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 BookWriter™ Professional: Inventory Management
Software for selling books online should make inventory management easy and fun, not a tedious or daunting task. If a bookselling program is not well-designed, a great deal of time can be consumed by data entry alone — never mind the day-to-day realities of sales, purchases, and those inevitable hands-on chores. Inevitably, attention to detail suffers for the sake of expediency.
Good inventory management is as much art as science, but in a competitive selling environment, flexibility and adaptability are paramount issues. A successful seller can't be burdened with unstable, unreliable or unworkable software. Efficiency is mandatory and information must be readily accessible, easy to enter and manage. And most importantly, it must be capable of being manipulated in different ways.
That's why we've put so much effort into developing BookWriter Professional's inventory management system. We know that every bit of time saved is precious. We know that sellers just want to be sellers, not computer technicians. And, we know that putting a software system in place to serve as the centerpiece of a successful business is no small matter. Intuitive operation, sensible functionality and a short learning curve are all essential.
The outline below summarizes some of BwPro's inventory management features. Simple, powerful, easy to operate, yet capable of handling sophisticated demands. Is BookWriter Pro a magic bullet? No. But it does move three giant steps closer towards achieving a workable, scalable, and affordable solution.
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INVENTORY RECORD DIALOGUE
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The Inventory dialogue has four tabs, each containing different information and features to help you manage your book records. It interfaces tightly with several other areas of the program, including the Record Queue, Hit List, Quick Display, Invoices and others.
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The Description tab provides fields for basic text information. Most of the fields contain their own separate drop-down menus from which you can make selections instead of having to type (up to 32,000 entries can exist in each menu). A TypeAhead feature automatically fills in the rest of the text when you type the first few characters (can be turned on and off). The button near the top left corner provides access to the ISBN Lookup feature. The button next to the Notes field expands and contracts the field on the screen so as to display as much of the information as possible during data entry. The primary navigation and record management controls are at the bottom of the window. Like all other floating windows, the dialogue can be resized to be as small or large as desired. This is helpful to people with poor eyesight, small monitors and/or laptop computers.
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The Accounting tab contains all of the financial, retail and auction data. The area addresses most, if not all, of the inventory management needs of the majority of both in-store and online merchants. The tab also contains the controls to interface a record with the Invoice and Purchase Order systems for one-off reporting and sales-on-demand.
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The Images tab contains controls to associate images with the record. Up to ten (10) images can be associated. In addition, there are a number of special work-saving features available to select images, set the display sequence, perform automatic image associations, and more (see Tools & Utilities for additional information).
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The Preview tab allows you to produce instant paragraphs, auctions, catalogs, etc. In data entry mode, the Preview pane lets you see how your record will look when it is composed before it is stored. You can instantly produce any of several different types of structured documents, with or without images.
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DATA ENTRY FEATURES
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BookWriter provides a wealth of data entry features designed to reduce the number of steps required to enter a complete, accurate and professional record. The Quick Entry dialogue is a good example:
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A variety of setup presets allow you to customize your data entry activities to best suit your needs:
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The Attribute and Defect descriptions can also be entered however you wish to best reflect your particular cataloging style:
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The Data Entry menus associated with each field can be built from scratch, or automatically by scanning your database and extracting all of the unique entries for the selected field:
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There are other data entry features not shown here. Note that with few exceptions, the same basic approach to data entry and record management is common to all record storage areas (Inventory, Contacts, Wants). Thus, becoming proficient in one area makes you proficient in all of them.
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WORKING WITH HIT LISTS
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A Hit List is nothing more than a list of related records. BookWriter Professional provides sophisticated selective retrieval capabilities allowing you to automatically create highly-structured, related record groups. These can subsequently be used throughout the program for editing, composition, uploading and a wide range of purposes.
Unlike SQL-based systems that restrict you to a query-based methodology (generally involving complex formulas, the results of which are often inaccurate, incomplete, or both), BookWriter allows precise, iterative searches; i.e. you can "build" a hit list in progressive stages, further refining your criteria each time. This lets you focus precisely on the records you want to retrieve. A sample Hit List display appears below:
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BookWriter provides many ways to produce a Hit List. Aside from simple manual selections of records or applying record ranges, you can easily perform sophisticated search/retrievals. The most basic method is a Category Search. In the example below, the bookseller needs to produce a simple 20-item Civil War catalog for a collector/customer, containing books priced between $10.00 and $25.00, sorted by Author and Title:
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You are not restricted to working with database fields. BookWriter can also perform intelligent Word Searches. In the example below, the bookseller needs to retrieve all records with the words "Gold" and "Rush" but not the words "Alaska" or "Alaskan" with prices no higher than 40.00, limited to the first 100 hits:
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You also are able to perform sophisticated selective retrievals using Boolean values and/or multiple qualifiers. In the example below, BookWriter will retrieve all "In Stock" books published by Grabhorn press, restricted to those records already previously selected, with the term "Exploration" anywhere in a Keyword field, having Prices that fall between $25.00 and $100.00 -- all in a single, easy step. The formula required to do this with the usual Microsoft query-driven SQL database would be so complex as to be well beyond the ability of most booksellers. However, BookWriter makes it easy:
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Hit List search criteria can be saved and recalled later. A virtually-limitless number of combinations are possible. You can even build your own library of complex searches and recall any of them instantly. You can also apply an externally-created list of record numbers saved in a text file, as well as manipulate the order of records on the fly.
In addition, a Hit List can be sorted in virtually any way imaginable using the Sort Selected Records dialogue:
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Screen shots for other Inventory management features, such as the Record Queue, Quick Display, ISBN Lookup, and Field Name Setup are not available at the present time. These and other dialogues will be added at the earliest opportunity.
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MORE SCREEN SHOTS
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Inventory Management
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Contact Management
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Wants Management
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Accounting & Reports
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Last Updated 02-09-06
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Last Updated 02-09-06
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Last Updated 02-09-06
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Last Updated 02-09-06
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Composition & Production
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Uploading
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Tools & Utilities
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Help & Support
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Last Updated 02-09-06
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Last Updated 02-09-06
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Last Updated 02-09-06
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Last Updated 02-09-06
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Click on any area above to see some sample dialogues. Please note these are PRELIMINARY views of portions of the entire program. Additional features are being added as each area is finalized.
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Try BookWriter Professional without obligation. Download the software and take 30 days to evaluate it.
We think you'll agree it's the most versatile program of its kind available anywhere.
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