Readerware Portable Install Wizard

When you install Readerware onto your computer it does a local install. This means that the programs are installed at the appropriate location on your local hard drive, and Readerware stores things like preferences under your user ID. For most users this is the best choice.

Readerware does support additional install configurations for use in specialized circumstances:

Portable installation - You can install Readerware and your database on a portable drive like a USB thumb drive. You can then take this drive with you and plug it in to any machine. You have your complete Readerware system with you on any machine.

CD Install - You can copy Readerware and your database to a CD. You can then give a copy of the CD to non Readerware users. They can insert the CD into any machine and run Readerware from the CD and search and browse your database. The database is in read only mode, no changes are allowed.

Network install - You can configure Readerware and install it to a network share where users can run the program from the network server. This is designed for use with Readerware Client/Server Edition. You set your database up in client/server mode, then create a customized Readerware network install. When your user launches the program it will open the network database and use your custom options. There is no need for a local install when using Readerware Client/Server Edition.

To create any on these custom installs, you must start with a Readerware Local install and then select the File->Make portable menu item. Readerware will then copy the necessary program, database and preferences files creating your customized install.

Drive Selection

You need to tell Readerware where to create your custom install. You can select the actual destination or a temporary holding folder on your local hard drive. For example you can select a thumb drive to create a portable install, a network share to create a network install. For CD installs you must select a holding folder and later burn the contents to CD, Readerware cannot create the actual CD.

Click on Browse and select the destination folder.

Select the installation type:

Portable (Thumb drive)
CD (read only database)
Network launcher

Options

On the Options page you decide what you want to copy to the install folder:

Copy Program - This will copy the Readerware programs, you should normally select this option.

Copy Database - This will copy the Readerware database files. Note that Readerware can only copy a local database from your hard drive. If Readerware is accessing a server or external database, this option will be disabled. You will normally want to copy the database for a Portable and CD install, for a network install, the database is not normally needed.

Copy Preferences - This will copy the current Readerware settings so that the Readerware installation will start up with your current options. You should normally copy preferences. If you omit preferences, Readerware will start up with a default configuration.

Verification Page

Next up is the verification page. This is your last chance to change your settings prior to creating the portable installation. A quick summary of your choices is listed. Click on Next if you are ready to go. Click on Back if you want to change your choices.

Running Page

When you reach this page, your Readerware installation is being created. You will see a progress bar that will update as Readerware copies files to your portable installation.

The time will vary based on the number of files you are copying and the destination media. For example writing to thumb drive can be slow. Please be patient and wait for the copies to complete.

When the operation completes, click on the Next button to proceed to the final page of this wizard.

Complete Page

Your Readerware install is ready and has been created at the location displayed on this page.

Copying your installation to a CD

To create a CD install, you have to create the install on your hard drive first, then burn the files to a CD.

Today most operating systems will burn files to a blank CD, no special software is required.

Windows

To copy the files to a CD

Insert a blank, writable CD into the CD recorder.
If Windows asks you what to do with the blank disc, select the write data files to CD option". Otherwise double click on "My Computer", then double click on your CD drive icon.
Drag and drop the Readerware install files on to the CD folder
Verify that the file(s) you intend to copy to the CD appear under "Files Ready to be Written to the CD".
Under CD Writing Tasks, click Write these files to CD. Windows displays the CD Writing Wizard. Follow the instructions in the wizard.

Mac OS X

To copy the Readerware install files to a CD

Insert a blank CD or DVD disc into the optical drive of your computer.
If you see a dialog, you can choose an action from the pop-up menu. Then click OK.
Type a name for the disc under the CD icon.
Drag the Readerware files to the open window.
The Finder places aliases to the files in the disc's window.
Choose File->Burn Disc.
The files that the aliases point to are burned to the disc.

Top of Page