Using 200 Words a Day! software on both your
Home Computer & Laptop

If you install our 200 Words a Day software on to your home computer but spend a considerable time using your laptop, installing and running our software on both machines creates a problem.

You’ll probably duplicate Lessons between the machines and even if you take note of which lessons you’ve completed on your laptop and avoid taking them on your home computer, subsequent weekly and monthly testing becomes a chore.

We’ve had several requests regarding running our course on two computers using a central database. This is possible, the central database needs to be on a device available to both computers e.g. a USB memory stick, a flashcard drive or an external hard drive.

Let’s assume a USB Memory stick with a drive letter of H:

If you’ve got two databases, one on each computer. Copy the database you want to use as a central database to your USB memory stick. We’ll assume that it’s our Spanish Course you’ve got installed (change to French, German etc. as appropriate):

• The database file can be found at: -
  C:\Program Files\Exceltra\Spanish\Exceltra Spanish.mdb
• Now copy this file to your memory stick
  H:\Exceltra\Spanish\Exceltra Spanish.mdb
• You create new folders on your memory stick, e.g. Exceltra, by right clicking in the memory stick root folder when you’re about to “Paste”, then selecting New\Folder and altering the name as appropriate.

With the memory stick plugged into your home computer, alter the home computer’s ODBC connection to point to the new Memory-Stick location:

1. Open Control Panel (switch to Classic View) and double-click Administrative Tools
2. Double-click Data Sources (ODBC), to open window ODBC Data Source Administrator.
3. Click on the System DSN tab near the top of the screen.

4. In the Name column, click Exceltra Spanish then click the Configure icon.
5. This opens a window with title "ODBC Microsoft Access Setup".

Click the Select icon

6. A window opens with title "Select Database". Click the arrow below Drives and change the drive letter from C: to the letter of your USB memory stick e.g. H:

7. In the right hand window, above drives, double click the folder Exceltra then double-click the folder "Spanish"

8. Click the file named Exceltra Spanish.mdb which should appear in the lower left hand pane, the "database name" in the top left hand pane should now also read Exceltra Spanish.mdb

9. To exit ODBC with the new settings:-Click OK, Click OK, Click OK

10. Plug the USB memory stick into your laptop and repeat the ODBC steps above. It’s possible that the device could be recognised by your two computers with different drive letters, this isn’t a problem.

You’re now ready to run your software on both computers using the central database. It’s probably not a bad idea to save the original databases from the C drive of both computers to another location:
C:\Program Files\Exceltra\Spanish\Exceltra Spanish.mdb

Note: There’s a minor problem:

If you’ve Spanish Course 1 Database on your memory stick and some time in the future, you want to add further Courses e.g. Spanish Course 2 and Understanding Por & Para, you’d need to do the following:

1. Copy the central database from your memory stick, back to your home computer, to: - C:\Program Files\Exceltra\Spanish\Exceltra Spanish.mdb

2. Install Spanish Course 2 onto your home computer from the CD or download. Run the software (to update the database) then exit the program.

3. Install Understanding Por & Para onto your home computer from the CD or download. Run the software (to update the database) then exit the program.

4. Take a backup copy of the database file on your memory stick (in case of disasters) then copy the updated database from your home computer back to your memory stick

5. Install Spanish Course 2 onto your Laptop. There’s no need to run the software to update the database.

6. Install Understanding Por & Para onto your Laptop. There’s no need to run the software to update the database.

7. Installing software amends the ODBC connections back to the C: drive so you’ll need to repeat the ODBC changes on both your home computer and laptop, to make them use the USB memory stick again.

It’s a good idea to back-up the database on your USB memory stick to your hard drive from time to time in case you lose it … and all your history.