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Installation
The program is distributed as one executable installation file, doninst.exe for the full installation or donupdt.exe for an upgrade to a new version. (For the Local Network Version of DONATION, for use by multiple users on a local-area network within one organization's office, it is doninstNetServer.exe or doninstNetClient.exe.) We will presume that you have downloaded that file from the DOWNLOAD page on the program's web site. After you have downloaded that file, run it. Just follow the prompts, and it should be quite straightforward. Contact us if you have any problems. For more details, see the Installation Instructions page on the program's web site.
When you are done with the Setup, look on your desktop. There should be a new cash-register icon there for DONATION. Double-click that icon to run DONATION. If all has gone well, you will now be running the program.
Users of the OnDemand version do not have to install DONATION directly, but rather just a small OnDemand client program.
Initial Startup
On your first startup, the program will ask you whether you are a first-time user, or whether you are an existing user who wants to start by restoring a backup DONATION database from a previous installation of the program on the same or another computer. Normally you would leave it at the default setting, which is for a first-time user, and click OK.
If you selected the option to restore a backup database, see Restoring Backups for more detailed instructions.
In the more usual case where you selected the option for new users, the program will prompt you for three things before you can start entering donors and donations:
•the first year your will start entering donors and donations for, which defaults to the current year
•your organization's information (name, address, etc.). (This uses the option Maintenance ⇒ Organization Info, and if you need to make changes to this information in the future, you can come back to that menu option.)
•Setting up any donation categories you want to use. (This uses Maintenance ⇒ Donation Categories.) It defaults to creating one category called General.
Further details on these steps, and some additional steps you may want to take before you get started, are in the Startup Options page.
You should now be ready to start entering donors and donations! See the Regular Operating Procedures page for an introduction to your daily activities.
Setting a Shortcut Key for Starting DONATION
If you wish, you can set up a keystroke such as Ctrl+Alt+D to start DONATION, without having to find and click or double-click its icon on your Desktop. ("Ctrl+Alt+D" means to hold down Ctrl and Alt and press D.) To set that up, right-click on the Desktop icon for DONATION, and pick Properties from the popup menu. Click into the "Shortcut key" field with your mouse, then press any letter alone for a Ctrl+Alt letter combination (for example press "D" for Ctrl+Alt+D), or press any other combination you want to use, like say Ctrl+Shift+D. It will be displayed in that field. (Ctrl+Alt+D displays there as "Ctrl + Alt + D".) Click OK, and that shortcut will be saved. You should then be able to use it, even when other programs are displayed on your screen.
The only issue with Shortcut keys is you have to make sure you are not using a key combination that another program you use uses as a hotkey for one of its normal actions. However, since very few programs use the type of key combinations that the "Shortcut key" field accepts (you have to use at least two of Ctrl, Alt, and Shift), this should not be a problem.
Prior to version 3.33b, any time you re-installed DONATION, any shortcut key you had set up in this way would be lost. Now, however, it is retained.