Karla Huebner

I don't know what I'm doing wrong, but no exhibits are found when I import from FTM. The import is normal other than that. I'm told that the exhibits should be included in the .ftmb file I was sent. Suggestions? Karla

I tried re-importing to take another look at the log (since I couldn't find such a log file). There were supposed to be more than two exhibits, so I wonder what became of the rest... what came through was a couple of census images, but not all census images and not a Civil War Draft image.

Thanks, found two exhibits. I'll ask if that's all there were--the import indicated that there were lots more but I didn't look closely at the list beyond to note that they were all jpgs. We had already figured out the version question after TMG refused to import the current version and I looked at the Help.

I would love to see a database system for really working with DNA results and matches. Everyone seems to use spreadsheets for that and while admittedly I'm better with databases than spreadsheets, it seems to me that I've always got 3-4 spreadsheets and a Word document open at once when instead (in theory) I could have one database. However, it's about 20 years since I did any database programming (Paradox) and I have no intention of doing any more of it--I'll leave that to the more skilled, thank you.

I'm not a chart expert and this may not be the solution you're hoping for, but my suggestion is that you make one chart that has the 20 children and then make a separate descendant chart for each one. Progenitors with loads of children (often around 14 but probably not as many as 20) were what kept me from pursuing genealogy prior to computers and TMG. Good luck with this! (and Virginia, if you're in Yellow Springs, we're practically neighbors)

I've (alas) been too busy to do much family history these past few years, but now that I've got a 64-bit computer, I'm adding myself to that long list of users who are itching to get version 8 in time to make some progress over Winter Break! Version 7 is installed but I just haven't felt like dealing with XPmode. Karla

Hi everyone--I'm still alive and using TMG, just without much time to work on genealogy. Anyhow, I bought TMG 7 about a year and a half ago but never got around to installing it. I've now bought a new laptop as the old one (XP) will probably not last that much longer, although it does still run. The new laptop is Windows 7, 64-bit. TMG was one of the programs that would not install under Windows Home Premium, so I've upgraded to Windows Pro and installed XP mode. However, as I'm finding Windows 7 a bit tricky to learn, and don't want to install anything badly, could someone give a step-by-step guide on the best way to install TMG 7 there? For instance, should I copy my entire TMG directory over to (which directory?) and then install? Or??? I'm generally competent with computers, but that makes me hesitant to plunge ahead installing something problematic on an operating system I don't feel comfortable with yet. TIA, Karla

I've recently returned to the US and unpacked my desktop computer, which had been in storage for over two years. For some reason, however, the TMG installation on it won't update and claims that 6.01 is the latest version. Of course, this is ridiculous; I have 6.12 on my laptop. What's my next step? I can't currently connect the two computers to move data, but the desktop (not the laptop, which is having some problems) is online. Thanks, Karla

Thanks for reminding me! I knew there was an easy way that I was forgetting. Karla

I'm a little baffled. I was one of the people who had trouble logging in to the chat, but I did eventually get in (not sure anymore which one I was trying to access, early or late) but while there were occasional visitors to the chat, no discussion ever got going, although there were quite a few messages on TMG-L about people not managing to get in. Was I calculating my time difference all wrong (usually the time here is 6 hours ahead of Eastern) or were there somehow two simultaneous chats, one lively and one dead? Karla

I hope that Wholly Genes will be able to add Unicode support in the near future, as a huge number of users (current but especially potential) need to be able to deal with Vietnamese, Czech, Polish, Romanian, Hungarian, and other languages that use the Roman alphabet with variations. That's not even getting into non-roman alphabets, where at least one typically transliterates for readers using the Roman alphabet. But it would be great to have support for Cyrillic, Hebrew, Arabic, and other alphabets. Karla

OK, this is quite fun. I had to join in, especially since now it's taught me how to use PrtSc. This is my newest main layout for the new laptop. All my layouts got their start from some that were posted somewhere online as .lo files. This means that mine actually has toolbar stuff that I don't fully understand and use, as I haven't really gotten into toolbars. However, I like getting the colors and layout set up nicely. (I note that I haven't yet gotten rid of the Windows Gray for windows in general. I had a nice Wedgewood blue on my previous laptop.) Anyhow, I like to have lots of space to see the individual's events and their siblings and children. My pioneer relatives tended to have a lot of siblings and children... My laptop screen is 1400 x 1050. The accents are blue for dead people, yellow for living, lavender for ancestors. (Not shown here, but people whose living status is unknown are dark green and nonliving "people" like townships are brown.) Karla

Well, I try to take as little as possible to libraries and archives--laptop, scanner or camera. I don't know when I was last in one that didn't allow laptops. If there might be an outlet problem, I take a second battery for the laptop. This doesn't mean I don't often have a lot of other stuff along, like kleenex, hard candies in case of funny throat, pen and paper. In Europe, passport for ID the first time I go. On the other hand, I do like to keep things like jumper cables, tent, and sleeping bag in the car. But this isn't really for genealogical purpose.

I noticed this morning that the installer also runs when TMG checks for messages. Karla

Here's as much detail as I can recall on my experience with this problem. It began for me with a new laptop this summer (Toshiba Tecra M4) which came with a lot of pre-installed software. One was a version of Microsoft Office (I can't remember whether this was actually installed or merely on the computer as installable). Since I had my own version of Office from my university, I installed that rather than using what came with the laptop. I know that at some point early on the second version installed itself (perhaps as a result of installing TMG) and I wasn't able to use Word until I uninstalled the second copy of Office, which wanted a serial number that was not the serial number on my university disk. I don't recall that the installer ran every time I used TMG during the fall (this was not many times, but I did open it occasionally), but I've used TMG more frequently during the past month and the installer seems to want to run every time I start TMG. It also wants to run when I do backups and some other tasks. I'll try to keep track of when it starts up. I agree that this has to be a Microsoft problem rather than a TMG problem, but it only happens with TMG, so something TMG does has to be triggering it. The version of Office that shows on my start menu is Office 2003. Since the new laptop is a tablet, perhaps I should have used the version that came with the laptop, but I didn't find a serial number for it when it installed and wanted one! I suppose I could try downloading updates to Office 2003--I had updated it on my previous laptop but have not on this one. Windows XP does update and I've done all the updates except for Explorer 7. Thanks, Karla

With all due respect to Bob and his development team, and also being well aware that the single versus double byte font issue is industry-wide, I have to say that I consider lack of ability to show the full range of the Roman alphabet a significant problem in a genealogy program. Languages that are normally written in Cyrillic, Hebrew, Arabic, and other alphabets at least tend to have standard transcriptions into the Roman alphabet. However, if we write languages such as Czech, Polish, Hungarian, and Turkish without the correct marks, we run the risk of being misunderstood (perhaps seriously so). While all of my known ancestry fits within the western European character set, my travels and professional research do not. If I had Czech ancestors rather than Czech academic interests, I would really be tearing my hair out about this. And as my German ancestors came from Posen, I'm sure sooner or later I'll find Polish ancestors. Karla

I didn't know that TMG was now able to deal with Hebrew or Russian (even if marginally). Does this mean that it now has unicode capability? Can we get the full range of, for instance, Czech and Polish characters? Last I checked that wasn't possible. Karla Huebner

Yes, Dick, thanks for the reminder! I can't wait to try this. Karla Huebner

Well, that's a thought. I had considered the SS feature awhile back but was not sure I wanted to go that way. It's true that Second Site is currently my primary output. I also was avoiding having a lot of big files in a directory that is copied onto my laptop, although now that I have a 100GB harddrive on the laptop, that's less of a concern. Whether I go ahead and do this, it seems like it's worth recommending to others who haven't done quite as much with their images yet.

This is all very well (and I too scan and archive TIFs), but I'd say a big problem is the fact that many people would like to have images that are good for both Web and printing, and with current technology, that means double copies. So if a person usually outputs to Second Site and posts to the Web, they are probably making small, rather low-res copies, but then suppose the same person wants to print a nice chart with primary images for a reunion? Or does a printed book? I've yet to hear that anyone has come up with a good solution to this, so if anyone has one, do post it.

Like quite a few others, I put the township in the city field. If there is also a town, I put both there. Sometimes the town with the same name as a township may grow so that it is located in more than one township. (Generally, I don't include the township information unless I am using a source that specifies it.) This is a bit messy in terms of searching, I suppose, but I generally search using "contains" so that I get whatever has my desired piece of info.

I'm not sure that's possible yet. There are some imperfections in how TMG handles photos for witnesses (at least, those of us who use this technique for group photos consider it an imperfection, and I don't think anyone has come up with a better way to do group photos).

I think the times I have used this method are when I'm going back and editing a citation. At least, if I'm understanding the description properly. I'm trying to think how I usually do citations, and am pretty sure I mostly press F4.

This was an intriguing idea, though. I used to use Endnote for my academic work, and believe it or not, while Endnote is a good program, I used to wish it was as flexible as TMG's source handling. I never became an expert with it, but couldn't find any straightforward way to get the many varieties of Chicago Manual citations I needed (such as "compiled by," "edited and translated by," "by X with Y," and so on). And that wasn't even for genealogy. I now use Nota Bene with its Ibidem bibliographic component as this handles more humanities complexities than Endnote, including Czech letters.

CTRL-F3 or just F3? I've never used anything but F3. What does CTRL-F3 do? Karla