Sheets again

[fishdrzig]

Ok, I have some time this morning so I am going to be all over this Sheets thing. I am trying to center something, however, I don't know what the center number of a sheets document is so doing it by eye is trial and error. Does anyone know the exact middle number?
Is it possible to use it like microsoft Word, or do we have to just do it by eye, check the spelling etc.... Thanks

[fishdrzig]

How can I change the Output field in Sheets from Today.Date to just the Date, I don't want my letters to show the day, just need the date?

[sparkly]

can't do the second thing until programmers add ALL fields available to ALL sheet types and ALL sheet types can have Output Fields active. For now, you're still stuck with only what variables are available. For now, you can only add a static text box and manually type in the Date when you generate a sheet.

For the centering, the sheets are based on regular inches measurements...the sheets x=850 and y=1100. so your center point would be 425. however, as you can see, you then have to +/- for the actual text you're using.

good luck with your messing around today. i got ambitious yesterday (again, after giving up a few months ago...waiting for the next update to sheets that would include all the variables, etc) and thought i would try again to set up a couple of my sheets where i could add in the background jpeg and use checkboxes and fill-in boxes for some of my letters. ended up being an exercise in futility since half the variables i wanted to pull from the database aren't available. or to generate a sheet that i want to categorize under referral letter (not referral slip) i'm not able to use input fields boxes or checkboxes at all. irritating that not all variables are available everywhere (there's always going to be one person that will want some weird variable in what seems like an unrelated sheet type...maybe that person is me ... ...). the sheets are still too inflexible for me to use. let us know if you come up with ingenious workarounds for what you encounter.

[fishdrzig]

So far, I am having the same frustrations. I think the idea of Sheets is a good one, just seems to be a primitive version of Microsoft Word. Makes one appreciate what Microsoft Word can do for us.

[jordansparks]

There's no such thing as "all" fields, just "more" fields. So to do what he wants, we just have to add one more field, not "all" fields (whatever that means). To center, we will need alignment tools which haven't been built. Yes, Word does a lot. I suppose an alternative direction for us to have gone would have been full macro automation of Word. But there are distinct advantages with sheets, especially when it comes time to have input fields. And that's really why sheets were built.

[sparkly]

"all fields" means anything that's output data in the OD database. for example, I want to pull in the patient's gender in a lab slip. well, i can't do that because the Gender field isn't one i can place in the template Lab Slip. instead of picking and choosing a limited number of variables (for output fields) for each template, make ALL the variables accessible in ALL the templates (or at least turn ON an option like this for advanced users or something). That way when someone is trying to generate a template and he wants to use an output which you assumed is a weird variable to offer and no one in the world would ever need in that template, it can just be plugged in. done. (i apologize if programming terminology is what's wrong here, those were the terms i used with my last PMS for this same function.)

i don't know about others, but as it stands right now, not one of my sheets templates is completed with full automation because there's 1+ output fields that are not available, the template is too inflexible as to what text box i can generate, or the template that i want to use does not sit in the expected place to be easily generated. I could substitute editable text for these missing links, but that completely defeats the purpose and i might as well get more fields automatically populated in letter merge. as an aside, why aren't jpegs just stored one time for Sheets input? Example: I have several different letters that use the same jpeg (logo). In order to place this same jpeg in these different letter, each one has to have a unique name (logo1, logo2, etc) instead of being able to always find logo.jpeg and inserting it.

after the first useable Sheets overhaul/addition came out, there was talk immediately of adding access to more variables to have more flexibility for all templates, generating them, setting them up, etc etc. (That would also cut down on people having to call and ask to "add this or that data field so i can add it in my patient referral letter".) If it did happen, Sheets is still not strong enough to generate more than a simple salutation-text-closing letter.

[jordansparks]

Sparkly-
No. There really isn't any such thing as "all" fields. I will use some examples from this thread to prove my point.
1. One user wanted a different date format for the current date. Not only is that not a database field, but there are an infinite number of possible formats. An example of a very obscure format is Korean.
2. Gender. Some possibilities: 0/1, M/F, Male/Female, male/female, M/F/U, male/female/unknown, etc. There are very many possibilities.
This problem comes up with nearly every field. You name any field, and I will be able to come back with a list of compromises and choices that are involved. So I say again, there is no such thing as "all" fields.

If you want more fields, we need to know exactly which ones. Go to the appropriate feature request and say so. There is an existing request for static text fields. That's the kind of field that is available from all the different sheets, and I think that's where you want to see more fields, right? I don't actually see any specific field requests in this entire thread except for current date without day and gender. Do you really want gender, or was that just an example?

The shared image is an interesting question that has not come up before. I'm going to have to do a little research to see what would be involved with changing that.

[jordansparks]

One more thing. Many fields are only meaningful in one type of sheet. For example, "lab description" would be meaningless on an insurance carrier label or on an Rx. That's why the fields aren't simply shared across all sheet types. But patient fields are meaningful from nearly every sheet type. So that's why we have put them in the static text fields. Yes, there could be more patient fields there, but we're not going to waste programming time on fields that nobody will ever use. Each field takes time to program.

[fishdrzig]

For anyone who cares, I spent the better part of yesterday switching most of my documents in Letter Merge to Letter via Sheets on some downloaded Word letterhead. It takes time even to copy and tweak. Looks nice though.
Some of the documents I have to still use with Merge because these documents are set up with prompt boxes asking for certain information that needs to be added before printing. I added a request for the prompt boxes as a Feature request and it has been approved. I think this will be a big asset to Sheets, so am asking for some votes(if you have any left) to help push it along.
The reason why it is better to use Sheets over Merge, is because a copy of the document will save in the database (Comm log) for viewing again if needed. I think this is important so we all know what was sent to the patient. If we can get prompt boxes enabled, we can send specific dollar amounts, tooth numbers, custom information and would be able to see at the click of the mouse what in fact was sent. Thanks for your help

[fishdrzig]

Sorry the request feature is #861

[fishdrzig]

This may be a bug
I have entered a consent form in Sheets, but it won't come up under Letters when I choose a patient to print out the consent form. It is is Sheets, but not in Letters? What do you think?

[jordansparks]

Consent forms come up by using a different button. There is a Consent button in the toolbar of the Chart module.

[fishdrzig]

Got it, thanks, works just fine

[enamelrod]

here is a question and please forgive me for my ignorance. instead of wasting all this energy on sheets why cant od expand its pdf intergration and allow people to use interactive pdfs to create these "sheets" it seems your reinventing the wheel while the knowledge for flight exist?

[jordansparks]

Yes, of course we considered pfd. Spent quite a bit of time researching it. The reasons for not going that route are complicated. For one, pdf is really complicated. Tools are needed to create, edit, and import. There are no free tools that would be powerful enough. Even if cost were no issue, it wouldn't really give us the flexibility we need. For example, our signature box links to the data on the form and to our hardware. Pdf simply can't do that. Their "digital signature" technology revolves more around private and public keys. That's all very nice, but not very user friendly. Also, pumping data from pdfs into our database turns out to be fairly complex and probably not powerful enough. Finally, it would involve an interface between two programs. That is nearly always more frustrating to use than a feature that's built in. We have the dotNet framework, which is incredibly powerful. It's not that hard to write sheets from scratch to make it be exactly the way we want. We know ahead of time what areas will be weak, and we are willing to make those tradeoffs to get the features we want. One area where it might be weak is in duplicating word processor functionality. But there is always the future possiblity of dropping an object into a sheet that contains a Word document and passing off control to Word when the user wants to edit that box.

[enamelrod]

two sided documents using sheets? is this possible?

[jordansparks]

Yes, that would be a possibility if there was enough demand.

[enamelrod]

i think its one of those features that will never come available until we ALL fully understand the power of sheets. and i dont think most people will ever do that because there are so many work arounds. But for those of us that have committed to doing away with as much paper as possible it would help tremendacly. AS WOULD THE ABILITY TO PRINT MULTIPLE Rx, or a PDF viewer

[jordansparks]

I don't quite grasp why two sided sheets would be very useful. Just to save paper? If you're going to eliminate paper, then the whole concept of double sided is meaningless. Any sheet that I can imagine wanting to print double sided, like medical history, is a kind of sheet that I would not even want to print in the first place. Medical history would either be done on the screen, or it would be done on preprinted forms that have nothing to do with sheets.

[enamelrod]

if your med hx is two pages the you would need two seperate sheets for one document. you have limited the types of sheets because of the prograaming issues i understand. but for us whe have a two sided referal for our OS and Orthodontist. 1 is for the referral and the flip side is the med hx and dental hx. we like to email this to them before the pts appointment. My OS comes to the office and has the info infront of him before he sees the patient. we will be adding an orthodontist to do the same. a multi sheet would allow for ONE document not TWO.

[enamelrod]

IS there any documentation of all the variables for sheets. ? this is the most fustrating thing i have ever had to learn in OD. it sounds like an awesome feature, but it just seems so under powered, and undocumented. I have spent the last month trying to go from letter merged forms to sheets and it just seems impossible. Is there anyone who truely understands what and how these sheets work. i feel like just pulling the sheets over my head!

[fishdrzig]

It is pretty querky, it took me the better part of a weekend to convert all my Merge letters to Sheets, classify them as Consent or Patient Letters, resize everything, put them on my Letterhead, print it to see how it looks. One piece of advice is use the Copy feature, it does spped things up somewhat. Lots of work though. This feature is a lot like AutoNotes, very useful once it is setup, just takes much time to set it up properly.

[enamelrod]

okay so which variable is used for patients first name only or last name only?

[jordansparks]

It looks like static text fields are missing nameF and nameL as options. Thanks for pointing that out. NameFL was already available. NameFLFormal and nameLF had already been added to version 6.7. NameF and nameL will now also be added to 6.7.

[enamelrod]

thank you soooo much and please add age. and patient image. Nice for Ortho

[enamelrod]

and activate the check box for referral letter and consent

[enamelrod]

sorry to continue asking questions on this..
am i correct in understanding if you want to use the same image on two different sheets you have to rename the image. this seems to be the case even if you delete the sheet. also is it possible to paste into a sheet. example. when we send a pt for endo we like to paste an xray directly into the sheet? and does the patient image work? also the check box? can it be renamed? it pops up as misc?

[enamelrod]

is there away to change the width"thickness of the line or boxes?

[enamelrod]

okay i come to peace with the sheet limitations, i have made a referral slip for the endodontist, but i can find it to test. I looked at the documentation, i couldnt find it? so how do i generate this referral slip?

[jordansparks]

Attach it to your referral. Then, assign that referral source to a patient. The button to print a referral slip is in that window.
http://www.open-dent.com/manual/referralslips.html