John Cardinal

Second Site Version 6.1 is now available. This version includes further enhancements to the mobile-friendly features included in Second Site 6. I recommend that all Second Site users upgrade to this release. This is a free upgrade for registered users of Second Site 6. If you are using Second Site 5 or a previous version, you must purchase a license to use Second Site 6. The release announcement is in the latest issue of Second Site News. The changes are summarized in the Change Log. Current Second Site 6 users can download the installer here.

Morbius, As far as I know, the last independent dealers have run out of software licenses, and so there are no licenses available for TMG v9. There are a range of answers to your other question. I am sticking with TMG v9. TMG will continue to run for a long time (I'm guessing 10 years minimum), and there are no other programs with the features that I want. I see no immediate need to switch nor any compelling reason to do so. Other people are switching to RootsMagic, or Family Historian, or Legacy, or other choices. I will leave it to one or more of them to explain why.

Ruth, I've been busy for the last few weeks working on the latest releases of TMG Utility and Second Site, and I missed your question about Change Name Parts. I am glad to see you figured it out. There are actually several ways to do what you want, but Jim's method was probably the best because it was relatively easy to communicate the necessary rules. If you have further questions, and you post them here but don't get a response from me promptly, please contacxt me directly.

TMG Utility v7.3 Build 5 is now available. This is a relatively minor upgrade of my free program, the most widely used utility program for making bulk edits and other modifications to TMG projects. While the changes are minor, I still recommend all user update to this version. If you are using a back-level version, and you have any trouble, you'll have to upgrade before getting any support. Note, however, that TMG Utility v7.3+ will only work with projects from TMG versions 8.05 through 9.05. See: Download Page, Change List

Bob, As Michael explained, the web site that SS produces is a collection of files. For the task you described, you'd only need the site for your own use, so keeping it on your hard drive is fine. It's also quite easy: after SS makes (or re-makes) the site, you don't have to copy the files anywhere to use them. Your browser will process the files as a web site. Because the files are on your own PC, they are not public, so you don't have to worry about including information about living people, as one example of something that would be different if you were publishing the site. You can see a list of sites made with SS here. Those are public sites, but they will give you an idea of what SS includes and browsing them will help you form your own opinion about whether a site would help you in your RM project. If you have any questions, let me know.

You should consider using Second Site to make a non-published site that contains everyone in your project. With a person page entry from that site open in a web browser, you'd have a fairly complete view of the TMG data for the person, and you could compare that to what you see in RM. The site is not on paper, so you may object for that reason. In my opinion, avoiding a mountain of paper is a good thing.

Are you using the Backup command in TMG's File menu to make the backup file?

Jim, Thanks. I considered the Legacy route because I thought that (1) Legacy probably has a better GEDCOM import than TMG and (2) using GenBridge to read Legacy would produce better results than reading a GEDCOM file.

Jim, I been discussing other matters with Arthur off-list. When he originally tried creating a GEDCOM in RM and importing into TMG, the GEDCOM file was Unicode and TMG doesn't like that. He tried importing the RM GEDCOM into Legacy, and then using a direct (GenBridge) import into TMG. He got an error message during that process. Do you think it's better to: (A) Create a GEDCOM in RM (w/o 'Extra Details'), convert it from Unicode to plain text, then import into TMG, or ( Transfer from RM into Legacy via GEDCOM, then direct import to TMG which means solving whatever error he encountered earlier?

Ruth, For people who have no surname, I use the double-exclusion marks as the surname: "--" (don't enter the quotes). That indicates to me that the person has no surname, as opposed to someone who (probably) has a surname, but I haven't found it. Also, when you use the double-exclusion markers, TMG (and Second Site) will not include the "missing surname" string.

Quish, I am not sure what is causing the issue with the ^ characters. If the data was lost during the TMG import process, then TMG will not have the data and so SS will not have access to it. For the divorce tags, you should be able to remove those with TMG Utility. If you want to remove ALL divorce tags, that's easy. If you want to remove SOME divorce tags, that's a little harder. Let me know which it is. John

Thanks for the update, Harry, I think the only possible source now is the Roots Users Group. If I recall correctly, they purchased some licenses for possible use by RUG members, with a plan to offer them to non-members if their supply held up. Not sure where that stands.

Norm Prince, I think you're more likely to get help if you start a new thread rather than piggy-backing on this one. The problem you described doesn't sound similar to the one described by Miss Congenealogy.

Miss Congenealogy (love that handle!), TMG-L members posted similar problem descriptions within the last month or two. I forget the solutions, but perhaps you can search the TMG-L archives for copy/paste issues.

Doris, I don't think WG made modifications to what you sent them unless there was a specific problem or issue. However, I do not know for sure and I have no inside information. I know that when I sent charts to the WG printing service, they came back looking great, but I think that was mostly due to what the combo of TMG and VCF produced, and a high quality printer, rather than modifications by WG staff before printing. My suggestion is to try printing a small chart at one of the large-format print services like FedEx Office or whichever service is close/convenient for you. You can learn from that, and doing a small chart means it won't be an expensive lesson. I've used FedEx Office for non-genealogy printing and the results have been good. I didn't liek the results from Staples, but that may have been my fault, not theirs. Whichever service you use, ask them which formats work best. I suspect they'll suggest PDF. Someone on TMG-L mentioned a service (I forget which) that accepts VCF files. That might be the best option, but I don't think they have local offices so you'd have to wait (and pay for) shipping, which makes a test print a little more expensive. Hope this helps.

Bjørn, I am curious... why did you want to create tags based on a flag value? I am getting close to a new release of TMG Utility and wondering if I should automate more of the process you used.

Artie, For the place issue, does FTM have a batch-edit facility where you can edit places and change "/" to ","? If so, that would probably be the way to go: change the places in FTM, then re-import your project to TMG. If that won't work, then you'll probably have to do some manual editing in TMG. My free TMG Utility program can help a little. It has a Change Place Parts feature that could be used to set some of the fields properly. For example, you can implement a rule as follows: If Country contains "/Arkansas/" And If State is empty Set State equal to "Arkansas" Repeat that 50 times and all the State parts will be correct. If some Cities/Towns appear frequently in the jumbled entries, then you could use a similar rule to set the city field. I am not sure what happened with the exhibits. Perhaps someone else will respond to that part of your post.

Kevin, You should contact Harry.Goegebeur via email. He is a TMG dealer in Europe and I think he still has some licenses available for TMG v9: Harry.Goegebeur@genea.be

Chuck, You should send an email message to support@whollygenes.com and ask them to send you your license information. While program support has ended, I've been told that license information requests will be answered.

David, I use TMG v9.05 and it has been very stable. In addition to TMG v7's lack of word processor output under 64-bit Windows, TMG v9.05 has other fixes and features that make it the preferred version. In particular, the change to certain role variables in TMG v9 makes it easer to construct sentences. My free TMG Utility program (TMGU) does not support TMG v7, and while someone may be able to dig up an installer for an old version of TMGU, I do not provide support for it. If you plan to keep using TMG long-term, get TMG v9 while you have the chance.

Rowan, You can try sending a request for your license information to support@whollygenes.com. You can determine which version you have by inspecting the hard drive from the PC that crashed. Look in the Program Files folder for an entry with "The Master Genealogist" in the name. (The folder name typically includes the major version number, v7, v8, or v9). Inside that folder you will find tmg7.exe, tmg8.exe, or tmg9.exe, depending on which version you have. If you right click and select properties, then click on "Details", you'll see the full version number. Examples are "8.8.0 and "9.5.0".

Cheryl, Wholly Genes Software is no longer operating. The support number may or may not be answered, but I suspect it will not. Send an email message to support@whollygenes.com and request your license information. You may get an answer that way. if you do get the answer, make sure you save the information in a safe place somewhere.

Marvin, You asked, "what path is best to use so they are relative to the project instead of hard paths?" TMG uses absolute file paths for exhibit files. There is no option to use relative paths.

Phil, You should consider using "Change Name Parts" to eat your elephant. You can use relatively simple rules, something like "If Surname equals 'whatever' Change Surname Set To 'somethng else'". There will be a couple benefits: - For every case where there is more than one instance to change, you'll do far less work because you will avoid all the navigation steps required in TMG to - You'll have a set of log files that will record what you have changed.

Rae Jean, I have a WinXP virtual machine and I decided to try installing TMG 9 on it. When I started it, I discovered I already had TMG 9.01 installed there. I upgraded to TMG 9.05 via the "Check for update" feature, something I don't do for my production version of TMG. I figured I'd use the method that most users probably employ. It worked fine. One difference: my copy of XP is SP3, while you said you have SP1. SP1 is 12 years old (released in 2002 if I recall correctly), and there were a lot of changes in one of the XP service packs, SP3 I think. Without an error message or some description of what isn't working, it's very difficult to help you, but at least we know from my report and Terry's report that TMG 9 will run on XP. I think XP SP1 is an open question, but you should be able to upgrade to SP3 if that turns out to be the issue.