To:       All WinTOTAL Aurora (version 5) users
From:  Adam Calvery, VP Appraisal Products, a la mode, inc.
Re:      Aurora:  May 15th update is ready

Today’s WinTOTAL Aurora update is now available on our servers. To download it, click the “Get Updates” button on the toolbar in your Appraisal Desktop.

This is a fantastic update.  It has a large number of small tweaks, and combined they make very substantial improvements to almost every area of Aurora.  In addition, we’ve added a new File Collector.  You can configure it from your WinTOTAL Assistant (the Donald Trump-looking icon by your PC’s clock) to clean up old photos, temporary files and old recoverable files.  This can help you save on hard drive space.  Learn more about it here. 

This update also contains our new General Purpose 2-4 Unit form in both letter and legal sizes.  This is the third form in our GP series and as with all of them (we’re working on the GP Condo form now), customer feedback shapes the final version.  You’ll find it to be a superb replacement to the 1025 for non-lending  assignments.  To learn more about our GP forms series, click here. 

Aurora’s desktop billing module is rapidly approaching the end of its public beta cycle.  Nearly 1,000 appraisers are using it in their daily production environments, and this update has a number of improvements based on what they've told us.  If you’ve been waiting for the desktop billing module but have held off on using it, you can find out more about it on the Aurora Status website.  As always, you can visit the Aurora Status website at any time to find out the latest status on all the projects we’re working on.  To visit it now, click here. 

And finally, if you’re planning to attend our Annual Convention at the Rio in Las Vegas next month, today is the last day the hotel is offering the a la mode discount on rooms.  We’re all excited to see you at our best convention yet.  Hopefully you’re looking forward to hearing George Will’s keynote address, along with participating in our new “real world” classes, great panel discussions and a packed exhibit hall.  For more information on the Convention and the Rio, click here. 

That’s it for today.  Thank you for your time and your business, and please let me know if you have any questions.

Adam Calvery
VP, Appraisal Products
a la mode, inc.

WinTOTAL Aurora (v5) – May 15, 2007 Update

This update contains improvements throughout WinTOTAL, includes a new file cleanup utility, and a new a la mode General Purpose form.

With the new File Collector you can now configure WinTOTAL to automatically clean up used or un-used photos after a certain number of days, as well as un-needed extra backup files.  You can configure the File Collector from your WinTOTAL assistant.

This update also contains the new GP 2-4 Unit appraisal form.  It’s a superior form for appraising multi-unit properties for non-lending work, and has a ton of features requested by our customers.  For complete details on the GP series of forms, visit www.alamode.com/GP.

General:

•          When typing data into the form, WinTOTAL now allows you to turn on attributes like bold, italic and underline before you begin typing. 
•          When swapping between two major forms that both have a logo, the new logo will now immediately be correctly displayed without closing and reopening the report. 
•          Fixes a rare issue where the seal for a supervisor would not show on the major form.
•          Deleting QuickNotes will no longer show the balloon until after you scroll the form.  
•          Placing a downloaded location map before a letter-sized major form in the report will now print out as letter-sized. 
•          The major form's footer is now immediately updated when swapping forms on the Contents View. 
•          Unchecking options in the Field Format dialog box only takes one click now. 
•          Using arrow keys, the enter key, or the mouse to navigate through fields with existing data will no longer add those to the recent response database. 
•          When adding an Additional Comparables, Additional Listings or Additional Rentals page to a major form that does not have those forms specified, a new general page will now be utilized. 
•          When correcting empty fields on an E&O check, typing text that is already in the recent response list will no longer cause the data to disappear when going to the next warning. 
•          When loading the Area Estimator, focus is now placed in the text box to enter your first side. 
•          When pasting text into a field, the text will no longer remain highlighted, and the cursor will be placed at the end of the text. 
•          With the preview window open on the Contents view, you can now highlight existing forms in your report to preview them.
•          Fields populated by a transfer are now word-wrapping correctly when populated by a transfer. 
•          After a report has been saved with a non-standard default data font, it will now update to any new standard default font chosen when the report is opened. 
•          Certain minor forms can now be signed without requiring a major form be present in the report.
•          When the Send button is configured to send reports in PDF format via Outlook, XSite-integrated reports will now do so instead of launching the XSite Delivery plugin. 
•          An issue has been fixed where importing a PDF as a black and white image, would allow the images in the PDF to come over in color.
•          An issue has been resolved that caused a timestamp to appear with the appraiser license expiration date.
•          In certain situations, merging from old reports was setting fields to read-only.  This has been fixed.
•          When using dual monitors, WinTOTAL now remembers which monitor reports were last opened on.
•          Added a feature to allow users to paste a WMF file from an internet browser directly into a photo or map page.
•          You can now drag photos from Windows directly into a WinTOTAL report.
•          Fixes an issue where 2 or more additional comp pages would not allow the E&O to run successfully.
•          An issue has been corrected where focus was lost when signing a report and choosing to export comparables.
•          With two reports open, signing one of them no longer puts focus on the other report.
•          Enabling the larger icon setting in the toolbar now works correctly.
•          The Area Estimator now correctly transfers alphabetic data to fields.
•          The generic Additional Listings page for AI 3.5 compliance is now available in WinTOTAL.

Addenda:

•          After overflowing to the addenda, the remaining text on the form can now be added as a QuickList entry.
•          When overflowing on a Canadian AIC 2004 form, the text addendum added now has the new-style header. 
•          When swapping major forms, if you have a text addendum containing links to data fields that have overflowed, the title of these sections will update accordingly to match the name of the new major form. 

Contacts:

•          Appraiser contacts now show the license number in the dropdowns in WinTOTAL.
•          Middle name for appraiser contacts is now transferred into reports.
•          Fixed a rare issue where not all contact information would come over when merging.
•          Recent responses no longer show on Contact fields following a specific scenario.

Desktop Billing:

•          The “Billing Statement of Account – Formatted for client distribution” report now correctly lists reports tied to each individual contact associated to each company.
•          Changing contacts from the Billing PowerView now correctly updates reports in WinTOTAL.
•          Companies without associated contacts are now available to select when creating a new invoice.
•          An issue has been resolved that caused new Ad Hoc contacts to be matched to existing contacts when they shouldn't be.
•          Changing font formats on amount due in an invoice now correctly updates the Billing PowerView.
•          Grouping by Bill To contact now correctly filters imported invoices. 
•          Invoices with only companies assigned to them are now showing correctly in management reports.  
•          Long appraiser names now display correctly in the Appraiser Options section of Fee Setup.
•          Marking an invoice as paid now correctly sets the Bill Paid Date in the Order PowerView.
•          Marking an invoice as paid now correctly updates the Bill Paid Date column in the Appraisal Desktop.
•          Multiple invoices in one report are now handled correctly by the WinTOTAL Invoice Editor.
•          Previously, the “Total Fees Paid to Appraiser” and “Total Fees Paid to Supervisors” reports incorrectly showed all fee splits, regardless of whether they had been paid.  This has been changed to only display paid employee records.
•          Selecting a contact not associated with a company in an invoice no longer prompts to create an ad hoc contact.
•          Sorting is now allowed in the Appraiser Options section of Fee Setup.
•          Some reports were incorrectly generating an error when imported into Billing due to incomplete contact data.  These reports will now import correctly.
•          The Fee Setup screen now loads faster when accessed directly from the dashboard.
•          The Billing Import Wizard no longer creates ad hoc contacts when new XSite reports are synched into WinTOTAL and added to Desktop Billing.
•          The FROM fields on the invoice no longer blank out when switching invoices.
•          The “Show All” link in Invoices will no longer incorrectly reflect “No records were found” in certain situations. 
•          You can now navigate the list of appraiser contacts in Fee Setup using the up and down arrows on your keyboard.
•          Long company names will no longer be cut off in the 'Check Details' view of the Accounting tab.
•          A progress indicator is now shown when marking multiple invoices as paid in billing.
•          The billing importer now works correctly when “Last Sent Date” is present in the File Cabinet layout.
•          In the Canadian version, the Report Invoice view now displays correctly when choosing it in the Order PowerView.

Comps Database:

•          The AGDA template has been updated, certain fields, including Location Map Code, will now import correctly.
•          Searching by date of sale and by sale date now returns the proper results.
•          The age and the age/year built columns in the comps database are now populated with the correct data.
•          When updating data on an existing comp by importing from WinTOTAL, the changes will now immediately show without having to switch to another PowerView first. 
•          Manually entering a comparable into the Comps Database no longer saves "F" in the empty checkboxes. 
•          Removing the GLA from a comp in the Comps Database will immediately update the details of the expanded view of the comp. 
•          When deleting comps from your database that do not have photos associated with them, you'll no longer be prompted to delete their associated images. 
•          When editing a comp in the Comps Database, CTRL+DEL will now clear the current or highlighted fields. 
•          When managing comps in the Comps Database, you can now edit a comp via the right-click menu. 
•          With the first comp listed in the Comps Database expanded, adding a comp manually no longer disables the expanded view of comps. 

Comps Side-by-Side:

•          With multiple reports open, having one of them on the Comps Side-by-Side no longer steals focus from the other report.
•          WinTOTAL no longer steals focus from other applications when in the Comps Side-by-Side on the GP Land form. 
•          Focus is no longer lost when adding additional comps in the Comps Side-by-side.
•          Focus is no longer taken back to the top of the page when the view has been scrolled down and autosave initiates.
•          Slowly tabbing through the fields no longer highlights the fields as selected. 
•          The = key shortcut now stays open if there is already text in the field.
•          Using a recent response now populates adjustments from the auto-adjuster.
•          Clearing a comp using == in the Comps Side-by-Side now clears the comps description for each field.
•          Switching from Comps to another PowerView no longer causes some touched fields to become untouched.
•          The 'Adjustment', 'Difference', and 'Step by step instructions' links now load the appropriate help file.
•          Loading an adjustment set in standard view, now currently loads the additional data into detailed view.
•          Using decimals in the auto adjuster for the Site no longer causes the adjustment amount to change when switching PowerViews.
•          Selecting the Comps PowerView while in the Comps PowerView, will no longer reload the comps.

Configuration Options:

•          An option has been added to allow users to choose whether transfer locks are brought over to new reports when merged or cloned. 
•          The Billing section can now be accessed through the Views menu. 

Files PowerView:

•          Having a report open with a WinTOTAL splash screen open, no longer interferes with the Files PowerView functionality.

Delivery Plugins:

•          The GAC delivery wizard now allows override requests to be sent to multiple email addresses.
•          The C&S plugin name has now been changed to CoreLogic.

HoverLinks:

•          The HoverLinks button for "Get Photos" now operates exactly the same as the "Get Photos" button in the Images PowerView.
•          Secure URLs can now be utilized in HoverLinks. 

Image Optimizer:

•          Restoring an image now correctly shows the current and original image size. 
•          Annotations can no longer be placed outside the boundaries of an image.
•          Colored balloons no longer change to grayscale when placed on a black and white map. 
•          On the Annotate tab, the annotate options are no longer reset to Lines after selecting Highlight Area and choosing the Fill Color.
•          The Image Optimizer will now retain size changes that are made before making optimization changes on the second tab. 
•          ALT+Q shortcut has been created for the Equalize Brightness option while in the Image Optimizer.
•          Ampersand characters in the address are no longer converted to underscores when annotating images.
•          An option for 'Maintain highest possible quality' is now available when adding documents via a scanner.
•          Auto-optimize default settings no longer apply to map and scanned image pages.
•          An issue has been corrected where the Image optimizer would hang in memory when optimizing a large image.
•          In certain circumstances, cropping an image could lead to the distortion of the cropped area.
•          On certain images, the file size was not correctly detected by Image Optimizer.  This has been corrected.
•          Previously, Image Optimizer only allowed one shortcut key use each time it was loaded.  This has been corrected.
•          Prompt to flatten annotations into an image are no longer received if the annotation is added, then removed.
•          Restoring an image while highlighting an area of that image no longer disables the annotate tab.
•          Using the ALT+I shortcut key for "Maintain aspect ratio when cropping" now enables and disables the option.
•          When rotating icons, a black line is no longer added to the left and top side of the icon.
•          You can now select any annotation balloon and change the color.  Previously, the last balloon placed would be changed regardless of which balloon was selected. 

Images PowerView: 

•          Adding an image to a report when multiple reports are open no longer causes focus to be shifted to a different report.
•          Removing a photo from a page and immediately printing will no longer print that photo. 
•          You can now select or highlight images in the database by clicking on the thumbnail.
•          Marking photos as used after deleting photos now works correctly.
•          Deleting an image and then using an image from the database now works correctly.
•          Previously, images were not allowed to be pasted from one report to another.  This has been corrected.
•          The 'Scan Images' view is now retained when returning to the Images PV.
•          WinTOTAL now offers the ability to rename your photo pages while managing your images in the Images PowerView.  Just click the 'Rename' link in the Sidebar above the list of photo pages in your report. 

Merge:

•          Column sorting now matches that of the Appraisal Desktop.
•          Fixed an issue where you could not merge from a report that had only one form in the report.
•          Focus is no longer lost when having two reports open and merging one of them.
•          When merging, if you search for properties within a certain proximity of the subject, results will no longer include reports in the Deleted Items folder. 

Open Report:

• ·         When opening a report from outside of WinTOTAL, all columns are now sortable for the "Update WinTOTAL Report" screen.

Order PowerView:

•          Appointment date and time now transfer back to the Order PV from the XSites or Outlook scheduler.
•          Appointment Date and Time now transfer correctly to the Order form.
•          Fixes an issue where data put into the XSite scheduler would not transfer back to the order form.

WinTOTAL Print Engine: 

•          When viewing your report in WinTOTAL, the data must be displayed on screen, based on a printer driver.  In the past, WinTOTAL has always based the screen on what your Windows default printer driver will print out.  However, a majority of appraisals are delivered in PDF format.  In this update, we've changed this to display what the text will look like when printing to the WinTOTAL PDF driver. 
•          Printing to PDF now updates the Appraisal Desktop with the Last Printed date.
•          Printing a report with the URAR [Form 1004][03/05]form in it to PDF, lenders with long addresses will no longer wrap incorrectly on page 6, showing duplicate parts of the address. 
•          Changing printers immediately before printing a report now correctly formats fields for the new printer.
•          The file overwrite message when printing to PDF no longer opens out of focus in certain situations.
•          Having filler pages in your report no longer causes the page numbers to be incorrectly printed.

QuickList:

•          You can now utilize all of your QuickList entries on each version of the Order Form. 
•          QuickLists are now accessible when adding a comp manually while in a signed report. 
•          Using the mouse to select QuickList items from the dropdown now works with only one click.
•          "Resequence QuickLists" option is now available when right-clicking on your QuickList with only one entry. 
•          Multi-field QuickList entries that contain hidden fields will no longer show these hidden fields when hovering over the QuickList entry. 
•          Resequencing your QuickList items while in the Addenda split screen view now works correctly.
•          Multi-field QuickLists including checkboxes are now populating correctly. 
•          The QuickList pane now remembers the sort order.
•          The QuickList pane will no longer slowly resize towards the middle of the screen if the user repeatedly clicks on the same PowerView.

Property Presentation Wizard:  

•          The "Levels" field in the Property Presentation Wizard no longer lists '0' as the number of levels.
•          An issue has been fixed where in some cases the 'Download full appraisal report' link would be cut off.
•          Adding an additional photo no longer re-checks the first photo if the first photo were to be unchecked.
•          Ctrl + A to highlight all text now works in the 'Property Description' step of the Property Presentation Wizard.
•          The username and password are no longer rejected if there is a forward slash in the password.
•          Fixed an issue where deleted website would show in the drop down box when sending your report to the Property Presentation Wizard.
•          Scrollbars in the listing preview now display correctly on Windows Vista.

Sketch PowerView: 

•          Creating a new sketch, but not saving it will no longer bring in the GLA for the first floor. 
•          When importing a two-page sketch, the first page will now be the highlighted page at the bottom left of the Sketch PowerView. 

Workfile PowerView:

•          Printing an archived major form in the Workfile PowerView will now send it to WinTOTAL's main printer instead of the Windows default printer. 
•          Using drag and drop on the Workfile PowerView with certain images will no longer cause WinTOTAL to stop responding. 
•          Using the right-click menu to sort the columns in the Workfile PowerView now holds the sort settings when switching PowerViews.
•          Using Windows Vista, choosing to print with nothing listed in your Workfile will no longer unselect your default Windows printer. 
•          A new button called "Drag/Drop" was added to the Workfile PowerView to work with the security features of Vista.