eDirectory Export
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eDirectory is a special program that you can freely distribute to your members who have a PC-compatible computer running Windows 95 or later. eDirectory is essentially an electronic version of the traditional printed church pictorial directory. Only now, you can update your directory as often as you wish!
Your church members can install this easy-to-use program on their home, office, or laptop computers, and easily access their fellow church member’s picture, name, address, phone, and e-mail information. No other CMD information is exported for their use or access, just the normal information found in a printed pictorial directory.
To prepare your data for export, you’ll need to make sure your list is clean. We recommend that you print a Church Directory in Format B showing all the phone numbers to make sure your list is accurate. Once you are satisfied with your list’s accuracy, select eDirectory Export on the Output Form combo.
When you select eDirectory Export, you’ll see a list of some options you can select. These options impact specific items of information that will be included when CMD builds the eDirectory export. Here are your options:
•Menus: You may include any of CMD's menus that are listed in your eDirectory data files by checking the appropriate check boxes. Your church members will then be able to see and search for names by these menu items at home using eDirectory.
•Non-member Designation: By checking this box, you can mark non-members with an * character when the home user views the eDirectory data. Note that in order for this to work properly, you must have an up-to-date Members List defined so that CMD will know who should be marked with the asterisk and who should not be marked.
•Include Dates: You can elect to include birth and/or anniversary dates. Note that all dates exported to eDirectory are limited to month and day.
•Show Dates as Month/Day or Day/Month: Open this combo box to tell CMD which way to display the dates that are included.
•E-Mail/Phones: If you wish to include e-mail or any of the additional phones in your eDirectory, check the appropriate boxes for the items you wish to include. Note that there's a separate check list for adults and dependents. Note also that all Confidential settings for each of these fields in each individual's data record is honored when CMD performs the export.
Please be careful in what you elect to include here! It is up to you to make sure that the data in the menus you have selected are appropriate for general distribution!
When you click Begin Printing, CMD will export the limited data to a couple of separate data files, and then zip it up in a file name eDirData.Zip.
This file will always be placed in your CMD 2015’s data folder.
Once you have created this file, you have two options for distribution. First, you can use the eDir setup program that we’ve provided in the eDir folder of your CD. If you got your CMD through download, you may download this setup program from the download page, or the CMD 2015 Updates page.
This is a complete setup program for eDirectory, and you will need to burn this setup program along with the eDirData.Zip file onto a CD. You can then make copies of the CD and distribute them to your members. Or, if you have a web site, you can make the files available for downloading there.
Using this approach, your members will have to import the data files once they have run the setup program for eDirectory. In most cases, this will happen automatically. I’ve taught the eDirectory program to look on Drive D: for the eDirData.Zip file. If it’s not there, a Windows "Open" dialog will appear that users can use to navigate to where ever the file is. Once they’ve found it, clicked on it and then clicked Open, eDirectory will load the data from there. It’s very simple.
If you wish to make it even simpler, you can e-mail me your eDirData.Zip file, and I’ll package it up for you in the very same setup program that eDirectory is in, and create a one-piece setup program for you that will place the data on your members’ computers from the first moment they start up the program.
Our charge for this service is $25 per build. We’ll e-mail back a completed setup program that you can then burn onto CD’s as needed.
We strongly suggest that you try the completed program and data on a few computers before making lots of copies of the CD’s for your members to be sure it’s working properly.
Once your members have installed eDirectory, it’s a simple matter to provide updates to them at any time. You can do this via your web site, or provide updates on CD or floppy disk. All they have to do is start up their eDirectory program, click File | Import Data, and use the Windows "Open" dialog to find the data. Once they’ve found it, clicked on it, and clicked Open, eDirectory will import the new data and they are fully updated.
Note that your members can update the data on the personal installation of eDirectory. However, when you provide an update to the directory, any changes they’ve made will be overwritten with the new data.
Please be aware that we are not able to provide support to your members for eDirectory. I’ve done my best to make this program as bullet-proof as possible. Support issues will be minor, and we will support YOU while you support THEM.