PerfectTablePlan
newsletter 27
PerfectTablePlan
v4.1.1 now available
PerfectTablePlan v4.1.1 is now available. It
contains 13 bug fixes, including fixes for:
- a search problem in Guests/Groups/Schematic pane
- an export image crash
- a PDF export scaling problem
- a CSV export problem
- dragging contacts from Apple AddressBook in Mac
OS X 10.5 and 10.6
To find out more details and download the new
version go
to the v4.1.1 page.
Currently
v4.1.1 is only being released to newsletter subscribers. We expect to
make it more generally available within a couple of weeks, depending on
feedback we receive. As always, please
report
any bugs or problems.
We are now starting work on a range of
improvements and new features for PerfectTablePlan v4.2.
Localising
PerfectTablePlan into other languages
Currently PerfectTablePlan is only available in
English. We receive frequent requests to produce versions of
PerfectTablePlan in German, French, Spanish and other languages. We
would love to localise PerfectTablePlan into other languages, but there
are a lot of issues to contend with:
- Translating the user interface (which can cause
layout issues, as different languages have different word lengths).
- Translating the web site.
- Translating the documentation (approximately
200 pages).
- Updating the translations every time we change
anything.
- Handling support emails in each language.
It isn't trivial. However we have made some steps
towards localisation, including:
- PerfectTablePlan is fully Unicode
enabled, so it can handle non-English character sets.
- We use locale specific sorting (different
languages do alphabetic sorting in different orders).
- You can change titles to locale specific ones
in the Titles
tab of the Preferences
window.
- You can use the Terms tab in the Preferences window
to change text inside printable panes. e.g. to another
language.
As a next step we would like to ship
PerfectTablePlan with standard sets of titles and terms for some of the
major languages. We are hoping you can help us. If you translate most
of the terms in the Terms
tab an Email us your
translation button will appear. Please click it to send us
your translation.
Integrating
PerfectTablePlan with donor management
If you use PerfectTablePlan for fundraising
dinners you might be interested to know that there are complementary tools
for managing donors.
DONATION
DONATION
is Windows software that allows you to easily track your
organization's donors and donations, and issue charitable receipts. The
standard version is $80 for the first year and there is also a free
lite version. There are over 4,000 registered DONATION users in
churches
and charities, mostly in the USA and Canada.
Find out more at http://www.software4nonprofits.com
.
Donor Tools
Donor
Tools is a web-based donor management software for charities,
churches,
and non-profit organizations. It costs from free to $2500 per
year, depending on the version you choose. It supports unlimited users,
unlimited donations, multiple names, donation splits, online donations,
Quickbooks integration and more.
Find out more at http://www.donortools.com
.
Which tool is best for you depends on your particular requirements.
However both can export lists of donors as CSV files, which
PerfectTablePlan can import to create a guest list for your
event.
PerfectTablePlan used
for largest ever fundraiser in Arizona
We
were delighted to receive this email recently from Jim Beattie of the Saint Vincent de Paul Society
in Arizona:
"We just finished putting on a charity breakfast
for the Saint Vincent de Paul Society of Phoenix, Arizona. To
the best of our knowledge, it was the single largest charity event of
its kind in Arizona history. We did arranged seating for 2600
people at 250 tables located in two ballrooms at the Arizona Biltmore
in Phoenix. (And when I say ‘arranged’, I
mean that each person was placed at a specific table before the event.)
The general consensus of our staff is that we
could not have done it without PerfectTablePlan. I would be
hard pressed to say which of the features was the most important - from
the ability to import guest information via spreadsheet, the drag
& drop table assignment or the ability to print out
the final arrangements for registration - at each step of the process,
PerfectTablePlan met our needs.
Particularly useful in the initial assignment
stage was the ability to display the floor plan with
unassigned seats highlighted. Believe me, when working with the numbers
we were, the ability to get a quick overview of those tables with one
or two seats available was a big plus.
We got a great deal of very positive feedback from
the attendees in regards to not only the breakfast itself, but also to
the speed of registration, the seating etc., and a number of the guests
expressed surprise that we could pull off assigned seating for a crowd
this size. From a software standpoint, I want to mention that we were
impressed at how stable PerfectTablePlan ran. At no point did
it ever lock up or crash.
Because we are already anticipating a larger event
next year, there is one change we are making - we will be upgrading
from PerfectTablePlan Home to PerfectTablePlan Professional as that has
several significant features that will help us streamline our process.
Thanks again for a great product."
Jim Beattie
Development Department
Saint Vincent de Paul Society
Phoenix, Arizona
Andy Brice
Oryx Digital Ltd
08-Dec-2009
|