Problem with "Notes"

[MarkMcPherson]

My problem is that sometimes when I switch from one record to another, the information in the "Notes" section is transferred to the next record and the previous information of that record is lost.

I have used the program on both my home computer and laptop with the same problem. Now I keep a backup on my home computer and work only on my laptop so that when this happens, I can retrieve the info.

It's a little bit of a hassle but honestly I hate to complain about anything because it is such a great program.

BTW, any plans to do a palm version?

Thanks!

[SteveP]

Yep, I've just been having the same problem. I've found it happens if I either double-click on a word (bringing up the edit screen), or if I select the entire contents of the Notes field -- even if I do nothing other than that! Just select, deselect, and the current Notes field is propagated to the preceding or following record (or both), replacing whatever was there.

I've started copying each Notes field to a separate text document, so if this happens I can retrieve the overwritten information. Problem is, just the act of copying causes the very problem I'm trying to solve! I've had some nightmare sessions, progressively overwriting one lot of Notes after the other till it finally stabilises.

As Mark says, it's overall a fantastic program, and this is really only a minor bug. Maybe he and I happen to use the Notes field more intensively than was originally intended...

-- Steve.

[SteveP]

I think I've found the solution: DON'T USE THE "FORWARD" OR "BACK" BUTTONS at the bottom left of the "Details" screen! These are what propagate the current "Notes" to whichever adjacent record you're moving to. If you press the "Forward" button (the music-player-type right arrow), the current "Notes" field that you've just edited will overwrite the "Notes" for the following record. If you press the "Back" button, it's the previous record that will be overwritten. (ONLY if you've just clicked or selected text or otherwise edited the current "Notes" -- otherwise it's fine.)

BUT if you use the PGDN and PGUP keys instead of clicking with the mouse, the problem disappears!

HOWEVER, I've found if I use the PGUP and PGDN keys all the time, the "Denomination" (and sometimes "Partner Type") fields disappear! That is, the info is still there -- if you click on the drop-down list the correct option will be selected -- but the field itself appears blank. The data reappears if you start using the "Forward" and "Back" buttons again!

So -- take your pick!

Hope you can put this right in a future release, John...

[MarkMcPherson]

Steve,

I came to the same conclusion but I also found out that if you will click on a field that you don't normally use (I use the "source" field) and then click the arrow button, I don't have the problem.

I've tried to get used to doing that. It's a little bit of a hassle but worth it to continue using the program.

Mark

[jmuehleisen]

I consider these problems bugs, but I haven't been able to figure out the solution.

As you have discovered, the program doesn't save your "notes" data until the cursor leaves the field. So, if your cursor is in there and you click the <Next> error, then put your cursor into some data in the new record, the program (erroneously) thinks that you want the data saved there.

It is very annoying ... but, if you just hit the <Tab> key when you are done with the notes, it SHOULD work OK. Well, better at least.

But, I'll keep doing a little research to see if I can eliminate this annoying behavior.

[debsmurph]

Oh, I'm so glad to hear this. I thought I was having some issues with my new laptop... as I kept getting the same notes for the reasons above. Thanks for the tips on how NOT to get this to occur. Fortunately for me, the copying of the notes field to the next donor didn't matter so much, as the one that it copied into was originally blank!

Side note: [which has been referred to above] I'm also having issues with the 'User Definable Lists' Doesn't matter what I type in, the 10th one never appears. And then if i try shifting that to any other.. that one disappears in the detail sheets too! Rather annoying as I'm trying to get groups up and running as a way of sending out my newsletter.

[jmuehleisen]

Deb, et.al,

You mentioned using the User Lists for defining your newsletter groups.

One thing you may be find interesting is that I'm going to be adding to the program a new field called "Newsletter Group" ... you can set up the categories for your newsletters and enter it there.

Then, that can be used for filtering, etc., when doing newsletters, e-newsletters, mailing labels, etc.

Hopefully that will give a needed level of flexibility here.

[jmuehleisen]

Deb,

I think I found the problem with "User List 10), and I do think it is a bug in the program.

Fortunately, there is an easy fix for it.

First of all, what is SUPPOSED to happen is, if you change the caption for a User List in the /Tools /Personalize part of the program, when you go back to the Donor Details page, the new caption is supposed to be there, reflecting your latest caption change.

That is working for all of the lists except # 10, so that's a problem I need to fix in the next update of the program.

Now, here's the "work around." After you change the caption for list 10, simply quit the Donor Manager program, then restart it. Your revised caption will be there this time.

See you later.

[debsmurph]

John,
Sounds really good about those newsletter groups. Great idea! Thanks heaps! Thanks also for your excellent help today! Much appreciated, and it's working like a dream now

[guitarmanvt]

I've just gotten bit by this bug again. DM 5.39.05. Actually, it happens quite frequently. I don't really want to keep all my notes in a separate file, but this bug makes the Notes field extremely unreliable.

A couple ideas:

1. Could you "lock down" the Notes field and require a button click to unlock it?
2. Or, perhaps, remove the forward and backward buttons that cause the trouble?

Please elevate this issue to High Priority. Thanks!

[guitarmanvt]

I keep getting bit by this bug. Here's how I'm attempting to handle it:

1. Don't store any critical info in this field.
2. Use Touch records of type "INFO" to store info. (This has the added benefit of specifying a date that the info was entered.)
3. Keep a backup of the data on another computer, just in case this field gets wiped. (You still have to manually re-key all the info, but it's better than nothing.)

[Rob Scebold]

Narrowing down the critical conditions for encountering this bug:
I am new to Donor Manager and am using the latest version: 5.54.1. I encountered this problem with the Notes field right away because I rely on information here quite a bit. (I am importing notes accumulated over the past 10 years from my Palm Pilot address database). I consider this a serious bug in that it corrupts data with no way to 'Undo' the inadvertent copying/overwriting of a note from one record to the next.

With some testing, I found the minimal condition for this bug to occur is for the cursor to be in the Notes field at the time the forward or back navigation buttons are clicked. If the cursor is not in the Notes field at the time a navigation button is clicked the bug does not occur. Editing the Notes field has no bearing on whether the bug occurs, only whether the cursor is in the field when a navigation button in clicked. I hope this bit of information can help with finding out what is happening in the code.

As others stated above, the workarounds to this bug are to either avoid the navigation buttons in the UI, or to make sure your cursor is not in the Notes field when you click on a forward or back button.

Thanks for attending to this bug as soon as possible.

[jmuehleisen]

Thanks for reporting this issue.

I am a bit mystified though, as I am unable to reproduce this on my computer. I changed the code some time back to fix this issue (or at least I thought I had <grin>) and I double checked again today, and it is properly saving notes here on my computer, even if your cursor is in the notes field when you use the navigation buttons to move from field to field.

So, this is baffling to me. I am not disputing what you are seeing on your computer, I'm just not able to reproduce it here.

So, I've made some changes to the coding here (which will show up in 5.54.2 or later). I'll try to upload that later today (my internet access these days is not very good out here on the outskirts of Nairobi).

Try that and see if it makes a difference for you, and let me know.

I'm working "blind" here, so to speak, so your feedback is very important.

[Rob Scebold]

Thanks, John, for attending to this so quickly! I downloaded your update (v5.54.2) and installed it and I no longer see the bug happening.

I appreciate your believing me though you could not reproduce the bug on your system. I work in software development as well, and there are times we get bug reports we cannot reproduce. Unfortunately, there is little we can do about them. I am glad you knew what you could tweak to address this problem.

Thanks again,

Rob

[jmuehleisen]

Excellent. I'm that that is working for you.

Hopefully we have killed that pesky bug once and for all.