When you run a graphic design business, you feel both the excitement and fear of upgrading your computer software. Over the last number of months (and in the next couple of months), we’ve had a number of software upgrades to consider.

For PC users, there has been Windows Vista, Office, QuarkXPress 7 and Adobe’s CS3 products.

For Mac users, QuarkXPress and CS3, along with Leopard that was released last week, and Mac Office which comes out early next year.

When I worked for Microsoft testing Windows, I knew what to expect by the time a new version of Windows was available. That made upgrading a much easier decision. Now, as both a PC and Mac user, and one that has no ties to Microsoft (or Apple for that matter), a new operating system is something to be carefully considered.

Already, there are scattered reports of Adobe CS3 not working 100% with Leopard, so I guess it will be some time before I upgrade my Mac.

But let me give you a little advice to help you make operating system upgrades go a little smoother. (And this will also save you lots of time if your hard-drive crashes and you have to start from scratch.)

1. Create an inventory of all the software you use or depend on for your business. That includes any font management programs, FTP programs, etc. Sometimes we forget programs that we don’t use often, or third-party plug-ins that aren’t obvious. Any one of these might not work after an operating system upgrade, so you want to have an accurate inventory or what you use so you can investigate how it might work after you upgrade your operating system.

2. Next to each software title, note the serial number. This is especially important for software you downloaded where the serial number is sent separately in an e-mail. It’s easy to misplace these serial numbers if you haven’t come up with an organized way of keeping track of them. If you have to reinstall software, you’ll want those serial numbers handy.

3. If the program lends itself to it, take screenshots of your settings or preferences, or export the settings if possible. For example, if you have lots of sites configured in your FTP program, make sure you have that information in a separate place.

Take all that information and either make a hard copy, or an electronic copy, and keep it in a safe place.

4. For your downloaded software, collect all the installation files and put them somewhere easy to find on your hard-drive or burned to a disc in case you have to reload them later. If you installed from a CD, put all those CDs together so they’re easy to find. Unfortunately, a common solution for software that doesn’t work after an operating system upgrade is to reinstall the software. If that’s the case, you don’t want to waste time tracking down all your installation discs or files from various locations.

5. In your browser, bookmark the specific website support pages for your key software. This way, you can quickly find out if there are any updates or what information is available when you’re planning to upgrade your operating system. There’s nothing worse than upgrading your operating system only to find, for example, that your FTP software won’t work with the new operating system and a fix won’t be coming for a couple of months. This is something you want to investigate before you upgrade. And don’t forget to export your bookmarks and keep them in a safe place in case something ever goes wrong with your computer.

Admittedly, it’s a bit of pain to go through all this. But after having upgraded numerous times over the years, I can tell you that taking these steps and keeping your information current is easily worth the up-front time it will take.

When you’re running a freelance design business that is so dependent on your computer, you can’t afford any more downtime than is necessary.