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What is the best thing to do with saving data? Do you back up every time you are in the program? Should you label monthly back ups just in case you have issues? What is the difference between "save as" or back up.
Save As creates a new "working copy" at whatever location and using whatever file name you indicate when completing the function. For instance, if I wanted to move my data from the computer hard drive to an external hard drive, I might use Save As. The working copy is the version of the file that the program looks for when you launch the software. Something to be aware of is that in this instance, if the external hard drive were unplugged after the Save As was done, then the next time the software was opened it would present you with the launch screen because it would be unable to find the working copy.
We do not recommend using the Save As feature except in very specific circumstances and definitely not as a backup.
A backup leaves your working copy where it is, but creates a secure, compressed copy of your data at a separate location from where your working copy is saved. We recommend using memory sticks for backups. How often you backup is entirely a user preference. I typically recommend that users back up after about an "afternoon's worth" of work. That way if you lost your data and we had to recover using the backup, you would only be 1 afternoon away from being caught up again. There is no reason to label or complete "separate" monthly backups. Just backup to the same place every time. When you make a backup, it will overwrite the last backup saved at that location, replacing old data with new updated data.