Using A Laptop At Home And On Network At Office

These instructions will assume that programs integrated with Appraise-It will be used at the office rather than at home. The rationale for this assumption can be illustrated in the case of Photograph-It.

1. The user will not want to fill up his hard drive with photos.

2. The user may not have a color printer at home.

3. Most importantly the user will not want to merge the databases.

Therefore, it will be assumed that the integrated programs will be installed on the notebooks for typical network usage. That is, they will be pointing to the server so that the data is saved on the server.

There are a couple issues that need to be addressed before proceeding with the steps. The first one is when you get to the office, the reports you created and/or completed while at home will need to be copied from the TRADATA\DATA directory on your C: drive to the TRADATA\DATA directory on the network. Then, to be able to search for the reports using the File Index (rolodex icon) while at the office, you will need to open each report from the network in Appraise-It, then save each one back to the network. This is the only way it will be added to the File Index.

The second issue is if multiple users are using Appraise-It’s automatic file numbering system, make sure you allocate file numbers when you are working at home. For example, let’s say you complete File # 99050005 at home. You come back to copy that report to the network, but someone else in the office already created that report. You won’t be able to copy the file to the network unless you rename it or save it under a different file number. Allocating file numbers before you leave the office will solve this problem. Let everyone know what file number(s) you will be using, then they can begin with the following one. This also applies if you are using your own file numbering system.

Creating Batch File Icons to Run Appraise-It Locally and on a Network

These directions will assume that Appraise-It has already been installed for local operation on the notebook at home and now you want to run it from the notebook at the office.

1) Open Windows Explorer (Start-Programs-Windows Explorer) on your notebook

a) Change to VIEW so that you can see details and extensions

i) Click on VIEW and select DETAILS. Also, make sure there is a check next to STATUS BAR under View.

ii) Click on VIEW and select OPTIONS (or Folder Options) at the bottom.

(1) Click on the VIEW tab.

(2) Uncheck Hide File Extensions or MS DOS file extensions.

(3) Select SHOW ALL FILES.

(4) Click OK.

b) Create a new directory called BATCH

i) Left click on the C drive

ii) Click FILE-NEW-FOLDER

iii) Type BATCH (It will type it over the words New Folder.)

iv) Hit ENTER

v) Hit F5

c) Copy your TRA.INI file

i) On the left side of the screen, double click on the C drive

ii) On the left side of the screen, double click on the Windows directory

iii) On the right side of the screen, scroll past the folders to the files and left click on the TRA.INI file

iv) Click EDIT-COPY

d) Paste TRA.INI into BATCH and rename it

i) On the left side of the screen, scroll back up to BATCH and click it

ii) Click EDIT-PASTE (This will paste a copy of TRA.INI into BATCH.)

(1) Left click on the TRA.INI in BATCH

(2) Hit F2

(3) Type TRALOC.INI

(4) Hit ENTER

iii) Click EDIT-PASTE (This will paste another copy of TRA.INI into BATCH.)

(1) Hit F2

(2) Type TRANET.INI

(3) Hit ENTER

2) Open Notepad (Start-Run, type Notepad, then click on OK)

a) Create a batch file for TRALOC.INI

i) Type: COPY C:\BATCH\TRALOC.INI C:\Windows\TRA.INI

ii) Hit ENTER

iii) Type: C:\TRA\TRA.exe

iv) Hit ENTER

v) Type: CLS

vi) Click File¾Save As

(1) Name it: TRALOC.bat

(2) Save in: BATCH

(3) Save as type: ALL FILES

(4) Click SAVE

b) Create a batch file for TRANET.INI

i) Change the first line to read

(1) COPY C:\BATCH\TRANET.INI C:\Windows\TRA.INI

(2) (leave the other lines as they are)

ii) Click File¾Save AS

(1) Name it: TRANET.bat

(2) Save in: BATCH

(3) Save as type: ALL FILES

(4) Click SAVE

c) Close Notepad

3. Change the TRANET.INI paths in Notepad

a) Click Start-Run and type C:\BATCH\TRANET.INI and click on OK.

i) Click SEARCH - FIND

ii) Type: DIR

iii) Click FIND NEXT

iv) Click CANCEL

b) Scroll down so that you can read the section marked [DIRECTORIES].

c) Change following directory paths so that they point to the server (e.g., S):

i) DataDir=S:\TRADATA

ii) ImageDir= S:\TRADATA\IMAGE

iii) AS_Source= S:\TRADATA\SKELS\UA2SKEL\UAR-3X5.RPT

iv) FileOpen= S:\TRADATA\DATA\*.RPT

4. Double click on the icon you want to run.

d) When you want to run Appraise-It LOCALLY at home, double click on the TRALOC.INI icon.

e) When you want to run Appraise-It as NETWORKED at the office, double click on the TRANET.INI icon.

To Save The Files From Your Notebook To Your Server

· Double click on the TRANET.BAT icon

· Open the report you wish to save to your server.

· Click FILE-SAVE AS

· The file number/name you assign must be unique to that it will not conflict or overwrite an identical file number/name already saved on the server by someone else.

To Save The Files From Your Server to Your Notebook

Initial Setup (done once)

1. Create a short cut to C:\Tradata\DATA

a) In Windows Explorer

i) Right click on C:\Tradata\DATA

ii) Left click on Send To Desk Top–Create Short Cut

iii) Close Windows Explorer

b) On your Desktop

i) Right click on Short Cut to Data

ii) Left click cut

c) Open Windows Explorer

i) Browse to C:\Windows\Send To

ii) Left click Edit-Paste

iii) On the right side of the screen, right click on Short Cut to Data

iv) Left click Rename

v) Type: DataLoc

vi) Hit Enter

2. Create a short cut to S:\Tradata\Data

a) In Windows Explorer browse to S:\Tradata\Data

i) Right click on Data

ii) Left click on Send To Desk Top–Create Short Cut

iii) Close Windows Explorer

b) On Your Desktop

i) Right click on DATA

ii) Left click rename

iii) Type: DataNet

iv) Hit Enter

Repeated Operation

· When you want to copy files to your laptop, connect to your server and double click on DataNet. Then right click on the file you wish to copy. Left click on sent to DataLoc.

Using A Batch File To Copy The Server Data To The Notebook

If you want everyone in the office to use identical common responses, custom skeletons, and have access to all the reports, then you can periodically copy TRADATA and all its contents from the server over TRADATA on your notepad. If you want a batch file to do so, then do the following.

3) Open Notepad (Start-Run, type Notepad, then click on OK)

a) Create a batch file for copying TRADATA to your NOTEBOOK

i) If you want to copy everything including reports type:

· ATTRIB -R C:\TRADATA\SKELS\*.* /s

· XCOPY S:\TRADATA\*.* /s C:\TRADATA /y

ii) If you want to just copy, databases and custom skeletons type:

· ATTRIB -R C:\TRADATA\SKELS\*.* /s

· XCOPY S:\TRADATA\SKELS\*.* /s C:\TRADATA\SKELS /y

· COPY S:\TRADATA\*.* C:\TRADATA /y

iii) Click File¾Save As

(1) Name it: COPYDATA.BAT

(2) Save in: BATCH

(3) Save as type: ALL FILES

(4) Click SAVE

iv) (Note, for either of these copydata.bat files to work, the read only attribute was removed from our default skeletons. Do not restructure skeletons when using the notebook in the field, i.e., when using TraLoc).

4) On your Desktop, create a shortcut to this batch file

a) Right click on the empty part of your Windows Desktop.

i) Click NEW-SHORTCUT

ii) Click BROWSE

iii) Double click BATCH

iv) Double click COPYDATA.BAT

v) Click NEXT twice

vi) Left click on an icon

vii) Click FINISH

5) Right click on COPYDATA icon

a) Left click on PROPERTIES

b) Click Program Tab

i) Put a check in the Close On Exit Box

ii) Click OK

6) Whenever you want to copy the data files and reports from the server to the laptop, make certain everyone closes out of Appraise-It and double click on the COPYDATA icon.