The files are backed up in a .zip file format (no external program is needed to unzip or zip backup files) and you can use restore all files from a backup, or select individual files to restore. The program can backup the files to a subdirectory on your hard disk or you can change this to backup to diskette. NOTE: If you are only backing up to the hard disk and your entire hard disk crashes, you may wish you had at least on occasion changed to backup to a diskette. However, creating backups on the hard disk may be fine to start with. One reason for doing this is if you had Imported data and found out it was not the right file, you could restore files from the back up folder. Let's look at the backup manager screens.
The most important thing to notice here is the folder for backup, if you want to backup to diskette change this to A:\backup or just A:\
If you want to use automatic backups, be sure that box is checked. You can also change the dateformat used in the filename.
The next button is used to setup Automatic Backups. You can set the backup option to run every time the program starts, and/or every time you exit the program. You can show the Light bulb icon which will light up whenever data has changed - indicating automatic backup will run when you exit. If you have the program set to backup At Program End, but no data has been changed since the last backup, the automatic backup won't happen. I recommend you use the Radio button to back up on each start of the program instead of just once per day. You can also check a box to delete old backup files after a number of days or a number of files. If you have plenty of disk space, you may want to uncheck this option.
Now, if you have been using the backup feature and then find out, whoops, you need restore one or more files use the third button Restore Backup.
In the list of backup files, the most recent backup will be at the top. You can select a backup file name and click the File Contents tab to see the individual file names. To start a restore you right click on the filename you want to restore. You can choose to Extract (restore) an individual file name or all files contained in the backup .zip. Think about this carefully. Suppose you have been using the program for quite some time and all your family and member data is ok, but you realized after editing attendance records for the prior week that you had used the wrong date or something. Rather than restore all the files, you might be best to only restore the attendance file. Or, suppose you have been using the Report Builder these reports files are also backed up. Suppose you had accidentally modified a single report and saved it without realizing you made a mistake. Again, you might want to restore only that single file. I hope you will find this backup and restore option handy, but please be careful in using the Extract all option.
The view log button shows a history of backup and restore options. You can right click and choose to Clear all log records. This won't delete the backup files, just the history of the backups.
The last two buttons are to allow you to Exit and Save your changes, or Exit without saving your changes.