Working with your TntMPD Database file...
All of the information you store in TntMPD is stored in a database
file. A TntMPD database file name ends with the .mpd extension.
Under the "File" menu you can create a "New" database, "Open" an existing
database, and "Close" the database currently open. TntMPD remembers the
last database you were working in and will automatically open that database next
time you start the program. You can also double-click on the database file
in Windows Explorer to open it in TntMPD. Analogy: TntMPD databases
are to TntMPD what Word documents are to Word.
Under the "Help" menu, click on "View System Info". Here you'll see
where exactly that file is stored on your computer. This corresponds to
the database currently open in TntMPD.
You can alo search your computer for your database. Under the "Start"
menu click on "Search" (or "Find" on older Windows), then click on "For Files or
Folders". Search your entire computer for "*.mpd".
In my example, I can see that my database is named "Troy and Tammy.mpd" and
it is stored in "My Documents". After I open "My Documents" on my computer
I can see that a TntMPD database is just like any other file.
If TntMPD does not have a database currently open, the main screen will be
mostly grayed out. To open a database into TntMPD you can either select
your database using "Open" under the "File" menu, or you can just double-click
on the file in Windows Explorer.
As you use TntMPD you might notice that the file can start to grow large.
One of the things that you can do to reduce the amount of hard drive space
that your database file is using is to "compact" your file. Under the
"File", click on "Compact and Repair Database". Keep in mind that this is
done automatically for you every 30 days as you use TntMPD.
Another thing you can do is check the size of the pictures you may
have imported in TntMPD. Under the "Tools" menu, click on "All Pictures".
This gives you a way to quickly scan all of your pictures and see how much space
each picture takes up. A good rule of thumb is that a picture shouldn't
take up more than 50 to 60 KB max. If it takes up more than this consider
deleting it and adding a smaller picture. I find that JPEG is the best
format for pictures of this type and that most of my pictures are only 25 KB.
If you want to backup your database or move it to another computer
you should consider compressing the file first. I personally like to use
WinZip for this. (NOTE: Windows XP
comes with a file compression tool built-in.) This can typically cut the
file size in half or more, which can be very helpful if you are short on backup
space, or if you are going to email the file over a slow modem.
It is possible for a TntMPD database to become corrupted.
This condition renders the database completely useless. This can happen if
TntMPD is writing to the database during a power failure. Another
possibility is that you could have a major hard drive failure. If you
don't have a fairly recent backup available you could lose many hours of work
and lose much valuable information. You could lose all your notes,
history, pictures, tasks, etc. This is why it's important to backup your
database.
Knowing that a TntMPD database is
simply a file, it follows that backing
up the database is simply making copying the file to another location. At
a bare minimum you should make a copy of your database to another location on
your hard drive. For example, my database is called "Troy and Tammy.mpd".
I could make a copy of my database and call it "Troy and Tammy - Backup on
December 1 2002.mpd" using Windows Explorer. This would protect me in case
my database becomes corrupted.
However, if your hard drive fails you need to have a backup copy
stored on another physical drive. Here are some ideas on how to do this
for you to consider:
-
Email the file (as an attachment) to yourself. (Check with
your ISP on size limits of your email.)
-
Copy the file onto a floppy disk (If the file is too large for a
single disk, you can use WinZip to span
the file across multiple floppies.)
-
Copy the file onto a ZIP Drive, Jazz drive, CD-ROM, USB Drive,
etc.
-
Copy the file onto a memory stick, compact flash memory card,
etc.
-
Copy the file onto an external hard drive or a network drive.
-
Copy the file directly to another computer by establishing a
peer-to-peer network two computers using Ethernet, USB or Parallel ports.
If you know how to copy a file to another computer, you can easily
transfer your TntMPD database to another computer. It's as easy as 1, 2,
3!
1. First of all, make sure that TntMPD is installed on the
target computer. It's best to install the latest version from the
TntMPD website.
2. Copy your TntMPD database file to your other computer.
Here are a few ideas of how you can do this:
-
Email the file (as an attachment) to yourself. (Check with
your ISP on size limits of your email.)
-
Copy the file onto a floppy disk (If the file is too large for a
single disk, you can use WinZip to span
the file across multiple floppies.)
-
Copy the file onto a Zip Drive, Jazz drive, CD-ROM, USB Drive, etc.
-
Copy the file onto a memory stick, compact flash memory card,
etc.
-
Copy the file onto an external hard drive or a network drive.
-
Copy the file directly to another computer by establishing a
peer-to-peer network two computers using Ethernet, USB or Parallel ports.
3. Once you've copied your database file onto the other
computer, move it to a folder where you keep your normal documents (such as "My
Documents"). Then just double-click on it, and it will open up in TntMPD!
(HINT: If you copied the file from a CD-ROM, be sure to right-click on the
file, click on "Properties" and turn off "Read Only".)
Let's say you normally keep your database on your home computer and that
you're going on a support trip and you want to take your laptop with you.
You could transfer
your database to your laptop and go on your support trip. Then when
you return, you could transfer your database back to your home computer (copying
the database over the one that is already there). This way you could work
with TntMPD on your support trip and keep any updates you made.
A husband and wife team could also employ a strategy like this. One of
the spouse's computer could be designated the host of the "main database".
This main database would be the only one where changes are made. This
database could be periodically
copied to the other
spouse's computer. This copy could be considered "read only".
Any changes to be made would have to be made to the spouse hosting the main
database, and then again copied to the other spouse's computer. This
arrangement has the added benefit of always keeping a backup copy of the
database on another computer. If the main computer crashes, the other
computer could pick up where the main computer left off.
A more sophisticated approach to keeping two databases in sync is to use
TntSync. This approach works best with a large format drive that you can
share between two computers. What I have in mind here are a Zip drive,
Jazz drive, LS-120, network shared drive or an external hard drive.
Let's say you have a Zip drive that you can share between your two computers.
You transfer a copy
of your database to your secondary computer such that it is at "C:\My
Documents\My Partners.mpd" on both computers. The Zip drive is configured
so that it appears on each computer as the "D:" Drive. So you keep your
backup copy on your Zip drive as "D:\My Documents\My Partners.mpd". In
this scenario, the database on the Zip drive becomes the master copy, and each
computer keeps in sync with the Zip drive.
TntSync needs to be configured on each computer the same way, so repeat these
instructions for each computer. To launch TntSync, under the "Tools" menu
in TntMPD, click on "TntSync". An alternative is to click on the "Start"
menu ... "Programs" ... "TntMPD" ... "TntSync". For convenience, I've made
a copy of this TntSync shortcut and placed it on my desktop. (This
shortcut points to "C:\Program Files\TntMPD\TntSync.exe".)
In TntSync, under the "File" menu, click on "Add", then click on "TntMPD
Databases". For "Local TntMPD Database" enter "C:\My Documents\My
Partners.mpd". For "Remote TntMPD Database" enter "D:\My Documents\My
Partners.mpd". Then click "OK".
Now under the "Action" menu, click on "Synchronize All". (Or you can
right-click on the row you just added to the list and click on "Synchronize".)
It's a good idea to synchronize right away even though the databases should be
identical at this point. This helps to initialize TntSync so that it can
better detect future changes in the database. Now as changes are
eventually made to the database you will be prompted with screen such as this...
This screen shows that "Fred Flintstone" was changed on the "C:" drive only
so the change needs to be copied to the "D:" drive. Also, "Barney Rubble"
was added to the "D:" drive so it will be copied to the "C:" drive. The
"John Doe" record was changed on both the "C:" and "D:" drive so TntSync will
skip this record since it doesn't know what to do with it. At the top left
of the screen you can see a summary of all the actions. Notice that "1
Skips" (bad English) is bold. This is to draw you attention to it.
For your database to synchronize you need to have no skips. You can click
on "Only Show Conflicts" if you only want to see the "Skip" records.
You can double-click on any record to see the details of what changed.
When I double-click on the "Fred Flintstone" record I can see that "Pebbles" was
added to the "Children" field.
If this is what I want, I can just leave the default action of "Replace"
(remote) as is. However, let say I wanted to revert the record to the one
without "Pebbles", then I could right-click on the "Fred Flintstone" record and
choose "Replace" (local).
Since the "John Doe" record was changed in both locations I can double-click
on it to see what exactly was change in either location. You can
selectively choose which side of each field you want to keep by double-clicking
on the "good" value that you want to keep. If I wanted to keep "Jan" from
the remote side, but keep everything else from the local side, I could
double-click on "Jan".
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Then I could change the action from "Skip" to "Replace" (remote).
Now I can click "Sync!" to perform the actions. By the way, clicking
"Cancel" would have backed you out of the synchronize action completely, while
clicking "Skip All" would have skipped the current list of actions. The
current list of actions related to the "Contacts" in TntMPD. Other lists
of actions may refer to Tasks, Gifts, Histories, etc.
Because the "John Doe" record had a name/address change, it is recommended
that you start TntMPD and under the "File" menu, click on "Maintenance".
Click on "Recalculate Address Data". This is important because many
additional fields will need "Jan" added to them such as "Full Name" or "Home
Address Block".
Now you should run TntSync again, and if you're curious you can see exactly
which fields needed to be updated.
The best advice I can give to avoid conflicts ("Skips") is to synchronize
often. Try to synchronize before you start making changes, and try to
synchronize after making changes. I rarely have skips, and both my wife
and I use TntMPD alot. Another helpful thing I use TntSync for is to
synchronize files and folders. (In TntSync, under the "File" menu, click
on "Add", then "Files and Folders".)
My own story: In my own usage of TntSync, I sync all of my Word
documents and Excel spreadsheets for MPD, as well as all my programming files
used to actually build TntMPD. I use an external hard drive that I can
carry between home and work (much lighter and smaller than a laptop). This
allows me to work from home as well as the office, and this allows me to keep
all my file changes sorted out. Also, this gives me a daily backup of all
my files which has proven helpful on a number of occasions.
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