Vicus Scurra

Thank you both. I had forgotten about TMG Utility - not used it for years. I used it, it did exactly what I wanted - should have thought of/remembered it. We can close this now.

I am based in the UK. I am importing data from gedcoms into TMG databases. Some of these gedcoms contain data that is mainly US based. I want in those cases to set the default place style to US Standard Place. I cannot see how to do this. There are no options to set styles on an empty database nor can I see any import options. Import chooses UK Standard Place as the default. So I get all the data imported then have to change all those place records manually. What am I missing?

Thank you Terry - That seems to be in line with my investigations and experience. Damn!

That is very kind. Email sent. Thank you

Thanks Jim, but I tried that and couldn't get it to work. It will not allow me to set a place style in an empty database/data set.

Trying to merge 2 projects - one recently converted from V7, one created by gedcom import On clicking OK to merge I get the message: The structure of the project is invalid. Please contact technical support. (I have emailed support, but thought I might get a faster response here) I have run the file integrity check on both projects with no errors.

Can anyone tell me the difference between son-bio and son-natural please? I am about to merge two files. One says Son-bio, one Son-natural. The newer one (natural) has been created from a gedcom, but, initially, on an earlier version of TMG, so had the original. Will this make any difference to the merged file?

When I merged the two projects that I referred to, the "bio" tag replaced all the "natural" ones. Thank you Michael for the information

Thank you, Jim. Very kind of you to reply so quickly.

Has anyone ever seen "the structure of the project is invalid. Please contact technical support" Contacting technical support does not get any help. I have an existing project with nearly 30,000 names. I try to merge a small file (the latest example having around 600 names). The error message appears. The new project has been created by importing a gedcom file. I have made some changes to places but that is about all. I have been getting this problem since upgrading to version 8

Repeated the message with another attempted merge - same target database, new source database

I ran into the same issue trying to merge two small (200+ and 1100+ people) projects. I had the larger project open and was trying to merge "B" (the smaller) into "A" and got the error message. On a whim, I closed the project and opened the other and tried merging what was then "A" into "B" and it seemed to go fine. I can't explain it but you may wish to give it a try. Thanks will try that. Didn't merge the focus group properly!

I ran into the same issue trying to merge two small (200+ and 1100+ people) projects. I had the larger project open and was trying to merge "B" (the smaller) into "A" and got the error message. On a whim, I closed the project and opened the other and tried merging what was then "A" into "B" and it seemed to go fine. I can't explain it but you may wish to give it a try. Thanks will try that.

When importing a gedcom file, a Name-Marr record is created for women who are recorded as being married. I would like to be able to add the date to this tag from the marriage date where it is present. Is this something that I can automate?

When I create a new project and import data (typically a gedcom) the Preferences defaults to Display Surname in Caps. In my live projects I always turn off this option, and notice that help recommends this also. Is there a way I can force the Caps off option on imports?

Thanks Terry, that is what I feared.

If you want to use John's Utility to add married name tags with dates, you can first use it to remove all the existing ones to avoid the duplicates. But, why do you want dates on them? I much prefer to have them stacked at the top (or bottom) of the tag box, out of the way of actual events. Michael, Terry - thank you for those suggestions, I will try them, looks good. Good question, Terry, I dunno! It looks neater to me, I guess. Maybe I won't bother any more.

The export option gives you the option to export everyone in a focus group. Is this what you meant?

Thanks Michael, but the import already creates the tags, it just does not apply a date to them. The utility would, I believe, merely replicate the tags, leaving me to manually delete the undated ones.

I have noticed the following worrying behaviour (the software, not me, my behaviour always gives cause for concern). 1) I am merging two people. Say Id numbers 349 and 750. 349 is in the current focus group. 750 is not. 2) I chose 349 as the person to be merged into - i.e. 349 will remain as the id after the merge. 3) If, when choosing the fields to merge I select the name variation and date of birth from 750, then, after the merge, 349 will disappear from my current focus group. 4) If, however, I choose the name variation and date of birth from 349, then 349 remains in the focus group after the merge, but the number of people in the focus group is decremented, causing me to believe that a (random?) member has been removed from the group.

No, not as far as I can see - that does not fit in with my understanding of what is happening. In the above example, 349 will remain in the group, but the number decrements. As it is a large group I have no way of telling whether: a) a name has been deleted which name it is. Thanks for the reply - it makes sense and explains that part.

I am using v7.03 UK Silver edition. I have two place styles - UK Standard Place and US Standard Place. UK is my default under data set manager. However, when I try to add a new person, the field names for the place (after date) appear Title;Prefix;Given Name; Presurname; surname; suffix; othername; sortsurname;sort given; temple. I can't see where to change this. When I add a new person, a new place style is created using those field names. I delete it, but it keeps coming back. I have tried all the validation and optimisation options. This has been happening since I reinstalled the software some weeks ago (I was having another problem that I could not resolve - sorry can't remember the details).

Thank you, Virginia, took me a while to find that, but it worked. I love you endlessly.

I am running TMG 7.02 (silver) on XP. I used the application on 2nd September with no problems. On 19th September I tried to open it again. When opening the database, windows installer was invoked, trying to do something with MS Publisher. Following correspondence with the support centre, I decided to uninstall Publisher, as I don't use it. TMG still failed, trying to access XP Office Professional. I am awaiting a response from TMG support, but am guessing that this is not a TMG problem. My guess is that TMG is trying to open a file that has become associated with another software application, but this is only a guess. Does anyone have any suggestions - my TMG is unusable in its current state.

Thanks, that worked - I very much appreciate your help. It would have been my default response, but I was waiting for a reply from the help desk.