In Worksheet, an alternate manufacturer (referred to as an Alt Mfg) is a secondary version of a manufacturer. An alternate of a manufacturer's catalog can be useful if you need access to both the most current pricing and features of a catalog, but also an older version for an existing contract or legacy pricing.
The Alternate Manufacturer feature in Worksheet allows you to keep both the current and older version(s) of a catalog on your computer simultaneously. Alternate Manufacturers only include the catalog information, not the graphics (this is by design to avoid breaking certain features).
Expand one or more categories below to learn how to install or use an Alternate Manufacturer depending on your source of installation file.
If you need to install an alternate manufacturer using a .dsazip file, you must first extract the contents of the .dsazip to an empty folder on your PC and then install it using the Catalog Maintenance tool.
- Make sure your PC is enabled to show file name extensions.
- Right-Click on the .DSAZIP file and choose Rename.
- Change the .DSAZIP file extension to .ZIP
- Open the renamed zip file. You should see the following items inside the .zip
- Select all the items and choose Copy.
- Paste the contents of the zip into a new empty folder on your PC.
- Go to the Windows Start menu, All Programs, 20-20 Technologies, and select Catalog Maintenance. Note: You may also search for this app by typing Catalog Maintenance into the Windows search bar.
- In the 20-20 Commercial Catalogs Setup window click the Alternate Manufacturer button.
- In the Alternate Manufacturer Setup window click Next.
- In the Select a Manufacturer window, click the Browse button and browse to the folder you extracted the zip to in step 6 and click OK.
- Search the list of catalogs and select the manufacturer you would like to install and click the Next button.
- The program will auto generate a new 3-character manufacturer code and a description for the alternate catalog. This is a custom version of the catalog so the MFG code should be a FAKE code that 2020 does not currently use, such as “XXX” or “ZZZ”. This code will not be seen by manufacturers, it is only for your internal distinction. This will matter later when you use the catalog. The description can be customized to your preference. Once you are satisfied, click Begin.
- Once the progress bar is complete, click Finish to finalize your Alternate Manufacturer. You may then close out the Office Catalogs setup dialog. Click Cancel and then the Yes button.
Installing an alternate manufacturer using a .ISO or legacy DVD
- Close any open Office applications and mount the .ISO or insert the disk that contains the desired catalog version (must be January 2009 or later to work with the current version of the installer).
- Go to Start menu, All Programs, 20-20 Technologies, and select Catalog Maintenance. Note: You may also search for this app by typing Catalog Maintenance into the Windows search bar.
- In the 20-20 Commercial Catalogs Setup window click the Alternate Manufacturer button.
- In the Alternate Manufacturer Setup window click Next.
- In the Select a Manufacturer window, click the Find DVD button to locate your DVD drive. This window will then detect and display the name of the DVD or .ISO you have inserted. Note: The Browse button may also be used to point to a folder containing the installation files in place of an actual DVD.
- Search the list of catalogs and select the manufacturer you would like to install and click the Next button.
- The program will auto generate a new 3-character manufacturer code and a description for the alternate catalog. This is a custom version of the catalog so the MFG code should be a FAKE code that 2020 does not currently use, such as “XXX” or “ZZZ”. This code will not be seen by manufacturers, it is only for your internal distinction. This will matter later when you use the catalog (read ahead to see how this MFG code is used). The description can be customized to your preference. Once you are satisfied, click Begin.
- Once the progress bar is complete, click Finish to finalize your Alternate Manufacturer.
Manually installing an alternate manufacturer using loose catalog files
This section describes how to manually install a manufacturer catalog in Worksheet using the preferences. This is an advanced method and can be used if you have the individual catalog files for a particular catalog. Perhaps you were provided the file directly from 2020, a manufacturer, or you obtained the older files from another PC that already has the alternate installed. A catalog file has a file extension of .CAT and is reported by Windows as file type Security Catalog.
If you need to add a loose file in Worksheet, it is highly recommended that you set it up as a separate Alternate Manufacturer as outlined below. Overriding the main manufacturer data can prevent future updates to that manufacturer from installing correctly. This is because the installer is designed to ignore any custom editing on the system to protect your personal preferences.
- Create a new 3-character folder to place the *.CAT file(s) into. It is recommended to create this folder where your other manufacturers are installed to. The default location for content is C:\ProgramData\2020\Content. For example, we will be creating an Alternate Manufacturer by using an older catalog file for the DMO catalog. In the image below, a new folder DMX was created to place the DMO.CAT file into.
- In Worksheet, select Preferences from the Tools ribbon tab.
- Click the Content button on the left.
- In the Content tab, click the New Manufacturer button.
- Enter the 3-character code for the alternate manufacturer and click OK. This should be the same 3-letter code of the folder you placed your catalog files into and it must also be a 3-character code not already in use by any other installed manufacturer.
- Enter the Manufacturer Name that describes the alternate manufacturer and click OK. This can be anything of your choosing.
- A Browse for Folder window will appear asking you to select the 3-character folder that contains the catalog files. Select the location of this folder and click OK.
- The newly created Alternate Manufacturer will now show in the top box Select which manufacturers will be available. It will be at the bottom of the list by default. If you choose to move it up the list using the arrows, always keep the alternate below the primary it is an alternate of.
- Now we need to add the catalog file(s) to the newly created Alternate Manufacturer. Highlight the new manufacturer and click the Add Content button in the bottom section to the right of Select which content will be available.
- It will now open in the folder we selected earlier. Select the .CAT files in the folder and click Open.
- Click Apply and then OK in the preferences dialog.
- Worksheet will need to be closed and restarted for the changes to take effect. Once done, the newly added alternate manufacturer should show in your Content list.
How to use an alternate manufacturer (Worksheet)
In the following example, an Alternate Manufacturer has been created and added to Worksheet for the 2020 Enriched Data Demo catalog (DMO). The Alternate Manufacturer is using a dummy MFG code of DMX.
- Turn on the Alt MFG Column in Worksheet, by right clicking on any column and choosing Customize Columns. Select Alt Mfg to turn on the column and then click Ok.
- Assign the 3-character Alt Mfg code to the line items you need to update to the alternate manufacturer pricing. In the example below, two line items are in Worksheet from the DMO catalog and we will assign them the Alt Mfg code of DMX thereby updating the items against the Alternate Manufacturer. If there are many line items that need the Alt Mfg code, use the Assign tool located under the Home tab.
- Once you have assigned the line items Alt Mfg code, perform an Update Against Catalog by selecting it from the Worksheet ribbon tab.
- Change any of the criteria if necessary and click Update. The line items should now be updated against the data stored in the alternate manufacturer catalog. The pricing will now be assigned to what is contained in the alternate catalog version. If later you wish to switch the pricing back to the primary or current pricing, simply remove the ALT MFG code information from the line items and perform another update against catalog.