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Schnarps

Print to File Output does not work properly

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I am running TMG v 7.03, Win XP Pro, and am encountering the following problem when trying to create a file output (vs. printer output):

 

I tried various report formats (Ahnentafel - Direct Line, Descendants Indented Narrative) as well as various output formats (Word for Win 2000 and later, older Word for Win versions, RTF) and am only able to get an output when chosing ASCII Text. Here is what happens:

 

I select the report format as well as an output format. Then hit CREATE REPORT. TMG then goes through the various popup screens (Calculating text..., processing endnotes...) but then nothing further happens and all I am getting is a never-ending hourglass symbol. The way to get back to a functioning TMG is only by ending the program through the Windows Task Manager. As soon as I hit "End Task" there, a TMG popup screen appears stating "The file was created successfully, would you like to open it?" When I hit YES, the file opens but is empty. I've checked and it is always created with a 0 byte size. (Note: When the Task Mgr gives me the choice to "End Now" or "Cancel", I CANCEL ending it...). TMG then appears to be back to normal but the problem remains.

 

PDF format works but truncates the surnames (Schlesinger appears only as Schlesi).

 

Here is what I tried so far:

- Reindexed, optimized and checked file integrity

- Reset the report definitions to defaults (as was suggested as a solution in a post to a similar problem)

- Restarted program

 

None of this worked. Any suggestions? Thanks a lot!

 

Irene

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Irene -

 

In the report definition - Properties button, if you have the default printer selected, try a specific printer.

 

Can you post an example of the path you are using for the report output?

 

Virginia

 

Thanks for responding so quickly, Virginia.

 

Here is the path:

N:\Genealogy\Family Trees\Ahnentafel.doc

with N: being an external drive which works properly when accessing it directly.

 

As to changing the printer, I did that (tried Adobe PDF, WG PDF Writer, my default Canon printer) but it didn't make a difference, the situation remains the same as described.

 

May I ask how that would influence the output as a file? I would think that which printer is selected wouldn't make a difference if I don't actually print to printer. I was just wondering about that, don't mean to be facetious at all (just thought I'd clarify :rolleyes: ).

Edited by Schnarps

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Irene -

 

During the creation of the report, TMG uses a temporary scratch file on the local drive. I suspect the problem may be writing directly to the external drive. Try saving the report to your local drive and see if that works.

 

In order to create a report - whether to a file or even to Print Preview - the program needs formatting instructions from a printer driver. Usually it makes no difference whether there is a printer attached or whether you have selected the default or a specific printer, but it's one of the recommendations I usually make - along with resetting the report configuration - just to eliminate possible problems there and cover all the bases.

 

Let us know how it goes -

 

Virginia

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Irene -

 

During the creation of the report, TMG uses a temporary scratch file on the local drive. I suspect the problem may be writing directly to the external drive. Try saving the report to your local drive and see if that works.

 

In order to create a report - whether to a file or even to Print Preview - the program needs formatting instructions from a printer driver. Usually it makes no difference whether there is a printer attached or whether you have selected the default or a specific printer, but it's one of the recommendations I usually make - along with resetting the report configuration - just to eliminate possible problems there and cover all the bases.

 

Let us know how it goes -

 

Virginia

 

Thanks again, Virginia - I learned something. :-)

 

Tried to save to local drives C: and F: and both times got an error msg that reads as follows:

 

Conversion Error #3: Could not create or open CONV_LOG.TXT on scratch drive.

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For conversion errors, I defer to tech support . They will have some other suggestions for you:

 

Tech support:

 

From www.whollygenes.com > Contact us

E-mail support : support@whollygenes.com

Phone support : 410-715-2260 (Monday-Friday, 9am-5pm Eastern)

 

I will be interested to learn what the problem turns out to be -

 

Virginia

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UPDATE:

 

After a week of emailing back and forth with Phil (TMG Tech Support), Phil suggested I should reinstall TMG. Before doing that, however, I decided to try generating the report on my laptop, a less than a year old and rarely used Dell XPS M1330 running WinVista and Office 2007.

 

To my surprise I got the same Conversion Error 3 on the laptop. Since I had used a recent backup from the desktop (which runs Win XP and Office 2003!) where the problem first appeared, I decided to go way back in backups and use one from early July 2008. However, the problem remains.

 

It also appears when using the sample project on the laptop which was NOT copied from the desktop and which I never worked with/altered in any way since initial installation.

 

So in short, I have a situation where Conversion Error 3 appears on two systems. One running Win XP / Office 2003, and the other running WinVista / Office 2007. Since it even shows up in the sample project (on both systems)that came with TMG, I am now really at a loss. And also cannot imagine that reinstalling TMG would make a difference.

 

Does someone have another suggestion? Thank you!

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Irene -

 

During your testing did you try a barebones report without endnotes, footnotes or memos?

 

Virginia

 

 

Hi Virginia,

 

Yes, barebones, no endnotes, footnotes or anything else that could be set to NONE.

 

BTW, in hopes of helping someone else:

 

The original hourglass mystery was solved. Turned out that it was caused by AdAware (spyware protection program). On the notebook, a notification window popped up informing me that an .exe file wanted to run and if I wanted to ALLOW or BLOCK this. As soon as I hit ALLOW TMG proceeded - regrettably only till it showed the Conversion Error 3 :-( That message never displayed on the desktop (I'm in the process of replacing that system anyway)...

 

Irene

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I had the same problem. I couldn't get a report to print unless I turned off my firewall. At times, I couldn't get the program to run.

 

When I run the program, I run it without the firewall on.

 

Vince

 

Irene -

 

During your testing did you try a barebones report without endnotes, footnotes or memos?

 

Virginia

 

 

Hi Virginia,

 

Yes, barebones, no endnotes, footnotes or anything else that could be set to NONE.

 

BTW, in hopes of helping someone else:

 

The original hourglass mystery was solved. Turned out that it was caused by AdAware (spyware protection program). On the notebook, a notification window popped up informing me that an .exe file wanted to run and if I wanted to ALLOW or BLOCK this. As soon as I hit ALLOW TMG proceeded - regrettably only till it showed the Conversion Error 3 :-( That message never displayed on the desktop (I'm in the process of replacing that system anyway)...

 

Irene

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Thank you for the firewall suggestion but I know that this used to work just fine with the firewall.

 

I'm just hoping that Phil will be able to come up with something, I'm still emailing with him...

 

Irene

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After 2 weeks of attempting to get a report to print to Word, I am giving up.

 

I encountered one error message after another, beginning with Conversion Error #3, followed by a "Canot find file wpt.sp1" error. Trying to uninstall yielded a "Cannot open install.log" error and after manually removing all TMG folders as well as relevant Registry entries (as per instruction from Phil DeSilva), I was right where I had started - at Conversion Error #3, followed by "Cannot find wpt.sp1...".

 

Phil then deferred to Jim Byram but he couldn't help either.

 

I also disabled and then uninstalled AdAware, disabled Windows Defender and upgraded to NIS 2009 from 2008 - no change whatsoever.

 

I am beyond frustrated, and after using TMG for 7 years, I will now have to tediously move my data to a different genealogy program (Legacy) because I am unable to successfully generate a Word report.

 

Getting my brand-new WinVista 64-bit system won't help me either because TMG report functionality apparently does not work (yet) for 64-bit systems. And my Win Vista 32-bit laptop - well... see above (error messages, just like the XP desktop).

 

Nonetheless, thanks to Phil and Jim for trying to help. And to all the others who over the years have helped me out with one thing or another. It was always appreciated.

 

Irene

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I don't know if you've fixed this, but this recent link should answer it:

Report Generation Error, Can't Generate .RTF or .DOC reports - 27 Mar 2009

http://www.whollygenes.com/forums201/index...p;hl=jim.orrell

 

also this Rootsweb link has fuller detail:

[TMG] Reports not printing to *.RTF *.DOC and most file types - 16bit program problem - 28 May 2008

http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/r...8-05/1211974337

If this is your problem, as well as fixing the registry, YOU MAY ALSO NEED TO RE-INSTALL TMG.

 

Jim Orrell

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This topic is about the word processing output issue with 32-bit operating systems.

 

Irene has tested the registry fix and got word processor output working on her 32-bit system.

 

Please avoid discussing the output issue with 32-bit systems and the output issue with 64-bit systems in the same reply and in the same topic. It does nothing but confuse people. They are completely different issues.

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This seems an appropriate place to add my problem to the mix. TMG7 Gold, running in 64bit environment, vista home premier. Everytime I try to print a report, any kind, nothing happens save it calculates the number of persons and then just kinda goes away somewhere. Guess I'm to assume it's saving the reports somewhere but damned if I can find them. I was used to the preview screen and then have a close or print option. I'm doing something wrong for certain. Also in the printer set up, if I check windows default printer, in the print report sequence I get a message that I don't have a printer installed. If I check the "printer" and then actually select the printer is when I have the earlier problem result.

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The word processor library is not supported under 64-bit operating systems. This means that you cannot output reports to Word, RTF, or WordPerfect. A replacement word processor library is in development.

 

You can output to HTML and open that document in Word and save it as a Word document. You lose some of the formatting that you would see in a DOC file created directly by TMG but the result is an acceptable work-around.

 

To output to PDF, you need to permanently install the PDF printer driver.

File / Printer Setup... / [install PDF printer]

You might also need to do this work-around...

http://www.whollygenes.com/forums201/index...ost&p=41699

Edited by Jim Byram

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Presently using Windows 7 64-bit with TMG Gold 7.04.0000 Understand all of the above, BUT

When I try to install the PDF printer it will not install

 

Is having a PDF printer already installed (Quicken PDF printer) part of the problem?

 

The install fails due to being unable to find the acXMLParser.dll file Error Code 2, then

an error code 87 incorrect parameter when installing the printer driver, then

error code 1797 printer driver is unknown when installing the printer, then

error code 1797 again with message that printer setup failed.

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Did you read the pinned topic at the top of this forum?

http://www.whollygenes.com/forums201/index...showtopic=12005

 

There have been cases where having an installed PDF printer driver interferes with the installation of the Wholly Genes PDF printer driver. That said, I have multiple PDF printer drivers installed on my system and have never had any problem installing the Wholly Genes PDF printer drivers (and have installed, uninstalled, reinstalled the WG PDF printer drivers numerous times while doing testing).

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The word processor library is not supported under 64-bit operating systems. This means that you cannot output reports to Word, RTF, or WordPerfect. A replacement word processor library is in development.

 

Is this new word processor library slated to come out with TMG8, or will it be a patch? And is there any (even rough) timeline on it?

 

I have been dealing with this aggravating problem for over a year now, having upgraded to TMG7 without realizing I would lose my ability to print in Word. It was a function I used consistently, and I have had to keep my old computer alive for all this time just for that feature.

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Is this new word processor library slated to come out with TMG8, or will it be a patch?
As just a user like yourself I cannot speak officially for Wholly Genes, but the new word processor library has been mentioned by Wholly Genes in a preview of TMG 8, so it is expected as a part of that new version. Rumor has it that this is a complete rewrite of the word processing part of the software, so my crystal ball expects it to only be part of the new version.
And is there any (even rough) timeline on it?
Since software development is such an uncertain activity, in the past Wholly Genes has not wished to give any timelines on new versions. But Wholly Genes has made it clear that they are painfully aware of the pressing need for this new version, so I expect they are working very hard on it.

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When Bob skips a a pretty major show (Knoxville) to stay home and swat bugs- yes, they are working hard.

 

Is this new word processor library slated to come out with TMG8, or will it be a patch?
As just a user like yourself I cannot speak officially for Wholly Genes, but the new word processor library has been mentioned by Wholly Genes in a preview of TMG 8, so it is expected as a part of that new version. Rumor has it that this is a complete rewrite of the word processing part of the software, so my crystal ball expects it to only be part of the new version.
And is there any (even rough) timeline on it?
Since software development is such an uncertain activity, in the past Wholly Genes has not wished to give any timelines on new versions. But Wholly Genes has made it clear that they are painfully aware of the pressing need for this new version, so I expect they are working very hard on it.

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btw... I edited my response in post #17 above and added the following...

 

You can output to HTML and open that document in Word and save it as a Word document. You lose some of the formatting that you would see in a DOC file created directly by TMG but the result is an acceptable work-around.

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