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Update mail time again for PCRecruiter
users/owners. There are a number of new features and refinements in
the latest version. So here you go; On the company screen, there is
now a small button called "List" that will show all of the
names in a company with a click. This does not do the same thing as
a double click on the main NAMES tab. This List feature takes you
to the name list screen, where you may use the profile and other sort
features of the list screen. The NAMES double click is just for navigation;
there is no sorting of the list that results.
On sendouts, you may enter notes for the sendout, as always. However,
if you add a sendout note BEFORE you hit SAVE, that note will then
copy to the name, company, and job activities. This is very useful
if you want the activity to note the fee, or salary, or anything
else about that particular sendout. If you type the note AFTER you
hit save, it will still save the note, but it wont write the note
to the activity logs of the name, company, and job.
On Job Orders, there are a few changes. The written by field is
now on the front Job screen. There is also a small checkbox that
says, "do not place on web" if you wish for a certain
job to be suppressed on your job board (if you are running the PCR
job board). There is also a new placement type for "contract"
if you need that information recorded.
A useful new function on the schedule is found under the file menu.
Group Schedule will show a graph with each user's day shown at one
time. The colored blocks show the number of appointments set for
each time block.
On the NAME SEARCH engine, you can now select resumes, notes, or
both for search limits. You can also just search summaries. Thats
good, but what's a summary ? A summary is a new tab on the NOTES
section of a name. If you place text in the summary, and you are
using the PCR job board, visitors to your site can search the text.
These can be blanked out resumes (no contact info) or summaries(!)
of the candidates. If your job board is set for "profit mode",
the summaries will be searched. If it's in "non profit"
mode, the resumes will be searched. If you dont use the job board,
you can use the summary tab for a second resume or for notes.
On rollup lists, we have made some changes to make them speedier
to use and better for exporting data. Now, when you hit the menu
item for "export list" you will get a CSV (or Excel) file
that includes the first 10 custom fields for each item. This is
great for reporting, exporting jobs and candidates to other software,
or any other time you need your data in a spreadsheet. If you do
pipeline tracking with custom fields, this will allow a nice quick
pipeline report using that data.
Some time savers while using the lists for call operations are
now in place. These include keyboard shortcuts to record attempts,
closed calls, and to launch a new activity window (CNTRL-A,-C, and
–R) and a new menu item called quick add. The quick add will
allow you to add names to a company from a grid right from the rollup
screen; very handy when sourcing or researching.
You also now may do a quick sort of a whole rollup list to just
those items that have activities coming due today, yesterday, tomorrow,
or in any date range. This menu is now under "active"
on the menu bar. When you select with this tool, the list will shorten
down to the results you want. To refresh the list back to it's original
state, just reselect it from the main list dropdown.
In the form letters, we have added the "identification"
field as an insert item. This allows mailings to include the identification,
very useful when you are running the PCR job board to remind people
of their PINS, but also very useful if you are tracking using the
identification field. In general, the identification field is a
good one to use for many things; recruiter, branch, main specialty,
etc…
You can now load the PCR themes to each individual desktop. Simply
do the extract on each PC; it does not matter where the .exe is
being called from. There is also a nice new theme; MONEY !!! its
all bits of currency and bank notes.
The serial number of the program is now suppressed once it has
been entered. PCR is now getting so popular that we seem to have
a bit of a piracy problem! Please keep in mind that if you do not
have a signed contract with Main Sequence, you are NOT an authorized
user. Without that contract, you may have to stop using the program
at any time and you may encounter other issues at some point. Please
be sure you have one.
And the biggest change for last; We have had some issues with RTF
formatting of resumes. PCRecruiter stores resumes INSIDE the database
(in the candidates table) as RTF objects. Rich text is the defined
document standard for software to transfer and hold formatted documents.
However, the vast majority of Resumes are written with Microsoft
Word and sent as .doc files. Docs are not RTF files. When the file
is converted to RTF, formatting errors can sometimes appear. These
are the result of users using strange fonts, or margins and spaces
instead of tabs, and other non-standard constructions. There is
often no way to repair these items short of rewriting them. Users
can then save them as Word files, or not use the item. They also
can attach them with a custom field. After thinking about the issue,
we decided to add a feature in PCR to help solve the problem. There
is now a menu item called file/set Word document. What this control
does is allow you to browse to a Word doc, and click on it. It will
automatically save the Word doc as an RTF and place the RTF into
the resume window. At the same time, it makes a custom field called
"Word Document" and gives the item a unique number identifier
while placing it into a new subfolder of the PCR folder called resumes.
This has the double advantage of saving the original in a linked
folder, while placing the RTF file into the database as always.
This allows mis-formatted items to remain useable as Word docs,
while still being searchable in PCR. This also allows the future
use of the raw item for any other reason, should you wish. We think
this method will work well as a hybrid between software that links
and searches external items and those that place objects directly
into the database. You may want to make this your standard resume
entry method.
The new PCRecruiter.com website is up; the content is mostly the
same but the look is all new. The support database is growing and
there is a lot of good info in there. Our Yahoo campaign has been
very effective, and we have a banner on vault.com. Vault has good
research data on companies as well as a job board. Skip this next
session if you don't want to be preached to about backup!
As always, please check and ensure that your backup is present
and accounted for. Too many times we have heard that "I stuck
the tape in there but….." or "I THINK it's getting
backed up" Backing up PCR is very, very simple. If you are
on Access, it's a simple cut and paste of the data file, and you
should have multiple backup files in multiple locations. There is
nothing complex about it. If you are on SQL, you need to ENSURE
that the backup is happening and that you CAN restore if you need
to. Don't take the chance of losing months or years of work on the
sheer hope that your drives wont fail or your server won't crash.
Spend what it takes in time and money to get it right. You may even
want to simulate a failure and restore; it's a smart thing to do
and it won't take more than an hour or two. Data loss can give you
very empty feeling when your software comes back up with one name
in it…. Thanks for all of your input and we are all looking
forward to the next set of changes.
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