06 December 2009

Deep-Sky Planner 5 Preview: Backup and Restore

Deep-Sky Planner 5 includes a backup and restore feature to help users with synchronizing installations and with archiving data. A backup occupies one file so it is easy to transfer an entire archive via local network, USB flash drive or similar.

The Problem
Deep-Sky Planner 5 adds many more program customization options to the large number present in previous versions. Synchronizing these options between computers has become more than a trivial task. In addition, version 5 adds many more details to the observing log as discussed in last week's blog post. Entering equipment details consistently on multiple computers is difficult for users with a variety of gear. Finally, archiving and synchronizing your valuable observations is critical. All of these concerns have been addressed by a comprehensive new backup and restore facility.

The Solution
The new backup feature can make a safe offline copy of various program settings, equipment details and observations in a single file. As usual, this feature is customizable by the user - you can backup selected portions of the data, or all of it, to a single archive file as shown below.



The Restore feature can read a backup file and allows you to select any portion of the archived data to restore to another Deep-Sky Planner 5 installation. The screenshot below shows the results of restoring the backup file created above



Keeping your observing log safe and portable has never been easier.

Next week's blog will discuss enhancements to the user interface.

No comments:

Post a Comment