Deleting All Data

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The menu option Database à Delete All Data deletes all data in your database, after confirming (twice) that this is what you want to do.

This option should almost never be used! However, here are a couple of situations in which it might make sense to use it:

When you first start using the program, you could just enter some completely fake donors and donations, and issue real receipts for them (assuming you have a License Key, which is required to issue real receipts). When you are finished testing or playing with this fake data, use this option to throw it all away, so that you can start over with your real data.

2.	If you need to restore a backup file from version 2.70 or earlier, DONATION3.DB. The only way to incorporate the data from that earlier database format is to have it converted into the new format. The program will prompt you to do that if that if all of the following conditions are true:

•	The DONATION3.DB file to be restored is in your data directory C:\Program Files\Donation\Data.

•	There is an ODBC data source DONATION4_DWC, referring to that database file DONATION3.DB. (This will normally be true if version 2.70 or earlier was previously installed on this computer, prior to installing version 3.00 or higher.)

•	You restart the program with its database file, DONATION4.DB, being entirely empty.

By using Delete All Data, you empty out the database file, and when that is finished, it automatically restarts the program. Thus, if the other conditions above are true, it will then prompt you for whether to import and convert the data from DONATION3.DB - say Yes. (This triggers the Converting Data from Prior Versions of the Program routine.)

Note that if there is not a DONATION3.DB database file to be imported, or there is no DONATION4_DWC ODBC data source, the program will behave just as it did on the first startup after using this option.

Cooperstock Software might also ask you to use this menu option in certain unusual technical support situations.

N.B. If you have a DONATION3.DB file to be restored that is not currently in C:\Program Files\Donation\Data, you can use the Database à Restore Old Database (DONATION3.DB) menu option to restore it, instead of using this option directly.