Read Me file for Brother's Keeper 6.3

November 2008

John Steed
6907 Childsdale Ave.
Rockford, MI 49341   U.S.A.

web:   http://www.bkwin.com   or   http://www.bkwin.net

email:  brothers_keeper@msn.com
 
Phone (616) 364-5503

Fax (616) 866-3345

If you have Windows Vista or Windows 7 you will need to set the BK6 program to run with administrator rights. After you install BK6, RIGHT click the BK6 icon and pick Properties, Compatibility, Run as Administrator. 

The BKSETUP6.EXE program will install Brother's Keeper 6.3.

Currently, BK6 is available in several languages.  Check the web site for details.  To install a language, pick that language on the last screen of the install program and then when you start BK6 pick Help, Change language and pick the language you want.  

If you already have a version of BK6, then the install program will overwrite your older BK6 program, but will not harm your data files.  It is a good idea to have a current backup copy of your data files at all times, including when you are updating the program.

If you have data in BK5 for Windows, start BK6 and then pick File, Convert BK5 to BK6.  That will copy your files to your new location and convert the data.  It will not delete your old BK5 data files.  There are many options for the convert routine, so take time to read the options.

If you have data in BK5 for DOS and the names do not contain accented or foreign letters, you can follow the directions above for converting data to BK6.  However, if you have foreign letters in the names and you are using BK5 for DOS and not BK5 for Windows, then you should load BK5 for Windows and run the routine to convert DOS characters to Windows characters.

If you have data in the very old Brother's Keeper version 4.0 to 4.5, you can convert the data by running the Convert5.BAT file located on the CD in the \BKDOS5 folder.  To get to the program open My Computer then find the icon for your CD drive and RIGHT click the icon and pick Open.  Then open the BKDOS5 folder.  Then double click the CONVERT5.BAT file or else read CONVERT5.DOC for directions.  After converting to 5 you can use BK6 to convert to 6.  Note, you do NOT need to do this if you have data in BK5 for Windows.  This paragraph is only if you have the 10 year old program BK 4.0 to 4.5.  

BK6 will let you enter more events than BK5.  On several reports in BK6 such as the Group sheet report and the Book reports (Register, Indented, Ahnentafel) you can print the new events.  On the "Fields to Include" tab there is button on the right to click to change between primary events and the new events. If you pick the option for the new events, you can choose to print all the new events or just select events.

If you find a bug in the BK6 program, please contact John Steed by email at: 
brothers_keeper@msn.com  and include a description of the problem and also include the version number of the program such as 6.3.1.  The version number is shown when you pick Help, About BK.

The Brother's Keeper 6.3 CD-ROM contains a movie about how to use BK6.  To run the movie, insert the CD-ROM.  If a menu does not come up within 15 seconds, pick Start, Run, D:\CDMENU.EXE where D is the letter for your CD.