Forge Ahead New Procedures for Version 4.1

This documentation outlines the new and improved procedures of this newest release. Use this documentation along with your Forge Ahead User Manual to move through the software.

The Schedule

The new schedule interface includes "drag and drop" functionality, making it easy to move and add appointments. The schedule is accessed by clicking the Schedule button on the Main Switchboard.

When first opened, the schedule displays the current week. To move to a different week:

  • Click the Next Week or Previous Week buttons to move forward or back one week at a time.
  • Double-click in the Week of field at the top. This opens a calendar where you can select a date.
  • Type the desired date in the Week of field at the top and press the Enter key.
  • Use the + weeks drop-down list to select a number of weeks to jump forward.

In the lower right, you can change your schedule view by clicking the "Monthly View" button. This will display a complete month, but is for viewing only; you must return to the Weekly View to change appointments. When in Monthly View, you can double-click any day to see a complete list of appointments for that day.

Adding an Appointment

Appointments can be scheduled in 30 minute increments from 6:00AM until 9:00PM, seven days a week.

To add an appointment:

  1. Navigate to the week where the appointment will be booked.
  2. Position your mouse on the desired row, underneath the desired start time for the new appointment.
  3. Click and hold the left mouse button, then drag to the right to the desired end time.
  4. When the appointment is correctly sized and positioned, release the mouse button. The Appointment form will appear.
  5. The date, start and end time will already be filled in for you, though you can change these in this form if necessary.
  6. Select the contact for the appointment using the "Location" drop-down list at the top.
  7. Optionally, add a note in the Appt. Note box.
  8. Optionally, list specific horses to be worked during the appointment in the lower half of the form. (See Forge Ahead User Manual for more details.)
  9. Optionally, click the Replicate this Appointment button at the bottom to automatically repeat this appointment at regular intervals into the future. (See Forge Ahead User Manual for more details.)
  10. Click the OK button when finished.

Each appointment will be displayed in a blue color bar on the schedule (tentative appointments are displayed in a gray bar). Within the bar, the first line displays the contact or location of the appointment. The second line displays the city and state of the contact (if available). The third line displays the start and end time for easy reference.

Note: You can change the information that appears in the appointment bars to meet your needs. See the Setting Schedule Options section below.

Tip: To block out time as unavailable, create an appointment for the unavailable time. Select your business name as the location for the appointment, and optionally enter a descriptive note such as "Doctor's appt" or "Vacation".

Moving an Appointment

"Drag and Drop" makes it easy to move appointments around. You can drag an appointment horizontally to different times, or vertically to different days. Simply position the mouse over the center of the appointment to be moved, click and hold the left mouse button while dragging the appointment bar to its new spot, and then release the mouse button.

You can also make an appointment shorter or longer by positioning the mouse pointer over the left or right edge of an appointment bar. The mouse pointer will become a line with an arrow at each end. Click and hold the left mouse button while dragging to the desired start or end time, then release the mouse button.

Tip: If you need to move an appointment but cannot drag and drop because the new location is not currently visible on the schedule, use the Appointment form: Double-click the appointment bar, then change the date or time as desired.

Working with Appointment Details

Double-click on any appointment bar to open the Appointment form. Here you can review any notes and / or horses scheduled, get phone numbers and directions, replicate the appointment, or delete the appointment.

The appointment date, start and end time can be changed in the appointment form instead of through drag and drop, if desired.

Deleting an Appointment

To delete an appointment, double-click on the color bar of the appointment to be deleted. This opens the Appointment form, where you simply click the "Delete Appointment" button in the lower left.

Setting Schedule Options

By working with the schedule options, you can control which information is displayed in the appointment bars, as well as the Start and End time for the schedule grid.

To change schedule options:

  1. From the Schedule form, click the Options... button.
  2. Follow the instructions in the upper section of the form ("Format Appointment Bar") to place the desired information into the three lines that will display on the appointment bar.
  3. Check the blue sample appointment bar to review your selections.
  4. If desired, change the Schedule Start Time and Schedule End Time settings in the lower section of the form.
  5. Click the Close button when finished to save the selected settings.

Note: The Schedule Start and End Times control the times displayed on the schedule grid. If you only want to create appointments between 8:00AM and 6:00PM, select those options. The schedule grid will be limited to those times, unless the date(s) currently displayed include appointments that fall outside that range. In that case, the schedule will expand to display all appointments.

Including Additional Horse History in Appointments

When listing horses to be worked in an appointment, Forge Ahead has always provided a list of "Last Services" that included what was done to the horse at the last visit. Version 4.1 provides an additional field "# Visits" that allows you to go farther back in the horse's history:

  • For any individual horse in an appointment, replace the '1' in the # Visits field with the number of visits to include in the history. If you enter '2', the Last Visits box will display information from the last 2 times the horse was worked.
  • You can also change the default value for "# visits" by double-clicking the "# Visits" field. If you will always (or almost always) want to see information from the last 3 visits, for example, change the default to '3'.

Sending Invoices and Other Reports through Email

When previewing any report, there is a new button on the toolbar marked "Email This". When clicked, an email message is created and the report is included in the email as an attachment. The message will appear and can be edited before being sent if desired.

If the document is an Invoice or Account History report, the system will see if the contact has an email address in their contact record, and will insert it in the message. The body of the message will contain a summary of the invoice / account history, but will not include specifics.

The document attached to the email is in a .snp (Snapshot) format, developed by Microsoft for the purpose of exporting Access reports. For your contacts to view the report sent to them by email, they will need to install the Snapshot Viewer, a free tool developed by Microsoft which allows you to view (or print) the Snapshot file. Each email message generated by Forge Ahead to send a report via email includes instructions at the bottom of the message on how to download the Snapshot Viewer from Microsoft. The Snapshot Viewer only has to be installed once in order to view Snapshot files.

NOTE: All reports converted to Snapshot files will appear identical to their appearance in Forge Ahead, with two exceptions:

  • The Account Summary section of an invoice (if turned on) will not appear in the Snapshot format. If you are previewing an invoice with an Account Summary section, and you use the Email button, the snapshot attachment will be created and can be sent, but the account summary section will not be included.
  • The Snapshot format does not handle graphic files. If you have a logo file in your Forge Ahead letterhead, the logo will not appear in the Snapshot report.

To Send an Invoice or Other Report Via Email:

  1. Use Forge Ahead to preview the document you want to send through email. (Preview displays the document on the screen just as it will look when printed.)
  2. Click the Email This button on the toolbar at the top of the Preview window. An email message will appear, and should have the Subject line and message text (body) filled in, and will include the report as an attached Snapshot (.snp) file. In addition, if you are sending an Invoice or Account History report, and the customer has an email address stored in their contact record, the "To" field will contain their email address.
  3. Edit the "To:" and "Subject:" fields if necessary.
  4. Edit the message text if desired.
  5. Click the Send button in the email message window to send the message.

    6. NOTE: You must be connected to the internet before clicking the Send button.

    NOTE: If you don't want to send the message, close the message window by clicking the "X" button in the upper-right corner.

Troubleshooting Email Functionality

The ability to send and receive email through your PC is managed by an email program that is seperate from Forge Ahead. There are many email programs available, and not all will respond as desired when activated by Forge Ahead. Depending on your email program and your Internet Service Provider (ISP), using Forge Ahead's email functions successfully may require some adjustments to your system.

If the Body of the Message is Blank:

When sending a Forge Ahead report via email, the body of the message should automatically be filled in with a summary of the document being sent and instructions to the recipient for viewing the attached report.

If Forge Ahead creates an email message but the body text area is blank, it is likely that your email program won't allow Forge Ahead to insert text into the message. In that case, follow these steps after the email message is generated by Forge Ahead:

  1. Right-click in the body area of the email message window. A pop-up menu will appear.
  2. Left-click on Paste in the pop-up menu.
This will insert the text generated by Forge Ahead into the message. You may edit the message before sending it, if desired.

If You Cannot Send an Email Message from Forge Ahead:

If you have tried to send an email generated by Forge Ahead and are receiving an error message, check the following:

  1. Verify that you have a working internet connection and can send and receive email messages (outside of Forge Ahead).
  2. Verify that you are connected to the internet before clicking the "Send" button on an email message generated by Forge Ahead.
If you are still having trouble, it is likely because your email program is not MAPI-compliant. MAPI (Mail Applications Program Interface) is a protocol that allows programs to "talk to" and instruct your email program.

Forge Ahead's email features will not work with email programs that are not MAPI-compliant. Examples of popular email programs that are MAPI-compliant include, but are not limited to, Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft Outlook Express, Microsoft Mail, Eudora, and AOL versions 7.0 and up.

AOL Users

If you use AOL version 7.0 or higher, but cannot send an email generated by Forge Ahead, it is likely because AOL is not set as your default email program. To make AOL your default email program:

  1. Sign-on to AOL.
  2. Click the Keyword button.
  3. In the resulting "Keyword" dialog box, type Preferences into the text box, then click the Go button.
  4. In the resulting "Preferences" dialog box, click on the Association link to select "America Online" as your preferred application for web browsing, email, and newsgroups.
  5. In the resulting "Associations Preferences" dialog box, click the OK button.
  6. AOL will now be your default program for email, web browsing, and accessing newsgroups.