Macro Express 3 and Datatel Benefactor/Colleague Advancement

[balithag]

Hi there,

I've been a fan of Macro Express 3 for 6 or 7 years. I used it first at Baker College to harvest information from a text-only screen of an AS/400 system to bring into Microsoft Access. The solution I designed there is still being used, though it may soon be replaced.

 

Now I'm at a different Michigan college in the fundraising area and using Macro Express 3 much more for data entry into Datatel Benefactor. I'm going to be presenting on "Benefactor Data Entry with Macro Express 3" at the national Datatel Users' Group conference in early March.

 

Is there anyone else out there using Macro Express 3 with Benefactor or other Datatel products? We plan to move to Datatel's Colleague Advancement in the next couple of years. I've experimented with the Get Control command on Datatel's "UI 1.5" (graphical user interface) with mixed results. The controls in the screens don't seem to have particularly unique control addresses, so ME3 has a hard time telling where the "focus" is in the process of data entry. I end up relying on default tab orders to move among controls, with lots of pauses added between movements because the Datatel response to a click or an entry can vary so widely. I have to design pauses to last for the longest response time I've experienced, which wastes some time when the actual response rate at the moment is shorter.

 

I guess I'm just looking for someone who has dealt with similar issues using Macro Express 3 and who might have a chance of helping me look even a little less ridiculous in front of a group of colleagues from across the country. Of course it may be too late!

[balithag]

Well, the presentation went okay, though there was microphone trouble for much of it. I found out that The College of Wooster uses Macro Express 3 with Datatel products a fair bit, and I'll be discussing applications for Macro Express 3 in the Datatel forums.