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November 2007 Newsletter

1. Upcoming Training Opportunities for PastPerfect 4.0

2. Free Updates for PastPerfect Museum Software

3. PastPerfect-Online "Self" Hosting: Beta Testers Wanted


4. Look Who's Using PastPerfect: The Plains Indians & Pioneers Museum


5. Tech Tip: Create a List of Contacts with E-Mail Addresses


6. Contact Information



1. Upcoming Training Opportunities for PastPerfect 4.0

Our 2007 Training schedule is coming to a close, but plans for our 2008 schedule are under way! Training dates and locations for 2008 will be posted starting in January.

Exton, PA - November 6-8
Hosted by PastPerfect Software, Inc.

To possibly schedule a regional training session in your area, please contact Jennessa by email at training@museumsoftware.com or visit our website at www.museumsoftware.com/training.htm for more information.


2. Free Updates for PastPerfect Museum Software

Did you know updates are available from our website for your PastPerfect Museum Software versions 3.5 and 4.0? These free updates are released approximately every two months and are available for download by going to www.museumsoftware.com/software_updates.htm.

If you are unable to download our update, please contact our Support Office toll free at 800-562-6080 or by e-mail at support@museumsoftware.com.

PastPerfect Version 3.5 - New Service Update Available 3.5C2

While there are no new features in the version 3.5C2 update, there are service updates that have been requested by 3.5 users.

PastPerfect Version 4 - New Update Available 4.0D5

New features available in PastPerfect 4.0D5 include:

*Add Dataset as a sort / find field for loans in and loans out
*Allow user to change first and last name of In-kind gift
*Caption field is available for placing on Thumbnail image report
*Display related pledge information on edit donation screen
*Include Fax# field when exporting a contact list to Excel from the Lists and Labels screen
*Semi-Annual payment interval available for pledges


3. PastPerfect-Online "Self" Hosting: Beta Testers Wanted

Would you like to provide public access to your collections through a searchable website? Do you want to host this website at your own server? Systems Planning, our partner in creating PastPerfect-Online, is looking for beta testers for a server application called MwebTM Universal 1.1. This program will allow you to host your PastPerfect-Online website on your own server.

If your institution is interested in becoming a beta tester, please review the server hardware requirements at http://www.systemsplanning.com/mweb/universal.asp#server. For additional details about the project, please have your organization's IT staff contact Stephen Toney at Systems Planning by email: info@systemsplanning.com.


4. Look Who's Using PastPerfect: The Plains Indians & Pioneers Museum, Woodward, OK
Special Thanks to Ian Swart, Curator, for writing this month's Look Who's Using PastPerfect!

Founded in 1956 and dedicated on September 25, 1966, The Plains Indians & Pioneers Museum in Woodward, Oklahoma serves as a regional history museum for Northwest Oklahoma. Woodward, a city of 15,000 residents, is the commercial hub for the area, serving over 50,000 Oklahomans, Kansans and Texans.

The original 4,000-square-foot museum was a gift from Dr. and Mrs. C. E. Williams. Their offer to build the museum came after more than a decade of efforts by a group of local citizens who hoped to establish a museum in Woodward.

It was the wish of Dr. & Mrs. Williams that admission would never be charged to patrons visiting the museum, and the facility has maintained this request over the last fifty-one years.

More exhibit space and a storeroom were added to the original building in 1978. Since then, three additional buildings have also been added to the grounds. In 1984, the museum acquired the Lee-Lienemann cabin, a picket-style building from historic Fort Supply, which has been furnished with artifacts typical of its era and location. In 1993, the Agricultural Building, adjacent the Lienemann Cabin, was added to display farm implements typical of the various periods depicted in the museum's murals.

In October 2005, the museum began work through an IMLS Museums for America grant to digitize its photograph collection. It was the institution's hope to create greater access to the collection for researchers and visitors. Initial estimates for an online database and a consultant were placed at $12,000. However, the release of PastPerfect-Online provided the same result for less money and time. It was exactly what the museum was searching for!

Through the IMLS grant, over 3,000 photographs and glass-plate negatives were scanned and catalogued into PastPerfect. Though the grant is now over, the museum continues the project of digitizing photographs as well as increasing our online collections to include archives and objects. The catalogued photograph collection contains over 6,000 images, but the entire collection includes over 1,000 glass-plate negatives and close to 10,000 negatives and prints from a local photographer that have yet to be catalogued.

This effort has made providing images to patrons much easier. Having a digital image file for each photograph in the collection means the photographs will not have to be handled more than necessary. Before this project, original photographs would have to be taken out of storage to be copied or scanned. Now, thanks to PastPerfect and PastPerfect-Online, researchers can access the collection 24 hours a day, while the integrity of the originals are maintained.

To view our PastPerfect-Online site, please visit: http://pipm.pastperfect-online.com


5. Tech Tip: Create a List of Contacts with E-Mail Addresses

As more institutions are moving toward sending information to their contacts via e-mail, it is important that those contacts who have an e-mail address within PastPerfect can be separated from those who do not. You may create a list of contacts with email addresses within PastPerfect by setting up a User Defined List in Lists & Labels.

You can create this list by following these steps:
1) Click on the "Lists & Labels" button on the main menu of PastPerfect
2) Click on the first blank line with 0 records under User Defined Lists so that it is highlighted
3) Click the "Create or Modify User Defined List" button, located at the lower left side of the screen
4) Type in a list name, for example, Contacts with E-mail Addresses
5) Click your cursor into the "Enter Filter Statement for Adding Records" field
6) Please type in the filter statement: !empty(email)
7) Click the "Add matching records to list now" button
8) It will display a message indicating how many records are on the list. Click "Ok"
9) Click the "Exit" button

You now have a mailing list of all contacts who have information in the e-mail field within Contacts!

For additional information regarding the creation of Filter Statements for PastPerfect within Lists & Labels, please visit the Frequently Asked Questions (F.A.Q.s) portion of our website at http://www.museumsoftware.com/support/faq.htm. The information about Filter Statements may be found here under "Contact Management Questions".

If you have any questions when creating the above list, please contact our support office toll free, at 800-562-6080 or send an e-mail to support at support@museumsoftware.com.



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. Contact information

Address: 300 North Pottstown Pike, Suite 200 Exton, PA 19341
Website: http://www.MuseumSoftware.com
Sales & Product Info: 800-562-6080 or sales@museumsoftware.com
Support: 800-562-6080 or support@museumsoftware.com
Training: 800-562-6080 or training@museumsoftware.com
Data Conversions: 800-562-6080 or conversions@museumsoftware.com