PastPerfect Newsletter

December 2007 Newsletter

1. Upcoming Training Opportunities for PastPerfect 4.0

2. Spotlight your Institution on www.MuseumSoftware.com!

3. New PastPerfect-Online Featured Sites!

4. Tech Tip: Backing Up your PastPerfect Data, Images, and Multi-media Using the Built-in Backup Function

5. Contact Information

1. Upcoming Training Opportunities for PastPerfect 4.0

The 2008 Training Calendar is starting to come together! Currently scheduled training locations and dates are listed below.

Exton, PA-December 17-18, 2007
Hosted by PastPerfect Software, Inc.

Glen Allen, VA-January 15-17, 2008
Hosted by the County of Henrico Division of Recreation & Parks at Walkerton Tavern

Farmington, CT-February 6-8, 2008
Hosted by the Stanley-Whitman House

Concord, CA-March 7-8, 2008
Hosted by the Museums of Central and East Contra Costa County and California State University, East Bay's Concord Hills Campus

For more information about scheduled training classes, or to see if one is being planned for your area, please contact our Training Coordinator, Jennessa Reed, by e-mail at training@museumsoftware.com or by phone at 800-562-6080.

2. Spotlight your institution on www.MuseumSoftware.com!

Thanks to you, the demand for PastPerfect Software continues to grow. As we approach 6000 customers, our Client List grows too. This helpful resource from our website gives you the opportunity to take a look at other PastPerfect users from around the world. It is a way to network with PastPerfect customers with similar collections or museums in your area. To help you learn more about users, we provide links to participating clients' websites.

By providing a link to your organization's website, Virtual Exhibit, and/or PastPerfect-Online site, we can help promote your institution to the nearly half million visitors to our website.

To add your organization's website to the Client List, please send your organization name, website address, Virtual Exhibit home page, and/or PastPerfect-Online site in an e-mail to clientlist@museumsoftware.com.

To see who else is using PastPerfect, please visit the Client List & Map under the Resources section of our website http://www.museumsoftware.com/client_list.htm.

3. New PastPerfect-Online Featured Sites!

Sharing your collection over the internet has never been easier! More collections research is being done from the comfort of home than ever before. To help cater to this trend, PastPerfect Software, Inc. created PastPerfect-Online.

PastPerfect-Online is secure: PastPerfect-Online uploads a copy of the records, images and fields that you select into a searchable online database; confidential or sensitive information can remain private and under your control. To keep your images secure, PastPerfect-Online contains a watermarking tool that can watermark all of the images that you place online without affecting your permanent images*.

PastPerfect-Online is searchable: PastPerfect-Online makes researching your institution's collections easier for visitors by enabling keyword and customizable advanced searches. Visitors can also research your collections with PastPerfect-Online's Click and Search feature. Additionally, if a visitor desires to view the essence of your collection they can use the Random Images Search, which will display thumbnail images at random from all of your uploaded catalog records.

PastPerfect-Online is easy to use: In addition to being safe and fully searchable, PastPerfect-Online is easy to use and update, since no web design or programming expertise is necessary! Once you select the records that you wish to appear online, the Web Publishing Wizard helps create the fields and implement the options for your site. Just create and upload the files and our support technicians take care of the rest! With PastPerfect-Online, you can also add your museum's logo and add design elements that compliment your existing website.

Throughout the year we will be featuring PastPerfect-Online sites on our website at http://www.museumsoftware.com/client_list.htm.

This month's featured site: Gibbes Museum of Art-Charleston, SC

To view additional PastPerfect-Online sites, please visit www.PastPerfect-Online.com.

If you would like additional information about PastPerfect-Online please visit our website at http://www.museumsoftware.com/pponline.htm, download the information sheet from http://www.museumsoftware.com/downloads.htm, e-mail our sales staff at sales@museumsoftware.com or contact us at 800-562-6080, toll free.

*Please note that images in PastPerfect-Online are imported from PastPerfect 4.0, just like records. The Multi-Media Upgrade enables PastPerfect users to attach digital images.

4. Tech Tip: Backing Up your PastPerfect Data, Images, and Multi-media Using the Built-in Backup Function

Backing up your PastPerfect data and images on a regular basis is an essential process for collection management. Creating backups provides your institution with peace of mind in the event of a natural disaster or computer malfunction. Having multiple backups of PastPerfect, on the hard drive and on removable mediums stored on and off site will ensure that should disaster strike, your data is recoverable. The ability to recover your information and not waste time and energy on re-entering data is important, which is why we have made the process of creating a backup simple! Before you create a backup, please make sure that everyone has exited from PastPerfect so that you are backing up the most recent data.

To create a backup to your hard drive, please select Backup from the Main Screen and then choose "Backup Data to Hard Drive". This will create a compressed copy of all of your PastPerfect data and store it on your local hard drive. Backing up your data to hard drive should only require a few moments and since it is a compressed file, it uses very little hard drive space. We suggest creating a backup to your hard drive at the end of every day during which information was added or edited. If you are on a network, this should be done at each workstation where data was entered. Please note that this backup contains your data, but not your images or multimedia files.

We also suggest that you create backups to CD/DVD, a removable drive, or floppy disk once a week, so that your data may be stored off-site in a secure location. To enable the ability to create backup to CD/DVD, a removable drive, or floppy disk, please use the following steps:

1) Click the "Setup" button on the Main Menu of PastPerfect
2) Click the "Gen. Information" button
3) Make sure the box at the top of this screen that reads "Computer has a CD or DVD burner" is checked
4) Make sure the correct drive letter of your CD/DVD burner, Removable Drive, or Floppy Drive is selected (if you are not sure what letter should be selected, you can double check it in the My Computer area on your computer)
5) Click the "Exit" button on the General Information window

When you are ready to backup your data, images, and multi-media to CD or DVD, use these steps:

1) Click the "Backup" button on the main menu
2) Click the "Backup Data, Images & Multi-media to CD or DVD" button
3) Make sure the desired options are checked, then select your CD/DVD burner from the drop down list
4) Make sure the "Finalize" box is checked (note: This will close your CD and make sure that nothing else can be recorded on this CD, and also ensures other computers can read the CD.)
5) Click the "Start Backup" button
6) Insert a blank disc into the CD/DVD burner drive and click "OK"

The process of backing up your data, images, and multimedia may take a few minutes, but when this process is complete, you will have all of your PastPerfect data and images on your CD or DVD! We recommend that you use a writeable CD or DVD (CD-R or DVD-R) instead of a re-writable CD or DVD (CD-RW or DVD-RW) because a CD-R or DVD-R can only be written to one time. The advantage of using a CD-R or DVD-R is that your backup cannot be erased or overwritten and a CD-R or DVD-R does not wear out as quickly as a CD-RW or DVD-RW, since data is only written to it once.

If you get a backup failed message, it may be that you have more information than will fit on one CD or DVD. If the size of the data, images and multi-media files exceeds the storage space on the CD or DVD, you should choose to include the data and images from some of the catalogs on one disc and then create a second disc with the remainder of that information, plus the Multi-media files. For example, if most of your images in PastPerfect are attached to records in your Objects catalog, place a checkbox next to everything except the Objects Image Files and Multi-media Files and to create the first backup disc. Once the first backup disc is created, you can uncheck everything and just have the Object Image Files and Multi-media Files selected to backup on a second disc. The key is to split them up so that the size of the files does not add up to be more than the capacity of the disc.

Once you have completely backed up your PastPerfect data, images and multi-media, use a felt tip permanent marker to write the program version (found on the Main Menu of PastPerfect just above the Incoming Loans button) and date of the backup on the label side of your CD or DVD. Once created, consider keeping your backup(s) in a safe place, outside of your institution. We suggest that your institution creates a policy on how to store these backups, and how many of them to store before disposing of them.

If you wish to backup your data, images, and multi-media to a removable drive, use these steps:

1) Click the "Backup" button on the main menu
2) Click the "Backup Data, Images & Multi-media to Removable Drive" button
3) Make sure the desired options are checked, then verify your "Backup Drive and Folder"
4) Click the "Start Backup" button
5) You will receive a warning message indicating that "Images that are not in the selected folders or in sub-sub-folders and below of the selected folders will NOT be backed up." Once you indicate "OK" your backup will begin.

If you are using a removable device like a USB flash drive, unless the file name is changed for archival purposes, when saving another backup to the same flash drive, the original backup will be overwritten.

If your institution's server creates a backup of your PastPerfect data, image, and multi-media files, you will want to discuss the policies and procedures with the IT department so that you know how often and when backups are created, as well as the procedure for recovering a backup from a server, since this recovery may take a number of days. With this in mind we still suggest that you create your own backups so that you can ensure that your data has been backed up and is easily recoverable from the point in time that you need it.

So, in the event of a disaster, whether it involves a fire, flood, or computer or server catastrophe, the creation of backups can drastically reduce the amount of time and effort to get your institution up and running. If you have questions regarding the creation of backups, please contact our support office toll free at 800-562-6080.

5. Contact information

Address: 300 North Pottstown Pike, Suite 200 Exton, PA 19341
Website: http://www.MuseumSoftware.com
Sales & Product Info: 800-562-6080 or sales@museumsoftware.com
Support: 800-562-6080 or support@museumsoftware.com
Training: 800-562-6080 or training@museumsoftware.com
Data Conversions: 800-562-6080 or conversions@museumsoftware.com


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December 2007 Newsletter 1. Upcoming Training Opportunities for PastPerfect 4.0 2. Spotlight your Institution on www.MuseumSoftware.com! 3. New PastPerfect-Online Featured Sites! 4. Tech Tip: Backing Up your PastPerfect Data, Images, and Multi-media Using the Built-in Backup Function 5. Contact Information 1. Upcoming Training Opportunities for PastPerfect 4.0 The 2008 Training Calendar is starting to come together! Currently scheduled training locations and dates are listed below. Exton, PA-December 17-18, 2007 Hosted by PastPerfect Software, Inc. Glen Allen, VA-January 15-17, 2008 Hosted by the County of Henrico Division of Recreation & Parks at Walkerton Tavern Farmington, CT-February 6-8, 2008 Hosted by the Stanley-Whitman House Concord, CA-March 7-8, 2008 Hosted by the Museums of Central and East Contra Costa County and California State University, East Bay's Concord Hills Campus For more information about scheduled training classes, or to see if one is being planned for your area, please contact our Training Coordinator, Jennessa Reed, by e-mail at training@museumsoftware.com or by phone at 800-562-6080. 2. Spotlight your institution on www.MuseumSoftware.com! Thanks to you, the demand for PastPerfect Software continues to grow. As we approach 6000 customers, our Client List grows too. This helpful resource from our website gives you the opportunity to take a look at other PastPerfect users from around the world. It is a way to network with PastPerfect customers with similar collections or museums in your area. To help you learn more about users, we provide links to participating clients' websites. By providing a link to your organization's website, Virtual Exhibit, and/or PastPerfect-Online site, we can help promote your institution to the nearly half million visitors to our website. To add your organization's website to the Client List, please send your organization name, website address, Virtual Exhibit home page, and/or PastPerfect-Online site in an e-mail to clientlist@museumsoftware.com. To see who else is using PastPerfect, please visit the Client List & Map under the Resources section of our website http://www.museumsoftware.com/client_list.htm. 3. New PastPerfect-Online Featured Sites! Sharing your collection over the internet has never been easier! More collections research is being done from the comfort of home than ever before. To help cater to this trend, PastPerfect Software, Inc. created PastPerfect-Online. PastPerfect-Online is secure: PastPerfect-Online uploads a copy of the records, images and fields that you select into a searchable online database; confidential or sensitive information can remain private and under your control. To keep your images secure, PastPerfect-Online contains a watermarking tool that can watermark all of the images that you place online without affecting your permanent images. PastPerfect-Online is searchable: PastPerfect-Online makes researching your institution's collections easier for visitors by enabling keyword and customizable advanced searches. Visitors can also research your collections with PastPerfect-Online's Click and Search feature. Additionally, if a visitor desires to view the essence of your collection they can use the Random Images Search, which will display thumbnail images at random from all of your uploaded catalog records. PastPerfect-Online is easy to use: In addition to being safe and fully searchable, PastPerfect-Online is easy to use and update, since no web design or programming expertise is necessary! Once you select the records that you wish to appear online, the Web Publishing Wizard helps create the fields and implement the options for your site. Just create and upload the files and our support technicians take care of the rest! With PastPerfect-Online, you can also add your museum's logo and add design elements that compliment your existing website. Throughout the year we will be featuring PastPerfect-Online sites on our website at http://www.museumsoftware.com/client_list.htm. This month's featured site:* Gibbes Museum of Art-Charleston, SC To view additional PastPerfect-Online sites, please visit www.PastPerfect-Online.com. If you would like additional information about PastPerfect-Online please visit our website at http://www.museumsoftware.com/pponline.htm, download the information sheet from http://www.museumsoftware.com/downloads.htm, e-mail our sales staff at sales@museumsoftware.com or contact us at 800-562-6080, toll free. Please note that images in PastPerfect-Online are imported from PastPerfect 4.0, just like records. The Multi-Media Upgrade enables PastPerfect users to attach digital images. 4. Tech Tip: Backing Up your PastPerfect Data, Images, and Multi-media Using the Built-in Backup Function* Backing up your PastPerfect data and images on a regular basis is an essential process for collection management. Creating backups provides your institution with peace of mind in the event of a natural disaster or computer malfunction. Having multiple backups of PastPerfect, on the hard drive and on removable mediums stored on and off site will ensure that should disaster strike, your data is recoverable. The ability to recover your information and not waste time and energy on re-entering data is important, which is why we have made the process of creating a backup simple! Before you create a backup, please make sure that everyone has exited from PastPerfect so that you are backing up the most recent data. To create a backup to your hard drive, please select Backup from the Main Screen and then choose "Backup Data to Hard Drive". This will create a compressed copy of all of your PastPerfect data and store it on your local hard drive. Backing up your data to hard drive should only require a few moments and since it is a compressed file, it uses very little hard drive space. We suggest creating a backup to your hard drive at the end of every day during which information was added or edited. If you are on a network, this should be done at each workstation where data was entered. Please note that this backup contains your data, but not your images or multimedia files. We also suggest that you create backups to CD/DVD, a removable drive, or floppy disk once a week, so that your data may be stored off-site in a secure location. To enable the ability to create backup to CD/DVD, a removable drive, or floppy disk, please use the following steps: 1) Click the "Setup" button on the Main Menu of PastPerfect 2) Click the "Gen. Information" button 3) Make sure the box at the top of this screen that reads "Computer has a CD or DVD burner" is checked 4) Make sure the correct drive letter of your CD/DVD burner, Removable Drive, or Floppy Drive is selected (if you are not sure what letter should be selected, you can double check it in the My Computer area on your computer) 5) Click the "Exit" button on the General Information window When you are ready to backup your data, images, and multi-media to CD or DVD, use these steps: 1) Click the "Backup" button on the main menu 2) Click the "Backup Data, Images & Multi-media to CD or DVD" button 3) Make sure the desired options are checked, then select your CD/DVD burner from the drop down list 4) Make sure the "Finalize" box is checked (note: This will close your CD and make sure that nothing else can be recorded on this CD, and also ensures other computers can read the CD.) 5) Click the "Start Backup" button 6) Insert a blank disc into the CD/DVD burner drive and click "OK" The process of backing up your data, images, and multimedia may take a few minutes, but when this process is complete, you will have all of your PastPerfect data and images on your CD or DVD! We recommend that you use a writeable CD or DVD (CD-R or DVD-R) instead of a re-writable CD or DVD (CD-RW or DVD-RW) because a CD-R or DVD-R can only be written to one time. The advantage of using a CD-R or DVD-R is that your backup cannot be erased or overwritten and a CD-R or DVD-R does not wear out as quickly as a CD-RW or DVD-RW, since data is only written to it once. If you get a backup failed message, it may be that you have more information than will fit on one CD or DVD. If the size of the data, images and multi-media files exceeds the storage space on the CD or DVD, you should choose to include the data and images from some of the catalogs on one disc and then create a second disc with the remainder of that information, plus the Multi-media files. For example, if most of your images in PastPerfect are attached to records in your Objects catalog, place a checkbox next to everything except the Objects Image Files and Multi-media Files and to create the first backup disc. Once the first backup disc is created, you can uncheck everything and just have the Object Image Files and Multi-media Files selected to backup on a second disc. The key is to split them up so that the size of the files does not add up to be more than the capacity of the disc. Once you have completely backed up your PastPerfect data, images and multi-media, use a felt tip permanent marker to write the program version (found on the Main Menu of PastPerfect just above the Incoming Loans button) and date of the backup on the label side of your CD or DVD. Once created, consider keeping your backup(s) in a safe place, outside of your institution. We suggest that your institution creates a policy on how to store these backups, and how many of them to store before disposing of them. If you wish to backup your data, images, and multi-media to a removable drive, use these steps: 1) Click the "Backup" button on the main menu 2) Click the "Backup Data, Images & Multi-media to Removable Drive" button 3) Make sure the desired options are checked, then verify your "Backup Drive and Folder" 4) Click the "Start Backup" button 5) You will receive a warning message indicating that "Images that are not in the selected folders or in sub-sub-folders and below of the selected folders will NOT be backed up." Once you indicate "OK" your backup will begin. If you are using a removable device like a USB flash drive, unless the file name is changed for archival purposes, when saving another backup to the same flash drive, the original backup will be overwritten. If your institution's server creates a backup of your PastPerfect data, image, and multi-media files, you will want to discuss the policies and procedures with the IT department so that you know how often and when backups are created, as well as the procedure for recovering a backup from a server, since this recovery may take a number of days. With this in mind we still suggest that you create your own backups so that you can ensure that your data has been backed up and is easily recoverable from the point in time that you need it. So, in the event of a disaster, whether it involves a fire, flood, or computer or server catastrophe, the creation of backups can drastically reduce the amount of time and effort to get your institution up and running. If you have questions regarding the creation of backups, please contact our support office toll free at 800-562-6080. 5. Contact information Address: 300 North Pottstown Pike, Suite 200 Exton, PA 19341 Website: http://www.MuseumSoftware.com Sales & Product Info: 800-562-6080 or sales@museumsoftware.com Support: 800-562-6080 or support@museumsoftware.com Training: 800-562-6080 or training@museumsoftware.com Data Conversions: 800-562-6080 or conversions@museumsoftware.com To unsubscribe: http://www.museumsoftware.com/newunsubscribe.htm or email news@museumsoftware.com