Stonefield Query for AccountMate 7.0

We are pleased to announce the release of version 7.0 of Stonefield Query for AccountMate. There are lots of new features in this release.

• Multiple license types are now available. This allows you to decide what set of features you would like to have.

• You can now evenly spread the columns across the page in a quick report by turning on the Auto-fit to Page setting. This setting adds extra space between the columns so the fields take up the entire width of the page.

• You can now sort a cross-tab report by a data field. This can be used to, for example, show customer sales by country and product with the largest customers (by sales) at the top and smallest at the bottom.

• You can now specify the number of columns to display in a dashboard. If the total number of cells (rows multiplied by columns) is less than the number of reports, the reports are cycled through in sets at the specified interval. For example, if you specify two rows and two columns, only four reports can be displayed at a time, so if the dashboard contains six reports, the first four are displayed, then the next two, then the first four again. The interval is now in seconds rather than minutes. Also, you can now add more than 9 reports to a dashboard.

• You can now specify the minimum and maximum values for a gauge. The goal value is now optionally shown as a goal marker on the gauge.

• Fields containing HTML and rich text (RTF) content can now be displayed as formatted text.

• The performance of outputting a report with a large number of records (tens of thousands) to Microsoft Excel Data-Only (Fast) was greatly improved (90% faster) and produces smaller XLSX files.

• You can now format a field to display negative numbers in parentheses rather than with a minus sign (for example, (123.45) instead of -123.45).

• You can now specify the title settings for the right axis in a chart that has a field plotted on the right axis.

• You can now create a stacked chart when there is no series field but there is more than one value field.

• You can use the new built-in variable ChartTotal to display the total of a chart, such as in the title of the chart.

• A new type of formatting is available for date fields: Day, which displays Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, etc.

• When you compare a field to another field in the Filter Condition dialog, the drop-down list of fields to compare to now includes fields from other tables in the report, not just the ones from the selected table.

• You can now drill down from a report using an aggregate date (such as Month/Year) to one using a filter on a date range.

• You can no longer sort a chart by values if there's more than one values field or if there's a series field because the chart doesn't support sorting on more than one set of values so the sets don't match with the x-axis.

• The Select Values dialog, which appears when you click the Values button in the Filter Condition dialog or the Expression Builder, now has a Search option so you can search for values.

• The value for a filter condition can now be used in the custom description of the condition.

• The Preview window has new zoom levels: 1000%, 800%, and 500%.

• Expression builder buttons are now available for the header and footer of a report and for the subject and message of an email, making it easier to enter expressions for these things.

• The GetValueForField and GetValueForParameter functions now accept a parameter indicating which value for "is between" and "is one of" conditions is returned.

• You can no longer schedule a report to output to any Microsoft Excel format other than Microsoft Excel Data Only (Fast) or any Microsoft Word format because the other formats require running Excel or Word behind the scenes and they cannot be reliably run from a scheduled task as Microsoft themselves admit.

• The Format function can now use < and > as delimiters for placeholders in addition to { and }. This allows it to be used in expressions, which use { and } as the expression delimiters; for example, {Format('<0:c2>', MyValue)} works but {Format('{0:c2}', MyValue)} doesn't because of the confusion of the two uses of { and }.

• The default Add Missing Values setting for date fields in a chart is now turned off.

• You can now include commas in values passed to filter conditions in a parameters file by escaping them (prefixing them with a backslash); for example, <value value="My Company\, LLC"</value>.

• Cross-tab reports now use weighed averages rather than average of averages when Average is used for a data field.

Stonefield Query for AccountMate Version 6.1

We are pleased to announce the release of version 6.1 of Stonefield Query for AccountMate. There are lots of new features in this release.

• A new type of output is available for chart reports: Microsoft Excel - Chart, which outputs to an Excel chart rather than an Excel spreadsheet containing an image, which is what Microsoft Excel - Full Format does.

• The Find Reports by Name and Find Reports Using Field functions have been combined into a single Find Reports function in the Tools menu. The dialog displayed when you choose this function allows you to find all reports having a keyword in the name or comment, being last modified on or after a certain date, or containing a specified field.

• Many optional settings that had to be set by manually editing Data.ini are now maintained in the Options dialog.

• The new No Group Footer option for a grouped field specifies that you don't want a group footer for that field.

• You can now fine-tune label dimensions in step 5 of the Label Wizard.

• The new Add group to file name output option allows you to determine when the group name is added to the file name. This also allows you to do Microsoft Word Merge output to separate documents.

• You can now use HTML tags in the body of a email.

• You now only get a warning when a summary report containing ungrouped and unsummarized fields is previewed in the Quick Report Wizard, not when it's run any other time.

• You can now select Highest and Lowest for Summary of a non-numeric grouping formula. This makes it easy to find the oldest or earliest invoice date by customer, for example.

• There is better support for group recalculation formulas. You can now sort a report on such a formula. These formulas are now significantly faster than before, especially in summary reports. You can now use calculated fields in the numerator or denominator or for the grouping of these formulas.

• The new Create bookmarks on this field setting in the Group Header Band Properties dialog in the Advanced Report Designer does the same thing that setting does in the Field Properties dialog in the report wizard, but you can now control it for advanced layout reports.

• More complex SQL statements (those with more terms in parts of the statement) are now supported.

• The AfterData script of a report now has access to the result set for a cross-tab before it's pivoted. It also has access to the result set used for a chart in a quick or cross-tab report that includes a chart through the ChartResultSet variable.

• You now get a warning when creating a formula that does division that doesn't check if the denominator may be zero to avoid "division by zero" errors.

• Blank row fields now display "(None)" for the value in a cross-tab report.

• Bookmarks on grouped fields in summary report are now supported.

• The ask-at-runtime filter dialog now shows which condition of the total number of conditions you're currently on.

• The default setting for the Run report with no records option for new quick and cross-tab reports is now turned on. That means unless you turn it off, when you run a report that has no records matching the filter conditions, the report runs but displays a blank report.

• The Commonly used expressions list in the Expression Builder has new items for First Day of Last Year, Last Day of Last Year, and This Day Last Year.

• The Elegant template has better support for subreports.

• There are new templates: Elegant With Subreport Spaces and Elegant With Indented Group Headers.

• If a scheduled report can't be emailed, the error code is now -35 instead of the generic "some error occurred" -12.

Stonefield Query for AccountMate Version 5.0

Stonefield Software Inc. is pleased to announce the release of version 5.0 of Stonefield Query for AccountMate. This release has numerous new features.

• AccountMate Version 9.2 is now supported.
• Stonefield Query has a new report type: gauge report. This allows you to create a gauge showing the current value of something compared to a target or goal value.
• You can now create a "grouping" formula. A grouping formula is a powerful tool that allows you to create filtered summary values. For example, suppose you want columns in a report that show the sales for last year and the current year-to-date for each customer. Those aren't single values retrieved from the database. Instead, for the first column, use a grouping formula that sums up the sales records for each customer for last year, and use a similar one but for the current year for the second column.
• The Inventory Control Location Item Details table now also appears in the Purchase Orders module.
• The Inventory Items table now has a Total Quantity on Hand field that contains the total quantity on hand from all locations.
• The Inventory Shipments related tables no longer appear in the Order Entry or Purchase Orders modules to avoid confusion with the shipments tables already in those modules.
• You can now password protect the file created when a report is output to file or email.
• You can now print to Dymo LabelWriter labels.
• The Schedule Report function is now available only to advanced users.
• A new output type is now available: Microsoft Excel - Full Format (*.xlsx), which creates Excel 2007 or later files. The former Microsoft Excel (*.xls) output type was renamed to Microsoft Excel 97-2003 - Full Format (*.xls) so you can tell them apart. The new type does not require Microsoft Excel to be installed to create the file.
• The "red" error dialog that appears when something goes wrong now has a Help button that brings up the help with information about that dialog.
• The Locations page in the Options dialog is now available only to administrative users.
• The Subscription Expired dialog, which appears when you have subscription licenses and your subscription has expired, now has a "Don't remind me again" option; turn that option on to prevent the dialog from appearing again. Also, those licenses are now deactivated rather than being deleted, so if you renew your subscription, they are reactivated.

Stonefield Query for AccountMate Version 4.3

We are pleased to announce the release of version 4.3 of the Stonefield Query AccountMate. Here are the new features in this version.

• You can now create batch reports. A batch report automatically runs several reports, outputting each to the desired destination. This is handy if, for example, you normally run the same three reports at the end of every week. Rather than choosing them one at a time, you can create a batch report that combines those three reports and just run it. You can even schedule batch reports.
• You can now append the output of a report to an existing Microsoft Excel output file. In that case, the report appears in a new worksheet (tab) within the spreadsheet. This even works if the file is already open in Excel. You can also now choose XLSX or XLS as the extension for a Microsoft Excel output file.
• Turning on the new Start each group on a new page option for the first row field in a cross-tab report causes each group of records to appear on its own page. You can also now turn on the Output each group as a separate file and Output each group as a separate email settings so each group is output to its own file or email.
• The new Delimited - Microsoft Excel Format output type outputs to a comma-separated values (CSV) file but uses Excel formatting so things like leading zeros are preserved when the file is opened in Excel.
• Formulas are now stored in the same folder as reports (in a file named CalcFields.DBF) so if the program runs on a workstation but reports are shared on a server, so are the formulas. For backward compatibility, the program will still look for CalcFields in the Data subdirectory of the program folder so you won't lose your formulas, so this works better for new installations rather than existing ones.
• You can now enter a formatted SQL statement in the SQL Statement step of the Customize Report dialog. For example, carriage returns and tabs are now permitted. This makes it easier to take a SQL statement from another application and paste it into a report's SQL statement. Note that this change now requires you to prefix procedural code with "*-" if you want to use code rather than a SQL statement (a rare occurrence).
• Microsoft Excel full-format output works better now: the output has a single page header at the top of the document and a single page footer at the bottom rather than header/footer sections where the pages would normally break, and the use of empty columns and rows for positioning is minimized.
• Stonefield Query now handles font scripts other than Western, such as Cyrillic or Greek. You can select the desired script in the Font dialog that appears when you click the font button in the Field Properties dialog of a report wizard or in the Advanced Report Designer.
• Clicking the Add All or Remove All buttons in Step 2 of the report wizards now display a prompt asking you to confirm if you want to do that to prevent inadvertently adding all fields in a table to a report or removing all fields from a report.
• The application no longer erases the diagnostic log (Diagnostic.txt in the Data subdirectory of the program folder) if KeepLog=Y is in Data.INI. This is useful for checking diagnostics over multiple runs, such as for scheduled reports.
• You can now resize dashboard windows to a much smaller size than before.
• You can now edit a chart that's included in a quick report with an advanced layout. The Size page in Step 4 of the Chart Wizard is now disabled in that case, since you cannot change the chart size.
• You can now click the serial number in the About dialog (available from the Help menu) to copy your serial number to the clipboard. This makes it easier to enter the serial number when creating a ticket in our online support ticket system.

Stonefield Query for AccountMate SQL 4.2.4603

Version 4.2.4603 has several great new features.

• Stonefield Query now supports the new AccountMate 8.3 for SQL release.
• The new Auto-fit to page setting for quick reports automatically reduces the font when fields would normally be moved to a second row because there are too many to fit on one. This makes it possible for the fields to fit on a single row.
• The new Find Field button in step 2 of the report wizards makes it easier to find a field by part of the caption.
• Reports can be combined into a single PDF output by specifying the same file name for each report and turning on the new Append to existing file setting.
• The Dashboard window now supports outputting all charts to a single PDF file.
• You can now sort a chart by values rather than the default alphabetically by category by setting the Sort setting in the Field Properties dialog to Ascending or Descending Order.
• You can now define multi-line point labels for charts in Windows XP (it was only available in previous versions for Windows Vista and 7).
• You now get a warning if you copy an expression from the Expression Builder and paste it into a place where real table and field names are required, such as the expression for a formula or a field in the Advanced Report Designer. Previously, you would get an error when running the report.
• You can now define user group names up to 60 characters (the previous limit was 20).
• You can now define report names up to 100 characters (the previous limit was 60).
• You can now create an advanced layout report from a report with Summary turned on.