Using Older Versions of Course Designer

Course Designer 3 Coexisting with Older Versions of Course Designer

Course Designer 3 can read all course files created by either Course Designer 1.0 or Course Designer 2000. However, there is no feature in Course Designer 3 for saving courses such that they can be read by an older version of Course Designer. Therefore, if you are a licensee of either Course Designer 1.0 or Course Designer 2000, there are a couple cases in which you may need to continue to use the older version of Course Designer, even after you have upgraded to Course Designer 3.

First, while you are evaluating Course Designer 3 during the 30-day free trial period, you should continue to use the older version of Course Designer to create any courses that you will need to modify or print after the 30-day free trial period, in case you decide not to purchase a Course Designer 3 activation license.

You will also need to use an older version of Course Designer to create any course that you need to send to another Course Designer user, if all of the following conditions are true:

• The other user is a Course Designer 1.0 or Course Designer 2000 licensee.
• The other user is not a Course Designer 3 licensee.
• The other user needs to be able to modify or print the course that you send them.

If the other user does not need to modify or print a course that you send them, you can always send them a course created by Course Designer 3, and the other user can use Course Designer 3 in free viewer mode to view the course that you send them.

There is no need to choose between keeping your older version of Course Designer and upgrading to Course Designer 3. You can have Course Designer 3 and an older version of Course Designer both installed on your computer at the same time. You can choose whether you want to create a course using Course Designer 3 or an older version of Course Designer by simply opening the appropriate version when you want to create the course.

Opening Course Files in an Older Version of Course Designer

Each time you open Course Designer 3 on your computer, it will establish itself as the application to use on your computer when .agl files (course files) are opened by double-clicking on them in Windows Explorer, or by opening an attached .agl file in your e-mail application. If you want .agl files to instead be opened with your older version of Course Designer, check the "File / Open .agl files with CRCD 2000" menu item. After you check that menu item, all .agl files will be opened using the older version of Course Designer, until the next time you open Course Designer 3, or until you uncheck that menu item.

If you have a license for an older version of Course Designer, but occasionally use Course Designer 3 in free viewer mode, it may be a good idea to check the "File / Open .agl files with CRCD 2000" menu item every time you use Course Designer 3. That way, your use of Course Designer 3 will not affect your use of Course Designer 2000 in the least.

Despite the name, the "File / Open .agl files with CRCD 2000" menu item will also work with Course Designer 1.0, if that is the older version of Course Designer on your computer. The menu item will not appear if there is no older version of Course Designer on your computer. The menu item may not work if you are running on a restricted user account that is not authorized to modify the Windows registry.

The "File / Open .agl files with CRCD 2000" menu item was added in version 3.3 of Course Designer 3. If you are running a version of Course Designer 3 older than version 3.3, you are encouraged to install the latest version.