AGVISOR Gold 2.7 Operating Instructions

1
AGVISOR Gold 2.7 Operating Instructions
June 2006 This 2.7 version of AGVISOR Gold soil
test reporting software is the latest version
available, and is the upgrade for the 2.5 and 2.6
versions.
Setting up the AGVISOR Gold program to view
samples from 2 your account number or the
example soil test data. Loading/Importing the
example set of soil test data 3 Importing
soil test data from e-mail 4-5 Finding a
specific soil sample quickly 6 Printing soil
test reports 7 Changing crop choice, yield
goal, fertilizer guideline type 8 Changing
grower and sample information (grower name, acres
etc.) 9 Printing a soil sample information
sheet 10 Exporting conventional soil test
data in various spread sheet formats 11-12 Export
ing grid soil test data in various
formats 13-14 Grid fieldsOpening up a grid
field to view individual soil sample
points 15 E-mailing soil test reports to your
growers 16-18 Filtering the list of samples
19 Website data downloading for NEW soil
test results 20 Website data downloading for
OLD soil test data 21-22 Export Function
Building an Export Format 23-24 Soil Test
Summary Printouts
25 Customizing the Nitrogen Recommendation
Factor 26 Starter Fertilizer Guidelines 27 Sam
pling Date Nitrogen Adjustments for Early
Sampling 27 Choosing a Grid or Regular Soil
Sample 28
2
Setting up the AGVISOR Gold program for viewing
soil test results for your account number or the
example soil data on the installation CD.

Start up the AGVISOR Gold program using the icon
on your desktop. Select the down arrow from
the Options button. Select the
AdvancedSettings option.
Select the account number for the example soil
test data (0007 on your CD disk), or select your
actual account number by placing a check mark in
the correct box. You can view soil test data from
multiple account numbers by selecting more
account numbers in your database.
3
Loading the example set of soil test data from
your Installation CD.
On your Installation CD, there is a file folder
with a sample set of soil test data for you to
familiarize yourself with the operation of
Agvisor Gold. This file is named D0007.dat 1.
Using Windows Explorer and the CD in your CD
drive, locate the file named D0007.dat 2. Select
the file D0007.dat and copy and paste it into the
Agvisor Gold program at the location of
C\Program Files\AgvisorGold20\Data Files
3. Start up Agvisor Gold from the desktop
icon. 4. To load or import the sample set of soil
test data, go to the Options down arrow and
select Load Soil Data File
4
Importing soil test data from your e-mail
program. (Microsoft Outlook)
Open the e-mail received from AGVISE and see the
attachment. In this example, the attachment is
for account number 0007 (example soil test data).
When your soil data arrives by e-mail, the
attachment will be similar, with the last four
digits being your account number.
Click on file from the tool bar and then select
Save attachments
Select the C drive in the Save in box, and
then double click on Program files
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Double click on the AGVISOR Gold folder
Double click on the Data Files folder
Click on Save. This saves the attachment to
C\program files\Agvisor Gold\Data files
6
Finding a sample very quickly
There are several way to locate sample in your
database very quickly. If you know the
reference number of the sample, start typing the
reference number in the Quick Find box.
If you know the grower name, just click on the
Growers Name box and the list of samples will
be put in alphabetical order by the growers first
name. If you click on grower name again, the
list will change to a reverse alphabetical order.

7
Printing Soil Test Reports
You can print a soil test report for any sample
that is displayed. First select the sample
report that you want to print by clicking in the
box to the left of the reference number for that
sample. Then click on the down arrow to the
right of the Print button and select Print
Soil Reports. If you want to print reports in
grey scaleto save on printer cartridges, change
setting in printer setup.
You may want to print a number of soil test
reports at one time. To do this, place a check
mark beside every sample you want to print, then
click on the down arrow next to the Print
button and select Print Soil Reports.
8
Changing crop choice, yield goal, and fertilizer
guideline type
First highlight the sample of interest. Then go
into the body of the soil test report and
click on the down arrow below each crop choice.
A drop down menu will appear with a list of more
than 70 crop choices. Then click in the yield
goal box and type in the new yield goal.
If you want to change the fertilizer guideline
type, click on the arrow of the box under the
words suggested guidelines. A menu will
appear with five different fertilizer
guideline choices.
9
Changing Grower and Sample Information on the
Soil Report
First select a sample that you want to change
information on. Then click on the down arrow by
Options. Then click on Change Soil Sample
Information.
You can then change the information in most of
the boxes shown. In this example I changed the
grower name from Kent E to Richard J.
10
Printing Soil Sample Information Sheets
You can print a soil sample information sheet for
any sample that is in your list of samples.
First select the sample that you want to print a
sample information sheet for from the list of
samples. Then click on the Soil Information
Sheet tab. Fill in the crop choices, previous
crop, soil test option you needed tested,
fertilizer guideline choice etc. Put a check
mark to the left of the sample. Then click on
the down arrow by the Print button and select
Print sample information sheet. After you make
changes on the sample information for the field
on the screen, you must print the sample
information sheet immediately or the changes will
be lost.
You may want to check a whole list of samples,
print out the sample information sheets and
then fill in the few items of sample information
at the time of sampling. The grower name, field
description, etc. will still be printed on the
sample information sheets that print out. You
will receive new pads with reference number
stickers. One reference number sticker will be
placed on the sample information sheet which you
have printed, and the other stickers will go on
the topsoil sample bag and on the subsoil sample
bag.
11
Exporting conventional soil test data to other
programs
First check each sample you want to export. The
click on the down arrow next to the
Export button. Then select the format you want
to use to export the soil data in. An examples
of each of the formats can be found on the
installation CD. (If you want to export all of
the samples, do not place a check by any of the
samples)
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Using Windows Explorer, you can located the
export file you just built and copy that file to
a disk, import the data into another program or
e-mail it to another location
13
Exporting Grid Samples to another format
Grid Samples are always displayed in Red. The
reference number displayed is the first sample
in the grid. You will only see the grower name
and the first sample of the grid displayed on the
sample list unless you uncollapse the grid (see
directions for collapsing grids)
Put a check mark in the grid field that you want
to export. Then choose the format that you want
to export the sample in. You can see an example
of all of these format on your installation CD
or on the last pages of these instructions.
Once you have selected an export option, the
program will ask you if you want to create a Grid
file or an Export File. Click on Create Grid
File button to create a grid file.
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Once you have chosen to create a grid file, the
program builds the grid file and stores it. The
grid file is now stored in C\Program
files\Agvisor Gold\Grid and Export Files.
Using Windows Explorer, you can view the newly
created grid file. From this point, you can
copy or move this file into the software that you
are using to create fertilizer spread maps, etc.
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Opening up a grid field so you can see results on
each grid point
Grid samples are listed in Red on your list and
are normally displayed in the collapsed form. To
view each sample in a grid, you must right click
on the left side of the screen. A new menu window
will open up where you will choose Collapse Grid
Samples. This can be toggled on and off with
this method.
You can now see every sample within the grid.
You can select each sample, and look at the
fertilizer guidelines associated with that grid
point. You will need to choose a crop, select a
yield goal and a fertilizer guideline option.
16
E-mailing Soil Test Reports to a Grower
To e-mail soil reports to a grower, first you
need to place a check mark on each sample you
want to send to the grower. Then you need to
click on the down arrow by the Options button.
Then select Save Soil Test Reports for
e-mailing.
A box will come up which allows you to send the
soil test files for e-mailing to a specific
drive (A, C, D). If you do not want the files
to any particular drive, click OK and the
files will be sent to C\program files\Agvisor
Gold\E-mail - Soil Test Reports Files
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The screen that comes up next, tells you the
location where the files are saved.
Using Windows Explorer, you can view the file
that was created for each of the samples you will
e-mail to your grower. The name of each file is
the grower name, followed by the reference
number of the sample.
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This is what the soil test report looks like that
the grower receives. The grower can just double
click on each file(sample) that he receives as
an attachment on their e-mail. The grower will
not be able to change crop choices or any other
item on the report.
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Applying filters to reduce the number of samples
to the group you are interested in
You can reduce the number of samples that are on
the sample list by using filters. 1. First click
on the filter button. Then choose the way you
want to filter the samples (date, grower
name reference number etc.). 2. In this example,
I typed Bonde in the grower name box. Then I
clicked on Apply Filters). If you want to
display all of the samples in your database,
always click on Clear Filters and the
Apply Filters as you exit this screen. 3. The
Months Back filter is defaulted to 12 months,
but can be changed to whatever you want.
After I clicked on Apply Filters, the list of
samples is reduced to the one sample which is for
Bonde. If you want to view all of the samples
in your database, always click on Clear Filters
and then Apply Filters as you leave this
screen.
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Website Data Downloading for retrieving NEW soil
tests
1. Start the Agvisor Gold program from your
desktop icon. 2. Make sure you are on the
internet. Click on the link Get New Test Results
From The Web.
3. The Login window will open. Type in your 6
digit account number and password (you will need
to call AGVISE to get your password). Click
OK. Place a checkmark in the Save this password
space so you dont have to continually type
it in each time you wish to check your data.
5. After you click OK, the program will go to our
website, download any new data and place the
new data automatically into the right file for
Agvisor Gold load them into the database.
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Website Data Downloading for retrieving OLD soil
tests
1. From the Options down-arrow, select
Advanced Setting 2. On the lower part of this
window in the Available Soil Data 3. The Login
will open. Type in your 6 digit account and
password. Click OK.
4. Check all the data you wish to download, click
the Submit Your Download Selections button.
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5. Click on the Save button.
6. Save the files to C/Program
Files/AgvisorGold20/Data Files and press the
Save button.
7. From the Agvisor Gold program, select the
Options down arrow, and select Load Soil Data
File .
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Export Functions Building an Export format
1.You can export data into many formats with this
feature. Check mark the fields you wish to
export. 2. From the Export down arrow, select
Show Options for Creating Export and Grid
Files 3. You can choose an existing format,
edit a format, make a new format or delete a
format. 4. To make a new format, click the New
button. 5. The New File Format-Wizard window
will open. On the left side of the window you can
pick and choose which data elements you wish to
export. In this example, we chose Grower ID, N-1,
N-2 etc. 6. Destination of the saved file
defaults to, C\Program Files\AgvisorGold20\Grid
and Export Files. This can be changed if you
desire. 7. You can save this new format as your
default format if you desire. 8. Once you have
chosen the data you wish to export, press the
Next button.
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9. Another window will open in which you select
the file format you wish to use. In this example
we will choose Comma separated, with the file
extension as CSV, name the format to Richard
Test 1, check mark the Print Header Record,
Force a Blank in the Character and Number
Fields if no data is there to export. 10. Press
Finish when completed. 11. Once this format is
made, you can go back and edit it later.
25
Soil Test Summary Printouts You will notice a
new tab near the top of the soil test report
called Soil Test Summary. To use this, place a
checkmark in the samples on the left side of the
screen, select the Soil Test Summary tab and
these samples will appear on the right side of
the screen. To change the column format to your
desired format, you will need to choose one of
the defaulted formats or you can create your own
format of data using the Export button
function.    
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Customizing the Nitrogen Recommendation Factor
for Crops You can change the N factor for
various crops. For example, the default N factor
for corn is 1.2 lbs N per bushel. You can
customize this factor by using the Advanced
Settings function under the Options
down-arrow. Once the Advanced Setting window
opens, click on the N Factor Adjustments
button. Select the crop you wish to change and
save the change. Once the change is made, the
word Customized will appear in the column next
to the N fertilizer recommendation box on the
soil test report.
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Starter Fertilizer Guidelines You can turn on or
off the recommendations for starter fertilizer
guidelines by opening the Advanced Setting
window under the Options down-arrow and
selecting yes or no in the Starter Guideline
Option section.
Sampling Date Nitrogen Adjustment for Early
Season Sampling Soil sampling for nitrogen
prior to September 15 carries an adjustment
credit factor of 0.5 lbs nitrogen per day prior
to Sept. 15. This feature can be turned on or off
by using the Advanced Settings function under
the Options down-arrow and selecting yes or
no in the Sample Date Adjustment section.
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Choosing Grid or Regular Samples Only To help
you manage working with your sample data, you can
now choose to view either grid samples only,
regular samples only or the combination of grid
and regular samples. To make these changes, place
your cursor on the left-side of the screen, do a
right-click on your mouse button, then a pop-up
menu appears where you can choose Show Regular
Samples Only or Show Grid samples Only.
Using the Soil Info. Sheet Tab Instead of
using the standard carbonless-copy soil info.
sheets for individual field forms, AGVISOR Gold
has a tab for printing out your own individual
soil info. sheets. When you select the Soil
Info. Sheet tab and highlight a sample, its
soil info. sheet appears and you can change or
clear the grower or field identification
information and printout the soil info. sheet.
With this feature, you will need our bar-code
sticker book to attach the bar-code reference
numbers on the sheet and the sample bags.