Exact/Macola Tips:
Do you still see pushpins next to your search binoculars on every screen? Activate your notes by editing the Macola7.ini file on your C: drive's Windows or Winnt directory and inserting a row with the text: Check-For-Notes=Yes at the bottom of the first group. Restart Macola and white pads will appear in place of pushpins if no notes have been entered for the corresponding items. Pushpins will now indicate that there is a note attached to the item.
When you bring a report to the screen, you may change the font style and size in the upper section of the screen. This will not affect printer output, but make it much easier to read the screen. You can also position and freeze a vertical line so you don't lose what's on the left side of the screen when you scroll right. Either click your mouse on the double dashed line at the top of the screen where you want to set the freeze, or hold the Alt key while you push the right or left arrow key. Don't forget to click the Find box in the top left of the screen if you want to have the system find a string of characters anywhere in the report. The system searches downward from your position on the report and does not loop back around. This is helpful in finding order numbers, items, dates, descriptions, vendors, customers and amounts, to name a few.
Macola has a search wild card that will find a string of characters anywhere in a description or number field. When the search box comes up, enter a % (percent sign) immediately before the string of characters you enter. The search will return all items that include this string of characters anywhere in the field you are searching on. The more characters, the finer the search.
If you run a bill of material view or report and the system freezes up, you may have an item defined in a bill of material that does not have an item master record. Run the reset low level codes procedure and note the parent item that it stops on. Go to bill of material maintenance and scroll down the items in the bill as you watch the description field. Delete the item with the blank description or set it up in the item master if applicable.
If you are running an MRP and it is abnormally terminated, the system will return a message that an MRP is in progress if you try to run it again or view reports. There is a hidden flag in the MRP set up file that must be initialized in order to start a new MRP run. Go to the MRP set up file and either print the screens or note your settings. Go to the system manager and initialize the MRP control file and all the other MRP files EXCEPT the MRP location file. This will clear out any stray data. Reenter the set up information and you can now run MRP.
When you run a transaction history report by item, do you ever get those nasty little asterisks * where the ending balance does not equal the beginning balance for no apparent reason? This is caused by the user abnormally terminating the transaction by either hitting Control-Alt-Delete, shutting off the computer, or getting a frozen screen, then having to end the task. The system will use up a document number which will never appear in the transaction history file. If lot or serial numbers are also involved, and you have already made it to the lot/serial assignment screen, but have not yet highlighted at lot or serial number, but then abnormally terminate, the quantity on hand is affected only. The result is an out of balance condition between the stock status quantity on hand and the lot/serial quantity on hand. Perform a lot/serial ("L" type) adjustment in the inventory transaction function to adjust the lot or serial number. If you have already highlighted the lot or serial number at the time of abnormal termination, both the quantity on hand and the lot or serial number quantity are affected, but neither will appear in the transaction history file. Since there is no out of balance condition, this one is more difficult to spot. Perform a receipt ("R" type) or Issue ("I" type) transaction to correct this.
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