Church Helpmate Online & Church Helpmate Desktop Differences

Transcription

1 Church Helpmate Online & Church Helpmate Desktop Differences There are only a handful of differences between the Church Helpmate Desktop program and Church Helpmate Online (CHO). These differences are due to the server environment on which CHO is hosted. This document highlights some the main differences. Moving/Copying Files Between Your Computer and the CHO Server Although it s difficult to tell, the CHO program is not actually running on your computer it s running on our CHO server. Your computer s Internet connection transfers the screen displays from the CHO server so that you can see the program. In the same way, your computer s mouse and keyboard actions are transferred to the CHO server so that you can interact with program. Since the files that are used and created by the CHO program are located on the CHO server, there may be occasions when you need to move or copy a file from the CHO server to your local computer (or visa versa). Examples of this might include: 1. You have exported a file from the CHO program and want to move it to your local computer to view in MS Excel 2. You have photo files on your local computer that you want to use in the CHO program. 3. You have a CSV import file of household records that you'd like to import into CHO using the Church Helpmate Import Utility. To facilitate the file transfer process, we have provided a Windows Explorer tool within the CHO program. To open the CHO Windows Explorer, click Tools l Windows Explorer from the CHO program s top menubar. When you first open the CHO Windows Explorer, it will initially default to display your user folder on the server (i.e. the storage space on our CHO server that you ve been provided as part of your CHO subscription service). Your data file, and any other files you may have created and saved on the server are stored here. Again, it s important to note here that the Windows Explorer tool is displaying the folders/files that are actually on the CHO server s hard-drive, not your local computer s hard-drive. The Local Disk (C:) drive here is the main hard-drive of the CHO server not your local computer s C drive Helpmate Technology Solutions LLC. All Rights Reserved. Page 1

2 However, if you scroll down the list on the left-hand pane of the Windows Explorer tool, you will see several Client drives. These Client drives are the drives on your local computer. For example, the Client C drive in CHO Windows Explorer is your local computer s C drive (i.e. the hard-drive of the computer you are actually sitting in front of). This Windows Explorer tool therefore allows you to access BOTH the CHO server s hard-drive AND your local computer s hard-drive. This allows you to easily transfer files back and forth using the standard Copy and Paste functions. To simplify this process of copying and/or moving files back and forth between your local computer and the CHO server computer, we have provided several shortcuts to important folders under the Favorites listing along the left-hand side of the Windows Explorer window. Here you will find a Client shortcut (to take your directly to your local computer s hard-drive) as well as favorites to a few key folders on the CHO server s hard-drive. Files can be copied and or moved using the standard copy & paste functions. You can choose to use the standard keyboard shortcuts (Ctrl+C for copy, Ctrl+X for cut, and Ctrl+V for paste) or by right-clicking on the desired file and then selecting the desired action from the pop-up menu. NOTE: Please keep in mind that transferring large files between your local computer and the CHO server may take longer than you might expect and will depend on the speed of your Internet connection. QuickLetter and MS Outlook Export In an effort to keep CHO pricing affordable and to a minimum, it is cost prohibitive for Helpmate Technology Solutions to license and install MS Word, MS Excel and MS Outlook onto the CHO server. Unfortunately since the QuickLetter and MS Outlook Export Utility functions both require one of the above mentioned Microsoft programs, these features are not available when running CHO Helpmate Technology Solutions LLC. All Rights Reserved. Page 2

3 Exporting Files in CHO When running the Church Helpmate Desktop product, whenever you export a CSV file from the Export tab of one of the Output Configurators, the resulting file is automatically opened and viewed in the MS Excel program (if installed on your computer). This is possible because both the Church Helpmate Desktop program and MS Excel are installed and running on the same computer. As mentioned above, MS Excel is not installed on the CHO server. With CHO, in order to open an exported CSV file with the MS Excel program that you have installed on your local computer, a few extra steps are required. 1. From the Export tab of the desired CHO Output Configurator, you ll notice that the FileName value defaults to the Export folder on the CHO server s hard-drive (the C drive here is the CHO server s main hard-drive). 2. Click the Browse button to open the Export to File dialog box. 3. Within the Export To File dialog box, use the Save in pull-down control (at the very top of the dialog box) and click the Client drive representing the drive on your local computer where wish to save the file. Most commonly, this will be the drive listed as Client C (this represents your local computer s C drive). Once you ve selected the desired Client drive, you can then select the desired folder location beneath this drive. If your client computer is a Windows computer running a newer version of Windows (i.e. Win7, Win8, etc.), there will be a "Users" folder off your Client drive and beneath it will be folders for each of the Windows Login Names on your computer. From there, you can choose the desired folder such as "Documents" or "Desktop". 4. Once you ve selected the desired folder, you will need to specify a name for the exported file (on the File Name line). Click the Save button once you ve selected the desired location and filename for the exported file. 5. From the CHO Output Configurator, click the Export button to create the exported file. 6. At this point, the CSV file has been saved to your local computer s hard-drive (in the location you specified in Step 3 above). You can now open the Microsoft Excel program installed on your local computer and open this file to view and/or modify it Helpmate Technology Solutions LLC. All Rights Reserved. Page 3

4 Using the Print Preview Menu s Export as Feature When previewing reports Church Helpmate, a Print Preview Menu (as shown to the left) will be displayed along the left-hand side of the screen. This Print Preview Menu includes an "Export as..." section with buttons to export the currently displayed report as a PDF file, a Rich Text Format (RTF) file, or an Excel file. Upon clicking any of these three buttons, an Export To dialog box (as shown to the right) will be displayed prompting you for the desired location and filename of the exported file. The default location here will be a folder on the CHO Server's hard-drive. If, however, you would like to create the exported file directly onto your local computer's hard-drive, you can choose the desired Client drive. Most commonly, this will be the drive listed as Client C (this represents your local computer s C drive)...and will typically be referred to as the "M" letter drive by the CHO Server. If your client computer is a Windows computer running a newer version of Windows (i.e. Win7, Win8, etc.), there will be a "Users" folder off your Client drive and beneath it will be folders for each of the Windows Login Names on your computer. From there, you can choose the desired folder such as "Documents" or "Desktop". You will also need to specify a name for the exported file (on the File Name line). Click the Save button once you ve selected the desired location and filename for the exported file. Once the export has completed, you will be prompted as to whether or not you want to open/view the file. If you choose "Yes", the file will be displayed with the appropriate program/application. When running Church Helpmate Online and exporting as a PDF file, the CHO Server's PDF viewer software program will be used to open the file. When running Church Helpmate Online and exporting as an Excel file, an Excel Viewer program will be used to open the Excel file - since the full MS Excel program is not installed on the CHO Server (for licensing and cost reasons). When running Church Helpmate Online and exporting as a Rich Text Format file, the file will be opened by the Windows WordPad application Helpmate Technology Solutions LLC. All Rights Reserved. Page 4

5 Duplex, Stapling and Other Printing Preferences in CHO Printing from CHO, has a couple of limitations as compared to the Church Helpmate Desktop product. This is because the reports have to go through an extra processing step before they are sent to your local printer. This processing step essentially converts the CHO report to a PDF file and then sends the printout to the physical printer. This is all normally transparent to the user. During this process, a somewhat generic print driver on the CHO server is used...and thus not all of your printer s options may be available (ie. duplex, stapling, etc.). CHO will basically use the default settings that you have set up on your local computer for these additional options. So, if you have your local computer configured so that duplex printing on the printer is enabled by default, then when you print to that printer from CHO, it will print in duplex mode. There is an option available to provide you with more control over the printer settings, rather than relying on the printer s default option settings. The steps below explain how to utilize this option. 1. From CHO, print preview the desired report. 2. From the left-hand Print Preview Menu, click the Print button. 3. From the Print dialog box, choose Preview PDF from the pull-down list of printers. 4. Click the OK button. This will convert the report to a PDF file onto your local computer's hard-drive and will use your computer's PDF reader to open/view the PDF file. Here, you will have all of the normal print options (color/b&w, single-sided/duplex, etc.) - since you will be working with the PDF viewer software installed locally on your computer (and it would be like printing any other PDF file from your computer). Sounds on CHO The Church Helpmate Desktop program provides an option to play various sounds as feedback to the user when they are using the program (i.e. clicking buttons, saving data, etc.). With CHO, these sounds occur on the CHO server computer. Unfortunately these sounds are not transmitted back to your local computer. Using Photos in CHO With Church Helpmate Online, the size of the photo image files used can dramatically affect the overall performance of the system much more so than with the Church Helpmate Desktop product. Using large photo image files that are created by today s digital cameras and scanners with CHO will likely cause unacceptable performance sometimes even causing lock up issues. For details and instructions on the proper usage of photos with the CHO program, please see the following document: Custom Report Generator With both Church Helpmate Online and Church Helpmate Desktop, we provide an additional reporting tool called the Custom Report Generator (found under the Outputs menu of the program s top menubar). When running CHO, only one user from your organization can be using the CHO Custom Report Generator (CRG) at a time. If a second user attempts to open the CHO Custom Report Generator, an error message will be displayed letting them know that the CRG is in use by another user and cannot be run Helpmate Technology Solutions LLC. All Rights Reserved. Page 5

6 Church Helpmate Online vs. Church Helpmate Desktop Performance Comparison As far as performance comparisons go between Church Helpmate Desktop (CHD) and Church Helpmate Online (CHO), you can typically expect the following: 1. CHD with one user using a CH data file on its own local hard-drive versus CHO with one user: Performance should generally be about the same, though CHO may seem slightly slower if you have a slow Internet connection. 2. CHD with one user using a CH data file across a local area network (LAN) versus CHO with one user: Performance of CHO will generally be slightly faster 3. CHD with multiple users sharing a CH data file across a local area network (LAN) versus CHO with multiple users: Performance of CHO will be faster (the higher the number of simultaneous users, the more difference there will be) Please do not hesitate to contact Helpmate Support at (M-F 9:30a-5p EST) or support@helpmate.com for additional assistance or questions related to Church Helpmate Online Helpmate Technology Solutions LLC. All Rights Reserved. Page 6