Previous releases

New in Version 4.1                                                      

• Introduces login-based security for your Smartroster users. This feature implements levels of authority and allows users to edit and access relevant data while preventing alteration to data or schedules to which they are not authorised. This is great for allowing Role or Role-group coordinators or Event coordinators to create their own schedules while preserving the integrity of data outside those areas.

New in Version 4.0                                                      

• New PDF report engine - as a result, PDF report creation is 3 times faster. The default report save format is now PDF
  
• New View > Fullscreen (F11) option to make the most of large screens
  
• New email backend for greater compatibility across platforms and operating systems, with slight speed enhancement
  
• New WebShare backend. Now uses Amazon Web Services (S3 service) for greatly improved security, reliability and speed
  
• Changed the look and colors of the main window panels for better contrast and aesthetics
  
• Tidied up all fonts to Arial (TT fonts) instead of MS SansSerif and made font sizes consistent
  
• EmailQueue is MUCH faster to initially show old messages (viewing archived messages)
  
• When sending the same attachment file to many people, it no longer makes a separate copy for each individual (since the file is the same for each person receiving)
  
• Right-click menu in schedule timeslots shows a message if a person exceeds the automatic usage target but still allows them to be used
  
• Double click in an empty part of a schedule cell automatically brings up 'add comment' entry box (like right-click > 'add comment')
  
• If a person's name is typed into a comment matching a person in the database then that person will be scheduled rather than a comment being added
  
• Can select to save files compressed or uncompressed. This is useful to open files saved in version 4.0 in earlier versions of smartroster (as the compression format in 4.0 is not backwardly compatible)
  
• Changed People properties dialog in the report parameters dialog to be a real dialog instead of a pseudo-dialog
  
• At startup, automatically attempts to reopen webshare file from the web (if WebShare file was the last open)
  
• Numerous additional fixes

New in Version 3.8                                                       

• Use + and - keys (or schedule menu) to enlarge or shrink the schedule grid (fit more or less on screen)
• Can right-click "copy cell" in any schedule cell to copy the text of the cell to the clipboard
• New + and - buttons in the mail window to add or remove the respective item
• New "Email Tech-support" under the Help menu (assumes email is configured and working)
• Word reports now work with vb script files
• Consistent "+" and "-" buttons for adding or removing from lists
• Change the to [Schedule] field code. Can now include the date format in the code, eg [Schedule:d-mmm-yyyy]
• Hovering the mouse over a name in the People panel will highlight the person in the schedule (if in visible area)
• New report "Personal Profile" allows sending selected details ("on file") to individuals for review/correction/return
• New Shortcuts: "e" = hide/show Events panel, "p" = hide/show People panel,
  "r" = hide/show Roles panel, "s" = hide/show Schedules panel,

New in Version 3.7                                                        

• New absences entry dialog for entering absences - greatly speeds up data entry
• New absences summary report
• Send reminders via SMS/text messages (can still use email reminders or even both) with settings to determine for each volunteer how they prefer to receive reminders

New in Version 3.6                                                        

• New main window toolbar icons and modified main window colours
• Supports exporting and importing of UsageTargets and EnforcedBreak
• Line wrapping in reports much improved - now wraps long lines to fit so that text is not hidden
• New AM or PM indicator when adding single dates - helps add simple half day periods
• New 'change back to default' button to change event or role-groups colour back to default
• [RoleNames] field type added - only shows role names without role member usage targets
• Added additional date format for reports "mmm-dd <Day>"

New in Version 3.5                                                        

• New Help subsystem - now is Windows Vista (tm) - compatible
• Added new StartDate field for Person and Role-Member - can be reported, used in filters and reduces a person's automatically generated target where they start after the beginning of the current schedule
• StartDate also affects availability - ie not available before startdate
• Modified WebShare to make it slightly quicker and require fewer connections, and WebShare messages are more informative
• Added new "Secondary" property to role-event; if a role is secondary a person must be scheduled to primary role first (applies only to compatible roles)
• When bulk emailing - people not active as role member will not be copied bulk emails sent to that role
• Improved "Valid Event" panel to show additional properties
• Can now report just the Vacant slots
  Using the "Master Schedule" report, if <Master copy> is selected and "Hide non-recipients" ticked and you turn on show vacant slots (Schedule > Show vacant)
  
• Can now send to multiple email addresses for a single person (using semicolon to separate email addresses)
  eg useful to send the same message to a child and his/her parent
• If colour is used for Events, a pale version of the colour extends across the whole row
• Was slow to start when a networked printer was the default printer. This has been improved

New in Version 3.4

• Role Compatibility can now be qualified by Event (3.308)
• Added ability to toggle column and row locks in single menu selection (3.308)
• Allow one-off delete of pre-assigned timeslots using ALT key (3.310)
• Added new warning if entering dates that occur in the past (3.313)
• Can attach separate files for each role/event when sending reminders
• Saves filter history so you can easily choose from previously used filters
• Does not send reminder for people working on roles that are not being scheduled
• New Uni-directional association preference (tick the box in the associations dialog)
• eg. John should always be scheduled with Jack but Jack can be scheduled independently
• Absences in the Update Person Details dialog now shows full details
• Now easily publish ANY report directly to your web site in a single click operation (3.410)

New in Version 3.304

• The sender of email messages is now shown in the email dialog as well as email options and can be changed in either location
• Field codes list for right-click in email message are sorted, and "Custom_" no longer appears on its own.
• Warning "would exceed target" no longer shows for people who do not have an explicit usage target set
• New dialog for updating patterns (Event, Absence, Role-absence, Pre-assignment, Role-pattern)
• New dialog for updating usage targets - makes it much clearer how to do this and what the fields mean
• New dialog for updating association preferences
• New feature allows export and import of the schedule data separate from the rest of the data

New in Version 3.3 

• New Event colours
  - Allows user to select any colour for the event name in scheduled grid
  

• New Event enforced break
  - Enforces the break you enter after a person is scheduled in the respective event
  

• New Role-Group colours
  - Allows user to select any colour for all the roles in a role group
  - These roles show with the respective colour in the schedules grid
  

• New Send Email vCalendar attachments
  - Can now attach vCal format file so people can import their calendar straight into a compatible email/calendar app
  
  
• New usage target option: can now specify x "Days" per xxx interval
  - previously only supported "times" or "hours"
  
  
• New "Combine events on same date" report option
  - for Master II report, shows a single column (or row) for all events on the same day
  
  
• New "Show Contact List" option for schedule type reports
  - appends phone contacts to any schedule of type Individual, Master, or Calendar
  
  
• Event Roles dialog - now uses the same dialog as when you click in Valid Events panel for a role for consistency
• All reports now also show the time as well as the date created
• Changed Report Parameter dialog to use check LIST box for boolean report options - allows easier addition of new options, and more consistent layout
• In the alternate grid format (People by Event) cells are crosshatched for any any times where a person is absent
• Can now define the start and end time for adhoc date ranges that span multiple days
• Time drop-down boxes now show many more rows making it easier to select the time
• Terminology change: "Fixed Usage" to "Usage Target" which is consistent now across the program (as this was essentially the same thing)
• Important fix for usage targets which used the 3rd interpretation "In any x days" (as opposed to "in every x days" or "avg over the whole period") which was not working correctly where people were scheduled on most days
• Can now email schedule to people who are not actually scheduled or even on a role
• New Auto Update counter reset button under File > Options
  - to force updating when "Check for Update on startup" or manual "Check for updates" thinks you are already uptodate

New in Version 3.207

• New field type HomePhone which always returns the home phone number (whether or not a person is in a family)
• EmailQueue and Email forms show HTML preview pages as proper web pages instead of just text
• Email form allows editing using new "Edit as text" button for HTML page
• SMTP (Default) and SMTP (Alternate) both send HTML emails (not available for MAPI mail protocol)
• New column into Email Reminders form showing the schedule for each person listed for the period selected

New in Version 3.2

• New Custom Personnel fields
  - Create any number of new user-defined fields for your personnel records
  - Use the completely re-designed personnel inventory report to report on your own fields (see below)
  - Use the new fields to define filters - for use in main screen, in reports, or in dynamic groups
  - Import directly into the new user-defined fields

• New improved method of insertion of field codes into reminders or emails
  - Greatly expanded list of possible field codes - virtually any personnel information can be inserted into emails
  - Much easier method of inserting field codes into email - pick from the list to insert (does not rely on your spelling!)
  

• Faster AutoFill
  - Autofill is up to 200% faster due to improvements to scheduling engine
  

• Completely re-written email dialog
  - Now all email dialogs are consistent, whether a reminder, bulk email, personal email, or sending a report
  

• Improved Roles and Schedule tab of personnel details dialog
  - shows much more detail
  - allows you to manage a person roles in the "Update Person Details" dialog

• Completely re-written Personnel Inventory report
  - User-selectable columns to report - including new custom fields
  - Report Names in rows or columns
  - Set your own order of fields to report
  - Uses the new Properties button in the report parameters entry dialog

• New Calendar format schedule report
  Great looking Calendar format especially useful where you have things happening on most days of the week

• New Usage Target type
  - Previously you could choose "Average over the schedule" or "Max in each consecutive <period>"
  - Now you can select "Max in any <period>", eg "2 times in any given 2 week period".
  - The new option guarantees that for a given person they will never be scheduled more than so many times in ANY period of the determined length no matter when the period begins.
  - You can use this feature to create enforced breaks that only apply within a group of roles or events (if 1 time is selected)

• Dynamic groups now auto-calculate on file load
  Dynamic filters can be defined using any of the new personnel field codes - including new custom fields
  Dynamic filters for Events fixed

• New option "CC message to Group email" for bulk emails (new check box "CC message to Group email") - only available
  if you select "Each member of selected household[group]" in the drop down for selecting people
  

• New Label Templates (button on Report Paramaters form)
  - allows the user to customise the content of label reports (eg put email address or Phone numbers onto the label)
  

• Group members list now sorts Members by "surname, firstname"

• Can now add in household and groups as members of another group using the add button

• Fixed problem with MAPI email protocol (error when sent from Outlook "None of your email accounts were able to send the message")

• Numerous other bugs fixed

New in Version 3.1

• New Advanced Filters
  - Now you can easily create advanced filters to restrict the people you see in the people panel, or the people selected for reports
  - Filters can be based on the content of: Address, Age, Email, Events, Fax, Phone (fixed or mobile), Fullname, Groups, Notes, Postcode, PreferredName, Roles, Sex, State, Surname, Title, Town, Active, and ScheduledCount.
  - You can create complex filters by combining conditions such as "All females with surname starting with "S" younger than 23 who live in post code 2345" and including membership of groups, roles, or events which gives unlimited flexibility (this assumes you have a group called females and added all females into it)
  
  
• New HTML Email
  You can now send email in HTML (Web page) format. As long as the text of the message as the tags <HTML> and </HTML> present then SmartRoster will treat the message as html
  
  
• New Show Unscheduled Persons
  New menu "Schedule > Show unscheduled persons" displays a new column showing all persons for each event who have not yet been scheduled for that event
  
  
• New Dynamic groups
  Define a group whose membership is based on an advanced filter. You don't add or delete people manually from these groups but instead the members are calculated dynamically each time the group is referenced, using the search filter you have set
  
  

New in Version 3.0

• Announcing WebShare for file sharing over the internet
  - Seamlessly share data between multiple computers — even in entirely different locations!
  - Use our secure high performance FTP servers OR use your own internet file server, at your option!
    (FTP protocol required to use your own server)
  - three simple new options under the file menu make it easy to open or save your SmartRoster file to the internet
  - specify whether a particular workstation can update webshare files or is read-only
  
  
• New Global Restrictions
  Similar to role-event restrictions, you can now set restrictions that apply to a group of roles rather than just a single role
  
  
• New Schedule Panel format - Personnel on the vertical axis (left) , event date/time in the horizontal axis (top)
  - This new format will suit those where the majority of personnel serve frequently. The existing format may suit those with large numbers of serving personnel, where each person serves infrequently.
  - A new report has been created - Master II - which mirrors this new layout (choose whether people are columns or rows)
  - This new format makes use of Role Abbreviations, both in the Schedules grid, and on reports
  
  
• New "Show Active Only" option to People menu.
  If selected then all non-active (unticked) persons are hidden
  
  
• New Archive option under the email queue.
  This means your can archive older sent items so that you don't have to scroll down the complete list of all items ever sent each time you show sent items. Archived items are still available to browse or even re-send. No information is lost.
  
  
• New AutoNumber feature (Role-event setting) randomly assigns unique number to all occupants of same timeslot
  
  
• New "Member availability affects group" option on the Members tab when updating a person allows you to indicate whether a group's availability during Auto scheduling is affected by the group-member's availability
  
  
• New Paste menu option on Role Member menus permits easy copy/paste of members between roles
  eg. use Copy in one role and Paste in another role to copy members across roles
  
  
• New check on file open will disallow opening of a file in a version of SmartRoster earlier than the file's version
  Changes in this release mean that important data could be lost if this check were not made
  
  
• Improved SmartExplain
  now shows the reason why a person cannot be dropped into a cell as a hint alongside the mouse pointer
  
  
• Encrypted files are now much smaller (the same size as non-encrypted files) and more secure (not even Davallia Technology can open encrypted files without the password - so don't forget it!)
  
  
• Can edit absences for multiple role members in a single edit (Shift-select the members then click on Absences button)

New in Version 2.5

• New File Sharing protocol (if you purchased multiple licenses)
  - Enable the File Sharing protocol under the File > Options menu. This facilitates multiple users accessing the same SmarRoster file (such as in a LAN environment) by sharing write access to the file, while still allowing read access
  - File sharing can be enabled independently for each separate SmartRoster database.

• New Round Robin scheduling - You can now specify that the members of a role will be scheduled in a round robin fashion , that is, a strict repeating sequence. Role members will be scheduled in the order they appear in the role members panel. NOTE, Round Robin scheduling ignores association preferences but does consider personal, family, or role-member absences.
  - Order role-members. You may also now change the order of members in the role members panel, useful if you want to use round-robin scheduling. Just Un-tick the sorted menu choice in the role-members context menu and then change the order by dragging and dropping role members.

• New Fixed Usage Target options
  You can now decide how usage targets are interprete:; either as an average for the whole roster, or the maximum in each contiguous period. eg. "a Maximum of 1 time in each calendar month", or "an Average of 1 time per month over the whole roster". Also set targets in counts or hours (eg, "a maximum of 40 hours in each 4 week period starting on ...")

• New Always on Same Role option when adding an association preference.
  By using this option, you can easily specify that two people must always be scheduled in the same role, without adding individual preferences between each person and each role or role-group.
  

• New Create Linked Roles. When defining a Role-Group you can now link the roles together. This insures that the role members of each role in a role-group are automatically synchronised. Changes to a member of one role are automatically replicated to each linked role.
  
  
• Auto Scheduling changes
  - New Optimisation options. Now you may specify which of four different optimisation variables to optimise, and which variable has priority over which. You can now optimise for increased volunteer participation (to increase the total number of people scheduled during the roster period).
  
  
• Reporting changes
  - New Distribution Summary report
  - Also for both the Distribution Summary and Role Distribution reports you can select the value to report - count, hours, or target.
  - New Absences report - easily see on one page all absence records for selected people in a selected period
  
  
• New Costing functionality (Only available in the Commercial (unlimited persons) license)
  - Enter hourly rates and penalty rates and report costs in Role Distribution and Distribution Summary reports
  - Optimise the schedule to reduce total cost based on hourly rates
  

New in Version 2.4

• Email changes
  - New Email Queueing subsystem to control email sending, view status of emails, review exactly what the recipient will be getting, and even edit the message prior to sending, and automatic archival of sent messages. Just select "View message queue" from the Email menu. Works both for distribution and reminders. Old emails can be kept indefinitely, or deleted as desired. New "Auto Send" option allows you to decide whether to send immediately or allow review before sending.
  - New Email protocol - SMTP (Default). This is our most reliable format so far and supports email authentication where this is required by the server. The old SMTP protocol has been renamed as SMTP (Alternate) and is still available.

• Constraints modelling
  - All associations preferences can now specify a role group as well as a role or event
  - Household and group associations can now also specify an Role or Role group, and/or an Event.
  - Can now add a preference to a person to work with themselves on another role. This allows for specifying that a person always work on multiple roles, without making the roles strongly compatible, which would effect everyone in those roles (although the roles must still be "not incompatible")
  - Right-click to select people for manual scheduling will not show people who have exceeded their targets for the role

• Auto Scheduling changes
  - Up to 50% speed improvement has been achieved by internal changes to the way associations and groups are handled!
  - For persons that have a keep-together preference, SmartRoster now tries to schedule them in the same role before scheduling in different roles for the same event
  

• Reporting changes
  - Preference satisfaction report now reports "%together" which shows the average number of people in a group with a keep-together preference that are actually scheduled during the same event
  - Ability to replace scheduled groups or households with the individual member names in reports
  

New in Version 2.305

• Role Members list will display Event in grey if a role member can only serve one event, and it will not let the user enter the Event if only one is possible (avoids redundant, confusing data entry).
• When creating a association preference, it checks whether both persons share the role, if a role is given (to avoid impossible preferences)
• Added email SMTP authentication method and tidied up the Email Options dialog
• Fixed problem with Person drop down box when adding association preference
• Fix problem with changing "Include role in roster" tick box, then changing to a different schedule period

New in Version 2.3

• User interface improvements..
  - New Windows XP look and feel. such as rounded, 3D buttons
  - Rosters grid now shows "<Vacant>" for each timeslot vacancy (select the option from Rosters menu)
  - Easily clear old absence records ("People | Clear absences" menu)
  - When editing a new Event "Copy From event" will make all persons available for the copied event available for the new event
  

• New Role-Groups / Event-Groups
  - Define Role-groups under the Roles menu and Event-groups under the Events menu
  - Use these groups to create usage targets restricted to a subset of roles and/or events
  - Use role groups to report a group of roles in a single column (such as in the Master roster report)
  
  
• Auto Scheduling changes
  · New Usage targets may be restricted to a subset of roles and/or events (using the new role-/event-groups
  - Can now use people groups as a short cut to apply usage targets to multiple individuals at once
  - New person pre-assignment (similar to role member pre-assignment) which takes into account related roles or persons
  - Timeslot counting for individuals does not double up for a person on multiple roles for the same event (which should count as one)
  - Improved balancing of role targets for same person across multiple roles
  - Block-scheduling a person "Consecutively X Times" for a role in an event (eg "AM Service") can now be specified as "Consecutively X Days/Weeks/Months". In this case the person is scheduled for as many events (eg AM Services) as occur in the specified period, regardless of how many times that is.
  
  
• Reporting changes
  - New print multiple roles in a single column as if they were the same role (with a role abbreviation suffix)
  - New "Association preference satisfaction" report shows which preferences were satisfied and which were not
  - New sign-in sheet -- the "Event-per-page" report has been extensively improved. The "Show attendance columns" option allows you to show each Attendance Status flag as a column next to the names for producing a sign-in sheet.
  - Also the "Event-per-page" report exports to Word correctly and does not show roles when a role is not required by an event
  - Event comment (under "Show extra" --> "Include dates" tab) now prints correctly on all reports
  - "Role Members" report now also exports to Word
  
  
• Email
  - Now remembers the last text of bulk emails or any report sent through email
  - The Distribution dialog allows easy single click clear-all or select-all for the "By Email" and "By Post" check boxes
  - When sending it automatically un-ticks correctly sent messages making it easy to retry sending unsent messages

New in Version 2.2

• New Role-Event Restrictions by Group membership
  - You can now restrict the numbers of people to assign to each role-event combination (or for a role and all events) by the group they belong to. For instance, "Kindy helper" role in the 10:00am service must have "at least one Female" (assumes you have a Group called "Female"), or, for the "Sound Tech" role in <All Events> must have no more than one "Trainee sound tech" (assumes you have a Group called "Trainee sound tech").
  - Restrictions types include "at least..", "exactly", "at most..", and "all or none". In the latter case, for instance, if you have a "Males" group then this would allow you to set "must be ALL male or ALL female".
  - Multiple restrictions can be set for the same Role-Event pair
  - Note: the Trainee flag for Role Members has been superseded by this feature, but it is retained for backwards compatibility. You can still use the Trainee flag feature; it will continue to work as expected
  
  
• New Role-member pre-assignments
  Double-click on a role member to pre-assign them to the schedule (before manual or automatic assignments). Can pre-assign according to any pattern such as "every second week", or "the first and third Sunday of every other month". Pre-assignments show as green in the rosters grid

• New "Yearly" Event pattern recurrence type
  Can specify an event as occurring "Yearly" which is great for those anniversary type events like Christmas and Boxing day. You don't have to specify the exact year which means you don't have to change the date every year. While the Monthly tab could have been used for this, it was not very obvious to many users
  
  
• New Attendance status
  Create your own attendance status descriptions and then apply them to historic schedules to indicate attendance (or lack of) for people who were supposed to serve. Then run the new "Attendance" Report which counts for each person's attendance status. A person in the schedules grid with an attendance status assigned has the red A flag next to their name.
  
  
• User interface improvements..
  - "Applies to Events" box in the Roles panel now shows all info at a glance
  - "Compatible Roles" box in the Roles panel now shows both roles and compatibility strength at a glance
  - The Events panel now shows information about the Event in the main panel
  - When editing events can now select "Copy From" to copy settings from another event
  - Can re-order Roles when shown in List format by dragging role up or down the list
  - Double click on a role when in the List format to rename the role
  
  
• Reporting changes
  - New option - "Hide non-recipients" will only show the recipient's name on a roster report, rather than everyone, which makes it easier for them to see where they are scheduled
  - Increased the size of the Recipients name in the header of roster reports to make it more visible
  
  
• Email fixes
  - Minor fixes to SMTP emailing to work better from within a LAN environment
  - Added utility ("ClickYes", by ContextMagic.com) to fix an issue with the new Outlook security features introduced in Outlook 2000 (SR2 and newer) which causes a popup message when you use the MAPI method of sending mail
  

New in Version 2.1

• New! Role Member absences - distinct from person absences, apply only to a person in a role (and also in a specific event if that is given).
  
• New! "Trainee" role members. Trainees are always assigned with at least one non-trainee to a given role
  
• New! "Role Members" report - lists contact details for people with separate page for each role/event combination
• New! drag and drop handling automatically assigns always keep together persons, and a person to mandatory roles
• New! Role > Display As menu - can now display roles as tabs OR as a list in a list box - great for when you have many roles
  
• New! "Treat group as one" check box in theRole Event properties dialog. Will allocate a group as if it was a single person
• Improved comment handling - A person's name entered as a comment is automatically converted, and unused comments are automatically deleted. Also can now manage comments from the Comment tab of the people panel.
  
• Removed option 'Interpret "Always keep together" preference literally'. "Always together" is now always enforced. Please use "Strongly prefer together" if you do not want the relationship strictly enforced.
• All reports exported to MS Word have tables set so that single rows do not span multiple pages.
  
• The "role inventory" report now only includes the actual roster period (not look back period) in count of actual usage.
  
• Changed the way role members who do NOT have a fixed usage target are allocated - makes the actual usage much more even in some instances.
• Fixed problems with allocating role members "consecutive" times (>1). Was sometimes not working, or ignoring other constraints.
• Fixed compatible roles handling - not always allocating a person to "Mandatory" compatible roles.
• Fixed "...TEMP" events! Those occasional events with "TEMP" suffixed are history.
• Fixed export to Word for reports with horizontal dates.

New in Version 2.03

• Autoscale all fonts in all reports - New "Multiply all font sizes" field in report parameters entry window allow you to scale the fonts in any report compared to the page size. Either expand or shrink the fonts by any amount
  
• Can now enter a person's home phone details without needing to create a separate household record for them - great if you aren't using household (family) records
  
• Smartroster now shows the number of active (ticked) people in the current file - useful for customers with limited-person licenses
  
• Fix for "Always keep apart" - two people could still be scheduled together if on different but overlapping events

New in Version 2.02 (encorporating 2.01)

• New! Role Distribution report - great for analysing who is being scheduled most or least often
  
• New! Auto Web Update feature - look under menu Options | Organisation
  This feature allows you to never miss an update! If you have online access, this will (optionally) check for updates and download and install them fully automatically.
  
• New! "Copy to clipboard" button in the SmartRoster Viewer
  Run any report in SmartRoster, and just click on the "Copy to clipboard" button in the viewer to transfer the text in convenient tab-delimited format into the clipboard, where you can paste it into any application you like for formatting or analysis
  
• New! tiered license structure makes Smartroster more affordable for smaller organisations!
  By accepting a limit on the number of people that can be entered, all the scheduling, reporting and email features of SmartRoster are made available at a reduced price. Great for smaller churches. See here for pricing details.
  
• New "Clear all" and "Select all" buttons into the Events tab of the “Update person details” dialog, and in the Events panel
  
• "Copy to clipboard" menu option added to the People menu (puts all personnel details into the clipboard in tab-delimited format)
  
• New options for controlling how non-fixed usage is allocated
  

New in Version 2.0

• new! full context-sensitive online help
  - just hit F1 or the Help button in any screen
  
• User interface improvements
  - new! Windows XP-like open/save dialogs
  - new! Role Notes
  - new! Role Members list can be shown as list view or detail view, the latter giving additional information
  - new! Set the name format as "Firsname", "Firsname Lastname", or "Lastname, Firsname" (Role list and Rosters grid)
  - Re-order the events in the events list by drag-and-drop
  - When dragging group/household from people panel to role members, can now select to add individuals from the group as role members instead of just the group itself
  - Repainting of the rosters grid is now much smoother
  - Right-click menu over the grid loads faster
  - Previous/Next period buttons work correctly over month boundaries when selecting the roster period
  - <Ctrl>-dbl-click on a role member displays the person's record rather than the role member record
  - People and Role-Member lists maintain their current position when editing a person or role member
  - New "Copy" menu in the RoleMember, Event, and Rosters grid popup menus allows you to easily copy a list of Role Members, Events or the Schedule grid respectively, to paste into your word processor or spreadsheet.
  
• Reporting improvements
  - new! Role Inventory report, which can also be published to Word (2000 or higher)
  - new! Personnel Inventory report, which can also be published to Word (2000 or higher)
  - One-line Directory report can now also be published to Word (2000 or higher)
  - SmartRoster print document format now stores the page settings correctly
  
• AutoFill improvements
  - new! Workload balancing algorithm - totally rewritten - intelligently balances workload (usage) target across multiple events
  - Contraint score calculation is now updates immediately on any grid change, manual or automatic
  
• Email
  - Add field codes to messages (subject and body) for substituting with actual values
  - Cancel buttons works correctly for SMTP email
  
• History retention
  - Now keeps full history of previous schedules in the same file. Previous schedules are only deleted when you use the "Clear" function.
  
• Fixed
  - Fixed the import form, which was too large in lower resolutions
  - Role Patterns now work correctly
  - Timer problem fixed which caused AutoFill timer to immediately time out
  

New in Version 1.42

• Import people's events
  Added ability to import and export of people's valid events. It automatically creates the events if they don't exist, but you still need to configure the events (the event properties are not imported)
  
• Improved import from native SmartRoster (.ros) file
  - It loads all personnel and absences from the import file but NOT preferences - useful for maintaining a central personnel .ros file with different SmartRoster users autoloading the peronnel data into their own SmartRoster file
  - AutoImport also gives feedback when auto-import occurs when you open a SmartRoster file with AutoImport enabled
  
• Reporting improvements
  - "Role per page" report implemented
  - Can now report on events that are disabled in the main screen without first enabling them
  - Selecting "On Roster" now correctly reflects the Roles and Events selected, and the reporting date range
  - The "Select Events" panel in the report setup window can be re-sized to show more events
  - The "Export to Word" function now additionally works for the "Mailing Labels" and "Reminder Labels" reports
  - Reports now remember the date range for the report, if different to the Roster Period in the main window
  
• Working in the rosters grid..
  - The context popup menu over a timeslot now sorts names alphabetically
  - Locked CELLS now indicated by a lock icon in top right of cell
  - Fixed a problem of Cell locks being lost after Autofill
  
• "Always Keep Together" preference handling
  - A new option 'Interpret "Always keep together" preference literally' now exists under File | Options | Autofill. If ticked then SmartRoster will NOT schedule anyone grouped by an "Always keep together" preference to a certain date/time unless unless EVERYONE in the group can be scheduled on the same date/time
  
• New "Enforced Break Applies between members" checkbox
  If ticked then the Enforced Break set for a group (or household) not only applies to each individual in the group(as if set for each person individually) but also BETWEEN each of the individuals in the group
  
• Roles only show role members available for the selected events
  Now it is easier to see who is available for events. Only those people available for the active events are visible in the role members panel
  
• New SMTP Email
  The SMTP email functionality has been re-written from the ground up for reliability and speed. It also gives instant feedback as to the progress for each message sent, and allows multiple simultaneous connections for faster message sending (especially useful for broadband connections)
  
• Fixed
  Numerous fixes have been addressed in this version. In particular, a Role | Pattern bug that caused Role names to appear as Events in the Events list, and problems that caused smartroster files to take very long time to load, or caused the Rosters grid to appear blank event though the timeslots were not empty. Also a bug that caused Always Keep Apart" preferences to be ignored.
  

New in Version 1.40

• Add Comments into any timeslot
  Right-click in any timeslot and select "add comment" to add an arbitrary comment, or select from previous comments
  
• EnforcedBreak for RoleMembers
  Now you can specify an EnforcedBreak that applies only to a person in a specific role. Good for enforcing breaks for single roles instead of for a single person or globally
  
• "Next Event" in Role member dialog
  Within a Role, specify for a person the Event to schedule following another event eg. Always schedule John into the next available "Event B" timeslot after scheduling him into a "Event A" timeslot
  
• New "Spare" role members
  Set a role member to "spare" will cause them to only be scheduled when no one else is available. You can still give a spare person a maximum usage so that they won't be scheduled too often
  
• New "Scheduled" tab in the People update dialog
  This new tab shows all scheduled timeslots for a person, similar to the email reminder format, great for reviewing where a person is scheudled when the roster period is too large to fit on the display at once
  
• Different Events with same start time
  You can now define as many Events as you wish with the same start time
  
• Increased resolution of EnforcedBreak
  Enter EnforcedBreak as minutes, hours or days
  
• New Import option
  After an Import (delimited text file) specify whether or not to delete existing records that were not added or updated
  
• New date-time formats in Report dialog
  For reports show event <Day> and <Time>, together or separately, without the date, or no date/day/time at all
  
• AutoFill improvements -
  Randomize Role Order - letting AutoFill use random role order when scheduling may find a better solution
  Fill all required slots - AutoFill first priority is now to fill all required slots before optimising usage or preference satisfaction
  Advanced settings - gives you more control over how AutoFill chooses people for the schedule
  Accounting for availability - Takes better account of user absences when allocating timeslots
  
• Fixed in 1.4
  Prevent recursive groups putting smartroster into hard CPU loop; Grid re-sizes correctly on "clear grid"; Fixed the "Find" box; AutoFill fix when using lookback period; Lookback days ignores prior events with no one assigned; Click-and-hold on Event in "Applies to events" panel temporarily displays role members valid for that event; Fixed printing multiple names per timeslot - some names did not print, and other fixes too.

New in Version 1.3

• Restrict role member usage by event
  A person can be assigned to Role1 for EventA and Role2 for EventB. They can also have a usage preference of "once a month" for Role1 in EventA and "fortnightly" for Role1 in EventB.
  
• User Interface improvments
  The rosters grid now highlights successive Days as white or gray, not successive rows. Makes it easier to see which day you are working with. Also, timeslots are cross-hatched where the role is not required for the event.
  
• Better control over Availability cascading
  Specify for each group or household whether its availability will apply to each member of the group or household (yes, by default).
  
• SmartExplain technology
  When manually allocating people to a schedule and the cursor indicates the person cannot be "dropped", the status bar will now explain the reason (most of the time).
  
• New "Label" reports
  Try out the new "Mailing Labels" and "Reminder Labels" reports. Just choose Labels from the Report menu and select a report type. Use the Paper settings (Cols, Rows, Margins) to define your label layout.
  
• Hide rows in reports
  Hide rows (dates) where the report recipient does not participate in the event.
  
• Improved email reminders
  Added "Ignore previous reminders" and select between dates, in email reminders
  

New in Version 1.2

• Enforced Breaks - Now you can guarantee a minimum number of hours or days between scheduled timeslots for any person, household or group. Global enforced breaks also available.
  
• Export Rosters - Easily export your rosters, exactly as shown in the main rosters panel, in tab-delimited format or as an html table, for importing into other programs.
  
• Notes - SmartRoster now allows the storage of notes on any person, household or group, to keep track of information they may have given you, or preferences that you need to keep in mind.
  
• Fixed in 1.2 - Deleting blank events, printing with many columns, left column width corrected in reports, "undo" function, highlighting of names for households and groups, Individual roster report blanks role selection, "Individual" report type only shows roles relevant to Events, Event-per-page report with multiple columns.

New in Version 1.1

• MAPI support - Now you can use the MAPI mail protocol which provdes full integration with Microsoft Outlook™ or other MAPI-compatible email services. For example, this provides a full email "sent items" history for items sent via SmartRoster.
  
• Personal Preference Restriction - Personal Preferences can now be restricted by Event and/or Role. This means that a preference (Keep together or Keep apart) between two people can be restricted so that it only applies to a certain event (such as AM service) or role.
  
• AutoFill Order. Previously the AutoFill function would fill rosters in the display order in which roles were presented in the Roster grid. To change the AutoFill order you had to change the display order (which also effected the printouts). Now the AutoFill order can be set independently of the display/printout order.
  
• Improved stability - a number of important bugs have been fixed in this release.