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Back Up

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It is very important to back up your bids and Price Books frequently. So important that we provide an easy way to back up your Bids and Price Books right in the estimating system, and even remind you each time you leave the system. You can -- if you are brave -- turn the question off in the Options/Preferences Dialog Box under the Tools Menu.

Back Up may be used to save an extra copy of your work in case of disk crash or data loss, or to transfer your work between different computers where you have EasyEst Estimating installed. You may back up all of Price Book information, all of the Bids associated with a given Price Book, any Single Bid, or any combination of the above options.

Backup

To get to the Back Up Dialog Box at any time while in the program, click Transfer on the top menu bar then select Back Up...

To make a backup, fill in the information in the Back Up Dialog Box:

1.From Price Book: Select which Price Book you want to back up. The Price Book associated with the current Bid is the default.

2.Check this box if you want to back up Price Book Information, i.e., information common to all Bids, such as Price Book Items, Cost Types, Budgets, etc.

3.Check this Box if you want to back up all Bids from this Price Book into one backup file.

4.Click the "Browse..." To Select where the backup files will be stored.

5. When ready click the "Back Up" button to finish.

Hints          - You may want to set up at least 2 locations for your backups and rotate between these by clicking the down arrow to change the location (when you back to more than one location EasyEst stores them).

Restore from Back Up...

The Estimating Restore feature, again available both inside and outside the estimating system, allows you to recover the information from the backup files.

To get to the Restore Dialog Box at any time while in the program, click Transfer on the top menu bar then Restore from Back Up...

Back Up: Price Book Information

Back Up: All Bids in Price Book

If you want to transfer just one Bids (or even a few Bids), use the Single Bid check box below, instead. If you Back Up all Bids together, you will have to restore all the Bids together. The All Bids option is easier and faster than backing up separate Bids for making backup copies. You may back up both the Price Book Information and all Bids at the same time, and even back up a separate Single Bid, too!

Back Up: Single Bid in Separate File

To archive or transfer a single Bid, select this check box, and then choose which Bid from the selected Price Book you want to back up in the pop-up list immediately below the check box. Estimating will remember which Price Book each Bid is associated with, and restore Bids to their correct place.

If you want to back up more than one Bid, you will need to return to the Back Up Dialog Box once for each Bid. (You may, however, restore them all at once in the Restore Dialog Box.)

We assume you have formatted floppy diskettes. You will need to format the disks before using Back Up. You may format disks in the Windows File Manager, Windows 95’s "My Computer" window, or from the DOS prompt.

You may also choose another destination by clicking on Other: and entering a drive and directory name. You may also choose the drive and directory from a list -- just press the list button (...).

Back Up (button) After you have filled out all the above information, press this button to begin writing the backup. Make sure to have the appropriate floppy disk in the drive before starting the backup.

Cancel (button) Cancels the Back Up Dialog Box without performing a backup.

Help (button) Brings up this help message.

To restore the files you backed up, you may use File/Transfer/Restore From Back Up... or the Estimating Restore icon in the Program Manager (or, under Windows 95, from the Start button menu: Programs/Estimating/Estimating Restore). For details about restoring backups, see the Restore from Back Up Dialog Box help message.

Backing up can also be done outside the system using the Estimating Backup icon from the Program Manager or Start menu.

You can use Back Up to transfer your work to another computer, if you have multiple systems with EasyEst Estimating installed. Just back up one Bid, a few Bids, all of your Bids, or, if you have also changed the Price Book (such as added Price Book Items, Cost Types, Budgets, or Questions) both Bid and Price Book information. Then, on the computer you want to transfer to, run the Estimating Restore procedure. After changing Bids at home or in the field, you will probably want to run transfer any changed Bids back to your main computer.

Do not make changes two places at once; Restore will wipe out any changes made to the restored Bid or Bids and (if Price Book is also restored) Price Book. At any one time, there should be one "live" copy where you are making changes.

The backup files are named according to this convention:

For instance, a backup of the Sample Bid in the Const Price Book would be named SAMPLE.BXF, while a backup of every Bid in the Const Price Book would be named CONST.BDZ. The Restore From Back Up Dialog Box will list the names and also give descriptions of what they contain.

Do not rename the backup files or they may not restore correctly.

You may also restore (but not back up to) files using the older naming convention, used before Release 6.4:

See Also: Restore from Back Up

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