Menus
The File Menu displays the drop menu below giving you the option to select the specific printer you wish to print to for this session in My Inventory. If selected the standard Windows Printer Dialogue will be displayed. The other option is to Exit the program and close all open windows.
The Edit Menu displays the standard Windows edit dialogue so you can cut, copy or paste data in active fields. If there is no editable record open then the selections are grayed out and unavailable.
The Setup Menu folds out the below options. From here you can select to open any of the below windows for editing. See Also: Control (Registration), Appraiser, Insurance, Giver, Owner, Heirs, Warranties, Item List, Location List, Item Type List, Item Category, Item Sub-Category, View Image List, View Passwords, or View Accounts.
These Options are:
Do you have any property or items that have been appraised? If you have items of specific value that require special insurance or proof of there value you may have an appraisal on them. If you do then you would have the option to enter the appraisal information for your records. If you don't have appraisals and have items of particularly high value you might consider an appraisal. Items such as silver,jewelry, collections such as stamps, coins, guns or other rare items are good candidates for an appraisal.
Do you keep track of gifts and who gave them to you? Some people want to remember that the vase in the cabinet was a gift from Aunt Maude at the Christmas of 1995. If you do you might want to turn this feature on. If not, well so much for Aunt Maude...
Do you want to assign to heirs to inherit your property? This one may be a bit touchy for some. You may also want to consider the password options below if you decide to use this. This is more for your very personal use to give you an idea of what item you want to go to who. This is in no way intended to supersede a will or written document at the time of your passing but it can help to keep things in perspective while you are looking at your inventory. On a personal note if you do not have a will, get one. When you get one spell out who gets what. Unless you have only one heir you are leaving a mess for your family. It does not matter how tight knit a family is at the time of a death everyone wants Mom's china or Dad's stereo equipment or who gets the jewelry and how should it be fairly split up. GET A WILL AND SPELL IT OUT!!! These fights have ruined family relations for a lifetime.
Do you have special insurance coverage or insurance riders? Some do, some don't. If you do and you want to track that special insurance select this option and it will be available. Again a personal note. Most people think they are adequately insured and you might well be. If however, you have items or collections that have a higher than average value you need to insure them. Most policies have limits for every category of item such as guns at $1,500, Jewelry at $2,000 or a stamp collection at $500. If you have $15,000 in jewelry that is lost or stolen, guess how much you will get paid by the insurance company. Get the picture. Even proving how much you had with this program will not help you. The insurance company will pay you only up to the limits printed in the policy. One more comment on insurance policies. Most policies valuations are based on depreciation. That is you have for example a twenty year old Ethan Allan den set and wall unit that you paid $3,000 for at the time. If you have a loss the insurance company will tell you... "Lets see, you paid $3,000 twenty years ago and with depreciation we will replace it for $100" Think I am kidding, think again. It does not matter the condition or quality they use a flat table to value it and that is what you get. You can add a clause to you insurance called one-hundred percent replacement and I will tell you GET IT. With one-hundred percent replacement the conversation goes like this... "You know that Ethan Allen set you lost in the fire, well go order another and send me the receipt" I like the second statement much better. The cost of one-hundred percent replacement riders is too cheap to even think about, probably fifteen to twenty dollars per year on your policy. Well worth it at almost any price.
Do you have property owned by others? (Borrowed, Rented etc.). Do you rent your computers, autos, tools or work equipment? Do you have Uncle Fred's lawn tractor? If not then you don't need this option and select No.
Do you keep track of purchases and warranties? If so select yes. By the way, it is a good idea when you are adding your inventory items to the program that you scan the receipts for the expensive items right into the program. That way there is no question as to where you purchased it and how much it cost.
Do you track items no longer in your inventory? This is not needed by too many but it can come in handy if you need to track a loss for taxes or insurance. Tracking the sale of items can also be handy in case of disputes.
The Report Menu gives you more options than just the report button on the main frame. The first selection is the same as the report button. The insurance values report is a simple line report of the items in your inventory and the values you entered. The Inventory Ruler is a report that prints out an accurate scale ruler used to photograph smaller objects where you need to have a reference to an accurate scale.
On the Report Menu there is a fly out Image Reports menu that contains the image only reports. Here you can select from printing a single image per page all the way to printing a thumbnail page with numerous images at a single time.
The Utility Menu contains several features that control the options in the program as well as specific functions that we needed to put somewhere. Here you can turn Tool Tips on or off. Tool Tips are those popup messages that display information about a field or control. While tool tips are useful when you first start using a program, after awhile they can become a tad obnoxious. This option allows you to turn them off so they are not in your way. When you open or close the program you are greeted with a friendly voice saying Good Morning or Thank You when you leave. If you want to turn our friendly greater off you can do that here. By default, all reports are printed into a PDF file and PDF preview. This is useful for storage of the reports and allows you to email them or save them to a disk or CD for safe keeping in a safety deposit box. PDF files to take a bit to generate so if you want you can turn the PDF preview off here. The PDF preview will be replaced with a standard windows report preview window that you can view or print.
Display Options are covered on the below menu for the Fly Out menu.
Contact Us displays information about the company and how to contact us.
E-Mail Tech Support calls up your default E-Mail client and addresses an email directly to our technical support. Once open all you need to do is add the subject line and give your question or concern. No information is sent to us other than the email that you create. There is no personal data copied or transmitted at any time.
Register brings up a report that you email to us with the registration information. To use this you first must fill in all the information on the registration screen with your name and address. See Registration. Once we receive confirmation of your purchase we will send you the registration / Unlock codes. Note: Once the program is registered, this option is no longer available.
Check for Updates calls a small web based application to see if you have the latest version of the program. If there are updates a small wizard window will walk you through the update process. By using web based updates we can keep your copy up to date utilizing a much smaller file than making you have to update and download the full program installation. Note 1: Using this option requires that you be on line so it can read the file version on our website. Note 2: Once the download has completed, you will need to close My Inventory before applying the Patch. Note 3: No personal information is transferred to us or our site, this is totally private.
Reorder Inventory Records displays a reorder screen. By default when you print an inventory report it prints in record order. There will be times that we do not enter data into the program that would appear logical in a report. This window allows you to change the order of your inventory records to better fit your reporting requirements.
Export to CSV (Comma Separated Values) creates an export file called C:\ProgramData\Matrix\My Inventory\Data\Inventory.CSV . This file will allow you to view your inventory in Microsoft Excel or other spreadsheet program. Once created open your spread sheet and locate the file.
Backup Data is a built in utility that allows you to make a complete copy of your program and all of your data to another drive on your computer, another drive on a networked computer, a CD-r, CD-RW, DVD-r or DVD-RW. Fore more information see the Backup section in this file.
The Display Options Fly Out Menu allows you to turn off (or on) options that you may not want or need. For example, lets say you will never have a formal appraisal or are not interested in gifts or who gave them to you. By selecting these options you can turn off these features. Once turned off, the tabbed displays for these categories are removed and these options are not available in your reports. Should you change your mind at a later time you can turn on whatever features you need at that time.
The Help Menu allows you to call up the Windows Help file for this program rather than pressing F1.
About The Program calls up the program start up Splash Screen displaying the person the program is registered to, or the organization that presented the program. It also displays the current version number as well as the copyright notification. This window remains open for three seconds and then closes automatically.
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