John K

Is it possible to have an Ancestor Chart show the value of a specified flag? I have used Data Type - Box Contents to get charts to show information from a specified tag, but the list of "selected tag types" does not seem to include flags, and I have not found any other way to get the boxes in an ancestor chart to show a flag value.

Jim, Thank you.

Is there a way to delete (or edit) the entries that are shown when I type F2 in a place field and see all of the entries I have ever made? Over the years I have made a number of careless mistakes when entering place names (for example, the list now includes not only Springfield, Hampden, Massachusetts, but also Springfield, Hampden, Connecticut and Springfield, Hampden, England). I have corrected these on the actual tag entries, and have also gone to the Master Source List and either deleted the erroneous entry or corrected it and then optimized the database so that the list has only a single entry for Springfield. However, through all of this the incorrect entries remain in the list of field values. If I could delete them it would reduce the time I now must spend making sure I select the accurate entry. Is there a way to do this?

Thank you. That is exactly what I needed. John

I moved TMG to a new computer, and cannot figure out how to redirect TMG so that it can find folders for Exhibits, Backups, etc. The problem is that my User Name for the new computer is JohnK, while it was John for the previous computer, and JMK for one before that. TMG keeps looking for files under the old user names. I did run Validate File Integrity, and during that process inserted the correct link to the Exhibits file - but while TMG said it found a number of missing exhibits, it still tells me each time the program starts that it cannot find an exhibit file under the user name John. I am sure there is a simple way to give TMG the correct path, but I have not been able to find it and would appreciate anyone’s help. John Kuechle

I am very happy to now have Word Perfect support. However, TMG8 does not appear to work as well with Word Perfect as did TMG7. I have not been able (with WordPerfect 12) to insert page numbers into documents created by TMG. (Interestingly, I did not have this problem on another computer with WordPerfect9.) I know I can use one of the options in TMG to insert page numbers into the reports, and these do appear when a WordPerfect document is created. However, I frequently want more elaborate page numbers than TMG allows (e.g., Chapter 7, page __). Previously, I could simply click "Format - Page - Numbering" in WordPerfect and create my own numbering system. However, now (with TMG 8 and WordPerfect 12) when I click "Format - Page - Numbering", nothing happens - specifically, I am not taken to the "Select Page Numbering Format" box. Interestingly, when I copy the entire WordPerefect document that was created by TMG8, and paste it into a new WordPerfect document, the problem goes away, and I can number the pages in the way I want. I was hoping that some code had been placed in the WordPerfect documents by TMG8, and that I could find it and delete it - but I have had no luck here. Has anyone else experienced this problem? Is there a better solution that copying and pasting the entire document?

Thank you TPG and Virginia, Yes I have been setting the page number options in TMG to “none” (although I have also experimented with alternative settings, and had the same result.) I am mostly interested in Journal Reports, but I have found the same issue with any other report that I try to save in Word Perfect format (e.g., Kinship Reports and Family Group Sheets). As I said, this problem did not come up when I briefly used a different computer that had Word Perfect 9 - and now I understand from you that it does not come up with Word Perfect X3 or X5. It therefore sounds like the problem is peculiar to WordPerfect 12. It obviously could be said that I am creating the problem by using a 10 year old version of Word Perfect. However, based on the fact that the problem disappears when I copy the entire Report and paste it into a new WordPerfect document, I keep assuming there must be some code that I can delete, or similar solution. John

I am frustrated by the limited number of options provided in the "Sort By" tab for Journal Report Options. Is it possible to sort the people in a journal report in any other manner? Ideally I would like to manually select a sort order, but it would even be helpful if I could use the listed options in reverse order (so, for example, that the report begins with surname that start with "Z"s, rather than "A"s.) I do see that I could create my own custom sort order by revising the ID Numbers or Reference field for each person, but that would create other issues that I do not want to deal with.

I just completed a clean reinstallation of Windows XP, and have reinstalled TMG. Everything looks fine, except I cannot see sentence previews for most tags. There is no problem with birth, death and marriage tags - for which I use traditional formats like: [P] was born <[D]><[L]>). Here, TMG shows a full preview of the sentence. For most other tags, I long ago changed the default sentence structures to be more of an outline format (such as, Burial: <[D],><L><M>). Now, when I click on "Sentence" for any of these tags, the window shows the sentence structure for the tag, but the Preview box is completely blank. Since everything worked fine 2 days ago, I assume I made some silly mistake. Can anyone tell me what I need to do to be able to see these sentence previews again?

Jim and Michael, Jim - you are correct, I left out two sets of brackets when I typed my post. Michael - thank you. Although I am embarrassed to admit it, that was exactly the problem.

I am having a problem getting Journal Reports to consistently use the short footnote form. After the first footnote to a particular source, about 3/4 of the following footnotes continue to use the full footnote form, with the remaining 1/4 correctly using the short footnote form. I cannot see any pattern for when the full form is used, although it is used more often toward the beginning of the Report than at the end. If the Report always never used the short form, that would presumably mean that short footnotes had somehow been disabled. However, I cannot figure out why it would use them occasionally, but not always (after the first time).

Jim, Thank you. While your suggestion did not directly resolve the problem, in trying it out, and then drafting a reply to you, I noticed that in the "Sources" tab of the Report Options for my Journal Report, I had checked both "unique" under "endnotes," and also "combine consecutive footnotes/endnotes." When I eliminated one of those check-marks, everything worked as it should. I really appreciate reading your thoughtful and helpful comments to so many of the questions posed by TMG users, and I am giving you full credit for solving my issue.

Since the CD of TMG8 that I purchased last year is still sitting, unused, in its envelope, I can only assume that none of the upgrades over the last 4 months have corrected the Word Perfect problem. If, to the contrary, the problem has been solved, it would be helpful for Wholly Genes to post something to that effect on this web site. Assuming that TMG still does not work with Word Perfect, I would like to restate how unhappy I am with Bob Velke's very cavalier attitude toward a problem that he created and profited by. I do understand his general position that if he responded to every inquiry, and tried to predict completion dates for every issue, he would never get any real work done. However, this is a unique situation - we were sold an "upgrade," and then discovered that while the improvements are quire minor, the new version is missing a critical element that has been present in all prior versions. Given that, it does not seem too much to ask that we be told if the problem will be corrected this summer, this year or this decade.

I, also, use WordPerfect almost exclusively for Journal (or similar) reports, and if there is some complication in trying to translate tabular reports into WordPerfect, I would hope that this would not delay making WordPerfect output available areas where it is really needed. I do realize that one can work around the unavailability of WordPerfect output by creating a pdf or Word document and then converting it to WordPerfect. However, the results of such conversions are never perfect, which means that considerable time must be spent dealing with margins, spacing and similar issues. To be quite frank, the advantages to me of the relatively minor improvements I have seen in version 8 do not come close to outweighing the disadvantage of having to spend time performing such clean-up work.

Having eagerly awaited TMG8, I purchased an upgrade based on only a quick scan of the list of new features. My review did not make it down to the penultimate line saying that WordPerfect report output was "hidden," and as a result I was shocked and very disappointed when I learned that the new and improved version is dramatically less useful for me than what I was upgrading from. While I fear that my voice will not carry the same weight as those who say they will not purchase an upgrade until the problem is fixed, I nevertheless wanted (somewhat belatedly) to indicate there are others out here who will not use version 8 until this significant shortcoming is resolved, and to urge that the matter be treated with more urgency than one might suspect is the case based on (i) the sales brochure of New Features (where the problem is listed at the very end, rather than at the beginning) and (ii) what I thought was a somewhat cavalier posting by Bob Velke to the TMG-L mailing list saying that he is “committed” to completing WordPerfect output, but with no prediction of timing or indication as to whether this is a top priority or simply one of hundreds of items to be addressed before version 9 is released.

Before I can delete a source from the Master Source list, I receive a warning that lists the number of times the source is cited, and says "Additional citations may be embedded in memos. You can enable a search for any embedded citations on the prompts tab in Preferences." Since I frequently use embedded citations, such a search would be helpful. However, when I go to the prompts tab and switch between the three options (never prompt, do not search - prompt each time - never prompt, always search) I continue to get exactly the same warning, and TMG never seems to search to see if the source is used in embedded citations. What am I missing? How can I get TMG to search and see if a source is used in any embedded citations?

I have a minor formatting problem for which I have not been able to find a solution. I am creating a Journal Report, and wish to show the reference field when someone is named. However, the output I am getting includes an extra space after names of spousal parents to whom I have not assigned a reference number. An example appears below: "He married Sarah Houghton , daughter of Elijah L. Houghton and Sarah Jackson (176d), on 1 December 1808 ..." [As can be clearly seen, there is a space after the name Sarah Houghton, and before the comma. Although it is not as easy to see, there is also an extra space (i.e., 2 total spaces) after the name Elijah L. Houghton.] Is there a way to get rid of these superfluous spaces (without giving up the ability to display the reference field)? In case it is relevant, this is the sentence structure I am using. (I thought the problem might be resulting from an unneeded space in the formula, but there are no spaces (other than before and after the word "married").) [P] married [PO]<[PARO]><[D]><[L]><[M]>

I had to replace the hard drive on my laptop, and am now reinstalling all of my applications. In the process of reinstalling TMG, I received an error message reading: "File access denied c:\ ... the master genealogist v7\strings.dbf. 2809 CINTLSTRING.OPENSTRATEGY." Since I have not yet put my data back on the computer, this is not the result of some data entry mistake I made long ago. Can anyone tells me what the message means, and what I should do about it? (If relevant, I am using a Dell Inspiron laptop with Windows XP Professional.)

Is there a way to reduce the radius of the inner 4 or 5 circles in a fan chart? With ancestor and descendant charts, I can change the sizes of specific boxes and move them around, but I have not been able to find a way to manipulate the lines in a fan chart. (Other than the ability to make the entire chart smaller.) The chart I am working on shows only names, and uses curved text for the inner 5 circles. This produces a chart where almost 80% of the area within these inner circles is blank space. I am hoping there is a way to compress (reduce the radius of) these inner circles, thereby creating an overall chart of a more manageable size.

I recently had to reinstall Windows on my computer, along with all of my other programs, including TMG. Now, when I start TMG I get the following error message: Exhibit folder "C:\My Documents\The Master Genealogist v7\Exhibits\" was not found. Do you want to use default Exhibit folder? [yes or no] Since I do not use the exhibit feature of TMG, this is only a minor annoyance. (Whether I click yes or no, everything appears to run correctly.) However, I worry that if TMG cannot find this folder (it DOES exist - exactly where TMG says it is looking), perhaps it cannot find something that is more important. Does anyone have any ideas about how I can fix the problem that TMG is having?

Thank you. It turns out I had a second "My Documents" file hidden away that held not only the Exhibits, but several other items as well.

I recently reinstalled windows and therefore had to reinstall by TMG database. Ever since then, when I try to run a List of Sources report, I receive the following error messages: Alias "WFILECIT" is not found 7R_LOC_REPOOF Variable "MNUMBER" is not found 8R_LOC_REPOOF Alias "RFILECIT" is not found 10R_LOC_REPOOF Table has no index order set 11 R_LOC_REPOOF Variable "RPERNO" is not found 19R_LOC_REPOOF Alias "RFILECIT" is not found 20R_LOC_REPOOF I do not have any problem creating other reports (e.g., list of places, list of citations). Does anyone have any idea what the problem is?

I had to do a clean reinstall of Windows, so I am starting afresh with everything. I thought I had successfully moved over my dat and reinstalled TMG (I have upgraded to version 7.04 if that makes a difference), but I just noticed a problem. When I look at the Tag Entry window, and click on the sentence button, I see a preview of the sentence in English (as before). However, when I select another language, the preview box does not show the sentence in the new language until I click on "refresh" - I am virtually certain that previously it would automatically show the sentence in the new language. While this is only a minor irritation, the more significant problem occurs when I try to view the sentence in a custom language that I previously created. When I select this language (it is shown as one of the options), and hit the refresh button, the preview box goes blank. The custom language does appear to be properly installed. When I print out reports using the custom language, everything looks fine. However, it will obviously be very inconvenient if I can no longer preview sentences in the custom language. Does someone know what silly mistake have I made that created this problem?

I would like to produce a written genealogy organized in a similar manner to Dawes-Gates Ancestral Lines, and am trying to figure out how to do this with TMG. My goal is to generate a series of journal reports in the following format: Smith Family Great Grandfather Smith (showing all information about him) Great Grandmother Smith (showing all information about her) The children of GGF and GGM Smith were as follows (listing just birth, death and marriage info for each child) Grandfather Smith (all info) Grandmother Smith (all info) The children of GGF and GGM Smith were as follows: Father Smith etc. So, each report would provide complete information only about direct ancestors in a specific line, starting with the oldest ancestor in the line and working down. However, it would also list all the children of each direct ancestor and provide birth, death and marriage information for each child. This seems like something TMG should be able to do, but I have not been able to find a way to include the Smith wives or to avoid having separate paragraphs for each of the Smith cousins. Could anyone point me in the right direction? Thank you

Terry, Thank you. Your second suggestion produces exactly what I am looking for. You were correct that it takes a little work to create the temporary Project - but thanks to your superb directions (for which I am most grateful) it was really a piece of cake. The troubling thing is that once I have defined the Focus Group, it takes the computer a considerable amount of time to create the new Project. If I only had to do this one time, that would not be relevant, but my understanding is that I will need to create an updated version of this new Project every time I make a change to the underlying database. (I must confess that I am a tinkerer. Whenever I decide to print a genealogy report, I spend months proof reading the report, making changes to the database, reprinting the report and starting the process over again. If I have to wait 30 minutes each time for the computer to create the new Project, it will definitely change my approach.) I assume there is no other way to get what I am looking for, but just to be sure I thought I would ask if there was some way to avoid the need to create a new Project every time the database is changes. For example, might it be possible to flag the people I am interested in for the report and having TMG ignore everyone else? (If so, that would be terrific, since the flags are already in place chanks to your 2004 TMG Tip on Creating a "Related-By" Flag.) Thank you again for your help