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laura1814

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About laura1814

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    Happy TMG user since v.96d
  • Birthday 06/17/1969

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    http://laura.chinet.com/
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    Female
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    Southeast Texas
  1. Howdy, folks, it's great to see that there is still a substantial user base for TMG. I have long used TMG 9.05 on both a desktop computer and a laptop, using the backup/restore method to move a project from one machine to the other and then back again. If possible, I would like to leave the data project on my desktop computer but access and edit it sometimes from my laptop, eliminating the hassle. The desktop runs Windows 10 and the laptop runs Windows 8. Please note that I can edit a local project with either machine; the problem I am having is only in trying to edit a project across the network. I've verified that all the files in the project directory are not labelled Read-only. I'm not using any third-party virus or firewall protection. From my laptop, I opened the project by using File --> Open Project and navigating to the project file located on my desktop via the network. So far so good, it opens and I can navigate, etc. But I discovered after a bit of experimentation that none of my edits were being saved. I can edit a tag, for example, changing a date and adding a citation, but after saving and closing the tag, when I open it up again, the changes are not there. The Last Edited Date does not change. Ditto creating a new person. It's as if I'm in Read-Only mode, only there are no grayed-out functions and no warnings or error messages. Do I need to change the data paths text configuration file, or some other configuration, such as in Preferences --> Current Project Options --> Advanced where all the paths still point to C:\ ? As an experiment I tried removing the local copy of the project, and although I got a startup message that my exhibits folder didn't exist (a subdirectory of the specific project directory), nothing else changed as far as I can tell. Do I need to adjust something with sharing or Windows Firewall/Defender/whatever they're calling it these days? As an aside, I think I have just inadvertently discovered one of the risks of accessing a project over a network. While writing this message using my desktop computer, I closed the laptop (right here beside me) to put it to sleep while I was working here (to save battery life). When I opened it up again to verify something, I tried to close the project, but got this error message: Error reading file \\path\projectname_n.dbf 8 APPOBJECT.MSAVEINI Aborting and retrying didn't fix it, but when I ignored it I could close the project. (Since it won't save any changes there's little likelihood that anything was actually corrupted, but I'll Validate File Integrity here on my desktop just to be sure.) So it looks like there's a risk of data corruption if the network connections are interrupted, such as by the laptop going to sleep, or perhaps the wireless connection being disrupted, or something like that. (I also understand that I'll have to be careful not to accidentally open the project at the same time from both machines.)
  2. HRE or other replacement

    Well, when I win the lottery, I'll give it to him!! I did use the search function in the online interface for the mailing list, but didn't see anything more recent than six months. Thanks!
  3. Hi, all. It's been a couple of years since anyone posted about potential replacements for TMG. It's been five years since it was discontinued and I thought this might be a good time to sum up what is available and/or in development. I've no intention of discontinuing using TMG until The Worthy Successor emerges. I looked briefly at the mailing list at Rootsweb for TMG refugees but don't have time to trawl through it in depth. I also looked at HRE (History Research Environment) which sounds promising. I looked at their January 2019 newsletter, which didn't tell me much. I tried to look at their wiki (as linked on their website) and either the link is wrong or the wiki is down. I looked at the Github site (link broken, but I found it) and found it pretty opaque (I'm not a programmer but am familiar with the site). So can anyone summarize the current status of HRE? Will there be any alpha version available anytime soon? Does it have a planned timeline of two years, five years, ten years? Is there anything else available or on the horizon? Has anyone considered developing a comparatively simple UI update that could be run on top of TMG? Because quite frankly, the only thing making me ask these questions is how each succeeding release of Windows makes TMG harder for me to use. With all love and gratitude to and for Bob for everything he put into TMG for over 20 years. TMG has and continues to enrich my life ever since I first downloaded the beta in what, 1992? Even five years after being discontinued, it is apparently still peerless. What an accomplishment!
  4. Increase text size on "main" screen?

    Hi, folks! I've also recently upgraded my system and am trying to figure out the best way to do things with TMG. My setup is using a TV as the display for my desktop system and sitting across the room from it. With the way Windows 10 handles "Make Everything Bigger" = reduce screen resolution, I am dissatisfied. I'm trying WinAero Tweaker, a 3rd-party tool that allows me to adjust font and font size/spacing for various parts of the Windows UI but it has some quirks and it seems that whenever I switch from say 125% to 100%, Windows resizes all of my fonts back to 9-point (the apparent default). Since I have to change each font size item one at a time with the tool and log out/log back in for it to take effect, this is also unsatisfactory. So I'd welcome suggestions for other options or tools. Most specifically, I would like to know if anyone has ever figured out which registry key controls the default font size that is used by TMG for the Tag Entry box. Is it using a Windows default, or is there a TMG-specific registry key that controls it? Because as it is now, I have to use the Magnifier, which is less than ideal. Also would like to know if there is a registry key I could edit to control the colors for the location field names in the Tag Entry box. I have to use the reversed high contrast settings (light text on black background) for Windows and TMG makes the location field names/labels white text on light gray background, which is not legible. (This is comparatively unimportant though since I've been living with it for years.) Pretty sure that if it exists, this one will be a TMG-specific registry key as I can't think of another place where TMG doesn't use the system color scheme.
  5. Last edited date

    It's a good idea, but my request is to please keep it optional to NOT update them!
  6. You're right, of course. I back up regularly, but not usually religiously. I hope tech support can repair the data table(s) today.
  7. Thanks, Jim. I don't want to hear that, because I last backed up two days ago and I've done a lot of work since then! I found the file _OpenPRJ.log in the project's folder, and it reports: 23-07-14, 16:32:58 >ERR. File [project path and name]_E.dbf not open I've been using TMG for 20 (?) years and I've never had a significant data loss that I recall. There's really nothing I can do?
  8. I just updated to v9.03 yesterday, but this problem is unrelated to that, as far as I can tell. The power blinked. I have a UPS/battery backup, but for some reason, the UPS beeped and shut down my system. At the time, I was entering a new person. On restart, I got the error message: "An error happened when opening the data tables." TMG shut down. I restarted it, and it entered Repair Mode. It then recreated the indexes, and then gave me the same error message. (Repeated several times.) Is there an external repair or validate utility I can run? Please help!
  9. Entering Old Style Dates

    In re-reading this I think that some of my assumptions in the next-to-last paragraph are in error. As the Wikipedia article explains, using the date of Charles I's execution, which is commonly noted today as having taken place 30 Jan 1649, taking into account the moved New Year, but not the lost days. At the time it would have been written 30 Jan 1648/9. However, by modern reckoning (and the date in countries that had already at that time adopted the Gregorian reform) the date was 9 February 1649. But we generally refer to the date of Charles I's execution as 30 Jan 1649, because it's considered common knowledge that any date in GB prior to 1752 is a Julian date. The fact I've been researching this topic all day and am still having trouble wrapping my head around it shows how confusing it is and why I think it would be helpful if TMG would segregate the New Year from the Lost Days. For purposes of calculating dates within TMG (e.g., age at death) it is perhaps only important when dealing with an individual whose life actually spans the implementation of the Gregorian reform where that person lived, as well as anytime after 1582 where there were interactions between people living in Julian calendar countries and Gregorian reform countries (e.g., Spain and England, or Catholic vs. Protestant German principalities). For example, I read that Thomas Jefferson directed that on his grave marker his birth date be given Old Style and his death date in New Style. (You can see photographs at his memorial on Find-A-Grave.) Or, in modern times, there is the 1917 Russian Revolution which took place in October (Old Style) and so is frequently referred to as the "October Revolution" although it took place in November in post-Gregorian-reform countries. And it is still an issue even today in Eastern Orthodoxy which has still not changed from the Julian calendar (and so celebrates Christmas in January-standard). Hope this clarified my point of view a bit.
  10. Entering Old Style Dates

    For the record (and coming late to the party), according to http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03738a.htm#beginning the double dating caused by the discrepancy of the year being from 25 March to 24 March vs. 1 January to 31 December was in effect from 1155 to 1752 in Great Britain (excepting Scotland, which changed it in 1600). I have been researching this all morning and apparently the Jan 1 New Year (which had been, for what it's worth, part of the official Julian calendar, though nearly every country seems to have chosen its own New Year's Day, some even crazy enough to choose Easter, a movable feast) was used commonly (possibly from Yule/winter solstice pre-Christian tradition) in the Middle Ages (12th or 14th century depending on the source). Confused enough yet? Anyway, the Catholic Encyclopedia (link above) states in part that: "In England before the Norman Conquest (1066) the year began either on 25 March or 25 December; from 1087 to 1155 on 1 January; and from 1155 till the reform of the calendar in 1752 on 25 March, so that 24 March was the last day of one year, and 25 March the first day of the next. But though the legal year was thus reckoned, it is clear that 1 January was commonly spoken of as New Year's Day." Catholic Encyclopedia, General Chronology, sub-heading "Beginning of the Year." See newadvent dot org if the link doesn't work. I consistently come across double dated January-March dates prior to 1583. Because of the distinction between this usage regarding New Year versus the "lost days" of the Gregorian calendar reform (i.e., a discrepancy of 10 days in 1582 and 13 days now in the ecclesiastical calendars that still adhere to the Julian calendar), both of which are commonly referred to as both "Julian vs. Gregorian" and "Old Style vs. New Style," I would very much like to see TMG segregate these two functions. I appreciate that I can change the Preferences so that I can use a date like "22 Feb 1480/1" in any year I like, but I think it is imprecise and confusing to lump this in with the Julian/Gregorian/OS/NS 10-13 day discrepancy. I know that it's the common usage to lump them together (because the Gregorian edict did change both things), but they are two completely separate issues. Changing the date range for "Old Style Dates" in TMG's preferences makes me a little uncomfortable because to me the term "Old Style Date" implies the 10-13 day discrepancy. Generally, if you see a source with a date "22 Feb 1680/1" that means that the New Year is moved, so that by modern reckoning it would be "22 Feb 1681" (which TMG calculates properly based on the date range set in Preferences), but you do NOT make a calculation to account for the date discrepancy of the Julian calendar. But if you see "22 Feb 1680/1 OS" in a source, that means that not only do you have the moved New Year (meaning that by modern reckoning it would be "22 Feb 1681") but you ALSO have to calculate the date discrepancy of the Julian calendar (so that the correct date by modern reckoning is actually "5 March 1681"). The promulgation of information about these calendar discrepancies means that the casual user trying to find a simple explanation will probably be further confused (even though the main Wikipedia article offers a fairly lucid explanation). Yet the information available with research to find date and calendar data for most countries, especially European ones (there are some nice tables at Wikipedia) means that it would be possible for TMG to take most of them into account. It might be prohibitively complicated, but perhaps some kind of date style similar to place styles with date ranges might be do-able? If it's too ambitious, fine, but at least please allow users to distinguish between New Year "Old Style" and Lost Days "Old Style" as a first step (with appropriate calculations for the latter as a second step later). Hope this makes sense!
  11. Exclusion marker showing in PV

    Further info: This problem appears to be only with the L9 label. Exclusion markers in L1-L8 and L10 appear to work. It also appears to be only in one (custom) style, but it's hard to test because L9 is Lat/Long and so putting non-lat/long data in that field in another style results in an error message that the info (a word) isn't in proper lat/long format.
  12. Hi, all. Since upgrading to TMG 8 I have noticed that in the Person View, place fields are showing even though they have exclusion markers (-). (They properly did not show in v7.) I am using custom place styles. I have "Show excluded data" UNchecked in Preferences --> Tag Box (it was never checked). I have not tested with reports or anything else-- right now I am solely concerned with what is showing on the PV. I searched here and the TMG-L archives and found nothing posted here and only one message posted on TMG-L about this, and the posted message was from February and had 0 replies, so I'm guessing this is not a common problem. So, thinking it might be related to my custom place style, I checked another dataset which uses the standard/default place styles, and in that dataset, excluded data properly does not show on the PV there. My custom place style is fairly simple: it only renames the place labels, and the output includes all 10 fields with conditional brackets. It is the default place style for the dataset. I ran Optimize, Validate File Integrity, and Optimize again, to no avail (no errors). Win 7 (32 bit), TMG 8.04. Solution, please?
  13. Never married and no children tags

    Rosanna, I hope you get one of these variations to work for you, but if you don't, and fall back on using a memo, may I suggest that you put it in the Death tag memo rather than the Birth tag? It is standard in Burke's Peerage and similar works to use abbreviations like "d.s.p." and "d.s.p.m.s." and "d.s.p.leg." followed by the date of death. These are abbreviations for Latin phrases meaning, respectively, "died without issue," "died without male issue," and "died without legitimate issue." (Sex and legitimacy are important when primogeniture is the primary method of property inheritance.) Personally, I use "s.p." in the memo of a death tag where appropriate.
  14. Tmg v7.04-PDF printer driver and Win7

    Hi, Michael, thanks for your response. What do you want to know? I've applied all available updates for Windows and TMG. Yes, PDF is the only thing available in the drop-down box. Yes, all file types are checked. I appreciate the encouragement. Maybe later I will have the energy to be able to troubleshoot further if anyone has any suggestions; I'm afraid I'm all used up for now. I'll check back tomorrow.
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