sidekick 2.00p on Windows XP

[scottland]

Last week sidekick just went crazy. We opened sidekick as usual, went to card file to pull up a name and ALL card file data had shifted to the card below the actual name.

Any clues for repair? Do I just need to swith to Outlook and do manual entries of over 7,800 cards?

HELP!?!?!?!?!!?

 

[james33]

Dear Scottland,

Copy the cardfile using windows explorer to another location under another name immediately.

What about backups?

Someone probably changed a field name that contained a reserved character.

See the FAQ pages here and at my website (Siderealb0x.com)

http://siderealb0x.250free.com/

Regards
Jim


Regards Jim
Check the FAQ area of this Forum for answers (If there are any FAQs!) , it could save you a lot of time and effort!

 

[scottland]

Thanks James,

Here is the next issue. Our outsource computer guy has set up 6 computers to use sidekick. Only 2 computers can edit/add cardfiles and the data is stored on a "network" computer for all to access.

The shifting of the data in the cardfiles has effected ALL the cardfiles. Are we already in deep water?

We do a nightly backup. I would assume that this overwrites data nightly. The sidekick problem started last week while I was on vacation so I assume that correct data has been overwritten with corrupt info. I am no computer wiz though. I do not even know the file name or location for the data.

Our computer guy is very irritable about the whole sidekick issue and has not been much help.

 

[james33]

Dear Scottland,

Sidekick is NOT to be used over a Network it is only able to be used by ONE person at a time.
You can merge Cardfiles after they have been saved but it is an Arcane science and not to be entered into lightly.
I feel sorry for the Network guy!
Having said that he should have instituted a backup routine to fallback onto.

Have you any backups?

Regards
Jim


Regards Jim
Check the FAQ area of this Forum for answers (If there are any FAQs!) , it could save you a lot of time and effort!

 

[james33]

Dear Scottland,

If the backup routine does not include renaming the files so there is a sequence of dated backups then you have a problem, a backup hat does not include that is not a backup!
Ask the computer guy if there is any hope.

Regards
Jim

 

[scottland]

Thanks Jim for your response.

I will check on the backup procedure.

Do you recommend a program for contacts that is easily used in a network? Now, I would not consider our situation a true network. We are all able to save and share data from a computer that is only used for storing data.

I was considering Outlook or Access.

Thanks Again, Krystal

 

[james33]

Dear Krystal,

If you can all connect to the Internet then I would be inclined to use Sunbird which you can all subscribe to(I believe that statement is correct but I am not completely sure)

http://www.mozilla.org/projects/calendar/sunbird/

Check out this page for any questions

http://www.mozilla.org/projects/calendar/faq.html

For the moment it does not Sync with Palm handheld.

Regards
Jim

 

[hawkdaddy]

Have you tried exporting your cardfile as a DB3 file, then opening it in excel to see if the error can be corrected there?

 

[scottland]

Hawkdaddy,

Thank you for the info. We have not tried this and will.

Krystal

 

[hawkdaddy]

There is a chance that the data will be "normal" that is row 1 will be the field names and each row will be a complete entry with the data for each company on the same row. If so use sk to import the D base 3 file under a new name and you are back in business.

 

[hawkdaddy]

Just occured to me that if you used the contact log to record information this process will not be of much help.
Sorry
Tom

 

[james33]

Dear All,

Internet sidekick is the only version that exports the Card Log as an ordinary Field.

Regards
Jim

Regards Jim
Check the FAQ area of this Forum for answers (If there are any FAQs!) , it could save you a lot of time and effort!

 

[scottland]

Thanks to all,

I tried the export to excel and info is still out of sorts.

We are starting fresh in Microsoft Outlook today on one computer and will use the data in Sidekick the best we can and correct to Outlook as we go.

Any thoughts on Outlook and multiple users?

Thanks again, Krystal

 

[hawkdaddy]

How out of sorts? One column out of line? (eg company name one row too high) A simple cut and paste could save a lot of input into your new database program.

 

[scottland]

I could see the info but could not identify what addresses and phones went where. I tried this several different ways as Excel prompted me before the import.

I may have been doing something totally wrong. Can you guide me through the steps? I am no Wizard at this but somewhat familiar with the terms.

I do not mean to take up too much of your time!!!!

Krystal

 

[hawkdaddy]

In Sk 98 Under File choose <export cardfile> follow the instructions choose your sk file as source give the target file an easy to find name and choose d base 3 as the file type.

Open excel under file <open> choose dbase files under "files of type" then open "easy find name" (make sure you know how to navigate to your sk data file or export to the root drive c:

If the above is not clear let me know and i will post in more detail.

When the file opens row 1 should contain your field names
every row should be a complete and unique entry with the data lined up under the proper field name. Test by checking some entries to see if they are correct across the row, if some data is ofset, report on how.

You are not importing into excel but opening a spreadsheet that consists of data.

Report back and we will see what more can be done.

 

[scottland]

Oh my Goodness.

I was evidently missing a step. The info did import into Excel and data was all in the correct row. I see that there are some issues on how our staff are inputting the information. The next problem I see is that it did not import ALL cardfiles. It imported like 5300 of the 7800 cards we have in we have in sidekick.

HMMMMMmmmmmmm.....another dilemma. I am going to mess with it a little longer.

Thanks, Thanks, Thanks, Krystal

 

[hawkdaddy]

Some thoughts:
1 Are you sure there 7300 cards in the file befor it became disturbed.
2 As you look through the disturbed file are all cards complete.
3 The dbase 3 file should be listed in the order the sidekick file was sorted.

Are the missing cards (row entries) from the end of the sk file.