ComputingData

> The annoying this we've found is that the new Premiere and After Effects will only run on 64bit Operating systems... Isn't that because they require more than the 3.5GB RAM (usable) limit of x86?

It doen't do this currently, but if you PM me with you r number, I'll call you and I'll see if I can sort it out for you.

If you can use the online system then you can get them all to 'upload pupil file to server', you then go into 'administration', click 'select all', the 'download' will change to 'merge', click 'merge', once it's complete you take a quick look through it and either save for the head or printout. If you are using memory sticks to transfer, then either get everyone to save to memory stick and then you collect the sticks, click 'file > merge pupil file' and browse to the 'reports' file on the stick. After the merge it will ask you if you want to merge another file in, swap sticks, click 'yes' and so on... With a single stick, do something similar, save to the stick, go to the admin pc, merge it in, then go to the next pc, save to stick, go to the amdin pc, merge it in and so on...

Just one line? To avoid inconsistency it keeps the report paragraph text to the same font type and size (you can change to bold/italic/underline though). You can change the overall font and/or size for the report text if you like. If you let me know more details I can perhaps suggest something or implement something in an update to the program?

Syneasthesia: I've beefed up the 'name splitter' for the next update fo the program (I looked at a few names to get a good representation of common variations), here are a few test examples of it working: Miss Faye O'Neill forename:Faye surname: O'Neill title: Miss Faye O'Neill forename:Faye surname: O'Neill title: Miss O'Neill forename: surname: O'Neill title: Miss Faye forename:Faye surname: title: Faye blah bing smith O'Neill forename:Faye blah surname: bing smith O'Neill title: Miss Faye blah O'Neill forename:Faye blah surname: O'Neill title: Miss Miss J L GOODWIN forename:J L surname: GOODWIN title: Miss I think this appears to figure out most cases correctly now. What do you think? Faye is the Girlfriend btw. and her middle names aren't 'blah bing smith'!

Have you seen the iDroid project? it is to port dual booting Android/iPhone software to the iPhone - seems a few Adobe programmers are supporting it now! lol. http://www.idroidproject.org/forum/index.php?

I though it would be bigger than that by now. Is the support for iPhone app creation still in there? Apple have said the will not accept anything created by it.

The pdf doc on the website (teachers quickstart) has been updated with the misprint removed. I've also uploaded another doc that shows the control words you may like when creating custom front pages, etc... I think Lizzy has also (at the same time as updating the teachers quickstart) updated the help file that can be downloaded into the program - I think the instruction manual update pdf will also be updated in the next few days as it is based upon that file.

syneasthesia: Some teachers know only have basic knowledge of exporting from SIMS, most would not know how to do that. But anyway, I'll add those extra fields to the program. In addition, the program 'understands' *lots* of optional fields and variations, I'll put together a complete list and make it available on resources. Yes, Windows (now, it used to) doesn't allow remote chm files by default. You could try this: If you go in the program, click on 'options', select 'advanced settings' and double click 'NetworkHelp' - change it from a 0 to a 1. Then try help again (you may have to restart). What this does is copy the help file to the users 'temp' folder first, then view it from there. If the temp folder is on a network drive then you're out of luck unless you use this method: Blib...Blog...Blib...: Open CHM Files from Network drive The problem with the cc networks is that the documents and settings folder returned by Windows when running on these networks appears (imho) to be 'flakey' at best. Most of the time it appears to return an empty string (nothing!) - in this case ReportPlus scans the other foldernames (pictures, music, etc) to see if can guess the proper location, most of the time it gets it right. As another alternative to using the override, you can also use an alternative install that works great on cc3/4 networks. It's also described in the resources section. This is the possibly best solution if your users are using machines and have access to a shared drive for all teachers (not using laptops and writing from home).

Because it is a computer program, not a human being. How could it distinguish between a double barrel forename and a double barrel surname? To fix this, just select the teacher and then click 'teacher > edit teacher', retype the proper name (double barrel forename or double barrel surname), no need to re-import again (don't change the reference number - this is how it is linked to the pupil). I could implement a change so that anything after the forename it considers a surname, or should it be only the last name is a surname and anything before that is a forename? The help file may not appear for (at least) one of four reasons, either you have not downloaded the file (it's in reportplus/download/help.chm), or you have a block on chm files on your system (some antivirus programs consider downloaded chm files a threat), or you have a proxy server or firewall that doesn't like chm's, or your network system makes Windows 'think' that your local drive is a network rive - Windows will not open a chm from a network drive. The help file is the same as the pdf file (instruction manual) on the resources section of the website. In a future release we will be including a stripped down help file in the initial download (no pictures), this will help you in your situation.

No, it's not a bug - it's a misprint. That box should instruct them to click 'Download school settings'. Thanks fo letting me know - I'll report it to the office asap so they can recreate and upload that page.

Doesn't happen on my x64 Win7 at all. Ever. Seen it on XP once or twice though. Windows is a strange beast! lol.

Laserblazer: No problem, just thought you would like to know that the steps were quite similar.

SneakyBeaky: That is the InstallPlus.exe program actually running, updating other items in the folder. It should be executred in admin mode as it has admin properties. If you try the fix that I mentioned before, I'll put a 'delete and retry' routine in the installer code - this may fix it for you.

If you're using ReportPlus then you could do something similar. 1) Give each of the teachers different usernames and passwords 2) Input all the pupils for the school in one go, optionally allocate them to class/form teachers (have a teacher column in the csv file) 3) Give the same files out to all teachers, them import them into their computer at home or whatever 4) They write the reports for their children, if you have allocated the teachers then they can select themselves and the list gets cut up. 5) At the end, they give you back the sticks with the reports saved to them 6) You use the merge to load them all back as a single file 7) Printout The problem you may have in the future is that ReportAssist has 'issues' with Vista (you have to run it out of program files, or give write access to users in program files), even more issues with Windows 7 (dll incompatibility from what I can gather) and doesn't seem to like x64 systems at all <- all of which are becoming increasing common. They could run it on VirtualPC though (running XP). Also don't forget that the NPC is law from next year, virtually all the statement banks will have to be updated in ReportAssist.

Normally this does not happen, but with some school networks there appears to be only one profile setup on the computer - the one were the docs and settings is a network drive. When the computer leaves the profile isn't updated or switched to a second one away from the network and synced. So... don't panic and stop banging your head! lol. - there is an easy solution. You can force the program not to trust the laptop's reported documents and settings! Here is a link to the resources section that contains a description of this 'override' facility and some other pdf docs you may like too: ReportPlus Here is a direct link to the actual pdf doc itself: http://reportplus.co.uk/downloads/override.pdf If you use the override then after you have got it working (the program should appear to start afresh), exit the program and move the files you have in your original 'docs and settings/reportplus' to the override folder. Thanks to Kaphc for letting me know about this post.

The pupil file contains the pupil text for all the pupils. The settings and data files are virtually everything else (custom pages, logos, custom subjects, default pupil list, subject order, etc...) except things that may be unique to that user - such as editor preferences, favourites, custom spellings, etc... This means that the admin can still change most of the settings even AFTER users have started writing reports. They just re-upload the settings and the users re-download them. However, they should be careful removing subjects after people have started work, as the pupil text for that subject will 'disappear' - the user can get it back though by re-enabling the subject. If the Admin changes templates AFTER a user has started work then they won't change - but I'm currently coding something that will allow them to do this (if the actual template line/paragraph hasn't changed). Any editor specific settings or preferences that the user has changed to make life easier for themselves can't be messed with by the admin.

No folders, unless you are running in the alternative network mode (see the website resources section). It looks like it was Windows denying admin access within an executable (updateplus.exe) that can only run in admin mode! This happens sometimes with Windows - I've even had it happen on an update to the 'Google pack', after it starts then the only way to replace certain files is the manually delete the files and replace rather than copy over. If it happens again then I'll put in a 'delete and retry' routine for you in the Install.

lol. I don't think it will happen again, if it does though please let me know.

I have that same setup. It may be that windows has locked that folder for some reason? (the executable is being denied access to write to the folder) Try deleting the folder manually, then download the program from the Internet and re-running it. Only the program is stored there, so there will be no harm done.

If you have any ideas on how to help you copy the settings across faster then I'll try help as much as possible. There is a silent install option already, if you need more options then that could be a solution? (To silent install use 'installplus.exe -silent' in your script).

I've PM'ed you with my email address. If you PM or email me with the school licence name, the first and last digits/letters of the licence password and the user that you want to delete I can sort it out for you asap.

Users and Teachers are treated differently by the program - you create users in the Admin window and currently you can't delete them once created (we can do this for you). Teachers are created either by importing them along with pupils, or by clicking 'add teacher' in the 'Teacher' menu at the top of the screen. To delete one, just select him/her in the dropdown above the pupil list then click 'Delete teacher' from the 'Teacher' menu. Counties around the Country have setup stricter security settings for teachers that MI5 do it seems! lol. If you have saved the settings to memory stick (using the option within the program), you can load them in from memory stick too (using an option within the program). If you wanted you can manually copy them to documents and settings/ReportPlus, but don't copy settings/options.ini ... So the teacher has both RA and RP on the computer at the same time? If so, they may find it useful to know they can paste from ReportAssist to ReportPlus by copying the text in ReportAssist, then positioning the cursor where they want it to go in ReportPlus and pressing Alt-V (normally paste is Ctrl-V), or by clicking the 'Edit' menu and selecting Paste (Not AI).

In windows, if you use 'Save as' in a program, a program is supposed to change the default name and location for that file to where you 'pick', some teachers are un-aware of this, so we give them the warning (as it's not something teachers would normally really want to do). Soln. B below is prob. what you want to use (it should be most familiar to you), but I personally like soln. A best... There are two main methods to give the head the reports for them to write their section: A) If you're using our servers, get the teachers to 'upload the pupil file to our servers', then once they are all uploaded, the admin can bring up the administration window and click 'select all', the 'download' will then change to a 'merge' or similar (I'm going from memory). Click 'merge' and it will download them all in sequence and merge them into one file for the head to do their bit, then printing. B) If you're not using our servers, you can use the pulldown next to the pink save icon to 'save pupil file to memory stick'. It does NOT need to be a U3 stick (a U3 stick can be used to install a special version of the program, so it actually runs from the stick, not the computers hard drive). You will have to prepare the stick first, this does NOT delete anything already on the stick - it just renames the stick so the program can identify it when you want to load from the stick in future (memory sticks have an annoying habit of changing drive letters and this gets past this problem). Then the head loads this file ('load from memory stick', see the validate pull down menu). The reason why we use two different pulldown menus for save/load from memory stick and server is to prevent people clicking the wrong one by accident. Some teachers are 'click happy' and just click 'yes' or 'ok' to everythng without reading first! After the head has done their bit, they can save to memory stick and give it back to the teacher or print out. There should have been a message in the 'prepare memory stick' that lets you know it doesn;t delete anything - did it not show that message? If not, let me know and I'll get it sorted asap.

I just had a look at my sent items and the two PMs I sent (one to you, one to someone else) have gone. I'll send it again, sorry.