This page contains answers to common
questions handled by our support staff, along with some tips and tricks
that we have found useful and presented here as questions.
Note: In these answers we will follow a few
shorthand conventions for describing user-interface procedures. Key
combinations will be presented like this: [Ctrl+Alt+M], which
means that you should press and hold down the Control key and the Alt
key at the same time then
press the M key. Menu selections will be presented like this: Setup
| Schools , which means that you should
click the Setup menu item in the main menu. Under this
will appear
a sub-menu, in the sub-menu click the Schools item.
- Installing
- Register
- Using two separate computers.
- Multiple users on a Network
- Upgrading Data from and Access Database.
- Re-Installing RADar
Q My installation disc refuses to install.
Sometimes it mentions the 16 bit sub-system. What is it?
A Don't worry about the 16 bit sub system, you
probably have a virus which you should worry about. Try
eliminating the virus by downloading and running the latest version of Stinger and also maybe House Call. If the problem
persists then call for technical support.
Always operate your computer with a Fire wall or Anti-Virus
software, or even better both.
Q. Why has the width of my
register columns has become smaller since version 3.1.
A. We have extended the capability of the
register to cater for 16 week terms and additional User Defined
Columns. To fit the additional weeks onto the register it was
necessary to reduce their width. If you find they are no longer
wide enough let us know.
Q. I have a laptop that I use
during classes and generally at the dance center but I do all my 'paper
work' on my desk machine at home. Can I move my data between
computers?
A. Yes, provided
- You are using Version 3 or later, or Version 2 with the same version of Interbase on both
computers. (If you used the same CD to install the program this will be
the case).
- You have a second license for RADar (contact RAD Enterprises in London for cost and details)
If you are using Version 2, then to check your visions of Interbase load the installation
disc and look at the bottom right of the screen where it will tell you
what version is on your first computer. Do the same for the second
computer. If they are the same you are OK. If they are not
phone for assistance.
The first stage of transferring the data is to back it
up. (Which you should do regularly anyway) Open the menu items File
| Backup the first screen (and the last screen) will tell you the
file name* of the backup data, make a note of this. now proceed to
backup. It is not necessary to close the school manager after
backing up but it helps to tidy the screen.
Now use the windows Explorer to access the backup and move
it to the other drive or computer. To do this:
Right click the Start Button and select Explore. The
explorer has two pains, on the left is a list of directories, on the
right is a list of subdirectories and files.
In the right pain go to the top of the screen (you might
need to use the slider to do this) and look down for the (C:) drive
which should be fairly close to the top. If this has a + by
the side of it then open it by double clicking on the C: drive
name. Now look down the list for SchoolData and single
click on it. In the left pain right click on the file you noted
above at * above and select Copy.
Now move down the screen again until you see the drive you
need to transfer it to.
If your laptop is on the network and accessible find the
laptop C: drive and in that the SchoolData subdirectory as
described above, click on it and then in the left pain right click on
any blank portion of the screen and select past.
If you are using a memory stick, flash memory, etc, move
down the left pain until you find it, click on it then in the
left pain right click on any blank portion of the screen and select Paste.
You will now need to reverse the process on your laptop. Plug the
memory stick in the lap top, open the explorer, find the file in the
memory stick and copy it to the SchoolData subdirectory in the
(C:) drive of the laptop.
This looks complicated but once you are used to it will
only take a matter of seconds.
Now restore your data using RADar on the Laptop.
Once you have copied the data, either machine can be
considred the Master. Data should only be entered on the
Master, the second
computer can still be used for reports etc. You can
then copy data from the master to the second computer. (Any data
which had been entered on the second computer will of course be
overwritten by this procedure).
To see this diagramatically click
here
Example:
The school uses a laptop at
the studio, and a desk PC at home. The student data is all loaded
initially on the desk computer. In the morning the data is copied
to the laptop which is then used at the studio to record payments and
sales of costumes, new students etc. At the end of the day the
data is copied back to the desk machine where payments received through
the post are entered.
Had any payments been
entered on the desk computer during the day they would have been
overwritten in the evening when the data from the laptop was restored.
Q. Can RADar be used by multiple users on
a network.
A. Yes. RADar is based on a powerful
industry standard database capable of supporting hundreds of users on a
network, but you will need a Server license for the first user and a
Simultaneous Single User license for each additional user. Contact
technical support for the current prices of these licences.
Q. Can I import Data
from and access database?
A.
Yes. the process is a little complex since no two
people have the same original Access Database, but the procedure below
works. If this is too complex for you we run a sevice to do this
for you for 75 Euro.
The process enables you to import the following fields:
Student Forename,
Student Surname (or full name)
Address 1 (or full address, comma separated or on separate
lines)
Address 2
Address 3
Address 4
Address 5
Home Tel
Mobile Tel
Work Tel
EMail Address
Guardian Title
Guardian Forename
Guardian Surname
Guardian Salutation
Guardian Relationship
Alternative Invoice Address
Student DOB
Student Gender
Ethnic Group
Student Date Started (at school) / Registered
RAD PID
ISTD PID
Notes
Fld 25 *
Fld 26 *
Fld 27 *
*Fields 25, 26 and 27 are placed in the three user defined fields in
the family information and can be anything you want upto 50 characters
each.
<>1. To activate the import process select
Help | About and enter [Ctrl + I]. You will now find an
additional
entry under the Setup menu Import Data. The
import
facility will continue to be available while the program is running and
you can restart it at any time using this procedure.
2. Select Setup | Import from the main menu and the import
screen will appear. At the bottom is a button marked [Print
Fields]
which you can use to print a list of fields. If this button is
not present you have an old version of the progam and should update
your copy from the internet by going to the Support | Download page of
this web site.
3. You need to open your Access database and export the data to
Excel.
In Excel you can change the column order to be the same as that given
above. You
only need to supply the leading columns of data so if you don't have
the later columns not to worry. However, you can't skip a field so if
you are missing one in the middle then create a blank
column.
Notes
a. If you
only have one column of name (i.e. forename and surname are in one
column) enter this as the surname.
b. If you only have one address
column, put this in the Address1 column and leave blank columns for the
other Address fields. In this case you will normally have the address
on separate
lines (as normally printed) but if they are all on one line separated
by
commas that's OK but see below.
c. Dates should be in the format that your computer expects
to find dates. For example in computers configured for the UK, Australia and New Zealand
dates are in the format 20/6/03 (or 20/6/2003), in Germany the
format is 20.6.03 (or 20.6.2003), while in the US the format is
6/20/03 (or 6/20/2003) and in Denmark the format is 20-6-03 (or
20-6-2003).
d. The RAD and ISTD PIDs should (not supprisingly) contain only
digits.
e. The ethnic field is encoded as follows:
White, UK heritage 10
White, European 11
White, Other (known) 12
White, type not known 19
Black, Caribbean heritage 20
Black, African heritage 21
Black,
other
22
Indian
30
Pakistani
40
Bangladeshi
50
Chinese
60
Other,
(known)
90
Prefered not to say 98
Not
Ascertained
99
4. The program assumes that students from the same family will
follow
each other and will look at their address and telephone number to check
this. If the address
and/or telephone number
is the same, then only
one family will be created. This allows students with different
surnames to be entered as the same family. NB Blank telephone
numbers are not used in this process.
4. Once you have sorted your data you can copy and past it into
RADar. You can copy just a few lines or all the data at one
time. In Excel, block the lines to be copied and press [Ctrl +
C],
change to RADar, right click the import screen and select Paste. The
copied lines should appear (or be added to previous lines).
5. Once you have imported all the data, close the RADar import screen
and re-open it (this is a work around for a bug) now follow the stages
at the bottom of the page. 2. select the school, 3. Select the
options, 4. Create entries in RADar. Stage 5 will format the
addresses
if for example the post code is at the end of the town it will be
placed on its own line. When formatting the address the program
does
its best though it is not perfect!
6. You should now be able to select the Student Data and see your
students.
Re-Installing
RADar
Q. I need to re-install RADar on my
computer. How do I do this?
A.
When you de-install radar, some of the code is not fully
removed. So before you re-install you need to follow these
instructions:
Put
the CD in the drive, but do not click either button. Press Ctrl +
M (i.e. hold the control key down and press the M key) this
will
cause a small maintenance menu to appear. Check "Remove
Interbase"
and click Apply. You may get an error message telling you
that not
all files can be removed. but ignore this. Now restart the
computer,
remove and insert the disc to re-start the installation program and
click install. At the end of installation you will need to
restart the
computer.
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