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11.0H Release

If you're part of the Preferred Client Program, you can download the latest desktop version in the Client Portal.

PDS Formation Office 11.0H, released for desktop 9-18-23 and OnDemand 9-19-23, offers the following enhancements.

New and Improved Features

Funeral Information
  • We added Funeral Date and Funeral Home fields that you can track in the student Sacraments window and in the Death Register. On a student's entry in the register, select Field View, and the new fields display on the Burial tab. Funeral information now prints in the Death Register report as well.

Improved Matching in Online Registration
  • The following improvements were made for processing online registration forms:
    • In addition to name and address, a family's phone numbers and email addresses are used to match them to a form.
    • Both head and spouse types are checked for a match, no matter which type they were entered as on the form.
    • Names with apostrophes are matched even if the record doesn't include it, and vice versa. For example, D'Souza is matched with Dsouza.
    • First names entered on the form with both first and middle names now match separate first and middle names on records. For example, Mary Sue is matched with Mary{Sue}.
    • Similarly, first names entered on records with both first and middle names now match only first names entered on the form. For example, Steven Johnson is matched with Johnson,Steven Mark.
Mark/Clear All Class Dates as Required
  • When adding class dates, you can now mark or clear the Attendance Required checkbox for all the dates in your list. For example, instead of selecting each checkbox individually, you could click Mark All Required if attendance is required for most of the class dates, then go back and clear the handful of dates that are not required.

  • Note that the checkbox will not be selected for dates the class will not meet.

    Class Date list showing the Mark All Required button and the Attendance Required checkbox marked for all class dates except the date the class will not meet

Review Your Selections
  • Report selections can be intimidating. Maybe you've tried adding complex additional selections in the past, but for some reason, certain records that you expected to display were not included in your report. Now, you can review your selections to find out why!

  • In the Selection window, click Review Selections. There are a lot of ways to view the information and get the answers you're looking for, so be sure to check out the help topic Review Report Matches to learn about all the options.

    Review Selections button opening the Review Matches dialog box, which shows the list of records that will be printed

Ms. & Mr. Titles
  • When a female member is the head of household, the title format now works the same as when a male is the head. In the Family Name dialog box, the head title automatically updates if you enter Mrs. or Ms. and the spouse has Mr. or Dr.. Likewise, reports show the appropriate format as Ms. & Mr., Mrs. & Mr., Mr. & Ms., Ms. & Dr., or Mrs. & Dr..

    Family Name dialog box showing the title as MS./M with the female head of household and male spouse

  • You can select whether to show the Head First Name Only (the way it has always worked) or Both Head and Spouse First Names. To change these, click the gear icon black gear with hole in the middle on the family record, and select Family Name Options.

    Family Name Options showing the option for Both Head and Spouse First Names selected and the Family Name dialog box showing Ms. & Mr. Mary & John Baxter

Warning when Changing Class/Session Names
  • We've heard that some people accidentally change the name of a class/session when they're trying to search for a record. To help with this, we've added the ability to show a warning message. This ensures you don't make an unintended change to class/session names.

  • If this sounds like something that could help you, you can enable the option to show the warning message. Go to File > Setup > Initial Setup, and on the Program Options tab, select Warn if Change Class/Session Name. After that, a warning message displays anytime a class/session name is edited. You can confirm that you want to keep the change or revert to the previous name if it was a mistake.
Improved Data Cleanup
  • We expanded the Clean Up Data process with more options for data efficiency! The first window, which is brand new, displays all the numbers of families and members in your program(s). This ensures you have all the correct numbers before cleaning up your records.

  • Now, you can clean up duplicate sacrament places as part of this process. (This is the same as the duplicate place cleanup under Sacrament Setup.) You can also print a worksheet for this section, which is helpful if you have a lot of places to review, and you can combine sacrament places with the information you selected, which takes effect immediately.

  • On the Phone Type List, you can see how many and which phone numbers have an invalid format. For example, it shows phone numbers that have missing or extra parentheses and other characters that don't belong. You can correct these by clicking Fix Invalid Phones.

  • There's a new window at the end where you can choose how to map your Sacrament Sponsor Types.

Corrections

We fixed issues that were reported internally to our team, as well as the following issues that affected some of our customers:
  • When pulling in online registration forms, duplicate records were being added if the family had archived members and/or members with middle names.
  • Sometimes, when moving from the Student Personal window to Student Detail, the record of a different family member displayed instead of the student.
  • When cleaning up your data, if you assigned member phones then updated phone types right after that, the list of phone types was being removed.