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John, Frankly, I am quite surprised by your reply: users who didn't upgrade are a leading cause of TMG's demise! Wow! Blame TMG's current and former users! -- If TMG were a superior product, or even truly competitive, it would be attracting new users by the carload, and upgrading wouldn't be a question for nearly anyone. -- Despite TMG's unique feature set, there are plenty of perfectly good reasons users have been abandoning it, and sales aren't increasing. It is very naïve to think otherwise.

Thanks Robert, I don't know why the obvious solution didn't occur to me immediately! What would TMG be without John Cardinal's TMG utility!? Regards, Earl

I have a friend who uses TMG that has entered a « Country » throughout his TMG project for every place in his database outside of his home country, but not when places were within his home country. In these cases, he left the « Country » field blank. Now, he wants to fill these null value fields with his home country's name. (For this discussion, let's say he wants to put in « USA » in every « Country » field that is blank.) Going into the Master Place List and replacing all of the blank fields with « USA » is a possibility, however it appears he has more than 1,500 home country locations that need the correction, so doing this manually would be tedious and time consuming. Of course, using the « Replace » function in the Master Place List would be ideal, however, the search and replace operation does not work if one of the variables is a null value, e.g. the « search » field is blank and the « replace » field has « USA ». What would be the fastest way to accomplish this task? Thank you for your reply. Earl

Vera, thank you for your very complete reply. Actually, I am a long-time user of TMG, since v.4, and I know the program fairly well. I migrated much of my genealogy away from TMG during the last 18 months due to frustrating issues with v.7 and have not upgraded to v.8. However, I still have so much supporting data, as well as references and witnesses for one branch of a family only in TMG I have yet to move, that I still use TMG regularly. Although I have been more than a little afraid to upgrade to TMG v.8 because of the numerous installer issues that appear all over the message boards, in addition to some fundamental "known issues," I will probably get it when this particular issue is fixed in a future release. (I can wait for Wholly Genes to write a program that produces reports with people's names and place names spelled correctly.) Best regards, Earl

Hello Vera, You stated that so-called "special characters are omitted" is "a known issue" for the Table of Contents and Researcher Information output. Where else in TMG v.8 (reports, etc.) have you experienced this problem? Also, what other special hurdles must French and German users (in particular) face when attempting to successfully use this program. Thanks so much for your reply.

Message posted by Bob Velke at Ancestry.com's Rootsweb TMG-L Archives on Tuesday, 1 May 2012 15:36:17 -0400: http://archiver.root...2-05/1335900977 TMG v8.03 is now available. It is a free upgrade for users of v8.00 and later. To download and apply the update, simply run TMG and choose "Check for an Update" from the Help menu. ("Check for an Update" is also available as an option on the Windows Start menu.) The change log is visible during the first step of the update process or you can download it from: http://www.whollygen...s/changelog.rtf -Bob

It sounds to me like you mainly have hardware issues related to not enough RAM. How much do you have installed? (Also, 8,000+ people is not an especially large database. I am very surprised it took you 12 hours. This indicates your computer's processor may be slow and out of date.) You might benefit by running fewer programs while you are using TMG. Good luck

Lee, you are certainly right about this issue. Recording evaluations of citations and sources is horribly ambiguous in TMG. The guys who wrote Root Magic 5 really thought about this issue and did a great job, I think, however, adding "Unproven" - a neutral proof statement - would be an improvement. I wish TMG would mostly copy what Roots Magic 5 has done. (On the other hand, I would have to think hard about implementing your "user defined proof evaluation rating system" with 3 to 10 variables. It is overkill to me.) Thanks for bringing this up! Hopefully, TMG will tackle this issue in Version 9

Hi Virginia, The design and functionality of the basic menus of TMG8 under Win8 need to be redone to modernize the product. Yes, all of the "pretty" Microsoft Metro Design considerations should be integrated into the look - bust out of the boxes. TMG has to get past the 32-bit Windows 95 look in this day of iPhones and iPads. TMG also needs to add features under Win8 to allow sharing and comparing data and sources, at the very least, with other TMG users inside the app, or possibly within Win8's new social sharing features in their Cloud. Seemless viewing and comparing of sources via the web **within** TMG, on one screen, should be explored. --- TMG also needs take a good, hard look at functions in MyHeritage and Geni.com, which have become surprising popular sites, and see which have possibilities for the product. I think things in Win8 may offer many possibilities to accomplish this. Aside from Win8 - more fundamentally - TMG also has to get away from the « not invented here » syndrome and see what they can do to allow - as much as possible - seemless importing and exporting of TMG databases with as little data loss as possible into RootsMagic, Legacy, and Family Tree Maker - the three top products by sales. (Personally, I would add Heredis to this list; the top selling product in France.) -- This is contoversial subject, easily dismissed, but genealogy is all about sharing. Each one of these genealogical products has unique features take I like to take advantage of. Regards, Earl

Jim, I am thrilled « TMG8 runs fine under Win8 Developer Preview. » I was hoping that after nearly four years - since December 2007 - that a complete rewrite of TMG was already in progess, even though I knew TMG8 was not going to be that product. Oh, well... TMG8 is not much more than a bunch of bug fixes to the print engine and to make it compitible with 64-bit processing. (About TMG8, Tamura Jones wrote « that it is wrong to call [this release] a major upgrade... »). It lacks so many nice-to-have features -- like an integrated mapping API with Google Maps or Bing Maps that all major competitors (Legacy, Rootsmagic, Heredis, FamilyTreeMaker, etc.) already have, to name just one obvious one. I also doubt TMG8 will qualify to appear on the FamilySearch Certified Products List (although Legacy, RootsMagic, and others seem to have coded their products to fit their criteria). (I know, I know.... Wholly Genes does not care about this. It's all part of the company's « not invented here » syndrome. I have already read the comments and know the company's arguements, so don't need to read more comments on this. I still think it is the wrong attitude.) Of course, I will be very happy if I am wrong about all of my points! Your comment that Wholly Genes should not be involved in Windows 8 Metro app development is extremely short sighted and « beyond me », as you say. Jim, you are too close to the product to see clearly how dated TMG both looks and acts. I hope you have colleagues with more imagination and foresight. -- Don't get me wrong. There is always a valuable role to be made by hard working traditionalists. (Bill Gates thought the Internet was a flash in the pan and would never catch on, either.) Earl

FYI : There are several new Samsung touch developers' computers, fully loaded with Windows 8 and complete developer's tool kits, for sale on eBay that Microsoft gave away for free in Anaheim (5,000 of 'em!) . Maybe we all should pitch-in a few bucks and buy Bob one! Earl

Does anyone know if Bob Velke attended the Microsoft « Build » Conference for Windows 8 in Anaheim last week? -- I know some people from FamilySearch were among the 5,500+ attendees, as I assume Ancestry.com and other Windows genealogy product developers were. I think this is a terrific opportunity for The Master Genealogist to regain an early leadership position in the genealogy software business again, (back from RootsMagic and Legacy, and of course, the ballyhooed FamilyTreeMaker 12 still pending release) if the company is smart. -- I really hope Wholly Genes doesn't blow it. (Most people fascinated by this kind of stuff probably saw the Windows 8 videos on YouTube this spring. The product release date is still set for Autumn 2012. For anyone interested, one the more interesting general presentations -- on the Window 8 Metro Style interface and how it functions -- was given by Jensen Harris. You can see it here (1h33m): http://channel9.msdn.com/events/BUILD/BUILD2011/BPS-1004 Earl

I love the oh-so subtle use of sarcasm. (...) Ken. If I had wanted to be sarcastic, I would have said "Maybe we'll see it lifted in the final version of TMG v8 four years from now!" (big smile!) I think four + years in the future for the release of TMG v9 is honest! Each release is taking longer and longer to reach us. Let's get real! Earl

You are of course right, but it has been owned and operated by Ancestry.com for many years now. There is an Ancestry.com ad at the top of each page, frequently with Ancestry promotions. Ancestry.com (and its subsidiaries Family Tree Maker, Rootsweb, Footnote.com, etc.) owns, operates, and hosts the site. It sure looks like an Ancestry.com site in every way to me. A large percentage of USGenWeb sites said adieu to the Rootsweb message boards and mailing lists after Ancestry.com bought them, and notices about such are still on the site with redirect info. Since Viriginia inferred that the Rootsweb/Ancestry.com board was the primary discussion group for TMG - and it seems to be the place where product announcements, like the TMG v8 public beta appears first - it looks like Ancestry.com and Family Tree Maker are to connected to TMG somehow. Appearances say a lot to me and others. The comments by you, Lee Hoffman, Virginia, John Cardinal, et alia that FREQUENTLY appear on that Ancestry.com/Rootsweb TMG-L board may not be as Wholly Genes employees, but Wholly Genes should be paying you for ALL of the terrific work you do to support TMG! If you all are not getting some kind of financial benefit or perks, your are certainly geneaous spirits! It is intereresting to me that Wholly Genes doesn't encourage discussions to direct here. Earl

Thanks for your replies, Virginia and Jim. I was aware of what you call the "mailing list" - its the name I was confused about, it seems. Mea culpa. I never paid any serious attention to that Ancestry.com/Rootsweb TMG-L Archive. For my taste, it has too many newbie questions (and a lot of chit chat). Plus, it is run and owned by a Wholly Genes competitor... But now, by your comments, Ancestry.com appears to be less of a competitor than I thought! --- It's rather neat that TMG depends on Ancestry.com's servers to maintain its "primary" discussion group !!! How does TMG depend on, or cooperate, with Ancestry.com and Family Tree Maker in other ways? It is unfortunate that the restriction on the number of Accent color conditions remains unchanged in TMG v8. The limit of only 16 conditions seems oddly low to me for 2011. (Perhaps, another FoxPro limitation?) I hit the wall with them right away. Accents are very strong, and possibly unique feature about TMG, that has always impressed people at lectures I lead. --- Oh well. Maybe we'll see it lifted in TMG v9 four years from now! Earl