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Joe Cummings

Lat/Long Format Incorrect.

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My V7 lat/long format (there was no choice) is 424748N0735541W. Restored project to V8. When I list places and include the lat/long column, the format is 42.47639-79.4671. (not same location as shown in last sentence). I have gone into V8 preferences and tried several of the formats available and it makes no difference in the place listing nor in other reports. If my V7 format is the same in the V8 tags, does V8 reformat the lat/long values to my preference for reports? Does it reformat my preference in the tags? I cannot check the tag content due to a problem in accessing tags.

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When a TMG7 project is updated to TMG8, the LatLong values are converted to decimal format. The Preferences options are just viewing options.

 

When I test conversion of your value by the program, I get 42.796667,-73.928056.

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Jim, "converted to digital format". Not sure what this means. Does the term mean degrees(period)fraction of a degree like you show in your reply? "Preferences option just for viewing". Does this exclude the ability to select a format for presentation in reports? I may be wrong, but I think most people are used to see degree, minutes, seconds, two digit fraction of seconds from GPS and Garmin like mapping tools.

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Hi Joe,

 

If you look in to this topic you will find that the decimal format is capable of specifying a much more precise value than the older DMS (DegreeMinuteSecond) format. For that reason several users requested that TMG store its LatLong values internally as that decimal format, especially as most modern GPS units are capable of displaying that more precise format. With a good GPS unit you can get a decimal value reading that will be nearly a specific grave in a cemetery.

 

On conversion from V7 all existing DMS values were converted to their equivalent degree value for internal storage in V8. Also now in V8 when you enter a new DMS value it is converted to its equivalent decimal value for internal storage.

 

But you can set the Preferences (which Jim mentioned above) to display that internal decimal value on the screen (for example in the Details window of the Person view) in any of the available formats including DMS. However, in the brand new report writer I agree with you that I can find no equivalent report option to cause that decimal value to output as DMS. I suspect that users like yourself will want such an option in reports. As this V8 report writer is so new, we users can hope that this enhancement will come sometime in the near future.

 

Hope this helps explain the issue,

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... most people are used to see degree, minutes, seconds, two digit fraction of seconds
Joe,

 

There is one more option you may find of value. If you uncheck "Preferences // Program Options // Prompts // Validate LAT/LONG values" then any value entered in that Place field is simply considered text and not a LatLong value, and is not converted. If you don't want the conversion, or do not require decimal values or component values for the TMG automatic feature to retrieve place information from the web (see TMG Help topic "Place Information and Mapping"), then you could turn off that Preference. Now you could enter your LatLong values as whatever text you wish to see (e.g. DMS) and they would remain that way both in the screen display and in reports.

 

Hope this gives you ideas,

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