11.1D Release
If you're part of the Preferred Client Program, you can download the latest desktop version in the Client Portal.
PDS Formation Office 11.1D, released for desktop and OnDemand 4-11-24, offers the following enhancements.
New and Improved Features
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When adding a family, you can now enter the maiden name for the head or spouse.
- When you change your address format, you now have the option to add or remove periods in abbreviations. If you abbreviate street directions (like "North") and/or street extensions (like "Street"), you can add periods (so it shows "N." and "St.") or remove periods (so it shows "N" and "St").
- Have you ever found yourself in a situation where you realize the wrong place of sacrament was used on records in your Sacramental Registers? For example, a bunch of records for your parishioners showed the Faith Lutheran Church in New Jersey instead of the one by the same name in your state of Illinois.
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Now, using the Replace Sacrament Place process, you can quickly replace the incorrect Sacrament Place with the right one. After the process completes, you can print a summary and list of the changes made.
Attention: This process replaces every instance of the selected place in all your registers, so be careful to only use this when all instances should be replaced. And, it only changes the place in the Sacramental Registers and does not affect your student sacrament records.
- At the end of the New Year Fund process, you're prompted to print a summary of what was processed. Now, you also have the option to print a list of families that were processed. You can print this in addition to or instead of the summary report, depending on your needs.
- We created a new Tuition & Fees listing report called Online Giving by Date. This report is handy for working with Abundant transactions since it only prints those marked with "Online" in the Check number field. Amounts are grouped by gift date and then sorted by family name. A summary displays the total amounts for each gift date.
- We improved the Fast option in the Payment/Donation Entry so it processes your entries quicker. We also added a Search button so you can quickly locate a family or member to use.
- Printing or emailing a lot of letters with large images can strain your network and may cause recipients' email providers to reject your message. To help prevent this, the program now warns you when a letter is too large.
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We recommend reducing image sizes before printing/emailing the letter. To do this, click Yes on the prompt to go back to the Letter Layout window, then click Edit Style. Right-click the image, and select the Reduce the resolution... option. This reduces the image size by 75% and usually does not affect the visual quality. You can repeat this to reduce the size as much as needed. Once the size is small enough, you can print/email your letter!
- Our team created several videos that go over the basics of working in Formation Office. Topics include a new user introduction, managing families, editing records, and searching/navigating records. Check out Videos for New Users if you're new to the program or if you need a refresher! The link to this page is available on the New User Checklist in PDS.
Here's a sneak peek of the New User Introduction:
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You can see our entire PDS Video Library by clicking the
icon in your program.