Maximizer
by Tom Kaye
Tulsa Computer Society
From the January 1997 issue of the I/O Port Newsletter
Windows 3.1
Windows 95
Windows 95
For the business people reading this, Maximizer is a program to track sales, marketing or personal contacts, record notes and plot business activities.
With Maximizer you have just opened the door to a powerful application that will help you track and manage information about clients and the activities you perform for them. I have used ACT, Franklin, DayTimer and others to keep my business contracts. Maximizer is a very well designed program with features of many of the very high priced packages for a reasonable cost. For those sales people in the readership I have gone into more detail than I normally do to detail benefits to sales and marketing professionals. My slogan has always been the best salespeople know "who, where and when to sell to". We are in a data age of selling and the tools we have certainly allow us to identify sales leads more accurately than in previous years.
Use Maximizer to:
New Maximizer 3.0 keeps track of everything....
Then finds more to keep track of
Record the names, addresses, and phone numbers of companies and contacts. Keep notes about companies or contacts.
Record additional information about your companies and contacts. Schedule and track your meetings and other tasks.
Create and track communications with your clients (letters, faxes, phone calls). Record your income and expenses.
Features
The new Maximizer for Windows 95 software has been updated to use both the Windows 95 and Windows NT operating systems. With its 32-bit support, Windows 95 and Window NT enable the new Maximizer to run more quickly and efficiently than the 16-bit version. You will be able to manage your Contacts even faster than before.
File name entry now supports long file names. This means you can create file names that are up to 255 characters long.
New Editor
The Editor in Maximizer contains new features that enhance its word processing capability. This includes an improved spell checker and thesaurus, a toolbar and ribbon bar that you can reposition, and context sensitive online help. You can also change your default printer from both the Page Setup and Print functions.
A new, more powerful Editor is included in Maximizer. MaxEdit provides many of the features you find in other Windows word processors on the market. These include zoom views, headers and footers, print preview, graphics support, and window splitting.
E-Mail Support
A new E-mail feature lets you send mail to your Clients and Contacts over the Internet. MultiActive Eagle is an Internet database of North American residential, business and demographic information. Use this database to locate and transfer prospective Clients from Eagle's directories into your Maximizer database
If you have an electronic mail (E-mail) system, you can now use it to share MaxEdit documents, Maximizer reports, and data files with other users. Maximizer supports Microsoft s Messaging Application Programming Interface (MAPI) compliant E-mail systems, such as Microsoft Mail. It also supports Vendor Independent Messaging (VIM) systems such as cc:Mail and Lotus Notes.
Contacts
Maximizer you move the Notes, documents, User-Defined Fields, Hotlist tasks, and appointments for one Contact to another Contact. This is useful when a Contact leaves a company and is replaced by someone.
Clients
You will find many enhancements in the Clients window. These include a tabbed dialog box, a new global update feature, and easier methods for creating default records and converting an Individual Client to a Company Client.
Group Edit
You can now make global updates or additions to your Client records using the Group Edit command. For example, with Group Edit you could easily add the same User-Defined Field to a group of Clients.
Simplified Default Records
With Maximizer, you can create a default Client by using the new Default Record command. Maximizer then generates the default record for you. Once the record is created, you can add default information to the various Client fields.
User-Defined Fields (Categories)
Maximizer now refers to Categories as User-Defined Fields. This term has emerged as the current industry standard.
OLE Support
One of Maximizers most powerful new features is Object Linking and Embedding (OLE). With OLE you can attach objects, such as Excel spreadsheets or Microsoft Word documents, to your Clients and Contacts. The object file names and type are then displayed in the Documents window. Once you attach objects, you can modify and do text searches on them from within Maximizer.
OLE document files are included along with the rest of your Maximizer data when you do backups. You can also transfer these files to other databases through Maximizer Data Exchange.
Importing/Exporting Files
MaxEdit lets you import/export files in Rich Text Format (RTF) or Text (TXT) format. With this feature, you can easily exchange files between Maximizer and other applications such as WordPerfect, Microsoft Word, and AmiPro.
Holidays
Holidays for US and Canadian are now shown in red in the Calendar. If you don't want to use this feature, you can turn it off in the Calendar Defaults dialog box.
Find Free Time
The Find Free Time option provides a picture of your Hotlist and Calendar appointments for the week. Appointments are indicated by a grey bar. You can schedule a new appointment by clicking on an appropriate hour. If you need more time, Maximizer lets you click and drag the colored bar to indicate a longer period.
Drag and Drop
The Daily and Weekly Calendar views now support drag and drop. With this feature, you can move an appointment to a different day or week simply by dragging it with the mouse.
Recurring Appointments
The Schedule Recurring Appointments dialog box has been redesigned, offering you more options and up-front information.
Maximizer also makes it easier to create recurring appointments. For example, to schedule regular Tuesday meetings, you would simply select Weekly and then click on Tuesday. Earlier versions of Maximizer required more mental mathematics to work out these appointments (i.e., One Month period and Weekly frequency).
Appointments Follow-Up
Now, when you mark an appointment or Hotlist task as complete, Maximizer asks if you want to schedule a follow-up activity. If you indicate yes, the Add Appointment or Add Hotlist Task dialog box appears, and you can create a new appointment or task.
Conflict Checking
Maximizer provides conflict checking between the Hotlist and Calendar. As with conflict checking between Calendar appointments, you can turn off this feature in the Calendar Defaults dialog box.
Alarms
Earlier versions of Maximizer only let you set lead times for alarms in minutes. Now you can indicate the lead time in minutes, hours, days, or even weeks. The program also lets you set alarms for Hotlist tasks.
Phone Calls
You can now make phone calls from the Calendar. To use this feature, switch to the daily view in the Calendar, select an appointment, and click on the Phone button on the toolbar. Maximizer displays the Client or Contact associated with the appointment in the Phone dialog box.
Find Associated Client/Contact Record
You can quickly find the Client or Contact record associated with a Calendar appointment or Hotlist task. Simply select the appointment or task and then use the Put in Client List command. Maximizer displays the associated record in the Clients window.
Hotlist Tasks in Calendar
The daily view of the Calendar window now provides a column that displays Hotlist tasks for the day. Client-related tasks and personal tasks are included. You can add, modify, and delete Hotlist tasks from this column. If you prefer, the program lets you turn off this column display.
Activity Log
An Activity Log has been added to the toolbar. The log shows all Hotlist activities and appointments for the currently selected Client. If a Client is not selected, the log displays a list of personal activities. From the Activity Log, you can add, modify, delete, and print Hotlist tasks.
Phone Log
The Phone Log includes some new features. A Company column has been added, and you can now sort log information by any column. When you print a Phone Log report, Maximizer lets you add more details, such as the address and telephone number of the Client/Contact associated with each call. You can also include statistics (i.e., longest, shortest, and average duration of phone calls) in the log report.
Address and Calendar Books
In addition to printing reports, labels, documents, and envelopes, Maximizer now lets you print Address and Calendar books. With this feature, you can customize your list of Client/Contact addresses in a book format. Or you can print a Calendar book which lists the appointments and important dates you need to keep track of for six months, a year, or longer. The book format is compatible with many standard organizers, such as DayTimer, DayRunner, Franklin, and Filofax. You can also print in Rolodex format.
Searching
Maximizer now includes more searching options to help you find information in your databases. You can now search documents. As with Notes, you can search through all your documents or only those created within a specified date range. When you search in the Documents or Notes window, Maximizer only displays the Notes or documents for the Clients/Contacts that match the search.
Purge Capability
You can now purge old documents or Notes. This option is similar to a group delete. To do a purge, you go to the File menu, select Notes or Documents from the Purge sub-menu, and indicate a date range. Maximizer then erases the selected data.
Import and Export Catalogs
When importing or exporting data, you can use the catalog feature. This feature allows you to save selected import or export definitions in a catalog, which you can use again later. The catalogs are similar in function to the User-Defined Field search catalogs. Maximizer now also supports dBASE file formats for importing only.
Maximizer Customer support
1-800-368-6344
Fax Back Services 1-604-601-8101
Maximizer Technologies
1090 West Pender Street, 9th Floor
Vancouver, B.C Canada
V6E2N7
For more information on the Tulsa Computer Society click here
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Tulsa Computer Society 02/07/97
Don Singleton, President
tcs@galstar.com