Possible Improvements

[Mark Meriaux]

I've already sent these two requests in to Moraware support, but in an effort to get them possibly implemented, I thought I would post here for others to consider. How important would either of these improvements be for you and your shop?

1) Print to PDF directly from Moraware
PDFs are a nice file format, in that they are easily sent and easily read by virtually anyone, and (big reason) they are NOT editable. Currently, we can send a customer a .DOC form, which opens the possibility for a customer to alter the pricing/wording (we use these as our base contract). Alternately, we create a .DOC, then open and re-create as a PDF before sending (another step).

2) Ability to create re-useable notes to drop into quotes. I currently manually add text fields for notes with a quote. Some of these note fields are re-typed on many (but not every) quote. Phrases like "Sink(s) to be Furnished by Others (FBO)", or "No granite backsplash" are used to help clarify our quotes as to what is (or is not) included. With 10 different salespeople doing quotes, having a more standardized set of notes would help us to keep our communications more alike.

I tried to create a set of "products" to use for these types of notes, but products have too many other fields attached to them (units, price, etc). It proved too confusing for me. If someone else has this figured out, please let me know.

Any other ideas?

[Dan Dauchess]

1) Print to PDF directly from Moraware
PDFs are a nice file format, in that they are easily sent and easily read by virtually anyone, and (big reason) they are NOT editable. Currently, we can send a customer a .DOC form, which opens the possibility for a customer to alter the pricing/wording (we use these as our base contract). Alternately, we create a .DOC, then open and re-create as a PDF before sending (another step).

We are printing the quotes directly to PDF using acrobat as a printer. Would that work for you?

[DavidL]

Mark - I'll check at the office tomorrow but I have a print driver called "PDF Creator" I think thats the name. This driver creates pdf for you as you choose it as the printer. I use it for everything - word, autocad, quickbooks, etc.

[harry @ moraware]

I use http://www.nitroreader.com/ to print to pdf - it's free, and seems to work well.

Any other suggestions, and I'll update our help article, here: http://www.moraware.com/help/x/E4AP

Thanks!

[Mark Meriaux]

I can make a PDF, that's not a problem.
FWIW, my personal favorite (and free) PDF creation program is PDF reDirect:
http://www.exp-systems.com/
You can merge multiple docs/pages and even existing PDFs as well as printing from any Windows program.

My difficulty in Moraware is the "extra" step. To print a quote, my only options are HTML, .DOC, or .XLS file formats. The HTML has formatting problems - when the quote body section gets long, page one is only the header, then a large blank, then the line items start on page 2. I typically use .DOC format, then open in Word to check the formatting, THEN print as a PDF. It's just cumbersome. I never use the .XLS output for quotes.

While we're on that subject, is there a reason that I can't print/export reports into .XLS?
We are doing a lot with lead management and tracking. We'd like to extract more detailed information from Moraware for further analysis.

[harry @ moraware]

Thanks, Mark - getting specific details, like you gave, really helps. I've updated our wish list.

For putting reports into excel, it's probably best to either copy & paste or do a "web query" from excel. Here's a little more info: http://www.moraware.com/help/x/8IAJ

Also, we're going to be showing something new at StonExpo, so if you're going to be there, stop by our booth.

[ronald hannah]

Accounting Interface?

[harry @ moraware]

Funny, Ron. Old jokes never die!

Here's a teaser to whet your appetite:
http://www.moraware.com/2012/01/12/comi ... -software/

[Mark Meriaux]

Here's a teaser to whet your appetite:
http://www.moraware.com/2012/01/12/comi ... -software/

Nice Harry! I'm signed up for the Early Access list.