Virginia Blakelock

John - Where are you making your backup to? Is that the same location as in Preferences / Current Project Options / Advanced? What are you backing up? If you backup only the projects, accents and filters, do you get an error? If you have your exhibits in folders outside of TMG, you can back those up separately outside of TMG. You will want to anyway if you have your exhibits in a multi-folder folder tree. Restoring a TMG backup with those exhibits will flatten the tree. From TMG Help / Restore: "CAUTION: If your exhibits are stored in a multi-folder folder tree rather than in a single folder, you should not use the Restore Wizard with your exhibits. Maintenance of exhibit folder trees (such as backing up or moving the exhibits) should be done outside of TMG v9." How many exhibits do you have? It used to be that too many caused an OLE error in the backup, but that was many thousands. If you Ctrl-Alt-Del when the backup error occurs, what other applications are running at the time? Virginia

John - I have been fortunate and have had very few problems with TMG. I do run a simple ship with all files and folders in their default locations and use Dropbox only for backups. I wonder if you have tried, as I suggested, a one-word, lowercase, no spaces or hyphens, project name for your Van Dykes instead of 'My VAN DYKE-SMITH PROJECT.pjc' You can't hurt anything if you experiment with a Copy of your project. The project name is not likely to appear in reports, so it does not have to be overly specific - and with a hundred project files with that name being manipulated, maybe the simpler the better. Virginia

David - If you need the UK trial version, it is here: http://www.whollygenes.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=TMGUK Virginia

David - Yes, that can be assumed. The trial version is always the latest version. Your unlock code will work fine - and it may have been remembered so you may not have to reenter it. Virginia

Sian - You should be able to simply open your v9.02 project in v9.03 as usual - not have to restore the backup. The backup is just a precaution. Virginia

David - Uninstall TMG 9 from the Control Panel. Download and install the trial version (v9.03) from the WG website here: http://www.whollygenes.com/forums201/index.php?/topic/15915-tmg9-final-installers/ Virginia

Linda - Copy the .sqz file from your USB drive to your laptop and Restore from there. It can be problematic backing up to and restoring to TMG from an external drive. Virginia

Chuckles - What version of TMG are you using? The line wrap seems to be working in v9 (see attached thumbnail below) and v8. In Properties on the report configuration page, do you have your paper size and the margins selected? I find the chart wrap - wrapping back to the margin instead of to the indent - not particularly attractive. Setting the orientation to Landscape might produce a better looking chart for you. Note that the Descendant Indented Chart is not a box chart (not Visual ChartForm), but a standard report. You can create a box chart version of the Descendant Indented Chart; see example here: http://www.whollygenes.com/forums201/index.php?showtopic=14773 Virginia

John - I also recommend external exhibits. Have you tried running VFI before the Optimize? Do I remember correctly that you have a very long project name with spaces and characters? That should not make a difference these days, but when manipulating a hundred or so files in a project with that long name, perhaps something is being dropped. All of my projects are a single word (Brown, Whipple, etc.) You could try an Optimize with a shorter name by copying your project to a new folder (File / Copy Project) and renaming that copy (File / Rename project) to simply Vandyke. That will change all of the project file names to Vandyke. Then run VFI / Optimize / VFI and see if that works. Virginia

John - That sounds like a Draconian solution to the problem. Have you tried running Optimize when you are safely off line and all other programs are turned off, including your anti-virus/malware programs? I would turn those programs off rather than exclude specific file extensions. Are your exhibits internal or external? Virginia

Ken - Download TMG v7 from this link: http://www.whollygenes.com/files/tmg7setup.exe Enter your v7 registration information, including your email address at that time Is the new PC Win7 or Win8.1, 32-bit or 64-bit? Virginia

And the project is in user space on the C:\ drive when optimizing - not on an external medium? Have you tried it with no other programs running? Virginia

genealogist4y56 Do you have multiple datasets in the projects which have a problem? Do you have the same optimize problem with a project in which you enter the data directly rather than importing GEDCOM's? Virginia

Carol - As far as I know you can only make dashed and dotted lies with 0 point (1-pixel) in VCF. Being able to make thicker dashed/dotted lines is on the wishlist. Instead of using the Transparent option, select the 0 point (1-pixel) option to make the dashed or dotted line. Virginia

Definitely a problem with the forum. Note that the Forum option 'Follow' to receive messages by email is still working. If you opt to receive forum messages (postings and replies) by email, there is a link in that email message to the forum message so you can quickly go to that new message and reply if you wish. 'Follow' can be a big time-saver - not having to visit the forum and look for new content. Virginia

nckarter On the top menu in TMG, click on Report / Sample Reports and look at the example of the Journal report. In TMG, on the Report menu, click on Journal Report, In that report, click on the Options tab and then see the Style: options. Also note the option 'Direction' to run the report for descendants or ancestors. You can experiment with those journal styles and options to see which you prefer. Virginia

Mike - There may be something in the mailing list archives if we could get to them. A work-around might be the Individual Detail report - where there is an option on the Tags tab to include the active timeline. Maybe you could create a temporary imaginary 'person' with a birth date appropriate for your timeline and print that report. Virginia

Are all of your files installed in the default locations? Virginia

Are you using Dropbox or other cloud service with TMG? Virginia

Alan - Where you are seeing the additional -bio tags, are the parent-child relationships marked as Primary? In the parent's view, the children would have asterisks (or be Bold, depending on your preference in the Tag Box options). Virginia

Jim - You might try Tools / Check for Duplicate People to whittle down the possibilities. Use the options for Same Birth Date, Same Surname - whatever criteria would help. Do not disqualify siblings. Once you find the twins, you might want to set the Multiple Birth Flag for those people so you can find them more easily next time. Virginia

Adrian - For more tips on using the Focus Group, see the forum message here. There is a link in that message to a video showing the process. Virginia

Jim R- Assuming your Preferences / Current Project Options / Advanced / Configuration Files path is current for v9, have you tried resetting the report defaults using the Reset Defaults button under the report configuration name? When you save your pdf report to a named file - say 'testfile.pdf' - on your desktop, do you get a prompt to open the file? Virginia

There is an option in the Backup Wizard to include the layout files in your backup. For the location of the layout files (*.lo) see the Help topic: Data File Storage. After reading that, on the top menu in TMG, go to Help and cursor down to Access folders. Virginia

Finn - If this is a wall chart, see the link here. Virginia