Dime-O-Gold User and Admin Guide

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<p> [[http://www.plain-english.com|Plain English Home Page]] [[:start|User Guide Home]] </p> <h2>Scope and Purpose</h2> <div class="level2"> </div> <h3>Introduction</h3> <div class="level3"> <p> If you don't use Dime-O-Gold to print your labels directly from GoldMine, you're losing out! </p> <p> If you're using a typewriter you're wasting a lot of time. 'Nuff said. </p> <p> If you're using Dymo software, you're still wasting time: creating the label, and, logging it in your GoldMine's history. </p> <p> If, because of the hassle and inconvenience of any of the above, you're simply hand-writing your labels, you're losing out in other ways. Hand writing labels may have a homey, intimate feel, but it also shows lack of professionalism, lack of planning, lack of discipline, willingness to compromise, small-time business values, etc. You lose good will. Don't worry, it won't put you out of business, not right away anyway, but it's like death by a thousand cuts, none of which is so severe that it makes you take cover. </p> <p> Dime-O-Gold to the rescue! </p> <p> <b>You can print individual labels, using your own logo-embedded label template, in 5 seconds! </b> (If I were delivering this presentation orally I would repeat that line… oh, what the hell!) </p> <p> <b>You can print individual labels, using your own logo-embedded label template, in 5 seconds! </b> </p> <p> Thereby solving <em>all</em> your problems, at least those problems relating to image, and efficient use of time. :) </p> </div> <h3>This Document</h3> <div class="level3"> <p> This document is intended to provide direction for downloading, installing, configuring, and using Dime-O-Gold. Dime-O-Gold is intended to let you instantly print beautiful and professional labels directly from GoldMine. </p> </div> <h3></h3> <div class="level3"> </div> <h3>Two Flavors of Dime-O-Gold</h3> <div class="level3"> </div> <h4>Dime-O-Gold Express</h4> <div class="level4"> <p> Dime-O-Gold Express lets you print one label at a time, and only for the Primary contact. No filters, no groups, no tagged records, no "Additional" contacts (from the Contacts tab). As simplistic and limited as this may seem, our expectation is that this model will be suitable for 75% of all users. </p> <p> Express is truly a one-button operation, with no GUI options at all, till after the label is printed, at which point the user can choose what to write to History. </p> </div> <h4>Dime-O-Gold Pro</h4> <div class="level4"> <p> Dime-O-Gold Pro gives you all the features of Dime-O-Gold Express, plus… filters, groups, tagged records, and "Additional" contacts (from the Contacts tab). Normally Dime-O-Gold invites/requires you to use a graphical user interface to choose which contacts to print labels for. However, if you like the GUI-less approach of Express, you can have a shortcut with a /mode=Express parameter, to make Dime-O-Gold Pro <em>behave like</em> Express. </p> </div> <h3>Smarts</h3> <div class="level3"> </div> <h4>Country Smarts</h4> <div class="level4"> <p> If you're sending a package from Toledo to Topeka, the address need not include USA, right? I mean, the post office knows Topeka is in the U. S., right? Including US in the address doesn't really help, now does it? True, adding U.S.A. doesn't help, but does it hurt? </p> <p> Answering: no. And yes. </p> <p> It won't hurt delivery time, that much is true. However… consider again, however small, the recipient of your package will react to the negative. Your label is cluttered with useless information. The other lines have had to be scaled down to make way for the country. You really want to avoid that. </p> <p> When we teach GoldMine 101, we urge our clients to avoid using the country field for domestic addresses. It just looks silly! </p> <p> However, when we began this Dime-O-Gold project, we realized that not all GoldMine users had had our great training and, unfortunately, their country fields had plenty of good ol'e U. S. content. So, to account for this, we added a feature we call SmartCountry. One of the fields we pick up from the contact record is the country field… however, during the formatting phase before a label's final release to the printer, we analyze the country field to see if it matches the home country. In our case, USA. </p> <p> In fact, you'll notice in the paragraphs above, the abbreviation for our fair land is "spelled" differently at least 5 times, so… we also make accommodation for the fact/likelihood that that will the experience for you as well. </p> <p> In the dime-o-config tool, you can choose whether or not to apply this feature, as well as the list of aliases for your country. </p> </div> <h4>Address1 + Address2 Smarts</h4> <div class="level4"> <p> The post office, in general, requires address information to go from bottom to top, in order of specificity. The city, state and zip, being on the bottom, get your mail into a particular city or part of a state. The address gets your mail to a street and building. Logically, then, the Suite number belongs <em>above</em> the street address. And this is, in fact, how the post office wants us to address our mail. </p> <p> However, that's not how we do it. Out of habit, or tradition, or resistance to authority, we "normally" write: </p> <p> Jack Wilson<br/> 125 W. Main Street<br/> Ste. 506<br/> Washburn, MN 66057<br/> <br/> The post office would have an easier time with: </p> <p> Jack Wilson<br/> 125 W. Main Street<br/> Ste. 506<br/> Washburn, MN 66057<br/> </p> </div>