nbradley

It may not help but it is worth while running "Validate File Integrity" from the File, Maintenance Menu. It wont do any harm.

Phil I got 11,500 with no parents running your # parents = 0. I have just skimmed a couple of hundred and none of them have any parents. It might pay to run the Optimise under Maintenance (just a wild guess).

Ben, These type of filters are much easier to work with if you add a sort date to every tag that you are likely to filter on and then use sort dates in your filter.

While I'm on a roll, the other "feature" of VCF charts which I have been a bit slow in picking up is the use of the "Unknown Person" box. I have discovered (with some help from Robin L) that when one parent is missing in the database VCF creates a box and labels it "Unknown Person". Both the group that I was training yesterday and myself found that approach to be "unexpected"! Again I'm sure that Robin L has also raised this issue in the past but could I put in a plea to have the powers that be consider making these boxes at least optional if not kill them off altogether! I know that you can delete these offending boxes manually in VCF but I thought it more than a little disappointing that I had to advise a group of new users to manually intervene in the charts as a matter of course.

I'm sure that Robin L has raised this issue in the past but as it has only just impacted me I want to put further weight behind the arguement to have VCF Upgraded (that is my polite syntax for FIXED) to allow the use of abbreviated state names in Charts. If ever there was a good place to use abbreviated state names it is within Ancestor and Descendant charts where every millimetre of space saved is precious when you are trying to maximise the amount of useful data you can fit on a page. I know that I was a bit slow in running into this issue but I am somewhat perplexed as to how it remains an unresolved issue when it is plainly critical to optimising Chart output. The background to this "whinge" is that I spent 5 hours yesterday training a group of people whose specific focus is to output charts to help Indigenous families understand their heratige. I have had to advise them to store all State names in an abbreviated form (Western Australia takes up a lot of space, particularly when it is repeated for Births, Deaths & Marriages) which I was a bit embarrassed about.

I've run into an issue running TMG V7 on my new Compac 6910p (branded HP) Laptop using XP (latest service pack). When I open the Expanded Picklist I'm not able to see the "buttons" (OK, Cancel, Help etc) which should show up on the bottom of the scree. It looks like what I can see on my laptop is about 75% of the full view except that I can't get at the other 25%. Can anyone set me straight on what I may have done wrong to get into this state?

Thanks Terry Yes I had restored from my desktop - now working!

Virginia Thanks. Under XP the TMG 7 installation also creates a frames folder at c:/program files/The Master Genealogist v7/Frames which is what tricked me.

Robin, I used your custom frames in Version 6 (thanks!). Now I have tried to use them in Version 7 but I can't get them to appear with all of the Standard Frames. Is it working for you with Version 7?

Don't panic. From memory the "Validate File Integrity" function was added sometime in the life of Version 6 and it always reported a large number of "potential problems" the first time that it ran. For piece of mind you might want to rerun VFI until it reports no issues.

From memory when I upgraded I couldn't see my custom layouts until after I had exited and reopened TMG

Mike, I very much doubt that your issue is related to your install, although I always run Optimize and Validate File Integrity whenever I have an "odd occurance" just in case. (worth a try). I've just run a Pedigree Chart and as you've obviously checked there are no options to limit the output in the way you describe. Somewhat puzzling! Does the problem persist with other individuals?

1. Make sure that the Husband/Son is showing in the Detail Window 2. Double Click on the "Mother" label near the top left hand corner of the the Detail window 3. Record the Mother's number then Delete the "Mother's" ID number from the Parent cell/field so that it is blank and hit OK You have now removed the Mother / Son-Bio relationship. Now you want to link the "Mother" as a Wife. 4. Hit CTRL M to "Add a Marriage Tag" (there are other ways to do it from the menu - this is the short cut) 5. Change the lower Principal Field/Cell from 0 to the ID Number of the wife (which you recorded in step 3), add in date, place etc if you wish and then hit OK All should now be well.

DVS To solve the issue of women with multiple marriages you could try filtering your picklist similar to your list of names report but also restrict to females with more than 1 marriage. Then copy the result to your Focus Group. From within the Focus group you can add spouses for the females. You could then run a List of People for everyone in the Focus Group or you may wish to manually remove the first husbands. Won't give you exactly the result you want but it will enable you to get there.

Melvin I have had an issue updating flags but only after a pretty heavy session. I normally run Optimize and then "Validate File Integrity" (for good measure) which solves my issues. Don't know if your issue is related but it may be worth trying.

I was very pleased when Version 7.0 rolled out and I discovered that the Last Edit Date was no longer updated when a Flag value was changed. Now I discover that it was a "bug" and Version 7.01 has "fixed" it ........... very very sad.

Jim, I know that it wasn't a design change. The problem for me is that I would like to use the Last Edit Date to filter for genuine changes. As I use a lot of custom flags and I update them manually as I check filtered groups off against published databases so I end up with the Last Edit Date being a useless field. Updating of the Last Edit Date can be controlled if you use the secondary output from the "List of " Reports hence it does not make a lot of sense to me that I can't control the manner in which it is updated for manual flag changes.

Strathglass Everything Jim said is true (he is a very good source of info) but if you have good regular back-ups of you non TMG files (e.g. to an external drive or to cdrom etc) then Jim's point about backing up your exhibits when you back up TMG is a little less relevant. Typically your TMG data will change frequently hence you need daily back-ups but your exhibits (after your initial power load) will be much more stable and require slightly less frequent back-ups. I have approx 2 gigabytes of exhibits and I never back them up when I back up TMG (for obvious time reasons). I rely on my nightly acronis back-up to an external drive to look after my exhibits. Given that I have a lot of exhibits, the structured tree approach to storing them is (for me) the only sensible way to go. For Second Site, I use John's TMG utility to copy and re-size (images) all exhibits to a single folder before hitting the build button.

The List of People Report may suit your needs better.

Strathglass Places with no Events - run Optimize under File, Maintenance, the strays should dissappear Similar Place Descriptions - fix the "near duplicates" up to make them identical using Edit under Tools, Master Place List. Then run optimise and your newly created duplicate will dissappear. Places where the names changes - this comes under the heading of "User Preference". It has been discussed a few times on this board. If you do a search you should be able to find the threads. Doubtless it will also have been discussed on the TMG Mailing List. I tend to use the latest geograpghic description and put the historic info in the memo field but there are many many other views on that issue. In the end you need to choose an approach that suits you and how you want to use the data.

Tim, The List of Events will do it. Filter on "Any Citation" and then Source No in the subfield. Also John Cardinal's TMG Utility - look under Reports.

I have had joy in the past filtering using the P1 & P2 capability in the List of Events Report for both sides of a Marriage. Now I'm trying to filter for a Child based on a Flag set for a Parent and I'm failing! Help!

Michael I was trying to set flags for parents married between a range of years and then filter for their children who had missing birth tags or incomplete information. I've pretty much ended up doing as you suggest using the List of People Report which is working reasonably well. I guess I was hoping for too much from the unique capabilities of the List of Events Report. Thanks for your input.

Vicki Unless to have hundreds of problems it is pretty easy to fix everything from within the Master Place List. CTRL Left Arrow or CTRL Right Arrow will help you fix those places that are merely sitting under the wrong heading. Where you have concatenated fields use the Edit button within the MPL. One change in the MPL will fix all instances in your data. The Events button is a much more long winded fix. John's utility is magic if you have lots to fix.

I'm a reformed FTM user. Moving to TMG was an extremely enlightening experience. You suddenly realise how restrictive your old program was and how how much more fun you can have with a serious system. The reason for my post is that a couple of the features that I find most valuable in TMG and which I have not seen in any other program (I have only used a half dozen - not an extensive list) have not been mentioned in the postings to date. For me the ability to combine the Filtering capability of TMG together with Custom Flags and then review the results using a combination of Focus Groups and the Project Explorer moves TMG light years away from the beginner/intermediate level tools like FTM. To be able to tightly limit my data so I can check it against a published CDRom or On-Line Database and then record against each person that they have been checked is for me "heaven".