Opening the SFM File in Solid
Opening the SFM File in Solid
Start Solid and use the "Open Lexicon" button to navigate to and open your SFM file.
You may be presented with a screen giving you a choice of encoding. One one side it may show what the data would look like if it interprets it as UTF8 Unicode, and on the other it will show CP-1252. If you know that your file is Unicode, make sure the radio button for "utf-8" is chosen.
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You will be presented with a choice of "templates". Normally the default one ("MDF") is good enough to start with.
It will open your file and display it in Solid. Sometimes there is a delay before it shows; be patient. You will also see a message about any markers that were not in the template--don't worry, we will deal with these shortly. Just click OK.
Once you open your file in Solid, it stores the "settings" for in a file with the same basename as your file, and with the extension .solid. For instance, if you open a file called MyData.sfm in Solid, then the settings for it will be saved in MyData.solid.
In the future, you can probably just double click the .solid file to get your database open in Solid. (This will work if the extension .solid has been associated with the Solid program.)
Be sure to keep your data and the settings file in the same folder.
If you make a copy of your database and want to open the copy in Solid, then also make a copy of the .solid file and change the basename to match the basename of your copied file. This will make it simpler to get it open and using the same settings, and it also preserves the settings you had before, in case for some reason you need to go back to them.
Solid makes it easy to make a copy of both your data file and the settings for it. Under the File menu is a command "Save a Copy As..." that will copy both at the same time. However, after the command, you will still be in the original version of the data file, not the copy. If you intend to start working in the copy, then close Solid all the way, and open up the copy before beginning work again.