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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.

email 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

Software 4 Non-profitsDONATION 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 toolsDonor 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

St Vincent de PaulWe 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

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