| Demystifying
the "BAK" file CaseWare
students often asked me about BAK files. When you choose to compress a file in
CaseWare under File / Save Compressed, you'll notice a checkbox asking whether
to include BAK files.  First
of all what is and what isn't a BAK file? A BAK file is created automatically
when a CaseView document is saved a second or subsequent time. A
BAK file simply is any CaseView document one save back. This can be extremely
useful if you saved a CaseView file by mistake, or for some reason there's a problem
with the CaseView document (perhaps corrupt for example). A
BAK file is NOT a backup of your CaseWare data. Including this BAK file in your
compressed file does not mean you have backed up anything other than your CaseView
documents. CaseView
file extensions
Here are file extensions you would find in a typical
CaseWare client directory. In this example I am saving the financial statement
Document ID is "FS" in the client file EXAMPLE
Original CaseView
document filename: EXAMPLEFS.CVW
Backup up of this document (one save
back): EXAMPLEFS.BAK
Autosave of this document while original is open
and being edited: EXAMPLEFS.CV$
Restoring from Backup
If
you need to recover a CaseView document from backup follow these steps:
STEP
1:
Make sure you have made a backup of the original CaseView document before
replacing it. For example, if I want to replace EXAMPLEFS.cvw with its backup,
I might move this file to a different directory before continuing to step two.
Do NOT delete this file as you may need to return to it if you are not satisfied
with the BAK file.
STEP 2:
Rename
the EXAMPLEFS.BAK file to EXAMPLEFS.CVW in that client directory.
STEP
3:
Open your client in CaseWare and load this document from the document manager.
If you are happy with the BAK file, you may delete the original file moved
in Step 1.
Switching the BAK file option off
You may wish
to turn the BAK file option off in CaseView. The advantage being that you use
less disk space for each CaseWare file, and they do not need to be deleted once
the file has been completed for the year. Note that this is a client option only.
This option must be set for each client individually.
In CaseWare follow
these steps to turn off the creation of BAK files:
1. Open a CaseView
document from the document manager
2. Switch to design mode by clicking on
View / Design mode
3. Click on File / Document settings / File
4. Remove
the checkmark from the field at the bottom of this dialog box entitled "Always
create backup copy (.BAK)
Should
I switch BAK file option off?
The answer to this depends on a number
of factors including your tolerance to risk (losing the only copy of a document).
Do you backup your data files every night? (check those backups occasionally too!).
Switching off the BAK file option is convenient until you NEED to restore from
a BAK file. Generally
I recommend leaving the option on and simply deleting the BAK files once the client
file has been completed. It's a good idea to save your CaseWare files compressed
when the file is completed. I recommend NOT checking off the include BAK files
checkbox when you compress the client file. These keeps the compressed file as
small as possible (you are not including backups of all your CaseView documents
in the compression), and it makes it simple to delete the BAK files using Microsoft
Explorer at a later date.
Michael
Chew, CMA
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