[Odb-help] Weekly update; new ODB YahooGroup for user dialogue

[odb-help@lists.democracygroups.org]

Dear ODB users: 

It has been a busy time for us lately... after our own conference
on March 13, attracting 190 participants in Boston, we took the
show on the road, traveling to North Carolina, South Carolina,
Atlanta, Philadelphia, Washington DC, San Diego, San Francisco,
and Denver!

After this whirlwind trip the ODB downloads are increasing --
there have been 507 downloads since March 1, 2004.  And the pace
of questions is growing.  Luckily, some of the ODB power users
and consultants have agreed to help out: as of today there is a new
email list where you can get your questions answered by other ODB
users (often more quickly than on odb-help, but not quite as fast
as the fee-based tech support we offer) .  SCROLL DOWN for the
announcement (sent yesterday but missed by some because it
went out with the wrong date).

And here are some answers to questions received on ODB-help.

-rich cowan
 for Organizers' Collaborative



1. QUESTION:
I am just beginning to use ODB and am playing around with importing
data. The import did not do what I wanted it to, so now I want to delete
all the records I imported so that I can try something different.
However, I can't figure out how to get all those files [records] out of the
database. While the "Select Records" function allows me to SEE the
files, I can't seem to be able to select them to delete them. I also
tried various "Search"es on the main menu--e.g., searched on every
alphabet letter, which brought up some of them, which I was able to
delete--but there remain some records in there that somehow I can't
"find" in a search and therefore cannot delete them. HELP! I know this
must be easy, but it's stumping me! Thanks in advance!

Kristen Gravatt, Executive Director
Billings Preservation Society/Moss Mansion
Billings, MT 59101
www.mossmansion.com

ANSWER:
It is pretty easy to "undo" an import.  All you have to do is
right-click on the Import button and you will see a menu item to delete
the records you imported (which are the ones you just selected).

And to select all the records, just right-click on the "Select Records"
button and you will see a function to delete everything that is selected.
Note that it asks you for the password (default is "Administrator")
before actually doing the deletion.  You can change the password
by going into your ODB settings if you don't want others to have the
ability to delete all the records!


2.  QUESTION
  After importing my database into odb, everything disappeared.
  According to the numbers it's there but I can't see anything. Could
  someone tell me how to recover my information?

  Thanks,
  Edward, The Agape House

ANSWER:
Clearly we need to make the Select All function more visible.  As
I said above, just right click on the Select Records... hoose
Select All). It is also quite possible that your data includes a
number of blank records which are appearing at the beginning of
your list.  If that is the case, you can see your data by
deleting the blank records (click on them and press the delete
key) or by scrolling down.


3. NEW INDEPENDENT "ODB USERS" FORUM

   Bill Bussey of a Durham Rails to Trails organization has created a
yahoo group for this purpose to allow ODB users to have an
independent forum.  All you have to do is send a blank email to: 

odbdiscuss-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

  to subscribe.

   This discussion is likely to be pretty high volume, be forewarned.
But a yahoo group is pretty easy to get on and off of, or to set
to "read mail on the web only", so we figure that those of you
who get too much mail will know how to fix this.  The web page
to adjust your group settings on Yahoo is as follows:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/odbusers

   The new list is not organized by Organizers' Collaborative; it is
an independent effort organized by ODB users.  It includes a number
of consultants who have been setting up ODB installations around
the country, with lots of experience.



P.S. we received a few offers to host this email list on non-yahoo
servers.  We will pass this on to the creators of "odbusers".  
Where we really need help is with a redesign of the ODB web site. 
We actually have most of the graphical elements designed, now we
need to take care of moving everything (including all of organizenow.net)
to a content management system (either Drupal, Plone, or some
homebrewed PHP).