[Please feel free to add comments to the FAQ; these comments will be incorporated into revisions of the document.]

Questions About Setup and Customization

Q1: Do I need to be logged in as "Administrator" to install ODB?
It depends on your system. We do not recommend installing ODB under accounts that are "Limited User" under XP. Administrator or Power User accounts (windows 2000) should have no problem with the main ODB installation program.
If during installation the program asks you to install the database support files, then you will need to be logged in as administrator before adding the database support files.

Q2: I don't see the menu for changing the tracking codes. Where is it?
The tracking-code modification features are available only after you click on the wrench icon and then click on "Enable Code Changes." Once you have done this and you have returned to ODB, every screen full of checkboxes will have the right-click button enabled, so that the codes can be directly changed. Note that the Type codes for People and the Payment categories can only be changed from within the Select Records window, after code changes have been enabled. When you click on People or Payments inside Select Records, you will see buttons for these codes.

Q3: What determines the order in which the tracking codes (screens full of checkboxes) appear?

You can sort by codes or by descriptions -- the setting is under the Default and Required section under Settings. The alphabetical display of codes is down and then across. You also can add tiers for sorting by right-clicking on the codes once code changes have been enabled.

Q4: Can I change the title of the ODB main window and the large text that appears on it? And can I also replace the large text with my organization's logo?
Yes you can. The text can be changed by clicking on the wrench icon, then on the "Enable Customization" button. The first two settings listed allow editing of the text. And the user manual describes in section B how to replace the large text with a "GIF" image that is 132 pixels across by 99 pixels tall.

Q4: Can I enlarge the comment area that appears in the People window of ODB?
Yes you can. Click on the Wrench, then under Key Options click the Size tab and you will see that you can increase both the physical area for the comments and the number of characters allowed, up to a maximum of 65535 characters.

Q6: I noticed that ODB will not display more than 2000 records selected. Can I change this?
Yes you can. Click on the wrench icon and choose "Modify Settings"; the setting you want to change is called "resultlimit". You can search for that setting, or you can click on the Security section in Settings. We recommend increasing this number if your computer is faster than 600 MHz, and you plan to have more than 2000 records in your database.

Q7: How easy is it to add fields?
Most organzations' needs for a basic contact/donor/constituent database can be met by using the fields provided within the program. There are about a dozen additional fields that can be turned on: a fax number field, title and salutation, date of birth, occupation, an additional value list, a region field, a long value list, two user-defined fields, and two additional payment categories.

Q8: The import function seems straightforward, but I want to import lots of tracking information in addition to basic name/address/phone data. Can I do that easily?
Yes, it can be done with a simple spreadsheet. But for complex conversion we recommend you use an ODB consultant.

Q9: Can we place the ODB on a network server or just an individual desktop? How can we put it on the network so everyone in the office can access it?
The program is sharable. People have tried it with as many as 15 PCs. Generally you should have someone with some PC experience who can make sure that the computer hosting ODB is properly maintained and backed up.

Q10: I have two installations of ODB on my computer. How can I convert the database files for both of them?
The location of the conversion utility matters... Fortunately, all versions of ODB after version 1.0 will automatically keep a copy of the conversion utility in the 'converters' folder inside the folder where odb.exe is installed. Running this converter will update that particular installation.

Q10: I have ODB on a network and I found that I could not convert the database when running from a client machine.
The most likely problem is that your database was open, because someone else was using ODB when you tried to do the conversion. If everyone gets out of ODB, a conversion should work even if you do it over a network. EXCEPTION: If you are upgrading from version 0.9 or 1.0RC5 to 1.0.2, we recommend you install the new version of ODB, and then run it so that the converter will run on the machine that is acting as your file server.

Q11: Is it possible to share the database over the Internet?

It is possible to remotely connect to ODB from outside your office as well, but the only technology that is likely to be fast enough to "get real work done" is Windows Terminal Server. Windows Terminal Server can be accessed by a non-Windows PC, as well -- useful if you want to locally connect to ODB from a Mac computer in your office.
If your only goal is to look up a few records, than any desktop sharing program will work -- logmein.com seems to work fairly well.
If you just want to have a copy of the database available to colleagues or to people travelling, it is relatively simple to copy the ODB data file to a flash drive, or make a zip of the data file and email it to yourself. Then you can easily install ODB on another computer and use it to open your data file copy. However if you do this, the changes you make to ODB will not be applied to the master copy of your data file in your office.