E Wilcock

As a genealogist rather than an IT expert, I read this thread and decided to upgrade from 8 Gold UK to 9. If I am using software for an important hobby and historical research as well and for which I rely on the help of the support experts it seems only fair to keep up with the latest version. It would be nice not to have to rely on the famiiar experts so much! None of this software and terminology is easy for non-IT people and I personnally would like TMG to be simpler to use, rather than to be offered more complex options on every upgrade. I have barely learned how to add multiple people at once (getting so forgetful in old age) and wish I had known that upgrading from TMG 7 to 8, I would inadvertently wipe my Second Site languages. I shall also update my Second Site software. In this household we do use - and use happily - programmes based on discontinued databases. Software that ran on Windows xp and 32 bit now runs on Windows 7 in 64 bit. It would make no major difference to me to change the basis of TMG, tho I assume from this thread that it might handle Russian and Hebrew?. Far more important is the general shift to cloud based and portable data. Files no longer tie one to an expensive programme but can be opened and read by different software. The development of Linux, and reliable free software could well mean the eventual demise of commercial programmes like TMG, making heavy investment unprofitable. I have switched to free software now for my academic work, as have other retired academics I know. I stayed with TMG because there is as yet no free software that will do exactly what I want and give me my data on my Android phone. I like they way Second Site generates my website or Family history discs. Of the commercial genealogy programmes, as far as I can see, there is a possible contender. However, the cost would be roughly the same, and the labour of moving my data from one programme to another would bring no advantage. The programmes on offer have changed little since I selected TMG in about 2003. And for me the difficulty of learning to use any unfamiliar software is always frustrating and a diversion from getting on with the research.

My downloaded program file of TMG8.02 installed and was registered without problem. Can anyone advise me now how to adapt the layouts to my new screen? My screen is Sony VAIO Display Plus, diagonal size 24 inches Aspect ratio Wide 16:9 (I dont need to use the whole width but I do want to be able to read everything easily) Resolution Full HD (1920 x 1080) It is a touch screen but I am not worried about using that in TMG. For the record this is what I have done so far in case I have caused the dificulty: TMG8 installed with only a standard layout, but thanks to Terry's site I was able to trace the whereabouts of the standard.lo file on the new Windows7 computer (why was it in two places?). I then pasted into that folder the TMG application settings from the old xp applications settings. My customised layout has my own buttons.So it didnt work until I copied in all the files in the folder. Copying just the lay out didnt work. However the layouts both standard and customised are not good on the new screen. The type face is too small and altering the size in options hasnt helped much. I am not sure what to enter and what type sizes to choose. This luxurious new computer was bought partly to edit home videos, but also because modern wide screens (friends let us try their Apple and Lenovo) seem excellent for examining on line images of documents from the UK public record office. Are there any TMG layouts ready made for this sort of screen? I cant find anything on a serch of FAQ. But I am hoping one of the tech experts on this forum can help and advise me how to set up my TMG. Evely Wilcock London

Just a thank you to Jim Byram for the reassurance on Gedstar Pro on Android. We'd repeatedly put off the decision on a smart phone, because nothing matched up to Gedstar Pro on the old Palm. Seeing your post here last week decided us and we went for Android. So I am now using my old favourite Gedstar Pro on a Samsung Galaxy S2. Took two of our trees on a trip. As a new user of smart phones, I found the Menu Index a bit quick under elderly fingers, but once I master the app, I believe there are favourites and short cuts etc to improve navigation. Most amazingly, locations were located on the Google map - though no doubt this small miracle of technology may exhaust my download allowance which also remains a mystery at this stage. A great luxury and we avoided taking a lap top with us. I do appreciate the input on this Forum.

Tree chaser - A few weeks ago, before taking a break, I exported many GEDCOMs using UK version 7.04, experimenting with exports to suit FTM and Family Historian. I exported both my own data sets and the UK and USA Sample files. I did not experience any loss of Tags. Are you sure you are exporting using the default configuration for GEDCOM export? In order to set up a uniform standard on which to build, I went to Screen 3 of the export wizard and deleted all the configurations there. Including, finally, the default. An expert on the list told me that, if one attempted to delete the default configuration, that request had the effect of restoring the original. My next step was to export from the two sample projects, UK and USA. I came across certain issues with tags customised for the UK version. If you too have edited Tags, as Terry said, this customisation may be the cause of your problem. Try exporting from the USA sample and see if it goes OK. Then I tried my own Project - at this stage, my problem arose not from custom Tags, but the use I had made of occupation and education tags, to include long chunks of narrative biography for which they are not intended when used for GEDCOM purposes. I hope this may be helpful. You don't say why you are looking for GEDCOM export? I intend to experiment further with FTM transfer next winter. Best regards Evelyn Wilcock

I have been looking again at the question of GEDCOM export. I chose to use TMG because TMG could handle long memo fields which I had used in my previous Generations software. Terry Riegel recently reminded us how useful they are for combining separate occupation tags and producing biographical narratives. Could someone please help me understand what happens to these long memos when exported via GEDCOM. I have re-read Jim Byram's chapter on Exporting Data in Getting the Most Out of TMG. As explained by Jim, the whole memo should be divided up into CONT sections. But in some of my efforts, I noticed the end of my Memos allocated to a CONC section or sections which conclude the Event record, sometimes coming after the date and place. Please don't dismiss my interest in GEDCOM as a means of enabling software packages to exchange their data. I want to work out the best GEDCOM settings for export to FTM which many of our UK relatives use. After experiment, I have found that the default GEDCOM which has a short (80) line length allows me to export everything to FTM UK 2009, though the Memos don't get placed into the Notes field. One leading UK family history program "Family Historian" works directly from a GEDCOM file. But I still have no success with that. It seems to import only the first chunk of memo (so the longer the better) - the rest is lost. If anyone else has managed this, please do post.

This thread has explained the discrepancy between the GEDCOM spec of TMG and that of the UK software, Family Historian which works directly from a GEDCOM file. The transfer from TMG to FH was a problem for users like myself who had long narratives in Tags e.g for Education and Occupation. It seems useful for the record to post here that the problem has now been resolved. An expert user of Family Historian who shares my interest in the transfer of data between different programs has kindly written a free program that converts TMG Gedcom Tag Memos into the form required by Family Historian. http://www.fhug.org.uk/cgi-bin/index.cgi?a...edCom&id=16 Evelyn

Thank you Jim, That is very clear and very helpful. Evelyn

quote name='Michael Hannah' date='17 May 2009, 10:26 PM' post='44798' Michael, Thank you. I d like to go through this with you. I intend to look at these questions methodically and in detail next winter. Yes, I read my GEDCOM files using notepad.exec In the light of information given me on the Roots web Family Historian list Family Historian seems to have an issues with the TMG GEDCOM export of Event and Attribute Memos. For some Tags e.g. Birth, the memo is exported as a Note. TMG Memos exported as Notes which exceed the line length are continued in lines headed CONC. This is said to be correct export. But there is another group of Tags (such as Occupation) where the memo itself constitutes the material of the Tag. It would be helpful to have a list of the tags. Their memos are exported by TMG without the Memo being allocated to a subordinate note. Where the Memos are too long, they are again exported with the CONC or CONT continuation. Family Historian regards this as invalid GEDCOM. The question overlaps with another: the GEDCOM permitted maximum character length of memos in these tags. I dont know if there is an agreed length but my use may regularly exceed this. It is possible that Family Historian allows a work round by permitting Event Memos with a GEDCOM line longer than the official maximum, possibly 500 characters. However, TMG GEDCOM export limits the export of a line to the standard maximum of 246. So even if a receiving programme allows for import of longer lines, one cannot take advantage of it. In my own case there are two other factors to bear in mind. I use the UK edition of TMG. It has become clear that whenever Tags are concerned, the behaviour of the default UK edition of TMG may differ from that of the American. This is because the UK edition of TMG uses some "custom" Tags. The type and export default of these custom Tags may in some cases differ from the export of the USA version, producing different results. GEDCOM transfer is also affected by my particular use of TMG. I follow Terry's model of creating narratives using the memo fields of such Tags as Occupation and Education. I did not realise that my use of them would create problems which other TMG users might not encounter. I will now try to post this Michael. Evelyn

Jim wrote I don't see any particular issues with the import of notes into FTM 2009. Event notes typically go to the event note field. Occupation notes go to the description field. Does this mean that the Occupation Tag Note behaves differently from other Event Notes? Is there a different GEDCOM convention for exporting Occupation and a corresponding limit on the permitted length of its Note? I am still looking at the reasons I cant get my TMG text fields to transfer via GEDCOMs into other software, particularly Family Historian. The GEDCOMs exported from the TMG Sample files for both UK and USA present the same difficulty. Evelyn

Thank you Jim. It was kind of you to take the time. I agree. I am pretty happy with transfer to FTM 2009 - I tend to put a lot of biography into Occupation. May be I need to think again. However in experimenting I have manged to produce a faulty GEDCOM. Sorry. I wanted the GEDCOM to export people who were not living. If I need to demonstrate GEDCOM problems, I want to exclude living people. I went to the project explorer and filtered it for people not living. I wasn't clear how to select these people (which would have given me the option to export) and couldn't find out how in Help. So I put them into a new focus group marked not living and used that method. But when Exported as a GEDCOM, the receiving software notified me that it was a corrupt file with a person duplicated in it many times. I can see from reading the "not living" GEDCOM that the duplicated person is myself, right at the end of the file and my brother in law also still living is also their twice. Yet if I look at the Focus group Not Living on screen of course neither of us is there because we are both alive. It is hard for me to insist that TMG produces perfectly conventional GEDCOMs, if unknown to myself I am outputting imperfect GEDCOMs? I don't know if this is my mis use, whether my Project is faulty or whether it is a bug. Evelyn

I think FTM 2009 is different. If I leave the line length to 80 which is the default, FTM 2009 seems to taKE IN

Jim Byram rightly told me one had no need to mess with the default output of GEDCOM memos. One of my greatest problems as a new user of TMG was that I had no idea how to restore defaults - and it isn't indexed in either of the instruction books. I didn't learn how to do it for years. A few weeks ago Virginia posted how to delete all versions of a Report - that to restore the default one must attempt to Delete the version that was originally the default. I transfered this advice to other areas of TMG and, thanks to this, I am at last finding my feet in the program. The idea that a new user needs to ask to delete the original default in order to be refused and given the option to restore the original is counter intuitive. After all, deleting the original is what most of us want to avoid. It is particularly important for those of us using the UK edition where some things we use as standard are not in fact default and can be deleted. I would beg for very clearer instructions on restoring defaults in TMG and in future editions a more direct method - like a restore default button. I'll add thanks too to both Virginia and Jim - your clear explanation of a particular small procedure, may have a wider benefit of which you never know. Your tuition over the last few months has made a great difference to me. Evelyn

Jim wrote: When you create a custom tag type in any language other than English (US), you always need to edit the English (US) view to make sure that the label is consistent between all data sets where the custom tag type is used. This may be so but it is not made clear on screen. There is no notification that a tool bar button is always linked to the USA name of a tag. There should definitely be warnings. Unlike users who create or use their own languages as an alternative within the USA edition, those of us who use the UK version work without reference to USA English and do not "see" a USA language screen. I began to experience this problem on 11 December 2008 when I made my first tool bar. In March another UK user reported a problem and I decided to contact tech help. Another month passed before I responded to this thread. I am immensely grateful to Jim and to Virginia too for helping me get to the root of this problem where TMG tech people failed. It is correct that this problem will not occur unless one uses the same layout and tool bar across several Projects in the UK edition. I use one layout and one toolbar for all my Projects and had problems from the start. It will also not occur (I think) unless the user of several projects creates a new tag by copying a pre-existing one. This might not be the recommended procedure, but, as others have shown, it is sometimes instinctive e.g. for a UK user to create a 1911 census Tag by copying and renaming the Wholly Genes UK tag for the Census of 1901. And I am not the only one to create a new custom Research Notes tag by copying the Notes Tag. It should be noted that dated Census Tags do not exist in the USA edition so a UK user is unlikely to imagine the existence of a USA language version which needs to be corrected. I feel it really important that the Tech people at Wholly Genes should take this problem on board, and provide specific warnings of any function in the UK edition which remains dependent on the US language version. It seems that in spite of scattered complaints, they had not really been aware that tool bars were proving a frustration to several UK users nor investigated in the depth that Virginia and Jim were willing to do for me. I am truly grateful to Jim who has brought 4 months of misery to an end. Evelyn

I've posted before how hard it is with computer software to reproduce my father's drop line, top to bottom descendants charts. I imagined them having married couples alongside each other as in the TMG UK version chart. But when Lee prompted me to look out an example, I saw that apart from the top couple, my father usually placed the spouse below their partner. This is the default in the UK program Tree Draw for Windows which must be why I remembered that program so fondly. I am sure that vcf can be persuaded to do the same. Virginia demonstrated how to move all spouses alongside and level with their partners on a left to right tree. Can we discuss and devise a similar process to reposition the spouses one above the other in a vcf top to bottom chart? I think the first step (in the Report Options menu) is to double or treble the distance between the generations. But would one start with the USA or the UK model? I'd love your suggestions Virginia. And any other enthusiasts.

That is so good, Virginia. Thank you. So many excellent ideas. Adding the marriage as the third line of data is wonderful. Why didn't I think of that? Your birth and death layout looks very nice. My hand drawn charts save a line and have birth and date year on the same line under the name: b.1840 d.1862 . I cant see a way one can output life span without the hyphen and brackets? I don't think one can. I think it is easier to start with the USA layout and create extra space between generations. I've been moving spouse boxes underneath, as you suggested. I didn't fully understand Robin's post about the dummy boxes. I think I see why you used one. Not just for the ports , but to group the newly arranged family? When I did my blended chart, I found it hard to line up my married couples because vcf groups and aligns by generation. A dummy box enables you to select a generation plus their spouses and handle them together without putting them all on the same line. I see too that one can use a dummy box for each married couple too, so that the married couple become one unit. May be this is what Robin did? When you drew this little tree, Virginia, did you delete all connecting lines and then draw new ones? I have not entirely mastered this. But I guess I need to ask on the other thread. Thank you very much for the time you spent on this and the guidance. Evelyn

Not really Virginia. It is a descendants box chart, top to bottom, but instead of spouses being to one side, they are stacked beneath their partner, more like I showed in my "blended " chart example. I think my father's aim was to reduce the width of the chart. Evelyn

Thank you so much Virginia for another lesson in using vcf. This is much appreciated. I am late in thanking you because, in spite of repeatedly uninstalling and reinstalling flashplayer as per the instructions, I was unable to view the latest video until today. It wasnt till I found the other videos not working either that I decided to by-pass aol and view direct with Internet explorer. Until I watched your video I had not understood that one could create ports and linking lines. I cant say that I had total success in redrawing my tree with straighter lines. (corrected image is not yet there). But I adopted a novice method using the line drawing tool. I worked from the bottom upwards. I deleted all the crooked horizontal lines. Then using the line tool, I drew short perpendiculars up from the ports on the childrens boxes, using the shift key to keep them straight on the grid. Then I drew one straight line across. Again I used shift to keep it straight and it linked the tops of all my perpendicular lines. If one or two were too long and appeared above the line, I moved the end of the line (port) just a little lower. Your tutorials are a great gift to us all. I am beginning to enjoy this. Thank you so much. Evelyn

Jim, You have solved it. When one creates a Tag in the UK verson one is offered the UK screen as default for editing the tag. One doesnt ever see the USA screen. TMG almost hung fire when I asked it to reveal it. And you are right, that is where the ghost Tag name lurks. I have edited the USA screen in the three custom tags on my "master" Project, reset the tool bar buttons and the toolbar file now reads correct. So any UK customer creating a tag must create this debris. That's why Ray had it too. I dont have time tonight to go through all my projects setting them to rights, but the logic of it suggests you have got to the root of the problem and I am deeply grateful. Evelyn edited to add, I have now been through most projects. I confirm it seems to have fixed the problem. I didnt have a single custom tag in any Project correctly entered in the US language - TMG UK tells you it defaults the new Tag to the Project default anyway, so it never impacted on my work until it came to the tool bar. I cant tell you how happy I am to be rid of this trouble.

Just a couple of further observations. I am coming to believe that this problem affects only custom tags created by the customer. I was working intensely on a Project where I possibly created all UK census tags myself. By reconnecting my tool bar links repeatedly in that project, I may have had a knock on affect, invalidating the links to all the UK census tags in other Projects which had the same name. I do not think it is possible to create a new TMG tag without TMG selecting an existing tag as the model. It seems therefore impossible to avoid the problem of a ghost name attaching itself to the custom tag? And entering the .tbr file each time a link is established.

Jim, I will do as you ask, but the question relates to all custom tags - i.e. as Ray observed when reporting his problem I have continued my investigations. All using the census tbr file with the error for 1911. Haigh reset Thurs and then Friday. works on the censu tbr as is (incuding the error for 1911) Gollin ditto Dyer Res n and N para not working 1911 does Sadler ditto Ward ditto Rosenheim currently none of the buttons work work. None of the census tags 1841, 1851 etc. It is reported that the census tags dont exist - though they do. This may be the Project which somehow arrived in TMG UK bereft of census tags and I may have added them. It is unlikely that I can deal with this further till Monday, so I beg your patience. But I still think that the error arises from copying a tag and then editing it to rename it? Evelyn

No, sorry, I dont know how the program works. I am a historian. Since I am so often held to be in error, I want to eliminate variables (errors) arising from my own use of TMG. I have just spend another hour examining some projects - 3 of them. 1st observation. The toolbar file opened in Notepad exec. is incorrect. It reads [item8] Parameter=Census 19011 Text=1911 I left it as it was. None the less the Census 1911 button functions correctly in my "master" project Haigh and for the other two I have been opening and closing and ensuring the buttons work. However when I open a fourth project and try the 1911 census button, the Error Message appears and reports correctly that Tag "Census 19011" not found for current data set. Now it is highly likely that I created the 1911 census tag by copying the Tag for 1901 - almost always when I create a new tag, I copy an existing tag and edit the name and sentence. It seems to me that the original name copied (plus the addition of a figure 1) sticks to the newly created tag - this seems logical since it is not entirely new but is a copy. It is very likely that Caroline created the UK tags by copying the USA Census Tag. But it is not my buisiness as customer to differentiate between Tags I buy from Wholly Genes. They look the same to the customer. By all means let us get to the root of the problem. The tool bar is shared between projects. One step I took this afternoon was to start checking that my custom tags were uniform across my various projects. One of my frequent errors in the past was to create a new Tag from scratch. The default in the UK edition is to create an Address tag (first in the alphabet.) I had to delete all these. To avoid this error of mine, I started to create my new tags by copying old ones. For instance I copy a Note tag to create Research Notes - but what if in one Project I copied Event-misc? Must the tool bar buttons relate to a Tag that is identical in every respect in every project? Or is only the label important? I opened my most recent Project "Ward" (created new in TMG 7) and again it had "lost" its button links. I remade them and this time saved the toolbar under a new name specific to that project. I saved the lay out under a new name too, to make sure it didnt get opened by any other project. Having done this, I opened the tool bar file and the relevent portion read. [item7] Parameter=Census 1901 Text=1901 [item8] Parameter=Census 19011 Text=1911 [item9] Parameter=Occupation Text=Occ [item10] Parameter=Event-Misc1 Text=ResN [item11] Parameter=Census 19012 Text=N Para I look forward to comments and instructions but no reprimands this time please. Evelyn

Virginia, I will revert to this way of linking. But as this has been a long standing problem and I only tried the other quicker way last night, it made no material difference. The fact that it made no difference led me to believe that there is some problem in the Tag list - that it is not the activity of linking which is the cause. But something in the list of tags - But I am now going to examine my tool bar files, as you suggested. Evelyn

Forgive me Jim. There are (to my mind) 3 types of tag 1. Those that come as standard in the USA edition 2. Additional census tags for each individual UK census which are sold as part of the UK edition. 3. Custom tags which I and other users create. This problem arises in both group 2 and group 3 tags. As Group 2 tags are common to all UK customers and no individual user error can enter into it, I feel that the problem is best solved by looking at the occurrence in the UK census tags provided by TMG.

Virginia, Thank you for this reply which I will look into. I may not have time till Monday. You ask if it happens on my main computer or just the net book. The error in closing Visual Fox pro was special to the Netbook but has not recurred. This problem and any other problems I may have reported - research Log etc - occurs on my main home computer. Windows xp home plus TMG 7 UK edition. I don't know whether it happens on the new Netbook as well because I used it on two trips for reference only and no data entry. But I assume that it would manifest the same. In the past, it was not my habit to save the layout so I imagined this was causing the problem. But last night, I repeatedly saved the layout (overwriting the previous) but it didn't seem to solve the problem. I have also tried OK ing each re-edited button individually rather than re attaching them all. That too made no difference. I did discover last night that one doesn't actually need to go into the tag list and reattach - if a button has been allocated a new (wrong) census name - usually composed of extra numbers, one can reattach the button by just typing the correct name into the slot. I experience the problem not just with my custom tags but with UK census tags. My custom tool bar has buttons for each of the UK census tags (including 1911 which I added as a custom tag), Occupation - with which no problem, Research Note's and (formatting tag) New Paragraph. Since I may well have created my custom tags with variations in my different Projects I think it best to concentrate on why the problem occurs with the UK census tags which were created by Wholly Genes for the UK edition - presumably using the same create new tag procedure as we all use when creating new tags. I am grateful for your interest. Over the last winter (tutored by yourself and others)I have begun to use many facilities of TMG which I did not before. May be I am the first person using the TMG UK edition to use a custom tool bar with buttons to the UK specific tags?

Do you work with more than one project? Tech help told me they couldn't replicate my problem. Like yours it involves only custom of UK tags in the UK edition of TMG 7. But I have spent this evening trying out ways of correcting a project. Then opening another Project. Then a third. And going back to the first which I see has lost it again. I have asked the tech people to clarify the extent to which layouts and tool bars are shared between projects and whether alterations to a tool bar must be saved in a layout. Sometimes tonight I got a message like yours. That a Tag is not present in a Project when of course it is. I found that sorting out the first census tag seemed to make the others findable. At other times a fictional name is created for the Tags and then you have to go through each, renaming them. Evelyn