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Ala Mode/Athena

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Judy Whitehead (Florida)

Senior Member
Joined
Jan 20, 2002
Professional Status
Certified Residential Appraiser
State
Florida
OK everybody. After upgrading one of the office computers, I now have Ala Mode installed. Does anybody have any suggestions on ''how to learn how to use it'' in 5 minutes or less? I'm so swamped with work (not a real bad problem) that I don't have time to figure out how to make it work. It sure looks good, but I need a real quick learning experince!
 
1. Fill out the requester a fully as possible.
2. Fill out your office information before you start.
3. Fill out the client information section fully, so next time you can just select that client and it will autofill everything (don't forget e-mail addresses).
4. Set up templates or clone reports to increase productivity.
5. Call me or anybody else who has Athena when you come across a hurdle and we can probably walk you quickly through it.
6. It really is quick and easy once you get used to it.
 
Judy,

It was hard for me to learn, too. In the mid-1990's, I stuck with Total for DOS for a long time because the Windows version was so much slower for me. Athena is a complex program, but worth learning. It does so many things well. What appraisal pogram were you using before Athena? It might help if I knew that.

All of Tim's suggestions are good. To his, I would add: Print out, or at least read, the manual. I think :?: there is another way to access a help screen: Hit F-1 key.

Feel free to call me. Various a la mode versions have stumped me many times by something that was actually very simple.

Thomas N. Morgan (Florida)
State-Certified Residential Appraiser 0000052
352-694-3317 or 352-694-1632
 
Hi Tom - I was using an old MCS Windows 16 bit version. I am afraid that sooner or later I won't even get tech support for that. I needed to upgrade so decided to go with the flow. It is all installed now, but I haven't even had time to look at it! Perhaps I should contact them and see if they are going to have training classes anywhere near me!

I wonder how many pages are in the manual? There is some kind of weird voice tutorial that one of my appraisers latched onto yesterday.

By the way, are you still using Reality Check? They have never changed to any kind of Windows version yet. We are limping along with them.....
 
Judy,

When you start Athena, the Appraisal Desktop automatically opens. Click on "Help" at the top of the screen. Choose "View Quick Start Guide". Your Adobe Acrobat Viewer should open. I would then click on the portion of the manual titled : Beginning a New Report. I would suggest printing out this section so that you can refer back to it when you have questions.

In my opinion, a la mode does a great job with their "help" guides. Everything is written with "step by step" instructions making it easy for morons like me :-).

Do you belong to the WinTotal users group? If not, you should join. Over 800 a la mode users participate in this free email group. It is another way to get answers to your questions. You can join by clicking on the following link.......

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Total2000UsersGroup/

Good Luck!

Matt Johnson
AppraiserDepot.com
 
Get a flight to Oklahoma City and attend the hands on Seminar! Just had two people in my office go this past weekend. Otherwise, do as Matt says. Also the program comes with training videos if you have the whole nine yards, these will help alot.

Don't get frustrated...it's a big program. I still only use bits and pieces of it. Tech support will help you out if you get too lost. You can even call me!
719-528-6400 I wish you well.
 
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