Bruce Fairhall

Members from the Sydney and ACT User Groups will gather over the the weekend of 27 - 29 April 2012 at Penrith NSW. As well as time for socialising and seeking help for TMG questions, various group members will lead a series of workshops. We welcome new members - beginners or more skilled! Contact us via our TMG-Sydney List: TMGSydney-owner@yahoogroups.com Bookings are essential and a closing date is in place.

WEEKEND WORKSHOP Our User Group will gather at Penrith NSW on Friday evening 9 April for two days of seminars and workshops led by our members. Accommodation is on site at Penrith Valley Inn. Travelling TMG Users are VERY welcome if they book in! Further information on: http://www.unlockthepast.com.au/events/tmg-weekend

A call of frustration from "down under"!! I am running TMG 7.03 on an XP (SP3) system (32 bit). Back in mid-January, after a few weeks of TMG inactivity, I tried to run a Report with output to a .RTF file, but after the usual number of people/generations etc.messages I got an error message: "Conversion error #3: Could not create or open CONV_LOG.TXT on scratch drive." So I did the usual things, rebuilt the data, ran VFI, rebooted etc. but same problem. I tried several Reports and same brick wall. I could not create files for a word processor at all (.RTF, .DOC etc.) I filled out a support request and several suggestions were followed to check permissions, user log ins, run in Safe Mode etc. but still no success. So I uninstalled TMG fully, including deleting all remnant folders. Rebooted and reinstalled it. Now the error is different! It is: "Cannot find d:\Program Files\The Master Genealogist 7\Wordproc\wpt.sp1 (or one of its components). Check to ensure the path and filenames are correct and that all required libraries are available." At TMG Support's suggestion, I installed Dependency Walker to log Windows processes while TMG ran, but there was apparently nothing in that log to help them. In the case of both TMG Error messages, the program locks completely at that point. Pressing on OK does nothing. The only way out is to stop the process via Task Manager, and then TMG continues by writing and opening a blank file. So it would appear that it is the step between generating the output and actually writing it to the file that is the problem. I can write to .PDF and to Screen, so the data is being generated. On the TMG Forum there is a similar occurrence recorded by Jim Orrell (13 Nov 2008): "Sometime ago I had a problem printing word processor reports in Windows XP. I eventually traced the problem to letting Advanced Windowscare System Optimization set: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\FileSystem\NtfsDisable8dot3NameCreation current value as 1 This effectively stopped TMG running word processor reports as they used a 16 program. OK that problem fixed." >>> I'm not sure about this, as he said it "stopped TMG running word processor reports" but fixed the problem. Thoughts, please? There was another Forum thread with EXACTLY my problem from Irene Schnarps (Print to File output does not work properly) in February, and after a few weeks she apparently gave up and decided to move to a different genealogy program. That's a bit how I'm feeling at present. I'm putting this question here in the hope that someone else may have had the problem and solved it. The combined efforts of Phil DeSilva, Dorothy Turner and TMG Programmers have just come up against a brick wall. I'm getting just a little desperate at the lack of functionality in my program, and the fact that everything else on my computer that I have tried over this two month period is working as expected, so the problem seems unique to TMG. Bruce Fairhall

FOR FORUM MEMBERS' INFORMATION: This problem has now (finally) been solved. It was caused probably by some "Optimiser" changing a Registry setting. With Jim Byram's help over the last couple of days (our time difference slows communication down a bit!) it has now been undone, though there is a flow-on to other programs that were modified/installed in the time since the Registry was changed. There is a notice in the latest TMG/Whollygenes Newsletter for any other sufferers to contact Phil DeSilva at Whollygenes, so your report generation error can be fixed. My sincere appreciation to all who helped attack this problem. Bruce Fairhall

Thanks Virginia (and Jim) I had been down the TEMP path with Phil DeSilva, and had to check out my Path settings etc. but they were judged to be normal - or at least not causing the problem. My Program IS held on the D: drive (partition) but Phil and the team thought my setup was OK so I didn't want to fiddle more. I had hoped the reinstallation of TMG might help, but it just changed the error message (is that significant) at the same point in the process. I remain optimistic. Bruce Fairhall

I'm sure in an earlier version of TMG, the Layout "box", where the name of the current Layout, accompanied by a disk icon to save the layout, was part of the default Toolbar. The current Layout Toolbar includes that portion, but has added other options. As such, the Layout Toolbar now has items not always required. And, there is no way to add the actual "filename box and disk" to a Custom Toolbar on its own. Surely this is an error, as every other possible icon and option (?) can be added to Custom Toolbars!! Can we please have this "filename box and disk" for Layouts, on its own, added to the items available for insertion into Custom Toolbars? Bruce Fairhall

Good catch. The button that you want to add is 'Generate a book of a specific name' and the list box is available to select the Book Manager configuration that you want. I'll report the non-functional option and the fact that there are two button choices when there should be one. That's correct. Right-click on the background of any toolbar and select 'Customize'. That will open the Custom Toolbar Manager and you can select a custom toolbar from the list box. Hi Moderators I think Brad is asking for the same thing I requested in my post: that the dropdown layout save/load box be available as a separate item in the CUSTOMISE TOOLBARS option. At present, only the full Layouts Toolbar can be loaded. Those of us without huge screen don't want the extra icons all the time! It appears that almost every other TMG icon can be individually added to a Custom Toolbar, but not this one. I'm sure it was in V5 or v6?? Bruce

G'day Brad My posting on Layouts asks the same thing: for the dropdown box to be available, on its own, from the customise Toolbars option. Bruce

G'day Virginia Yes, I have used the Toolbar for Layouts, but it has what, to me, are extraneous bits: all the icons for the various parts I can add to my layout: Flags, Children, Siblings etc. What I want is just the Save/Load "box" from that toolbar as a separate item. If you go to VIEW -> TOOLBARS -> CUSTOMISE you see a whole list of items you can add to your own Custom Toolbars, one by one. What I want in that list is the Save/Load "box" from the Layouts Toolbar, on its own. I think every other toolbar icon is available to add, on its own, to my custom toolbar, but not that one. I would like to be able to use it on my screen. If I want the other options (the full Layout Toolbar) then I will load that Toolbar intact. Yes, I can add buttons for specific layouts, but as I have quite a few, I'd rather just have the "drop down" to do a quick change, without having all the screen space taken up by the full Layouts Toolbar. Hope this answers your questions. Bruce

Teresa In TMG, if you go to VIEW -> TOOLBARS you will see a list of Toolbars you can add to your screen. Most can be moved and "parked" at the sides or top pr bottom of your screen. If you click LAYOUTS from that list you will see a "window" (box) with the place to load/save your screen layout, and some icons that will give you the windows for Flags, Children Siblings and more. What I would like is to just have the Save/Load Layouts "box" from that Toolbar available as a single icon I can place on my screen, without all the other options in it, to save space. Hope you can now find what I'm exploring. Bruce

I wrote some time ago about this matter, and would like to raise it again, with emphasis! I have a one-name project of 23,000 people. I am glad that the option for TMG to add the Married Name is available after a Marriage entry, but even though that person has "registered" a change of name it is not reflected in later tags. There is also the problem of those who change their name by legal methods such a Deed Poll (not as many of those!). Could we PLEASE have a Preference setting "Use most recent name change" so that once a name change has been set up in Tags, that name is used in later (chronologically) tags in narratives etc. If the person has a legal name change (by marriage or other means) then THAT NAME is the one they are using, and it should be reflected in narratives. I can't (or rather, won't) go back through around 10,000 entries (that's just all the females) to manually change every tag for every person to reflect name changes in my data. If TMG sets it as a Preference then the purists (birth name must always be used) can still operate "as now", but those who, like me, want to use the latest legal name for a person can have it operate automatically. I'll look forward to your announcement!

Yes, Yes, Yes! I have browsed many of the relies and wholeheartedly agree that WISHLIST should be a unique Forum. It would then be great if the TMG team could acknowledge comments, with "Impossible at present", Great idea - will implement in next minor (or major) upgrade" Etc.