dahill

Whenever I print a TMG8 report in Word or pdf I see a message in red saying "Converting" followed a second later with 100%; then the message is gone and I see the report. What does "converting" mean?

I have posted a five-page article on using Visual Chartform at the web site of the Ottawa TMG Users Group http://ottawa-tmg-ug.ca/articles.htm This particular article is entitled Visual Chartform (VCF) Notes, by Douglas Hill. The article discusses "controlling which spouses or parents appear on descendant charts", and "recommendations on file formats and printing for VCF" There are 12 other articles at this site, including ten more on TMG. Douglas Hill, User group co-ordinator, Ottawa TMG Users Group

Running TMG 7 with the Sample Project, under the pull-down "Window" menu, the list shows that any of the eight windows may be opened or closed. The eight windows in order are Project Explorer, Details, Flags, Children, Siblings, Associates, Image, and Focus Group. To see the problem more clearly, first make sure the items to the left of the eight window names are checkmarks, not icons. (under Preferences > Program Options > Other . . . uncheck the item called "use icons on the window menu"). The check boxes showing which windows are open or closed work correctly for the first five windows on the list, but not for the last three. Play with them to see. For example, with all windows off, under Windows click on Associates. The Associates window appears but the windows list only has a checkmark beside Focus Group (which is off). Next, Under Windows, click Focus Group, and the Windows list now shows that Images and Focus Group are on, when it is Associates and Focus Group that are on. Etc. This problem is also present when icons are used on the Window menu instead of checkmarks, but it is harder to see.

Of the 28 reports available in TMG (including ten list reports), only the Pedigree report will not go into MS Word format (*.doc). You are only offered the *.pdf format for this report. Is there a work around for this? Can one go to *.pdf and then convert or import that in electronic form? I know I can scan a copy of the report and bring it in, but is there another way that would allow editing in Word? Thanks

Terry, The real mess in English comes from three consecutive census tags, such as " He was found in the 1880 census in Chicago. He was found in the 1890 census in Chicago. He was found in the 1900 census in Chicago." I do not print census tag sentences for any of my people because these outputs look so bad. In the biography tag I would write "He was found living in Chicago in the censuses of 1880, 1890 and 1900". How would you handle census tag sentences?

I created the "Biography" tag, by copying the "Note" tag and giving it the new name. This works fine. The sentence consists of the one [M] field. My journal reports print BMDB in the first paragraph (an option under reports, and then everything else is written in the second para, the Biography field. This is basically the life story, normally in chronological order, but written in better English than one can get from a list of event sentences, no matter how well constructed.

In this topic I could not see the most important item of your toolkit. Whether visiting an archive, cemetery or family, you need to write out and bring your WORK PLAN List the information you are seeking, and the information you already have that is pertinent to your questions. (My relevant information is often contained on my current family group sheets, with their memos and sources.) Perhaps some of you have your work plan on your notebook computer and therefore didn't mention it. Without a plan or sense of direction you might not get the most out of the trip. One option is to use the TMG Research log, which can be filtered and printed as the List of Tasks. This can be filtered by the repository which you expect will hold the information sought.

Can you give an example of a sentence using the new [AA] variable ? Would you see this as being more useful for certain types of tags? which ones? Douglas Hill

Under Web > Place Databases we see links to four place databases. Clicking on Customize shows the actual URLs: I have verified that they are all correct. However, when I click on any one of them, errors are introduced in transfering the information to Mozilla Firefox. Example for placenames in Canada: http://geonames.nrcan.gc.ca/ is the correct URL, seen under Customize. The data transfered to Firefox is http://\\geonames.nrcan.gc.ca"/ . The added characters are \\ and " . Is anyone else having this problem with Firefox or Explorer?

Problem solved! Under Preferences > Program options > Other, I had checked the box for "send URLs to the browser with backslashes". Unchecking this box solved my problem. So now I only want to ask "Why we are given this option?"

Ottawa TMG Users Group Affiliated with the British Isles Family History Society of Greater Ottawa Ottawa, Ontario, Canada Contacts: Douglas Hill dahill3973@rogers.com or David Walker dawalker@magma.ca Meeting info: Monthly meetings from Sep to June, one Sunday a month, 2 to 4 pm, at the Library and Archives Canada, 395 Wellington St., Ottawa. (normally in room 154). Dates and speakers announced on our web site and by group email list. Web site: http://www.ottawa-tmg-ug.ca/ Other info: This is a TMG (The Master Genealogist) self help group. We have 20 members and an average attendance of 12 at our meetings. Meetings include speakers on pre-announced TMG topics, time to ask your questions, and time for chatting, with refreshments. We also circulate notes on TMG issues and sometimes demonstrate TMG at local genealogy conferences each year. There are no member fees.