To: All WinTOTAL Aurora (version 5) users
From: Adam Calvery, VP Appraisal Products, a la mode, inc.
Re: Aurora: October 6th update is ready
The update scheduled for today is now available on our servers. To download it, simply click the “Get Updates” button on the toolbar in your Appraisal Desktop.
At the end of this message is a list of all the improvements to this update. They can also be seen, along with other important information, on the Aurora status website. Just click here to visit it.
Today’s update has numerous enhancements to many parts of Aurora, but focuses mainly on making the core forms engine even more efficient and friendly. For many years in all prior versions of WinTOTAL, movement in the forms has been less than optimal where it was hard for the engine to "guess" what field you wanted to move to, especially in "border" areas between forms or between grid areas and non-grid areas of a form. So, Aurora now easily eclipses the old generations in this very practical area (and you thought we only cared about the fancy stuff). You'll see major improvements in the tab sequences and movement through the forms, and entering data from QuickLists and Recent Response comments is smoother.
We'll have more of these type of improvements in the next update as well.
Also, this update contains an updated WinTOTAL PDF driver. After the update installs it will most likely ask you to reboot. If so, then the PDF driver needs you to reboot in order to work properly, so please do so before your next WinTOTAL session where you intend to do any printing.
Thanks again to all of you who have sent us your feedback and suggestions. As always, you can send an e-mail to debug@alamode.com and you’ll get a reply from me or another Product Manager.
That’s it for today, and again, thanks for your business.
Adam Calvery
VP, Appraisal Products
a la mode, inc.

WinTOTAL Aurora (v5) – October 6, 2006 Update
This update contains changes to many different areas of WinTOTAL.
PLEASE NOTE: The PDF driver has been updated in this update. After running SafeStart, you will be prompted to reboot. After downloading and installing this update, printing to PDF will not function correctly until you reboot to allow the installation process to finish.
New forms
- HomeFocus Reconsideration of Value Response
- Zions Bank - Sales Comparison
- Disaster Area Inspection Addendum [1 Page]
- FIRREA/USPAP Addendum [2006]
Updated Forms
- Summary of Salient Features
- Summary of Salient Features [Ltr]
- Summary of Salient Features [Manual/Commercial]
- Engagement Letter
- Engagement Letter [Ltr]
- Agreement for Appraisal Services [Ltr]
- Agreement for Appraisal Services
Forms Engine
- An issue has been fixed which could cause data to be changed when multiple fields were selected and formatting was applied, such as bold and italic.
- The Backspace key now works correctly while holding down the Shift key.
- When scrolling quickly through forms, sections of the forms will no longer blank out.
- Fees and Payments added directly to invoice forms are now applied immediately to the totals. Previously, you had to click into the totals field before the amount would be refreshed.
- Typing information into the value field in the Reconciliation section of the URAR and then clicking in the "as of" date field will no longer highlight the entire Additional Comments section.
- An issue has been resolved that could cause a selected Subject field in the Comps Side-by-Side view to be unselected when moving the mouse over a comparable.
- When using the Tab key to navigate the fields in any Marshall & Swift form, the address fields are no longer skipped.
- In several forms like the Land and Small Income forms, when the net adjustments equaled zero, the Adjusted Sales Price field would blank out when the report was saved. This has been corrected.
- Changing the fonts on the new Marshall and Swift forms will no longer cause the calculations to change.
- In certain forms like the old 2055 (Desktop Quantitative), if a comparable has no adjustments, the Adjusted Sales Price field will no longer blank out when the report is saved.
- An issue has been corrected that could cause information changed on the Comps Side-by-Side view to not update correctly on the major form when returning to the Forms PowerView.
- The tabbing navigation has been greatly improved on the Forms PowerView.
- Using a QuickList comment in a single-line field on an invoice form will now correctly advance the cursor to the next field.
- Using the Up arrow in the sales comparison grid no longer causes the cursor to jump to the subject.
- On certain forms, you will no longer lose keyboard navigation after using a QuickList comment.
- The Tab key now moves to the next field after selecting a comment from the Recent Response list.
- Several customers reported that in the contacts pop up in Orders PowerView, using a Recent Response or QuickList entry would close the pop up. This has been corrected so that now the cursor moves to the next field correctly.
- An issue has been fixed which could cause text in certain sections of the URAR Desk Review form to be cut off when printing.
- An issue has been corrected which could cause a Recent Response comment to not populate a field after using CTRL+K to clear the existing text.
- When tabbing through the reconciliation section of the URAR, the "as of" date is no longer skipped when it is empty.
- When replacing text in a multi-line field with a recent response, the final text could be split into two lines, based on where the cursor was when replacing the original text. This has been fixed.
- The XSite Integration option in the Order PowerView is now saved properly if that option is the only thing that is changed in a report before it’s closed.
- A problem has been fixed that could cause contacts in a report to be disassociated from the actual contact record in the Contacts PowerView. This could cause problems with XSite integration and tracking.
- Opening an AppraisalPort order containing .JPG images no longer causes an "Error 429" message.
- When creating a PDF, if the output directory does not exist, WinTOTAL no longer displays an "Error 76" and closes. Instead, a message letting you know that directory does not exist is displayed.
- PDF’s are now saved properly to the Workfile when creating a PDF of a signed report and using the option save a copy to the Workfile.
- Previously, when the spell checker got to an addendum, the screen would remain on the previous form while continuing to spell-check the addenda instead of jumping to and displaying it. This has been corrected.
- Customers reported that when signing a report the username was incorrectly displayed at times. This has been corrected.
- Reports containing commas in their Report Description can now be opened when another report is already open.
- An issue has been corrected which could cause report corruption if a report is saved as an Athena report and then immediately reopened in Aurora.
- Opening an Athena report in Aurora and associating it with an existing order will no longer remove the neighborhood data.
- The option to “Save Major Form to Workfile” has been added back to the Forms menu on the toolbar.
- The Federal Tax ID and Employer ID are now placed properly on the invoice after merging an invoice form from another report.
- When adding a new QuickList comment, the first available number is now shown as the default.
- Merging a report into a Rels Valuation order no longer overwrites the Client and Lender information.
- A scenario which could cause the PDF file for a report to be named "Newreport.pdf" has been corrected and the Report Description is now used for the PDF name.
- Choosing a Recent Response comment using your mouse will no longer cause fields under the drop-down list to be selected.
- The Sales History section for the Fannie Mae 1004, 1004C, 2000 and 2055 forms is now available as a jump-to section and shows as a tab at the bottom of the form.
Files PowerView
- Changing the column settings when viewing the Tracking folders no longer changes the columns for the Files folders.
- The issue which caused all reports containing the new 1004 to be shown as "URAR" in the Files PowerView columns has been corrected.
- Moving a report to the Deleted Items folder now moves all backup copies of that report too.
- Marking a report as paid now properly updates the Payment Total and Total Due columns in the reports list.
- When WinTOTAL is not associated with an XSite, marking an XSite integrated report as paid no longer causes the Appraisal Desktop to become unresponsive.
- Enabling the Auto-expand option from the toolbar menu now properly updates the setting in WinTOTAL Configuration Options.
- A new option – View selected recoverable files – has been added to the Tools menu and the right-click menu in the Files PowerView. This will show you any open copies or back-up files for the report(s) currently selected.
- If the option to view XSite orders in the Tracking folders is set when the Appraisal Desktop is opened, the correct numbers are now shown for XSite orders.
- Move/Copy in the right-click menu now works properly for reports in attached directories.
- An issue has been corrected which could cause a lockup when acknowledging a Rels Valuation order.
- Switching PowerViews in the Appraisal Desktop while a report is auto-expanding will no longer cause the Files PowerView to become unresponsive.
- Reports can now be deleted from floppy disks from the Files PowerView.
- Clicking Cancel on the warning about a report being open no longer causes and "Invalid Procedure call" error.
- An issue has been resolved which could cause report information to be shown incorrectly in the reports list when several reports were expanded and collapsed.
- If a report is not currently selected, the Tracking Status button no longer opens the Add Status Message window.
- Opening the Appraisal Desktop with a floppy drive selected no longer causes the reports in other folders to be hidden.
- When viewing certain orders, like those from Rels Valuation, the instructional text above the order is no longer cut off.
- When viewing the Tracking Rules window near the bottom of the screen, the folder list seen when using the "Select Folders to Exclude from Tracking" option is no longer displayed off screen.
- Clicking the Open button without a report selected no longer causes a "Run-time error 91".
- An issue has been fixed which could prevent opening a recoverable report by double-clicking it or using the right-click menu to open it.
- With the Order Form tab selected at the bottom of the Files PowerView, the arrow keys can now be used to move up and down the forms list.
- Opening the Appraisal Desktop from the Start menu when it is already open will no longer state that WinTOTAL was shutdown improperly and cause SafeStart to run.
- In the Files PowerView, the Major Form detail column now shows the correct information for the new Fannie Mae forms.
Order PowerView
- The "Resume" status is now available.
- Removing forms from a report while in the Order PowerView will no longer cause the Forms display to be blanked out.
- The navigation tabs are now visible at the bottom of the Order PowerView to allow you to quickly jump to a section.
- An issue that could cause the cursor to not advance after using a Recent Response comment has been corrected.
- Using a QuickList comment in a single-line field now advances properly to the next field.
- The Edit button must now be used to change text in the Report Description field after changing the order information.
Maps PowerView
- The column headings for Property and Distance on the left side of the screen are now clearly visible.
net.X Connect
- When setting status on a report that you do not have rights to modify, a “plain English” message explaining the situation is now displayed.
- The columns in the net.X History window no longer appear to be sizable. This was confusing to some customers.
- Dragging a file from the net.X Connect History screen to the Files PowerView, which could move the report to a new folder, is no longer allowed. This was confusing to some customers as well.
- XSite integrated reports are no longer placed in the net.X Connect queue if required information, like property address or client name, is not filled out on the form.
General
- The latest version of our PDF driver has been included in this update.
- A problem which could cause the WinTOTAL Configuration Utility to lock up when cancelling the signature setup process has been fixed.
- In Forms view inside of the WinTOTAL Configuration Utility, the options under "Show drop-down lists for fields" stay disabled when "Show drop-down lists…" is unchecked.
- When double-clicking a report file (.ZAP) attached in an e-mail or directly on your hard drive, the folder list shown now shows all available folders in WinTOTAL. Previously, folders beginning with numbers and letters before "D" would be hidden.
- Opening an AppraisalPort order containing .JPG images no longer causes an "Error 429" message.
- The initial zoom level in the WinTOTAL Configuration Utility is now properly saved.
- On a computer without Acrobat Reader installed, a message saying so is now displayed after creating a PDF with the "View PDF" option enabled.
WinTOTAL Conversion Wizard
- Converting comparables, images, contacts and text databases (canned comments) now works properly in Aurora.
- The latest revisions of the 1004 from Residential Appraiser (SFREP) and Wilson are now supported.
Marshall & Swift Integration
- Spaces after the state no longer cause an error in SwiftEstimator.
Comps PowerView
- QuickList comments can now be re-sequenced on the Comps PowerView.
- The Import button is no longer saved in a disabled state if WinTOTAL is closed while the importer is running.
- The Comps Side-by-Side view now allows you to navigate between the fields using CTRL + right arrow and CTRL + left arrow.