We have had several inquiries today about the Widescreen mode not fitting on the monitor.  Here is the basic issue, and how you can resolve it.

Point to a blank space on your monitor screen, and click the right mouse button.  Select Screen Settings.  If you have a true widescreen monitor, the recommended setting should be 1920 x 1080.  You are probably running at a different setting.  To use the Widescreen mode, you must be at 1920 x 1080.

You will also see a line below the setting boxes that says “Make text and other items larger or smaller”.  Click on it.  You must have your settings at Smaller 100%.  The Widescreen settings were designed for these standardized settings.  Anything else will NOT work !

You can usually change the settings by sliding the little rectangle up toward the top.  Again, make sure you select 1920 x 1080.  This is the industry standard.

Some people noted that the popup boxes are too large for their screens even in Standard mode..  Again, if you had the screen settings set to a low resolution, then you were not really seeing all of the ASW screen.  We allowed larger font settings for Standard mode also on some popups ( not all ).  We realize this may be inconvenient, so over the next couple of days we will add back the smaller popup sizes for the standard setting.

If you set the Display Settings to S and then enter ASW, you should see the full screen displayed.  That means you should also see the X Exit icon on the button bar, and in the borders on all four sides.  If you don’t, then your standard monitor resolution is set too large.  We have seen this frequently when we go online to provide support.  If you don’t have a full display of the screens, you likely are missing information.  We strongly encourage you to set your resolution high enough so the full program displays.

You will receive some updates in the next few days to resolve the pop up issues.  Again, if you set the resolution to a high enough level ( its how the monitors were designed ), you shouldn’t have any problem with displays.

On Friday, 1/18/2013, by 5:00 pm, PDT, your Auto Shop Writer system will likely update to version 9.30.00.  This update will occur automatically, and includes the new ASW release, a new Datamanager, and new federal tax tables.  Here are some important steps you will want to follow:

1)  IF you use the ASW payroll system, the 2013 withholding tables have been uploaded to your \ASW9s\MLS folder.  You will need to copy APAFTT.DBF and APAFTT.CDX ( using standard Windows copy and paste ) to the root \ASW9s folder.  If you do not use our payroll, you need do nothing !

2)  This version includes the new display options.  They can be set separately on each computer.  You have three options, but you will only use two at this time.   What you have used all along remains, and it is called Standard.  You can also use Widescreen which takes up the whole screen, and makes everything easy to read.  The third option, Tablet, is only used if you install the program on a Windows Professional tablet, and want to optimize your system to write workorders.  To change the screen settings, on your ASW menu, select Tools, then Setup and then Display.  Click on the value you want ( ie. Widescreen ), then save and exit the pop up window.  Exit ASW and immediately come back.  You will now be in full screen mode. 

3)  We have several other features that are now active in this update.  We will hold off describing them because we first want you to be sure there are no issues with this update.  Our next bulletin will talk about how to activate the automated email follow up system in depth.

4)  Your manual did not disappear.  So many people are confused about the MENU versus the Help button so we removed the button.  Your manual is still there under Help on the menu bar.

If you didn’t get this update, its likely that we have not received your DPP payment for the first quarter of 2013.  Once your payment is received,  and posted, you will automatically receive the update.