What would you like to know more about?

11.0A Release

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

We recommend upgrading to PDS Ministry Scheduler 11.0A, released for desktop 11-17-22 and OnDemand 11-18-22, which offers the following enhancements.

New and Improved Features

Active/Inactive Minister Filter
  • The Ministers listing screen had options to view Active, Inactive, or Both types of records. But you could only use these on the listing screen. We moved the options onto the ribbon bar so you can also use them when scrolling through records in any other window. This way, you can quickly switch between the statuses and see at-a-glance which records you’re viewing.

    The Ministers section showing the options to view "Both", "Active", or "Inactive" at the top for use in all windows

Favorite Reports
  • Now there's an easy way to find all of your favorite reports... with the Favorite Reports feature! Right-click a report in the list, and click Add to Favorite Reports. This adds an asterisk (*) beside the report so it stands out in the list.

  • To quickly view all of your favorites, click Show Only * Favorite Reports at the top.

    The Reports list showing the option for "Show Only Favorite Reports" selected and only the favorite reports displayed in the list

Include Plain Text in PDF Emails
  • When you send an email as a PDF document attachment, you can include a plain text version of the letter in the email body. This allows recipients to view the email without having to open attachments.

    The Email Message window showing the option selected for "Include a Plain Text version of the letter in the Email Body" and an example of the email with the PDF attached

Improved Online Registration Form Processing
  • When processing an online form that matches a record in your database, any differences display in blue text. To filter out the information that's the same, click Show Only Differences. Also, any fields that are blank on both the registration form and the matching record will not display. This way, you can process forms more easily and focus on the information that matters most.

    Gif showing the online registration process with the new view options for "Show All" and "Show Only Differences"

Export Lists from Reports and Listing Screens
  • We added the ability to export listing reports as well as the items from listing screens. Click Export List at the bottom of any listing screen or the bottom of any listing report overview window, and you can save the file in a simple column format. The default file type is .csv, but you can export to .xml, .txt, .xls, or .ods, depending on how you want to use the file.

  • Note that advanced reports cannot be exported due to their complexity, so you won’t see the button on every report. However, you can save advanced reports directly to a file, where you have options for .xls and .txt. You may have to work with the alignment in the file to get the results you want.

Sort and Filter the Listing Screens
  • On all listing screens, you can now select a sort order and filter based on the column headers. Click the icon filter next to stacked up and down arrows beside the column header you want to sort by or filter.

    • To sort the list with this column in ascending or descending order, select an Order by option.
    • To filter the entire list and only show certain records, click the add icon green plus sign to enter one or more conditions. If you enter multiple conditions, it works like an OR statement. For example, the filter below would show all records with a city equal to Phoenix OR a city equal to Florence.

    Options window for the "City" column showing "Order by: Ascending" and filters for city "Equal to Phoenix, AZ" and city "Equal to Florence, SC"

  • When you order a column, the ascending icon up arrow or descending icon down arrow displays beside the column header. When you filter, the filter icon displays. If a column is both ordered and filtered, both icons display; for example, filter next to down arrow.

  • You can sort and filter multiple columns at the same time. But be aware that the options you select apply to columns from left to right. So, if the list is not sorting the way you expect, check the order of your columns.

  • Your sort and filter options are saved when you navigate away from the listing screen. When you come back, the list is still sorted/filtered the way you left it.

  • To clear the order or filter on a single column, click the column header and click Clear. To clear the options on all columns, click Clear Order/Filter at the top-left of the listing screen.

  • The ability to order and filter is enabled by default. If you decide you don't want to use this feature, you can disable it using the gear icon at the top-right of the listing screen.

Increased Performance
  • We updated some back-end database settings to increase your program's performance. If you've experienced memory errors with previous versions, this should help!

Settings Based on Users
  • After hearing your feedback, we changed the way some settings are saved on the backend. Some settings were being saved based on the computer you were using, but now, they're saved based on your PDS user login.

PDS Videos
  • Want to see how things are done in PDS? Now, you can learn how to do certain tasks with reports, records, files, and eGiving. Click the video player icon play button inside film strip at the top of your program for quick access to the PDS Video Library. We plan to provide more videos over time.

Corrections

We fixed issues that were reported to our team.