Eleven Tips for Troubleshooting Software

Your computer software — be it a Web browser or a donor database application — likely plays a crucial role in your nonprofit's day-to-day operations. So when software problems such as unexplained crashes and strange error messages begin to occur, your workday can unceremoniously come to a silent (or not-so-silent) standstill.
When software problems rear their head, panic may set in, and it can be tempting to immediately call the product's official tech-support hotline for answers. But tech-support calls can be time-consuming and, in some cases, quite expensive, so picking up the phone isn't always your best first option.
Fortunately, there are a number of basic steps you can take to solve software problems on your own, or, at the very least, narrow down their causes. So the next time you encounter a misbehaving application, try performing the following troubleshooting tips in the order that they're listed. Remember to carefully document the steps you take; that way, if a tech-support call becomes inevitable, you'll at least have a good idea of what isn't causing the problem.