Last month, I reviewed Microsoft Office Accounting Express 2007, writing about it from an eBay seller's perspective. I followed up with Microsoft via email and got some additional information that is helpful if you had read the original review (you can find a link at the bottom of this article). Karan Khanna, Director of Product Management at Microsoft, supplied the information below.
In my article, I said one problem is working with images. "You upload them to an Online Image Folder that, supposedly, Microsoft hosts for you. The process of uploading is cumbersome; I could only do it one image at a time, which is far slower than FTP."
Karan Khanna: Office Accounting has an integrated solution called Image Manager that is part of the service. The image manager enables a user to bulk upload images using a simple point & click interface.
I couldn't find this interface right away, so if you use the software, be sure and look for Image Manager. I also had written, "There was no straightforward way to alter the design of the description by choosing colors, typefaces, and formatting paragraphs."
Karan Khanna: This is a valid issue in the current release. We are doing a refresh by the end of March 2007 that will enable users to carry out HTML editing of the description.
Another point I made was, "I could not include more than six images per item."
Karan Khanna: In the current release, this is the case. However in the March refresh it will be possible to include more images using the HTML editor mentioned above. This will only be limited by the total amount of images that can be uploaded.
In my review, I stated, "I couldn't get the shipping tool to work at all and instead saw the message "Shipping Disabled.""
Karan Khanna: To make the shipping tool work, in the first shipping drop-down, select Flat rate. This enables selection of shipping services. We do not have support for variable weight shipping but we look at feedback from our users and from reviewers such as yourself to help us prioritize the features we add in every update. We are also active in various newsgroups.(http://groups.google.com/group/microsoft.public.sba.general/topics)
It's good to know how to get the shipping tool working. However, only offering support for flat-weight would certainly be a limitation for many eBay sellers.
Finally, I stated that "I could not save details from one sales listing to the next so that I wouldn't have to type them from scratch each time."
Karan Khanna: In the current release, details are copied from the most recent listing of the same item. If the item has not been listed before, no details are pre-filled. In the upcoming March release, we will introduce pre-filling of details based on items in the same category.
Another helpful tip! Thanks to Karan for clarifying all of these points. You can read the original review online at: http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abu/y207/m01/abu0183/s04
