A number of people have contacted me to ask how to archive their data in HAL
Mk.2. The answer is to use the "Save as" item on the file menu.

HAL Mk.2 works like Microsoft Office applications such as Word and Excel in that
you open a file, work on it and save the results back to that file. The file
that is open is always displayed across the top of the HAL screen.

The only difference between HAL's behaviour and Office applications is that HAL
automatically opens the last file you worked on when it starts up.

So to make an archive you use "Save as", but there is one catch. Once you have
done the "Save as" the program transfers its alegiance to the new file. The new
file will be written across the top of the screen and, if you make further
changes and then exit HAL, your data will be saved to the new file.

So if you want the new file just to be an archive and want to continue to store
your data in the original file, you need to close the archive file and re-open
the original file. You can do this most easily from the recent files list.

One way to ensure that you always work on the file you expect is to open it with
a double click. Windows associates all files with the .hrr or .hrrx extensions
with HAL, so you can open the file in HAL by double clicking it. One good way
to set up your computer is to put a shortcut to your working file on the desktop
and open HAL by double clicking that shortcut. In fact you could delete the
shortcut to HAL itself from the desktop and just have a shortcut to your working
file.

To put a shortcut onto the desktop, navigate to your working file in My Computer
(Windows Explorer), right-click it and use "Send to desktop".

Hope all this helps. Any comments or suggestons gratefully received.