opening backups

[JeanneMarie]

What do I do if I just want to peek at an older version of my file? I know in advance that I don't want to restore anything. That RESTORE dialog is kind of intimidating.

Is there a way to just open a manual or automatic backup and then close it without disturbing the current file *or* the backup file itself? without changing the date/time stamp on the backup file? Am I missing something really simple?

Thanks.

[Mark]

Hi JeanneMarie,

If you use "File / Restore..." you can pick any backup file (*.FMB) to look at. This doesn't restore anything, or change anything, unless you complete the restore operation by choosing "Restore" in the dialog box showing all the contents of the backup file, and restore options.

Do you want to look at a specific investment file, or the whole contents of your backup file? You can choose to only restore a specific investment file, or everything, and you can choose where to restore it to. If you don't want to affect anything about your current data, create a temporary other folder, and choose to restore into this temporary other folder. Once you open up that temporary copy, switch back (File / Open Portfolio...) to your normal location/data, and then you can safely delete that temporary folder.

[JeanneMarie]

Okay thanks. That's the only way I could figure, so I'm glad to know I'm not missing something.

Alas, before I posted, I directed a restore to the desktop without thinking I'd get allllll those *.dat files. No problem. I worked thru that. Next time, I'll remember to set up a temp directory.

I wanted to run a report as of a few days ago. I know how to change report dates to get at a snapshot of older data, but I'm looking for whether I might have messed up a little data entry. So the simplest thing to do (I think) is run the report in the current file and then in an older file and compare the numbers in the two versions of that report.

As ever, many thanks.