CMD 2017 is Almost Here!

CMD 2017 is nearing completion, and will be ready around February 1.

This will be a major year for CMD, because we fully expect to have a Mac version ready this year that can work side-by-side with the Windows versions.

In addition to CMD 2017, your update order placed by January 31, 2017, entitles you to 2 bonuses!

• If you want us to do a remote login with you where we actually download and install your CMD 2017 program and update your 2016 data for CMD 2017, your cost will be only $20 additional instead of our regular $35 cost for this extra service.
• You will get a free copy of the newly-rewritten Jots & Tittles program – a must have app for pastors!

Remember! Order your update by January 31, 2017 to receive the setup help discount, and your free copy of Jots & Tittles. Regular prices for all items revert to normal after January 31. All prices are USD.

What’s New in CMD 2017

In addition to the continual refinement of the FMX version to prepare it for use in both PC and Mac platforms, we’ve continued to add new features. In addition to many small ones that you will only notice as you use it, we have added these very helpful features:

• You can now personalize text messages. A new option lets you add a salutation and the Goes By field, or a salutation that uses the Title and Last Name. For example, you can tell the text message to read, “Hi John, …” Or “Dear John, …” or just “John, …”. If you want to use the Salutation and Last Name, it would be “Hi Mr. Smith, …” and so forth. It makes the text much more personal, and may be more likely to be read.
• The Internal E-Mail Client is back! We’ve put back in the internal e-mail client that makes it a snap to send e-mail messages to any group in your CMD data file without having to leave CMD to go to an outside e-mail program. This is very handy, which I think will get a lot of use in its new form.
• You can now personalize the E-Mail Messages, too! As with the text messages, you can personalize your e-mail messages in the same way as noted above. This also makes the e-mail messages much more personal! It’s easily done: simply open a drop-down box and select the type of personalization you want and send the message.
• You will be able to add attachments to your e-mail as well, which is also new.
• I plan to update the training videos that use the FMX screens.
• During the rest of the model year, our goal is to finish these things up:
• Places Scheduling
• Macros in Print Names
• Format B with Pictures (Church Directory)
• Half-page Directory Format
• Customized Directory Format

Once these things are finished, CMD FMX will have everything that CMD Classic does. There are also numerous features in CMD FMX now that Classic does not have. If you’ve not yet explored FMX, this will be the best time to get started with it! Remember, it uses the same data as the Classic version, and you can go back and forth between the versions as necessary.

To help with the eventual transition to the FMX version, Classic will be a part of CMD again for this year, and likely through at least 2018.

Mac Version News

I know many of you are waiting for the Mac version of CMD. We received word from our data engine provider in December that the finishing of their data engine for the Mac OS platform is their highest priority for the first part of 2017.

Once their data engine has been ported to the MAC OS platform, we will work as fast as we can to get the FMX version working for Mac. I’m sure it will take us a few weeks to accomplish this once we get the data engine update, but from the word from our data engine provider, it appears that we will finally have it finished in 2017!

The Mac version will only be available as an update to current version users, so you’ll need to update to CMD 2017 in any event if you want the Mac version.

How will the Mac update/licensing work?

• Any CMD 2017 user can get the 2017 Mac version for no additional cost
• Starting in the 2018 model year, you will be able to update to either the Mac or the PC version of CMD for the standard current update price (generally $89.95). If you wish to maintain both PC and Mac versions in your license, there will be a modest increase in the update price. Our current thinking for the price of the dual platform update is $129.95. This will enable you to have a mixture of PCs and Macs in your system. Because we cannot be completely sure at this point of the hard costs that we will incur in getting the Mac version into your hands, we reserve the right to change the dual platform update price if needed.

Like you, I’m disappointed it’s taken our data engine provider so long to complete their port of the data engine to Mac. I’ve stuck with them because their engine is rock solid, works very efficiently, and their products make it cost effective enough that I can offer CMD for a much lower price than I’d have to charge if I used other providers.

So thanks for your patience! I’m confident it will all feel worth the wait once we have the Mac version in our hands.

Jots & Tittles Bonus Application

A super bonus for updating to CMD 2017 before January 31, 2017, is your free copy of our freshly-minted Jots & Tittles program! I’ve been working on this application on-and-off for quite a few years, but decided to fully update it into the FMX format for 2017. In the process, I’ve finished off all the features I’d always hoped to add all these years!

Jots & Tittles is designed to help a pastor (or teaching elder, etc) track their important resources: their sermons, their books, their articles/publications, and their illustrations.

A common field that ties these all together is called Themes. Each resource type can be assigned any number of Themes. This list of themes can be quickly searched later on to find the resources you have that match that theme.

For example, if you want to speak/preach/teach about grace, you simply go to the Themes dialog in Jots & Tittles and type in grace and a list of all the resources you have for grace will appear.

There’s a much more complete description of Jots & Tittles here on our web site: http://www.softwareforministry.com/html/jotstittles.html

Jots & Tittles will cost $59.95 normally, but you will receive it free when we receive your update order by January 31, 2017.

New Setup Help Option

To help you make the quickest and smoothest transition to CMD 2017, we are offering a new option when purchasing your update – Setup Help. Normally we charge $35 to do this, but if you purchase this option with your update, we will do the remote login setup process for you for only $20 additional.

We’ll need to be on the phone together (and non-US users will need to call us for this), and you will need a decent internet connection. When logged in to your computer, I will download and install CMD 2017, and also convert your current data into for CMD 2017.