's response.
FIX - When editing a fixed transaction with a single-digit date, that date
      would not be properly displayed in 'Begin on:'.
FIX - Ledger container would not repaint when undeleting transactions.
FIX - a miscalculation when displaying cleared transactions.

CHANGE - 'Sort' item in the Transactions menu is no longer saved to
         e-teller.ini (it was causing unpredictable results when recal-
         culating).  Instead, click Sort and the records are sorted,
         after which you are asked if you want to save the sort order
         to file, which is the order in which E-Teller will read the
         transactions in the future.
CHANGE - 'Fixed transaction' checkbox disabled until amount is entered.
CHANGE - menu structure in E-Teller Report to reflect more accurately
         the items contained in each.
CHANGE - Q2ET is now more reliable and automated.
CHANGE - Q2ET now calls upon epm.exe rather than e.exe for error correction
         (easier to locate line numbers).
CHANGE - Q2ET now preserves split category data when converting Quicken (c)
         QIF files.

NOTICE - Registration fee and payment schedule has changed as of version 1.7.
         Additional payments for subsequent major releases is no longer
         required.  Instead, the initial registration fee has been raised
         to $25 US ($30 CDN) and represents a one-time payment which covers
         all subsequent releases for both current and future registered users.
___________________________________________________________________________

What's New/Fixed/Changed in Version 1.6

NEW - Moved ledger to separate window so that multiple accounts may be opened
      simultaneously.
NEW - added checking routine to ET_Month to ensure that et_fixed isn't
      processed more than once at the start of a new calendar month (in
      case the system is booted twice on the first).
NEW - added a routine to ET_Month to ensure that et_fix.dat is generated for
      each new month, in case the user doesn't boot OS/2 on the first of
      the month.
NEW - Accelerators for the Reconcile and Delete menu items in the ledger
      window.
NEW - User-defined digits (see Setting Digits in help).
NEW - INF-like help (crude, but effective) with semi-context-sensitive help.
NEW - Fields in the credit / debit window now change their background colour
      whenever a field has the focus.
NEW - User-defined behaviour for the <Enter> key in the credit / debit window
      (either selects 'OK' or tabs to next field).
NEW - an 'Income tax category' checkbox in the credit / debit window.
NEW - E-Teller Report can now create reports of income-tax related transactions
      only.

FIX - potential bug in selecting balance adjustment in reconciliation if
      there is only one transaction in the ledger.
FIX - typo in reconciliation dialogbox.
FIX - the reconciliation toggle button would not return to its depressed
      state when selecting 'Cancel' from the discrepancy dialog box.
FIX - the fixed day-of-week transactions may have been inadvertently removed
      from et_fixed.dat when adding a fixed date-of-month transaction.
FIX - a potential et_month problem in updating cheque numbers on transactions
      which occur more than once a month.

CHANGE - rewrote comma code to support unlimited commas.
CHANGE - integrated progress bar into the ledger window (separate window was
         too obtrusive)
CHANGE - Cleared toggle button is depressed if user chooses not to save after
         reconciliation.
CHANGE - Removed the back/forecolor window.  Neat, but took up too much
         valuable code real estate to warrant its existance.  User can still
         set the background colour only of the ledger and accounts containers
         only.
CHANGE - Removed the set ledger font window, but it is still possible to set
         the font of the ledger container.
CHANGE - Cycling through the date in the credit/debit window now recognizes
         leap years.
CHANGE - Removed the window associated with et_month (messages went by far
         too quickly to be of any real use).
CHANGE - 'Entries' menu item in the ledger window to 'Transactions'

___________________________________________________________________________

What's New/Fixed in Version 1.5

NEW - more intelligent and dependable Quicken file conversion program (now an
      .exe).
NEW - added comma support for amounts (stops at 999,999,999.00 since Rexx
      begins to use exponents after that).
NEW - fixed transactions are now more intelligent and can be set for specific
      weekdays and one of four frequencies - weekly, biweekly, triweekly, and
      monthly.
NEW - ET_Month now keeps track of the last cheque (if applicable) and prompts
      the user to enter the next cheque number at the start of each calendar
      month if the 'Prompt for next cheque number' checkbox is checked in the
      'Fixed Transaction' window.
NEW - added progress bar for reading, and saving transactions.
NEW - added a 'Recalculate' item in the 'Entries' menu to force a
      recalculation.
NEW - added mnemonics to the accounts and ledger groupboxes for quick
      switching.
NEW - various *.dat files are now reduced to three:  number.dat, info.dat,
      and category.dat (unchanged).
NEW - editing et_fix.dat and et_fixed.dat is now handled separately.
NEW - added an error handling routine in case something goes wrong when
      reading account files.
NEW - dispensed with the transaction count when reading cleared and uncleared
      transactions to speed up the reading/formatting process.
NEW - the recalculation routine is called when reading uncleared transactions
      rather than having the running balance updated for each record read -
      speeds up the reading/formatting process.

FIX - fixed an erroneous (and harmless) message about an account not having a
      filename associated with it when saving the account after reconciling.
FIX - the balance column was not made visible after successfully reconciling
      the account.
FIX - if deleted transactions are displayed and user saves account, the
      undeleted transactions are first displayed (to prevent *only* the
      deleted transactions from being saved).
FIX - fixed an error whereby the string 'day' would be saved for fixed
      transactions rather than the actual date.
FIX - fixed a bug whereby coming back from undeleting would not recalculate
      the balance.
FIX - fixed a mysterious bug in editing fixed transactions.
FIX - think I fixed a mysterious lockup in credit/debit window
FIX - fixed a buglet in the pre-reconcilition routine.
      (reported by S. John Banner)
FIX - fixed a bug whereby bogus pay to.../details data would be saved to the
      number.dat file.
FIX - tabbing from the Number combo-box in the credit/debit window now fills
      in all of the various fields with previously saved data.
FIX - the amount field in the credit/debit window now has the descriptive
      text 'Amount' attached to it, so pressing Alt-a moves user directly to
      that field.
FIX - the balance would not be recalculated when going from a non-sorted to a
      sorted display.
FIX - routines have been added to ensure that multiple instances of the same
      window aren't loaded.