Auto Shop Writer Bulletins

This is the first of 3 bulletins on the new features in Auto Shop Writer which can enhance your business, and do it very easily.  Two of these have to do with the email system.  Please read this bulletin carefully.

First, if your Auto Shop Writer email is working fine, STOP !  You do not need to do anything discussed below.  Just leave your system alone and it will continue to work even with the new features !

If you have not been able to get your email to work, then the alternative implementation we have added may resolve that problem.  Essentially, some of the email services now require SSL Authentication.  Please try the following steps only if your email system is properly setup but does not send out the emails.  This means you have the right SMTP server address, username, and password installed. 

Enter the email Setup under Tools, Setup on the main menu, and you will see a box that says Use CDO ?  Check this box.  Also check the box that says Authentication ?  Finally, make sure you know the proper Port your email host requires for SSL traffic.  Once you have made these simple changes, save the results.

Finally, go to the Help menu, click on Email Tech Support.  In the Subject area put your shop name, and in the text area, put “Testing CDO”.  If we receive the email, we will reply to you confirming that it did go through.

Why do this ?  The next bulletin will explain how to setup your Auto Emails.  What’s this ?  You set it up once, and then anytime you service a car for a client who has an email address, the next day they will receive a Thank You note, and then reminders at 30, 60, 90, and 120 days after the service.  What else do you need to do after you set this up ?  Absolutely nothing !  It is all automatic !

How difficult is the setup ?  Its actually quite easy … and should take you about 15 minutes total – ONCE !

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.