Erler’s LandSteward Software
Tutorial
Welcome to Erler’s LandStewardTM
Thank you for purchasing Erler’s LandSteward (ELS) software.
ELS is a browser-based database program designed to enable land conservation
organizations to easily organize, store and access project and stewardship
information for land trust protected properties. This includes new data
entered directly into the program, links to existing digital data files such as
conservation easements/covenants, baseline documentation reports, maps, photographs,
monitoring reports, scientific and financial information, other text documents,
graphic files, e-mail correspondence, spreadsheets or audio and video files,
and information about where relevant hard-copy materials are stored. ELS is designed to help you keep all your
property information stored in one place.
This program encourages and enables the user to adopt
consistent data acquisition, file naming and storage practices. It can be
used for existing protected properties as well as new projects.
Before You Begin – Important!
Before you begin using this program to create, manage and
view your files, it is essential that you establish consistent file naming and
storage practices. An organization is often able to improve its stewardship
efforts significantly simply by being consistent in the naming and storage of
files. This program evolved because of the frustration land trust staff and
volunteers frequently experience when attempting to locate specific files.
Successful stewardship and legal defense depends upon your
ability to locate the information you need. The following recommendations are
intended to provide a framework for organizing your files. Each organization
should adopt its own system for storing and naming files and folders after
thoughtful consideration and approval by appropriate staff and board
committees.
·
Password-protect your documents to be ‘Read Only.’ To
prevent unauthorized access or accidental modifications to your files,
password-protect them. This applies regardless of the program you are using to
create or view files.
·
Organize all property data in one place. Create a
single folder on your hard drive that will hold all data for all
properties. Give this folder a name such as “[Land Trust Initials] Properties”
or “All Properties” or “Properties”. This step will ensure accuracy and
simplicity when backing up your files.
·
Within your main property folder, create a separate
folder for each property for which you have data. Be consistent and concise in
naming these individual property folders (see next page).
·
Within each property folder, create a set of folders to
hold all files. A simple approach would be to include a “Documents” folder, an
“Email” folder, and an “Images” folder
·
Continue creating sub-folders to whatever level you
need to accurately track your files. For instance, in the “Images” folder you
could have a folder titled “Monitoring” and another folder titled “Maps”.
Within the “Monitoring” folder, you could have a separate folder for each year.
Within the “Documents” folder you could have folders titled “Monitoring
reports”, “Easement”, “Baseline”, etc.
·
Ensure all file names are consistent with similar file
types. For instance, monitoring photographs taken in 1999 on the Madison
property could have the name 1999Madison01.jpg, 1999Madison02.jpg, etc. Madison
photographs from 2002 would have the name 2002Madison01.jpg, 2002Madison02.jpg,
etc. Using this system, anyone looking at the file names knows what the file
contains. This also enables the easy comparison of photographs taken from the
same points on the ground.
Special Note! While making folder
and file names descriptive, limit the names to the minimum number of characters
required. Erler’s LandSteward requires the total pathname for linked files to
be less than 256 characters.
The following is a folder/file structure example:
Local
Disk (C:)
ELS
Projects
Franklin
Madison
Documents
Easements
§
MadisonCE4-12-02.doc
Baseline
§
MadisonBaseline3-14-02.doc
Monitoring Reports
§
1999MadisonMonRep.doc
§
2000MadisonMonRep.doc
§
2001MadisonMonRep.doc
Email
§
MadisonEmail4-10.02.mdb
Images
Monitoring
2001
2000
1999
·
1999Madison01.jpg
·
1999Madison02.jpg
·
1999Madison03.jpg
Aerial
§
MadisonAerial.bmp
Maps
§
MadisonWetlands.bmp
§
MadisonSoils.bmp
Properties
Adams
Documents
Email
Images
Getting Started
First, check to see whether you have the minimum system
requirements. These are:
·
Windows XP (highly recommended); or Windows 2000,
Service Pack II or higher
·
MS Internet Explorer 6.0
·
Pentium III (or equivalent) processor
·
2.12 MB hard disc space
·
Screen Resolution:
1024 x 768
·
Font Size:
Small Fonts (Windows 2000) or Normal Fonts (Windows XP)
To find out if your system meets these requirements, from
the Desktop or Windows Explorer, double click on My Computer, then Help,
then About Windows.
To see what version your Microsoft Internet Explorer is,
open it up and click on Help, then on About Internet Explorer
Second, check to see that your screen resolution and
display font size are set. Erler’s
LandSteward WILL crash if these aren’t set correctly! The resolution
should be at least 1024 x 768 and fonts should be either ‘Small’ (Windows 2000)
or ‘Normal’ (Windows XP).
To check and or set these, from the Desktop, right click and
select Properties. Then click on the Settings tab and select 1024
x 768 (or leave it if it is higher). Then click on the Appearance tab and
select Small or Normal fonts. Click Apply, then OK, and OK
again. You will have to reboot if you changed the font settings (If you only
changed the resolution, you don’t have to reboot).
Installation
1)
Insert CD in CD drive. Skip to 4) if the Autorun window displays
automatically.
2)
Click the Start button on your task bar and click Run on the Start menu. Enter D:\autorun,
where D is your CD drive letter.
3)
Autorun will display a screen with some buttons on the right.
4)
The top right button is the Update IE button.
a.
If you do not have a compatible version of Internet Explorer
you must upgrade your version of Internet Explorer. Press the Upgrade IE button
and follow the on-screen prompts. If
Windows asks you any questions about “digital signatures,” respond with Yes.
b.
Once the IE installation is complete, please reboot your
machine and proceed to the next step (5).
5)
The next button is the Update
ADO button (if you rebooted on the previous step, you’ll have to run the
Autorun application again).
a. If
you do have a compatible version of ADO - move to step 6).
b.
If you do have a compatible version of ADO, you must upgrade
your ADO. Press the Upgrade ADO button and follow the
on-screen prompts. If Windows asks you
any questions about “digital signatures,” respond with Yes.
c.
Once the ADO installation is complete, please reboot your
machine and proceed to the next step.
6)
The next button is the Install
ELS button (if you rebooted on the previous step, you’ll have to run the
Autorun application again).
a.
Press the Install ELS button and follow the on-screen prompts. If Windows asks you any questions about
“digital signatures,” respond with Yes.
b.
Once the installation is complete, exit the Installer Kit
application (if it has not quit by itself).
7)
You are now ready to run Erler’s LandSteward.
8)
Click Erler’s LandSteward on the Programs menu or
double-click the icon on your desktop.
9)
Enter “Land Trust Alliance” as your user name and “Land Trust Alliance” as your password.
10)
Once you have completed the installation process and logged on
to ELS, you must create a new user account with your own login name and
password. Once you close ELS, the login
and password “Land Trust Alliance” will no longer work.
You must create your own user account before you close ELS for the first
time.
To create a new user account:
a.
Click the Action button on your ELS toolbar.
b.
Then click Login Management to create a new login name
and password. Be sure to specify at
least one user’s privilege as Admin.
If you do not create an account after you open ELS
for the first time, you will not be able to log in again. If you forget this step and are unable to
login again, you will have to uninstall ELS, and then install ELS again.
See below for
screenshots of the create user account process.
Logging In
Enter
your User Name and Password, then click Log In
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Erler’s
LandSteward Start Screen
To begin, enter “Land Trust Alliance” as a user name and “Land Trust Alliance” as a password
and click on Log In.
Create a new user account--
1. Click the Action button on your ELS toolbar. Go to Login Management Function
2. Setup User(s) login details – steps a,b,c
Important -- Set the user
type privilege for every account you create.
You must set up at least one Admin
account after you open ELS for the first time or you will not be able to log in
again. If you forget to create
an Admin account and then you close ELS, you must uninstall ELS, and
then re-install ELS. Please note – it
is highly recommended that only one person be designated as the administrator
for ELS. This will prevent unwanted
and/or erroneous changes to your property’s data.
Creating a New Property
Begin entering new property data and linking to existing
data by double-clicking on Create New Property in the upper left corner
of the Erler’s LandSteward program window.
Creating A New Property: Double click on Create New
Property to open the General
Property Information
window.
Begin filling in property data by clicking once in the Property
Name field. All labels in red indicate that an entry is required in this
field. Move between fields by pressing the Tab key on your keyboard or
by clicking in the appropriate text box.
*Throughout Erler’s
LandSteward, you will notice a Load Link File(s) button next to various
data entry fields. In many of Erler’s LandSteward’s data entry fields, data may
be entered either by typing the data manually or by linking to existing files
saved on your PC, using the Load Link File(s) button. After entering the
Property Name, Address, etc., the Directions to Property
field allows you to manually type in directions to the property or link to an
existing file such as a Microsoft Word document or web page (.htm or .html)
file.
Hint: You can use a number of
websites such as www.mapblast.com or www.mapquest.com to create driving
directions and a street map to a property. Once your web browser has displayed
the directions and map, click File then Save As in the web
browser window. Save the html file to the property folder where your other data
is stored.
Chapter 1: The General Property Information Tab.
Link to an existing file: Click the Load Link File(s) button.
To load a link file for the directions to a property, click
the Directions to Property radio button. Then click the Load Link File(s) button to create a link
between the driving directions file and the subject heading.
Click
the Add File(s) button and navigate to your property data folder.
Next, Click the Add File(s) button in the pop up
window. Navigate to your file using the Select file(s) window as you
would use any other Windows program.
Highlight
the file name and then click Open to create a link to your
file.
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Select the desired file by double-clicking on the file name
or by clicking the file name once and then clicking the Open button.
Double-click the file name (or click the file name once and
then click the Open button) to select the desired file. Click the OK
button in the Add/Remove File Link(s) pop-up box to complete the
linking process. You will now see the pathway to the selected file displayed in
the File List(s) window. You can link to additional files for driving
directions or use a combination of typed data and linked files. Erler’s
LandSteward will accept a combination of typed data and one or more linked
files anytime the Load Link File(s) button is visible.
*To link files to other
document types throughout the program repeat this process. Click on the appropriate document type
(subject heading), then click Load Link File(s), Add File(s), and select
the document to which you wish to create a link.
To type in information associated with a particular document
type or subject heading, simply click once inside the Type in or Notes
box.
You can continue adding data to the General Property
Information tab. Also, you can use the Monitoring Date arrows
▼ to select the month and year the property should next be monitored.
Erler’s LandSteward will then create an alert to remind you of upcoming
monitoring responsibilities.
Miscellaneous Property Data
2. Use checkboxes to indicate Problems,
Resource Types and Legal Interests
Use the Others box to add a new subject.
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Click Next
to move to the Contacts section.
Click Yes
to save changes.
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Add Miscellaneous Property Information by selecting the Misc
tab.
After
filling in General property information, click the Misc tab at the
bottom of the program window to move to the Miscellaneous data entry
screen. Clicking any one of these radio buttons changes the checklist to the
right of the buttons. One or more options can be selected by clicking in the
checkbox next to the item. Clicking the Others checkbox in a list causes
the Others data entry field to appear.
You
may also add a new checkbox option to any of the lists by typing a label (ex.
Erosion for Problem(s) or Fruit Orchard for Resource Type(s)) in
the field above the Add New Item button and then clicking the Add New
Item.
Hint: To improve record keeping, you may wish to
scan hardcopies of the documents shown in the Property Information list and use
this feature to link to the scanned copy.
You
have now completed the General and Miscellaneous tabs of Erler’s
LandSteward. To continue to the next tab, click the Next button at the
bottom right corner of the program window. Click Yes when Erler’s
LandSteward prompts you to save your work.
Chapter 2: The Contacts Tab
Erler’s LandSteward data sections (Tabs)
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