Office Tools Professional - Support

"No Disk" Error while using the QuickBooks Sync Utility

2012-09-20T18:04:08Z

There are many causes of the 'No Disk' error while attempting to use the QuickBooks Sync Utility.

Here is the list of common causes (and solutions) to this problem:

Windows start menu's 'Recent Items' contains files that no longer exist

- Click Start à Control Panel à Task Bar & Start Menu à Start Menu Tab à Customize à Clear List

You have Windows XP SP2 or SP3 installed

- Remove any Microsoft Updates with the the following KB Article numbers:

- - KB925902
- - KB931261
- - KB930178
- - KB931784
- - KB932168

You have the Reader_sl service running

- Start à Run à 'msconfig' à Services à Disable the 'Reader_sl' service

You have a floppy disc drive that is failing

- Disable that drive from within the Computer's BIOS settings

You have a blank floppy disc, USB drive, flash memory, memory card, or external hard drive inserted

- Turn off Indexing on those drives / cards

You have a 'RealTek' audio device

- Multiple Microsoft updates conflict with this device. There is no resolution

You have older Symantec software installed

- Uninstall the old version and update to a more recent one

You have multiple USB peripherals installed

- Uninstall and reinstall all USB peripheral hardware & software

You have Multiple Hard Drives / Card readers

- Remove all hard drives / card readers OTHER THAN the primary. Boot up the computer into windows, then shut the computer down and re-install all the secondary drives / readers

Some Info about Small Business Server

2012-08-20T19:58:32Z

If you are utilizing a Microsoft Small Business Server (SBS) server, then it is most likely already running at it's limit. Microsoft developed SBS for small businesses, so they would not have to purchase 3 different licenses and 3 different servers to run the essential pieces of software for a small business. The problem is that the software that they bundled together was actually intended to be separated out on their own machines.

Microsoft's design was that each network would have 1 dedicated Domain Controller, 1 dedicated Exchange server, and 1 dedicated file server (and 1 dedicated Terminal Server). By combining them into one machine, they are saving you a lot of money, but they are pushing that server to the limit of what it can do.

If you have the Office Tools database installed on an SBS server, the most performance minded thing you could do would be to move the database onto another machine. A basic workstation with 2GB of RAM and a 2GHZ dual core processor would be a much better candidate for the Office Tools database than even the best SBS servers out there.

Here is a perfect example:

Here is an older Core 2 Quad workstation with Server 2008 R2 x64 installed and 8GB of RAM. It has 25 concurrently logged in and active users using the software all day, and and experiences very minimal delays.

If you look at the image below, you will notice that sqlservr.exe takes up nearly 1.5GB of RAM. This is optimal... for performance you want to give sqlservr.exe as much memory as possible to cache query results and common execution plans (technical speak for 'commonly used data').

If you install it on a box that is running other software, it will not have the resources it needs to fully cache its data, therefore it is forced to read/write it to disc (drastically reducing performance).

In some cases, a lack of system memory will prevent workstations from being able to connect to the server for Practice Management.

You do not need a top-of-the-line machine to work as a server, just a box that is completely dedicated to OTP and has enough RAM for sqlservr.exe to cache results. If you choose invest in a machine that is solely dedicated to running the Practice Management server, the performance and stability increase will be well worth the money.

How To Check Your Current Application Version & Automatically Update

2012-03-06T00:20:47Z

To check to see which version of Practice Management you are currently using:

Go to 'Help'-> 'About'

Then look for the 'Application Version'

To Manually check for Updates you can go to 'Help' -> 'Check for Updates on the Web'

To Setup Automatic Updates:

Go to 'Setup' -> 'My Settings' and change the update option.

If you want to simply be notified when an update is available, use the 'Notify Me' option. If you want to have the program download and install the update automatically, select the 'Automatically Update' option. If you do not want any sort of notification, use the 'Do Nothing' option.

Practice Management freezes when trying to log in

2012-01-12T18:21:39Z

Under some circumstances, an out-of-date video card driver can sometimes prevent users from logging into Practice Management. If you are experiencing issues such as this, please look at the Symptoms section to see if this applies to you, and the Resolution section to find the solution.

Symptoms:

If you encounter an error during login that says "Practice Management has Stopped Working"
If you get the prompt that asks you to "Select a server path from the field that follows" and you have the correct information within that field, and it continues to loop on itself asking you for that server path. (This assumes that the server is setup correctly and other workstations can connect without issue.)

Cause:

Practice Management uses the most up-to-date DirectX technology and if the drivers are out of date it could cause issues resulting in the inability to log into the program.

Resolution:

Download and install the latest up-to-date drivers for your specific video card.

To locate which video card you are using, do the following:

Start by clicking the Start button -> Control Panel -> System -> Device Manager -> Display adapters. This form should show the name of your current video card. You will need to navigate to the website of your video card manufacturer and look for the updated drivers. Once they are downloaded run them to install. If it prompts you for a restart select yes.

Event Manager / Messaging with IPv6

2011-11-29T00:39:53Z

If you are tech savvy and follow any of the IT news feeds, you would have heard last year that the internet was running out of Address space. To remedy this, they implemented Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) in a wide range of operating systems, such as Windows Vista/7 and Windows Server 2008.

The Event Manager and Office Tools Professional both support IPv4 and IPv6. The problem is that if you have a network that has Windows XP (or older) operating systems combined with newer ones, you could experience an issue where the Inter-Office Messenger portion of the Event Manager does not function properly.

For example: Employee A is on a Windows 7 machine (using IPv6 rather than IPv4) and wants to send Employee B (who is on a Windows XP) a message, Employee B will receive your message, but Employee A will not receive any messages Employee B sends back.

The reason for this is because the Windows 7 machine knows BOTH the IPv6 AND IPv4 protocols, and doesn't much care which one it uses. But since Windows XP only knows IPv4, it does not know what to do when it tries to send a message to an IPv6 address, resulting in a message that has no destination.

One thing you can do if you have a network with Windows XP and Windows Vista / 7 / Server 2008 is have your IT person or Network Administrator force each machine to use IPv4. The Microsoft Knowledge Base article outlining this can be found here (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929852).

Backup Utility & Processor Usage

2011-07-19T19:10:23Z

If you have the Office Tools Backup Utility installed and configured on your server, and you notice that the Office_Tools_Database_Backup service is taking up large quantities of processor usage for long periods of time, please download and install the latest version of the utility from this link. The download was updated on 7/19/2011. This update fixes an issue where the service could get caught in a loop if the database backup routine failed at a certain point.

Please be sure to uninstall the existing backup utility before installing this update (Add/Remove Programs in XP, Server 2003, Program & Features in Vista, 7, Server 2008)

Display Issues - Activity List does not show

2011-06-08T21:36:50Z

The latest version of Practice Management uses advanced DirectX based graphics rendering techniques that make use of hardware-accelerated rendering pipelines. Thanks to this technique, we are able to provide our users with a much higher quality and more responsive interface than what was previously possible.

The down side to this technique is that it is more dependent upon the hardware drivers than the old software rendering techniques. This means that faulty or outdated display drivers or under-performing video cards can cause unwanted drawing artifacts to show on the screen.

Below is a list of Symptoms, followed by a list of resolutions. Please read each one thoroughly:

Symptoms

a window fails to refresh when interacted with
a window contains distorted and/or corrupted visual objects (buttons, text, etc)
a window or screen flickers (on Windows Vista)
a blue screen crash occurs (on Windows XP)
a Timeout Detection and Recovery window occurs
a window (such as the activity list) is transparent
a window (such as the activity list) is solid black

Resolutions

Install the most recent version of the .NET Framework. (available from here). Also use Windows Update to ensure you have the latest Service Packs available for your operating system
Download and install the latest drivers for your graphics cards. Depending on the brand of your card, you may be able to get the drivers from ATI or NVidia. You will also want to make sure your system's BIOS is up to date. To obtain the latest BIOS for your system, please see the website for your system's manufacturer
Disable the Hardware Acceleration on your video card. This can be done from the 'Display Settings/Advanced Settings/Troubleshoot' section of windows

Update to Letterhead Format

2011-02-16T00:38:02Z

In order to bring you and your clients the highest quality invoices possible, we have updated the letterhead system to bring you the highest quality image possible.

As of the 2011.051, the Letterhead will have a new set of requirements.

For the Highest Quality letterhead possible, your Letterhead image will need to be:

7.40" wide x 2.00" tall
300 DPI
CMYK 8-bit
JPEG or TIFF format

We have removed support for PNG files, because PNG is a web-image format and only supports 72 DPI. When printing with High-Quality Laser printers, we do not recommend anything lower than 300 DPI.

Also, as of the 2011.051 update, the letterhead height and width will be fixed at 7.40" x 2.00". We are enforcing this size requirement because it allows for the best fit for the standard windowed envelopes.

Click Here to download blank Letterhead templates in five of the most common formats (JPEG, PDF, AI, EPS, and PSD).

Issues using Outlook with Office Tools

2011-01-12T19:48:48Z

Beginning in Outlook 2007, Microsoft included a new feature that is designed to help protect your personal information from potential viruses on your computer. This new feature is called the 'Trust Center'.

If you have Outlook 2007 or 2010, you MUST have a valid antivirus suite installed and enabled on your machine, or else Outlook will deny access to all programs attempting to access its information, whether the program is legitimate or not.

To check and see if your antivirus is registered with Outlook, follow these steps:

Outlook 2007:

1. Select the 'Trust Center' option from the 'Tools Menu'

2. Select 'Programmatic Access' from the list on the left and search for 'Antivirus Status' on the right pane

Outlook 2010:

1. Open the 'Options' screen by clicking File --> Options

2. Select the 'Trust Center' option on the left tab, then click 'Trust Center Settings'.

3. Select 'Programmatic Access' from the list on the left. Look for the 'Antivirus Status' field on the right.

If you see 'Valid' next to Antivirus status, then you are ready to go. If it does not say valid, then you need to contact your system administrator / IT consultant about acquiring a valid antivirus suite.

NOTE: If you are using Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2008, or Windows Server 2008 R2, you will not be able to obtain a 'Valid' status. Windows Server operating systems do not support antivirus detection, so most integrations with Outlook will not work on these operating system.

Change The Way We Communicate

2010-11-05T17:13:43Z

Recently my wife and I became "empty nesters" and I have been reflecting on some of the neat things my kids brought into our home besides their youthful exuberance. A couple of things that they forced into our homes were MP3's and iTunes, the Social Media craze and phone texting. With some reluctance I accepted these and now many years later I gladly embrace them. My wife connects with my sons overseas through Facebook regularly, we have our iPod piped into our sound system in the TV room and I text daily with my daughter. Now the benefits are obvious from a personal perspective, but what about in a business environment.

Texting, email and chatting have become common place at our offices. I am really pondering the use or restrictions of these communications in my office. I think for some, it has begun to affect productivity. How can I chat with staff and keep them from abusing this privilege? We liked the internet chat options, but weren't satisfied since it did not track history and was open to the internet. Nothing existed on the market so our development department at Office Tools Professional came up with the office messenger. It allows myself and staff interaction without opening another chat system that uses the internet. This way we can cut out unnecessary personal chatting and still have a connection inside the office. It also provides a very secure way to communicate.

Here are some guidelines when using interoffice chat.

- Don't use internet messengers

- Use a firewall to restrict use

- Pick a messenger that keeps history

- Don't use email for messaging

- Use texting for those out of the office.

Reporting: Beyond the Numbers

2010-10-04T17:15:39Z

Numbers Shnumbers! What do they really mean? Sometimes I get caught up in the analysis of reports but fail to implement any change. I know what needs to be said, but am afraid of the possibility of a negative outcome. The real purpose for these reports is to give us the courage to make something actionable. In other words, let the numbers do the work and help us communicate change to our staff. I have come up with some things to consider before you have the "much feared" meeting with your staff.

Pick reports that can show the big picture as well as the details.
The numbers should provide you with actionable items for improving your business.
Make sure your review is inclusive of all areas of your business. This should include clients, staff and workflow.
Remember these are just reports. Sharpen your management skills. Take a refresher course if necessary.
Don't pick on just one person. Speak to your team in groups. If one person needs to be singled out do it in private or with one other staff.
Encourage input from staff. Build your team by allowing ownership of ideas and collaborative implementation.
Be sure the change you want to see is possible; arm your staff with new technology, resources and ideas to make the vision a reality.
Create rewards for changes that work.

Integrate Now

2010-09-03T17:17:26Z

It's amazing how long it has taken to get real software data integration. For years we have been hearing the promises of software vendors to integrate with each other to eliminate double data entry. Yet those of us in small firms are still facing this duplication dilemma This is proof that data integration is not just a luxury, it's a necessity.

Small firms no longer have to wait for vendors to work together or sit by and watch enterprise firms use clever software which we could not use due to complexities and costs. Now is the time to consider application data integration.

When choosing applications look at two factors:

What does it integrate with?
Does it integrate within?

Does the software you are thinking about buying have integrations with other applications? Does it have plans to build more integration? This is a key question. The other question to ask is, does it work easily with all the features as a set? If the program requires multiple modules or separate applications to get everything done, then it's missing the mark. Software today should provide a simple, seamless experience between a variety of applications.

Not sure if you are a SQL or Access user?

2009-12-11T17:58:48Z

If you are unsure if you are an Access or a SQL user of Office Tools Professional, there are several ways to determine which you are.

Which of the following images looks like your version of Office Tools Professional?

Access Version:

SQL Version:

Windows 7 XP Mode (or Windows Vista with Virtual PC) and Wireless Networking

2009-11-11T23:27:16Z

We have recently encountered an issue with Wireless Netwoks when utilizing Windows XP Compatibility Mode under Windows 7 and Virtual PC under Windows Vista. The following quote from Ben Armstrong (Microsoft's Virtualization Program Manager) explains why.

Some people have noticed that our support for virtual networking when using a physical wireless network adapter is a bit hit and miss. The reason for this is because in order to perform our virtual networking - we implement an OSI layer 2 filter driver that creates network packets with the MAC address of the appropriate virtual machine. Unfortunately the wireless networking standard explicitly forbids the creation of network packets with different MAC addresses to that of the physical computer (for security reasons). To handle this - when we detect that we are using a wireless network adapter we create packets where some of the MAC addresses in the packet match that of the virtual machine - while the other MAC addresses match that of the physical computer.

Given this approach we find that some wireless networking hardware works, but other hardware doesn't. When it doesn't work it will either:

Just throw away all network traffic from the virtual machine - and the virtual machine will behave like it is disconnected.

Think that the network traffic from the virtual machine is actually coming from the physical computer. This will cause things like the virtual machine being assigned the same IP address as the physical computer.

If you are seeing either of these symptoms your options are:

Try different wireless networking hardware (either at the wireless adapter or the wireless access point). I would only recommend doing this if you have the hardware handy.

Use Shared networking under Virtual PC - or the Microsoft loopback adapter and Internet connections sharing with either Virtual Server or Virtual PC (as discussed here: http://blogs.msdn.com/virtual_pc_guy/archive/2005/10/04/477195.aspx).

Cheers,
Ben

Published Thursday, October 13, 2005 10:19 PM by Virtual PC Guy

Filed under: Virtual PC / Server Tips 'n' Tricks

This basically states that the methods in which the Virtual Network card access the real network card are stricly forbidden by the Wireless Network Security standard. The reason it works on some wireless network hardware and not others is because some wireless hardware does not conform to the Wireless Network Security standard. This means that all secure network hardware will not be compatible with a virtual environment. So if your virtual pc environment IS compatible with your wireless networking hardware, then your network probably is not entirely secure.

A Link to this blog entry can be found here. This issue has only increased our stance against using wireless networks with Office Tools Professional. Wireless networks (typically) are not stable enough for Office Tools to remain 'constantly on'. Any sort of network disruption can cause errors that may result in data loss. This is why we strongly suggest that all Office Tools Professional users utilize any of the modern gigabit wired routers and wired NIC cards that are available on the market today. The cost of setting up a wired network is cheap when compared to that of a wireless network, yet the stability and bandwidth of a gigabit network far surpasses anything a top-of-the-line wireless network can offer.

Drop Folder on Windows 7

2009-10-26T17:39:42Z

Since running Office Tools Professional on Windows 7 utilizes a Virtual Windows XP Environment ( as described in the 'Document Management on Windows 7' article ), you must assign the drop folder differently than you would normally.

Since your Windows 7 desktop and your Windows XP Compatibility Mode desktop are two completely different locations, you will need to find the location of your Windows 7 Drop Folder from within your Windows XP environment (dont worry, this is very easy).

First, find out the name of your Windows 7 computer by right-clicking the 'Computer' icon on the start menu, selecting 'Properties', and noting what is says under 'Computer Name'. create the Drop Folder on your Windows 7 Desktop. Then open Office Tools Professional, and go to Setup -> Documents -> Drop Folder and click the ellipsis (...).

Then under 'My Computer' find the area where it says 'C on Windows 7 machine' (where 'Windows 7 Machine' is the name of your computer). From there navigate to 'Users -> My Profile -> Desktop -> Drop Folder' (where 'My Profile' is your windows login name). Once you select the Drop Folder, click Ok to save your settings. Once you restart your Event Manager, you should be ready to use the Drop Folder on your Windows 7 based computer!