xlWorkbench Home
Guide: Contents | FAQ | Glossary | What's New | Contact

xlWorkbench Online Guide
Section 1: About This Guide

Previous  |  Next

1.1 A Final Word Anthem Tax Workbench is a work-in-progress. Version 2.0 is meant to prove the viability of the overall Workbench concept—Does it work? Is it useful? Do people like it? —and to lay down a baseline for future development—What parts work well? What parts could be improved? What functions could be added?

In creating version 2.0, I concentrated on resolving critical design issues and implementing basic navigation and printing functions. That is, I focused on getting the technical fundamentals, the things a user never sees, right. I spent less time polishing the visible aspects of the program, the toolbars and menus you do see, for this reason if no other: I need feedback. I need to know what seems straight-forward and what seems confusing.

My goal is for version 2.0 to be a useful and usable program in its own right, if not a refined one, that also serves to demonstrate some of AWB’s ultimate potential. As you work with version 2.0, please keep these points in mind:

1. I welcome your comments and suggestions. Are there things that AWB is not doing that it should do? Are there things that AWB does that it should do in a different way? Are there functions in AWB that you never use, that just get in the way? (See “How To Reach Me.”)

2. I can change the menus and toolbars, move them, delete them, add buttons to them, and so on. I did put some thought into the overall layout of AWB’s user interface, but none of the elements is set in stone. For example, if you wonder why I put a certain button on a certain toolbar, the answer is it made sense to me at the time. But it’s what you think that counts.

3. I can add options to give you more control over AWB’s behavior. As I tested version 2.0, I thought of several new options that might be helpful to me as a user. I need to know what additions you would find useful.

You may find a few bugs as you use version 2.0, a situation which is to be expected at this stage in AWB’s development. I have tested version 2.0 extensively, on Windows 98 and NT, in Excel ’97 and Excel 2000, and it has been stable and reliable for me. The fact is, however, until a sizable group of people uses a program in a variety of situations without error, one cannot consider the code “seasoned.”

My hope is that the defects you encounter will be few in number and minor in impact. Whatever the case, if you run into a problem, be sure to speak up. (See “Reporting a Problem.”) One major reason AWB comes as a system of two components (the AWB program and the AWB model) is so that I can distribute updated copies of the program, squashing the bugs you find while leaving your models undisturbed.

1 Reporting a Problem 1.1 How To Help Me When you encounter a problem, you can assist me by gathering information in two areas.

The first thing I’m usually interested in is (1) the operating system you are running and (2) the version of Excel you are using. If you don’t know your operating system already, try asking a network administrator or technical support person at your location. You can get the Excel version by selecting Help-About Microsoft Excel to display the “About” dialog box. Excel’s version is listed in the dialog box along with other information.

The second thing I try to determine is the set of actions which produces the problem. For example, if a certain problem always occurs at the same point when you are using AWB, it is helpful for me to have a list of the actions you take, in the order you take them, to get to that point. If I can reproduce the problem on my machine, using your list of actions, I will have made significant progress in finding the cause of the problem.

1.2 How To Reach Me For routine problems, questions, and suggestions, e-mail is probably the best way to reach me. E-mail lets you put in all the detail you can, and it gives me a record I can refer back to later, which is helpful in fixing bugs and keeping track of feature requests. Plus, if I send an answer to you via e-mail, I can forward it to others with the same question.

My email address is .

For urgent problems and big-picture discussions, or if you dislike e-mail, I am always happy to communicate by telephone.

Previous  |  Next

Copyright © 2004 Robert S. Buckles. All rights reserved.