The procedure is as follows:

1. On the old computer, run Visual Liturgy. From the File menu, choose Backup.

2. In the backup dialog, uncheck the option to compress the backup. For the backup location, choose a location that you can find easily, and transfer to the new computer. For example, you could backup to a USB flash drive. Click OK to perform the backup. Exit Visual Liturgy.

3. On the new computer, install Visual Liturgy. Use online update to get the latest version of the software – don’t worry about the content at this point. Even if it is not registered, you can update the software – just hit OK (not Cancel) when prompted for username/password.

4. Run Visual Liturgy and look at Edit – Preferences – Paths. Note the location for Data Files. This is where you will need to copy the backed-up data. Usually it is

C:\ProgramData\Visual Liturgy 5

on Windows 7 and Vista; and

c:\documents and settings\all users\application data\Visual Liturgy 5

on Windows XP. See tips at the bottom of this post if you have trouble finding it.

5. Copy the backup data into the new location. When you do so, make sure you are overwriting what is already there – don’t copy it as a sub-folder. The backup is stored in folders, so you will need to open these to copy the files correctly.

6. Start Visual Liturgy. All going well, your old data will be restored and you can register on the new machine. Use the same username, password and serial no. as before.

Tips:

1. Windows will likely hide the data location in explorer. You can view a hidden folder like this by typing the complete location into the explorer address bar. Another possibility is to set the options to view hidden files and folders temporarily in Explorer options.

2. If you prefer not to overwrite the existing files, you can copy the backed-up files elsewhere on your PC and use File – Change Database to switch to it. This can get confusing though; it’s better to have just one database unless you specifically want to make use of more than one.

3. It is not essential to use the backup feature – you can just copy the existing data. But it may be easier to use backup since it saves you having to find the folder on your old PC.

4. If you don’t have any customised templates or added texts, there’s no need to follow the above procedure. Just install Visual Liturgy on the new computer with the same serial number, username and password as before. I recommend updating the software though before registering, as the version on the CD is quite old now.

We are considering adding a Restore menu item to Visual Liturgy, in order to simplify this.