Helmut Leininger

Marcie, There are several freely available databases (besides Oracle) that support Unicode, ODBC and JDBC interfaces, known names like mySQL, PostgrSQL and others. Some of them may also be embedded into the program.

Hi, speaking about languages, I think it is quite usable as it is now. I am from Austria and use German, and it works. I could define different styles for places as in Germany and Austria the administrative structures are different: English county = Germany Kreis = Austria Bezirkhauptmannschaft. 200 years ago, it differed from that, too (it was "Herrschaft" then). I have ancestors in Austria, Germany, Bohemia (Czech), Latvia (Latvian, Russian) and I could assign a different place style to each event if I wanted to. At present, the biggest problem for me is that TMG does not support Unicode (or UTF-8/16) due to the restricted possibilities of the underlying database. The Czech language has a lot of national characters that are beyond the 8-bit = 256 character set. And these characters have a meaning in pronounciation etc., so you cannot leave them off. Windows supports Unicode, every modern word processor supports it, some other genealogy programs do - When will the support be introduced to TMG?

Hi, That's quite easy. When you create your exhibit, you select "Other ..." (I think it is the 5th selection from the popup menu) and you may select whatever file you want with any file type. You may also add it as a "text" document, overriding the default *.doc etc. In this case, you will get a warning that says it will not be printed. You may ignore it. When you want to show it, just open your exhibit (or source ....) and double-click on the PDf file.

Martin, Synchronising files across several computers is much different from multi-user access. In multi-user access, more than one user can access a SINGLE COPY of the DATABASE (wherever it might be stored) AT THE SAME TIME (concurrently). Whereas with filesynchronisation, ONLY ONE USER at a time may work with the database, else "the last one is the winner" or the database may even become destroyed or inconsistent. Regards Helmut

Hi, In TMG v7, if there is a child that died the same day it was born, the sorting order in the Person window shows birth before death (which is ok). If you change the event type from Birth to Birth/stillborn (I don't kno if this is the label in English, in German it is Geburt/Totgeb), the death is shown before the birth. You may "correct" this by giving a sort date, but this is inconvenient and births should be sorted before death with the same date anyway - at least in my opinion.

If you take it literally, the answer would be yes. The day of death could even be a day before, right? You die before you are born? (Although this is true in a medical view, it somewhat contradicts common sense.) But I doubt that the priests did see it the same way. The child could die during birth which happened relatively often, though. Also in these cases, the birth often has been registered as "stillborn". Sorry, this is off-topic and probably should not be further exploited here.

Hello Terry and Michael, I second that. Many thanks for your answers.

Hi, I have a question to experienced genealogists (i.e. you): A branch of may wife's ancestors is from Latvia where the Julian calendar was used (until the beginning of the 20th century I think). Which is the best way to record the dates? Recording Julian dates: matches the documents, but weekdays are different Recording Gregorian dates: fits with the usual timelines, but does not match documents I feel that in either way there are difficulties with the feasts / holidays, e.g. "3rd Sunday after Trinitatis".

Hi Michael, Many thanks for your explanations. I will do as you suggested. At least for some events I will probably use the memo field to state the "real" date, maybe together with a split memo field and modified sentence. Thanks again.

Hi, For me, the look is not the problem. The problem is FoxPro which does not allow Unicode which is necessary for a lot of national characters (Czech, Scandinavian, Icelandic, ...). [This reply is off-topic and the Unicode issue has been discussed exhaustively in other appropriate topics. Please don't post off-topic responses. jeb]

God moves in mysterious ways.

Hi Dirk, I do not think it is malware. Awakening the second computer when you start TMG on the first one means (at least in my opinion, three decades years computer experience) that TMG is accessing / searching something on the second computer - everything else would be rather improbable though not impossible. Paths: default project path in the general options some path in the settings of the project (configuration, exhibits, timelines, ...) project path Do you load the last project automatically, bypassing the welcome window (settings program start)? If yes, you could try to use the welcome window and see when the problem happens - at the program start before the welcome window or when opening a project. Printers? I do not know if this could cause a problem during start if some printers used by TMG are defined on the second computer (e.g. PDF-printer) I think it will be most important to find out *when* during the process the problem occurs. If you have "automated" some steps, try to launch them manually. Regards Helmut

Hi Dirk, I hope you have solved the problem by now. I experienced the same problem (very slow startup, then normal) during the last few days on one of my PCs. I found out that the reason was the "default Project Path" in the settings referring to a Path in the network (i.e. on another computer) and the network had changed. Maybe you have a similar problem. Check all your Path settings in TMG (e.g. there is no need to have the default project path on the network, you may create and/or open a project at any time whereever it is located). Regards

Hi, When I output an Ahnentafel Diagram, it does not draw a line between the mother's box and the illegitimate child's box (no father there). Is this a bug or did I overlook a parameter to set? Regards

Hi, I am using German name styles, which generally works ok. But Whan I add an additional name (e.g. a varinat by ctrl-V or a marriage name), this name is in US name style. How can I correct this behaviour ?

Thanks Jim. This did the trick (I don't know how it got changed back to US style)

Shaun, You might check the Trashbin if you deleted them recently. There are also some utilities (look for undelete or similar in the Internet) that can check your hard disk and could find something if it has not been physically overwritten. Otherwise, I think you are out of luck. Regards Helmut

Kristina, I only run it from time to time when I have done a lot of changes. I have seen that "moving" (many) exhibits from one folder to another consumes a lot of space. Just guessing: Any "move" or "change" may involve the deletion and new creation of the information where the deleted space is not reused. Anyway, after optimizing you get an information how much space has been freed. This might help you to define your own intervals. Regards Helmut

Hi Terry, I know this is not the correct way to contact you about your website, but (at least) since a few days, I have problems accessing your website. I.e. it shows empty. Here is what I get for http://tmg.reigelridge.com: <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/strict.dtd"><html><HEAD> <META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html;CHARSET=iso-8859-1"> <TITLE>Terry's TMG Tips</TITLE> <LINK REL="SHORTCUT ICON" HREF="tipsicon.ico"> <link rel="stylesheet" href="BaseStyles2.css" type="text/css"> <script type="text/javascript" src="scripts.js"></script> <meta name="robots" content="noimageindex"> <style type="text/css">.menu_item { position: relative; left: 10px; padding-bottom: 10px; top: -10px;} .body { float: none; left: 200px; position: absolute; top: 10em;}.left_menu { float: left; width: 150px; top: 10em; position: absolute; left: 10px;}.style1 {font-size: 48px} .announcement { background-color: #FFCC99; text-align: center; width: 70%; margin-right: auto; margin-left: auto; border-top-width: 3px; border-right-width: 3px; border-bottom-width: 3px; border-left-width: 3px; border-top-style: outset; border-right-style: outset; border-bottom-style: outset; border-left-style: outset;} .style3 { color: #FFFFFF; font-weight: bold; background-color: #B76600;} </style> </HEAD> <body> </BODY> </html> There is no body in the HTML code. Is there something wrong on my side ? I have the problem on 2 computers and different providers. Regards Helmut

Thank you, Terry

Hi formerprof, I think you may change the title of the endnotes in the Endnotes Report "Options / General" tab. Regards Helmut

Hi, I would like a variable [RO:role] similar to [WO:witnesses]. Motivation: I have some contraxcts like this one: A owes B money (that he cannot pay back). C owes A money (that he cannot ay back). B has lent money C to pay A. So, C owes B money, too. They enter a contract how to settle the debts. Witnesses have been D and E. For these strange situations (Three or more equal partners, no primary person) i would like to derive a tag from "History" and create a role "Partner" and assign it to Ab, B, and C. D and E would be "Witnesses" I would like an output similar to "A, B and C entered a contract for debt settlement. Witnesses have been D and E" A sentence could be: [RO:Partner] entered a caontract< [M]>. <Witnesses have been [WO].> I know there is a variable [R:role], but it does not meet the requirements as "In TMG, the variable [R:Rolename], if used in the Sentence for a person assigned that Role, refers only to that person. When used in the Sentence for any other Role it lists all persons assigned the Role." It outputs only one partner and ignores the others. Regards Helmut

Hi, I would like to create a new element type "Contract" to hold information like: John, Bob and Max entered the contract "contract-description". Witnesses have been Mary, James and Dick. Probably, the element should be derived from "History" as this does not need a principal person. A Role ("Partner") would be needed for John, Bob and Max. Mary, James and Dick could be the "Witnesses". I would like hints on how to construct this, especially the sentences to bring in the all the individuals to get an output as indicated above. Many thanks in advance Helmut

Hallo Vera, Ich würde sicher nicht alle Verträge so abspeichern, insbesondere nicht die, welche du anführst. Das ist mir schon klar. Ich habe aber einige Verträge, die nicht so einfach aussehen. A hat Schulden bei B. B hat Schulden bei C. C hat A Geld zur Deckung der Schulden bei B geborgt, somit hat A auch Schulden bei C. Alle drei sind miteinander verwandt, die Schulden jeweils teilweise abbezahlt, und über den Rest werden verschiedene Abmachungen getroffen. Zeugen bei der Abmachung waren D und E. Hier gibt es keine eindeutige Hauptperson und es sind mehr als zwei. For the English speaking: I would not use this tag for *every* contract, especially not for marriage contracts, last wills, ... But there are more complicated cases where there is no principal person and the contractors are more than two. Grüße Helmut

Thanks, Michael