Requirements

Java

This software requires Java version 1.5 (aka Java 5) or greater. Java is available as a free download (website listed below) and we use it because it allows us to write one program which can easily run on most computers.

Verify Java Version

Before anything else, check out this website which will check to see if you have Java installed and which version is installed:

Detect Java Version

They "recommend" Java 1.6 (aka Java 6), but you'll be fine for this software as long as they show that you have Java version 1.5.0 or higher

Special Mac information: All users of Mac OS X 10.4 or greater should be all set. The Mac OS version number is available under the Apple menu in the upper left corner of the screen, select "About this Mac". Any version above 10.4.0 will have Java 1.5 already installed. If you don't have Mac OS X 10.4, your only option is to upgrade your operating system to 10.4 or 10.5. Sorry.

Upgrade and/or Install Java

The latest version of the "Java Runtime Environment" can be downloaded from http://www.java.com/ . Look for the button that says "Free Java Download". They will have you download Java 1.6 (or Java 6); this is fine.

Special Windows info: The age of your computer will only be an issue on truly ancient machines. This software was created and runs fine on a computer that is over 7 years old.

Other users: This software will run on any computer for which a version of Java 1.5 is available. Please download the zip archive and follow the directions below, except that you'll have to run the program from the command line with the command java -jar CropPlanning.jar

Installation

Step 1: Verify and/or Download and Install Java, as detailed above

Step 2: Download

Step 3: Open the Archive

Mac: The Mac version is distributed as a disk image (a .dmg file). To open the file, just double click on the .dmg file. This will open the archive and "mount" it on your desktop as though it were a CD, DVD or hard drive. Double click on the mounted drive to view the files in the archive.

Windows: The Windows version is distributed as a file archive (a .zip file). Inside the archive is a directory which contains the "important" files. There are two options for opening this archive:

1. modern Windows computers can simply double click on the .zip file to open it up and view the contents.
2. older Windows computers might not be able to do the double click trick and will have to use a 3rd party archive utility to open the file. We suggest 7-Zip. Open the archive (the .zip file) in 7-Zip and proceed to the next step.

Step 4: Copy/Install Program (Optional for Macs)

With the archive opened and displayed in a window, simply:

Mac: drag the program file (CropPlanning) from the mounted disk image to a folder or directory in which want to "install" the program.

For now, do not put the program in the 'Applications' folder. Note that this step is optional for Mac users. You should be able to run the program from the mounted disk image with no problems. If you have trouble doing so, or you just want the program to reside in a particular place on your computer, then this step is for you.

Windows: just drag the folder CropPlanning from the archive to a suitable location, such as your desktop.

You will need to keep the program and it's files together; this means that you cannot just move the '.exe' file, you must keep it in the same directory as the '.jar' file and 'lib' directory. (If you didn't understand what I just said, don't worry; just follow the instructions above and you'll be fine.)

Step 5: Open the program

Open up the disk image (if you did NOT do Step 4 on a Mac) or folder on your hard drive/desktop (if you did Step 4 on either Mac or Windows) that contains the program file. On Windows, the program file is CropPlanning.exe and on Mac the program file is CropPlanning. Just double click on the program icon!

For non-Mac or -Windows users: you'll have to manually start the program. Open a command line, change to the extracted archive directory and issue the command java -jar CropPlanning.jar.

For a brief intro on how to use the program, check out the page ProgramUsageIntroduction. As always, let us know if you have any questions!