Changes for ARM 7.3.0 released March 15,2006

Trial Map Enhancements

• New right-click menus to Trial Map: Insert (Row, Column, Plot) and Move (Treatment, Plot, Replicate).

• Undo action is available for Plot Description changes made to the trial map.

General

• Use the new Study List "Filter For" command on right-click menu to show studies containing a specific word, such as titles containing the word Fruit, or Blight in the Keywords entry field.

• New "Strip-block" experimental design. This is a special format of a split-plot trial, where levels of factors to be tested are laid out crosswise (perpendicular, at 90 degree angle) in strips within a block (replicate). The reason for the crosswise arrangement is typically for convenience in conducting the trial. For example, with this design it is more convenient to seed varieties or do tillage operations in strips that extend across all subplots.

• New "Undo" button added to the ARM Toolbar.

• New Toolbar option to open Study List when Open Trial or Open Protocol toolbar button is selected.

• New option to "Archive rating shell after 'Pull Data from Excel Rating Shell". Select the desired action that should occur to archive a rating shell after data has been pulled from the rating shell. Rating shells are archived in the study data directory where the linked trials are stored.

• The Tools, About Study dialog window has been updated to include new Clipboard and Print buttons. This very useful dialog displays a summary of information about the protocol or trial that is currently open.

• A new ARM Special Confirmation message will display when inserting a repeating section exceeds the maximum number of repeat instances that is allowed for a section.

• Keep your installed ARM 7 program up-to-date with the latest program and study definition enhancements by using the new Check for Updates feature (Help, Check for Updates). This feature allows you to quickly check for any ARM program or study definition updates on the GDM website. An Internet connection is required to use this feature. Download and installation times will vary due to the connection speeds. Dial-up connections will take much longer than Cable or DSL Internet connections.
  Note:  A Windows Security Alert dialog may display the first time you select Check for Updates.  Select the "Unblock" button to continue.  Next, click the "Retry" button in the installation window to continue.

• You may specify the desired time interval for ARM to automatically check for maintenance updates to the ARM program and installed study definitions. Set this option in the ARM General Options editor (Tools, Options). Available intervals are Never, Daily, Weekly, Monthly.

• If you do not wish to automatically check for updates, you should frequently choose Check for Updates on the Help Menu.

• Select the "Install updates without prompting for confirmation" to automatically install the updates.

• The new "Detect and Repair" feature will download and install the most recent ARM update, and correct any problems caused by missing installation files. An Internet connection is required to use this feature.

Study Editors

• New option to automatically add a new application in a site description when a new application code is added to Application Code column (field) in treatments editor.

• Study List and Master validation lists include a new right-click "Filter For" feature. This feature is only active in Master validation lists. Use this feature in a Master list to match records containing a term within a validation list column. Note: The "Filter By" feature matches the entire entry in a validation list.

• New Display Option (Tools, Options, Display) for read-only editor fields. Choices are Italic, Underlined or No formatting.

• New font and table formatting commands are available on the right-click menu for rich text site and protocol description entry fields.

• New option to Load and Save Treatment Views (*.trv). Display the Treatment View options dialog by selecting "Treatment View..." from the right-click mouse menu on the Treatment editor, or from Tools, Options, Treatment View. The treatment view options control settings related to the treatment editor dialog.

Rating Shell

• New selection box for Average and Standard Deviation (StDev) formula on Push to Excel options (Tools, Data Collector, Push Trial to Excel Rating Shell) dialog to enter the average and standard deviation function to use for non-English versions of Excel.

• New Pull from Excel Rating shell option (Tools, Data Collector, Pull from Excel Rating shell) whether to scan "All rows and columns in sheet …"

Study Definitions and Related Files

• The GDMDef study definition files (G-All7etc.) are now available in French, Korean and Polish languages. The new language files can be found in the Francais, Korean and Polski subdirectories of GDMDef.

• The EPPO Bayer code list has been updated to the newest EPPO version 4.0.

• Enhanced F5 help for Plot Data Header fields defined in the standard GDMDef study definitions.

• New rate units and formulation types.

• A new option has been added to the Utilities menu to use WSSA weed codes and names instead of EPPO names, or use EPPO scientific name instead of common name in plot data header. This new option when used with standard GDM study definitions (GDMDef) offers options to change the information displayed in validation list dictionaries for certain data entry fields in G-All7 study definitions.

Changes to the GDMDef study definitions (G-All7, etc.) include:

Treatments

• The Formulation Concentration field length has been increased to accept 10 digits

Plot Data

• New Planting Evaluation Interval field automatically calculates the number of days after or before planting when the assessment was performed. When multiple crops are defined for a trial, select from validation list the crop planting that was assessed. The validation list displays intervals for the Rating Date relative to each crop planting date in the site description.

Site Description - General Trial

• Changed the position of the GPS field locations so they are listed in Latitude then Longitude order in the site description (also on field map)

• The Altitude Unit field now includes a new validation list with Meters and Feet entries

• New Official Trial Code field to record the Trial ID code assigned by the government or an official registration agency

• New Other Trial Code fields to record any other Trial ID code that was ever assigned to this trial, such as the ID used by a contractor who conducted the trial

Site Description - Crop Description

• New % Standard Moisture field to record the target standard moisture (value is different for each crop and can vary from country to country)

Site Description - Site and Design

• New % Slope field to record the average percent slope of the trial site

• New Soil Drainage and description fields (with new validation list) records overall surface and internal drainage of trial site

Site Description - Application Equipment

• The Boom Height field now accepts negative entries

• New Mix Size, Unit fields to clearly identify the mix size and unit used for each application, to better meet GEP requirements

• New Nozzle Calibration Quantity, Unit fields record the Quantity captures per nozzle during spray calibration

Reports

• Enhanced printing a Summary Report to Spreadsheet so each sort section will print to a separate Excel work sheet when the Assessment Columns option is set to "Current View" and the option "Paginate to keep together each sort section" is checked.

• The new "Prompted" batch option (File, Print Reports) will ask for the treatment, data columns and header rows to print during the batch print.

• New option to "Wrap treatment entries longer than field width defined in report options". This option will wrap onto several lines any treatment field (column) entries longer than the print length setting defined in report options. When not selected, entries are truncated to the defined print width. Use this option to reduce report width when printing any treatment fields that are very wide, such as description text fields. New option to "Force formulation concentration to %AW/W basis on reports". This option will convert any weight per volume liquid formulations (GA/L or LBA/GAL) or GA/KG dry formulations to %AW/W (weight per weight) basis on reports. Liquid formulations are adjusted for any density value entered in the treatment line. If no density is entered, a density of 1.0 is used. Any AE acid equivalent formulations (GAE/L, LBAE/L, GAE/KG) are reported as %AEW/W on a report.

• The Spray/Seeding Plan report has been enhanced to calculate seed amounts for rate units that are weight product per unit area, such as KG/HA. Previously the calculation only occurred for seed/area units (e.g. SEEDS/HA or SEEDS/M2), which then required a TGW.

• New "List product amount totals" option on the Spray Seeding/Plan Report to "Include only selected application codes". The other option to "Include all application codes in study" is the default ARM action in versions prior to 7.3.0.

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