Action Menu ~ what is it?

Many customer questions come into my support line, frequently the solution involves something in the Action menu (Backup, Restore, Spot Prices, Sorting, etc.).

The picture below shows the Action menu, a menu item that looks like a piece of paper with an up-arrow thingy. It's sometimes hard to communicate via email what this Action menu thingy is, so I'm providing a post here so people might be able to see a picture.

You know what they say, a picture is worth 1,000 words.

Set Management

This feature is so cool, if you don't own a Mac you'll buy one.

All Sets

This section lists all existing sets. Select a set to edit by clicking on the set description. To delete a set, select the description and click button "Delete Set". To create a set, click "Create Set".

Edit Set

This section shows all properties of a set, including the name, description, and issues.

There are two buttons for adding issues to a set:

1. Add Issue...
2. Advanced...

Add Issue...

Clicking this button opens a new dialog which then allows you to select a new coin for the set. Use it to add coins one at a time.

For example, if you were creating a set of first year types, you would use this option to select the first year of each coin type, one at a time.

Advanced...

This option allows you to build sets based on a single Type.

For example, if you wanted to create a full Morgan year & mint set, use this option. The Morgan series contains over 400 coins, adding them one at a time would take many hours of work. This option will do that in seconds.

Remove Issue

Use this to remove an issue from the list of issues. Select the issue you want to remove and click Remove.

Help ~ Advanced Set Creation with US Coin (Mac)

A cool new feature for Advanced Set creation is queued-up and waiting for Apple to approve. Once Apple approves, the feature will appear in the next update of US Coin for OS/X. This is the version for folks using iMac desktop's, or MacBook and MacBook Pro computers.

Honestly, US Coin for OS/X is the best version we have.

Category:

Coin category, or sub-group. For example, the picture above shows "Half-Cents & Cents" as the Category. The category includes 1/2 Cent coins and Cent coins, of which there are many. Some categories (Dollars, Nickels) cover only a single denomination, while others (Gold Coins) may contain several different denominations. This is just the way Numismatic 'experts' have grouped coins for the last 10,000 years (give or take).

Name & Description:

These fields allow you to provide a short name and longer description for the Set. I typically just copy the Category to the Name and the Types description, to the Description. If you do the same, let me know and I will have the software simply do that as a default behavior.

Issue list

The main part of the window is composed of the Issues list which contains three columns:

1. Have
2. Include
3. Issue Description

Near the top, left of the list you will notice a check-box labeled 'Select/Unselect' checking this check-box will cause every row in the Issue list to also change to either Selected (checked) or Unselected (unchecked). This makes it easy to quickly mass-select, mass-unselect all issues.

Near the top right you will notice the number of Issues found for the Type.

Have

This column shows 'Yes' when a matching coin is found in your collection. A match is determined when the set coin's PCGS reference number matches a coin in your collection. If you have a coin in your collection with the same PCGS ref. number, then you have a match for this particular issue in the Set.

Include

This column shows a check-box. When you click Save, the program will create a new set and will add every issue that has the check-box 'checked'. Un-check any coins that you would like to exclude, not add, to the set when it's finally created.

Issue Description

This column simply shows the official numismatic description of the coin issue.

Options

Near the bottom of the view, notice two check-boxes:

1. Automatically match...
2. When no matches exist...

Automatically match...

This option determines a very powerful improvement provided with Advanced Sets, automatically matching set issues with coins already in your Collection. This feature is so cool I should be paid money for the update.

When you create a new Set, some of the coins required for the Set might already be hidden within your current Collection. This option does a powerful search of your Collection to find and then attach any coins you might already have.

Leave me a comment if you like this feature :)

When no matches exist...

This option was provided to allow you to control what previously was built-in behavior. When a new Set is created, the software can automatically ALSO create coins representing the new Set issues, in your Collection. Lots of people found this feature useful. Others hated it.

Check the check-box if you would like new Coins to be created in your Collection WHEN you don't already have them. These new coins will automatically appear in your buy list report (cool feature).

Questions Welcome

If you have any questions about how any of our software products work, please feel free to contact us by emailing support@saintssoft.com

Thank you for buying our software!
john kountz
programmer, sole-proprietor, cook & bottle washer

Working on a redesign of Sets

Our Set's feature is finally getting some long neglected loving.

Currently, it's very powerful but far too confusing. We get more complaints about how Set's work than any other part of the App.

So I'm working on redesigning, here's sneak peek:

You will be able to Include / Exclude individual coins in the series from being added to the Set.

The App will optionally automatically matching issues in your collection, & add those to the Set.

The App will optionally automatically create new coins for any coins that you don't have.


I'd like to hear any feedback on how YOU would like to see adding +Types to new Sets should work. The whole point of the +Types option is to allow you to add dozens of coins to a Set automagically, saving you perhaps hours of work manually adding coins one-by-one.

The most common complaint I get, coins being added that you don't have and will never have. So I'm working on making this easier to understand & configure.

Best-
john

Coin grading Acronyms

The codes included in our built-in dictionary can be very confusing to new collectors.

We've collected a list of good web references for the various types of acronyms.

• PCGS Coin Grading (link)
• Coin Collecting acronyms (link)
• Sheldon Scale (link)

Adding new photos

From the main Coins view,

1. select a coin you’d like to add a photo for
2. across top notice Details  Ref.  Photos.
3. touch Photos text label, notice the change in view now shows Coin Photo(s)
4. touch “New Photo”
5. position your coin, click the round shutter button.
6. if photo is good, select “Use Photo”

From the "Coin Photo(s)” view, (you have more than one photo)

1. scroll up (finger down, drag from bottom to top) till you see a new section titled ‘Coin Photo(s)’
2. touch ‘New Photo’
3. position your coin, click the shutter
4. if satisfied, select “Use Photo”

You can add as many photos as you'd like. Our MacBook version makes it easy to explore and arrange the coin photos.


Hope this helps folks-

john
programmer, accountant, janitor, owner
saintssoft llc