2006 Practice Forms Master

The AAOE is pleased to provide an updated version of the Practice Forms Master program.  Please note some of the new features below:

Streamlined interface
No need for specialized software (OmniForms®) to edit files
Ability to manage your edited files directly in the program
Available for Windows® and Macintosh® users

Previous versions of this product required the OmniForms software. This version does not require OmniForms and instead uses word processing programs native to your computer's operating system (such as Word or Excel®), to edit the forms.

System Requirements

Pentium® III 1.2GHz or faster processor
Windows® 2000, or XP
40 MB
At least 256 MB RAM recommended
8X or faster CD-ROM drive
800 x 600 monitor or larger
True Color display recommended

Macintosh®
OSX (10.2.8 or higher)*
G3 700MHz
At least 256 MB RAM recommended
8X or faster CD-ROM drive
800 x 600 monitor or larger
True Color display recommended
*Please note that Intel-based Macintosh computers are not fully supported, and this application may not run correctly on machines with that hardware

Frequently Asked Questions

Installation of CD?
Removal of Software?
Opening a Form?
Editing and Saving a Form?
Custom Forms Management?
Spanish Language Files?

Installation of CD?

Windows

With the computer “on” and Windows running, insert the CD into the computer’s CD drive. The installation process should begin automatically. Follow the prompts through the installation process.

If the installation does not begin by itself, click on the “Start” menu located in the lower-left of the Windows screen, click on “Run”, and then click on the “Browse” button to locate the CD drive. Locate the “Autorun” file on the CD drive and double-click on that icon. The installation process will begin. Follow the on-screen prompts through the installation process.

Macintosh

With the computer “on" insert the CD into the computer’s CD drive. You will see a disk icon on your screen called 'Practice Forms Master". Click on the disk and drag the folder titled "Practice Forms Master" to the desired location on your computer. To start the program, open the folder and click on the "Practice Forms Master" icon. You can create an alias of the icon and drag it to the desktop for easy start up.

Removal of Software?

Windows

If you would like to remove the software at any time after installation, you can go to the “Start” menu in the lower left of the Windows screen, and navigate to “Programs”. In the Programs menu, select “Practice Forms Master” and then in the expanded menu, select “Uninstall”. Follow the on-screen prompts through the uninstall process. Alternately, you can navigate from the “Start” menu to “Settings” and then “Control Panel”. From here, you can select “Add or Remove Programs”. Select “Practice Forms Master” and follow the on-screen prompts through the uninstall process.

Macintosh

If you would like to remove the software at any time after installation, you can simply drag the “Practice Forms Master” folder it its entirety into the Trash.

Opening a Form?

Several master form “templates” are provided for you to print out as is or customize to your liking. In order for you to open a master form, start the Practice Forms Master program and click “Begin”. The main screen of the program will appear with the “Master Forms” tab open. You can navigate through the directory to the form you wish to open by clicking on the grey arrows. You can use the printed version of the index on the CD sleeve to assist you if need be. Once you have found the form you wish to open, highlight the form by clicking on it and then click on the “Open” button in the bottom left corner of the screen.

A.        Using Word and Excel for Macintosh

If you have Microsoft Office (with Word and Excel) for your Macintosh and the forms are opening in TextEdit (the word processing program native to Macintosh,) you can set your system to always open the forms in Word or Excel. First, open a master form and save it to your desktop. Next, click once on the form and then open the “File” menu at the top of the screen. Now click on “Get Info” and in the “Open With” section, select Microsoft Word or Excel. In order to ensure all documents open with Microsoft Word or Excel, click on “Change All”.

Note: It is strongly recommended that you have Microsoft Office installed on your computer and that Office programs are used by default to open documents.

Editing and Saving a Form?

Once you have a master form open, you can now customize it and save for later use. With the desired form open, customize to your liking. When finished, you will need to save this customized version to a location of your choosing on the computer. Click on the “File” menu in the document, then when open, click on “Save as” and select a location on your computer to save the document. You should give the document a unique name so that it is easy to recognize that it has been edited. For example, you could name the edited “Appointment Check-In” form as “Appointment Check-In 4_03_06”. Note that if you click on “Save” instead of “Save as” the document will be stored in a Temporary folder and might be difficult to locate. Once you have a saved and edited version of a form, you can upload it in to the “Customized Forms” section if desired for easy access.

Custom Forms Management?

The Custom Forms feature allows you to store and manage your customized documents, as well as any documents you have created from scratch, within the Practice Forms Master application.

A. Saving a form to the Custom Forms directory

Start the Practice Forms Master program and click “Begin”. The main screen of the program will appear with the “Master Forms” tab open. Click on the “Customized Forms” tab. You will find the same directory as in the “Master Forms” screen.  You can immediately save forms to existing folders, or you can create your own folders.

1. Saving a form to an existing folder

Click on the “Add/Edit” button in the lower left corner. A new screen will appear. Navigate to the folder you wish to save the document to by clicking on the grey arrows. Once you have found the folder you wish to save the document in, highlight the folder by clicking on it. Click on the “Browse” button and navigate to the document you wish to upload. Click on “Open” to upload the document, enter a title for the document (this is a required field), click on “Save” then click “Done”. The dialog box will close and you will see the document you have just uploaded in the custom forms directory.

2. Creating a new folder in the directory

You can create your own custom folders in the “Customized Forms” screen to save your documents in. Click on the “Add/Edit” button in the lower left corner. A new screen will appear.

In order to create a top level folder, click on “Add Folder”.  A new field will appear for you to enter the name of your folder. Type the name in this box and click on “Submit”, then click on “Done”. The box will close and you will see your new folder in the directory.

In order to create a sub-folder or child folder within the directory, find the top level folder you wish to create a sub-folder or child folder in by clicking on the grey arrows. Now highlight that folder by clicking on it, and click on “Child Folder”. A new field will appear for you to enter the name of your folder. Type the name in this box and click on “Submit”, then click on “Done”. The box will close and you will see your new folder in the directory.

B. Editing/removing custom folder and file names

You can edit folder names and files as well as remove or delete them. In order to edit the name of a file or folder, click on the “Add/Edit” button in the “Customized Forms” screen.

To edit the name of a file or folder, highlight the file or folder by clicking on it. Now click on the “Edit Names (Off)” button. You will now be able to directly edit the name of the folder. When you are finished editing, click on the “Edit Names (On)” button and the new name will be saved.

To delete a custom file or folder, highlight the file or folder by clicking on it. Now click on the “Remove” button. A box will appear verifying the name of the file or folder you want to delete and asking you to confirm that you want to delete it. Clicking “Yes” will delete the file or folder and clicking “No” will cancel the deletion.

C. Moving custom folders and files

You can move custom files and folders by clicking on the “Add/Edit” button then dragging and dropping files or folders into new locations. You are not able to move master files and folders.

*This feature is available only for the Windows version. Macintosh does not support this feature at this time.

D. Editing and saving custom files

As previously stated, you are able to open master documents, edit them, save them to your computer and then upload them to the “Custom Forms” section. When you open a customized form and edit it, you do not need to click “Save As” and pick the location you wish to save the document to. You can instead just click on “Save” and the document automatically overwrites the previous version and saves to the same location in the “Custom Forms” section. We have provided this feature to make it easier for you to access and re-edit your customized forms.

Spanish Language Files?

A set of forms is provided in Spanish (see VII – Spanish). Unless you have the Spanish language pack for Word installed or you are using a version of Word prior to 2000, content in the Spanish documents will appear as misspelled (words are underlined in red), as later versions of word automatically have spell check enabled for all documents. You can turn off spell check inside of the document by clicking on “Tools”, then “Spelling and Grammar”, then “Options” and then checking “Hide spelling errors in this document” and “Hide grammatical errors in this document”. Even if you do not turn off spell check for the Spanish language forms, the printed versions do not contain the underlined words.

You can also go to the Microsoft Office Web site to download language packs.

If this help page does not answer your questions or if you need other assistance using Practice Forms Master, please contact us at 1.800.825.2956.

Content copyright © 2006 American Academy of Ophthalmology. All rights reserved. AAOE is a trademark of the American Academy of Ophthalmology. All other trademarks are property of their respective owners.