Saving and restoring snapshots

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Saving and restoring snapshots

Snapshots are a point-in-time picture of your work history. Using snapshots is one way reviewers can help track and preserve both search history and search results.

Saved snapshots can easily be restored to see what the contents of a database were on a particular day, and what search results were found at that moment in time. During a lengthy review, tracking your work for the day is also important, not only to manage tasks and schedules, but to provide a placeholder for searches so you can jump right back into your project without duplicating previous efforts.

Unlike a query file, a snapshot saves the search results for documents retrieved, not which words were searched. This means that a snapshot will not locate new or updated documents in a database; a snapshot only displays those documents captured at the time the picture was taken.

Because snapshots provide a picture-in-time reference, all your search queries and customized sort settings are preserved and can be displayed again or restored at a later time. If your database is actively being edited, changes will not be reflected in a snapshot saved last week. For instance, a document deleted from the database since the snapshot was taken will display as blank when you open the snapshot in Concordance Desktop. To capture updates after edits have been made, rerun your snapshot queries.

Snapshots are saved as .snp files and can only be restored on the original databases. When you restore a snapshot file, Concordance Desktop automatically opens the databases associated with the file, with all queries and sorts preserved.

If you regularly save snapshots at the end of every work session, we recommend that you periodically review and delete outdated or unnecessary files due to their large file size on your hard drive or network.

There are two ways to save snapshots in Concordance Desktop. You can manually save snapshots or you can use the Auto restore command to have Concordance Desktop automatically save snapshots for you.

To Manually Save a Snapshot

Ensure that the snapshot path along with the file name does not exceed 256 characters. Windows limits file paths to a maximum of 256 characters.

1.To open the Save Snapshot dialog box, do one of the following:

In the Databases task pane, click Save snapshot.

On the File menu, click Snapshot, and then Save snapshot.

2.Browse to where you want to save the snapshot file, type the file name in the File name field, and then click the Save button.

i.All search queries and customized sort settings for the current Concordance Desktop session are saved in a .snp file.

Auto-Restoring Snapshots

With the Auto-restore feature, Concordance Desktop can automatically create and save a snapshot each time you close the Concordance Desktop application. The next time you open a Concordance Desktop session, the application automatically displays the exact record and view settings you had when you closed the application, including displaying your last search in the Review view.

The Auto-restore feature functions differently than manually saving separate snapshots of work your sessions. When the Auto-restore feature is enabled, Concordance Desktop creates the autosave.snp file and automatically saves the snapshot created by the Auto-restore feature to this file at the end of each session, overwriting the previous work session’s autosave.snp file. The autosave.snp is automatically saved to the ...\Documents and Settings\UserID\My Documents\Concordance Desktop [version#] (Windows  XP) or ...Users\UserID\My Documents\Concordance Desktop [version#] (Windows 7) directory on your machine.

By default, the Auto-restore feature is enabled. The Auto-restore feature is enabled and disabled by clicking the Auto restore option in the Snapshot menu. When a check mark is displayed next to the Auto restore menu selection, the Auto-restore feature is enabled. When the check mark is not displayed, the Auto-restore feature is disabled.

To Restore a Snapshot

1.To open the Restore Snapshot dialog box, do one of the following.

In the Databases task pane, click Restore snapshot.

On the File menu, click Snapshot, and then Restore snapshot.

2.Browse to and select the snapshot file (.snp) you want to open, and then click Open.

When you restore a snapshot file, Concordance Desktop remembers what databases and documents were accessed during the search session captured by the snapshot and launches them. The search results are displayed in the Review view, and the restored snapshot file is listed in the Recent panel in the Databases task pane.