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Jim Rassette

Report Preview Screen

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I just bought and installed TMG v9.01 and everything seemed fine when I restored my three main projects. Then I tried to preview a report. The preview screen did not appear. The report screen went away and all was normal except no preview screen. I went back and realized the same thing was happening in v8.

 

Back in Jan my old XP computer died and I now have a new laptop with Windows 8.1. I installed TMG v8.08 on the new laptop back in Jan but apparently never generated a screen preview. Checking my installed printers, I see WG PDF Writer v4. I also have a "Quicken PDF Printer" and an "Adobe PDF" in my printer list. I did install Adobe PDF Professional a couple of months ago.

 

Does anyone have any idea what the problem might be and how I can fix it?

 

 

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There is some issue with the Wholly Genes PDF Writer v4 installation. The PDF printer driver should install with no issues under Windows 8.1.

 

Generate a report to PDF to make sure that the PDF driver is working. You might try reinstalling it from File / Printer Setup...

 

The report preview uses the PDF driver.

 

The other PDF drivers you have installed are not used by TMG for report preview and for PDF output (as selected on the report configuration screen). Both require the Wholly Genes PDF Writer v4.

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I did generate a report to a pdf file but that did not work. I then tried to print the report which worked fine. I then deleted the WG PDF Writer using the Devices and Printers screen, ran TMG as an administrator, had to unlock again, then installed the WG PDF Writer 4 using the printer setup screen with no errors or problems. WD PDF Writer 4 appears appropriately again in the Printers and Devices list.

 

I then tried to run a FGS report preview and had the same problem as before, no preview screen but the TMG program continues to run fine. Then I tried to write a PDF file and save it in my report-output folder. This time the TMG program gives me a "Please wait" window but continues to churn for over thirty minutes. I had to force a close with MS. I did this a second time after closing and restarting TMG. There is no report in the report-output folder, but strangely if I open the WG PDF Writer 4 print queue I see two temp C:\USERS\JAMESF\APPDATA\LOCAL\TMG....rtf files.

 

Is that correct? Why an rtf file instead of a pdf file in that particular queue?

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It might be that an RTF file is used for intermediate output before sending to the PDF printer for output.

 

The output preview (when that is the output option) is a RTF file.

 

As I understand, some change has been made (maybe in v9.02) so that PDF driver issues no longer block print preview.

 

As for your problem... It could be that one of the other PDF drivers is conflicting with the Wholly Genes PDF driver. btw... You should never use the Wholly Genes PDF driver as a selected printer in either the TMG or system printer settings.

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Thanks, Jim, for your response.

 

I had wondered if the RTF file was an intermediate file and the work of the pdf printer was to turn that into a pdf file.

 

In TMG I always have "windows default" as my selected printer and never select any pdf printer for other programs. My HP Premium 410 printer is always my default printer.

 

I do have Adobe Acrobat XI Pro as my default PDF program instead of Adobe Reader XI, but I am not sure why that would cause a problem. Both programs are installed on the laptop. I deleted the Quicken PDF program before I reinstalled the WG PDF Writer.

 

For now I am at a loss as to what experiment to try next.

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You did try uninstalling the Wholly Genes PDF Writer v4 and reinstalling it? (If it's removed from Devices and Printers, the installer dialog should appear when you start TMG. If not, you can use File / Printer Setup.)

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Yes , I uninstalled it and reinstalled it per my second post above while running TMG as Administrator. I had no problems with the reinstall. All messages in the install window showed a successful install.

 

In the meantime I did try most of the other reports with various results. All the reports I tried to save to "Adobe Reader (PDF)" file type hung up TMG as described above and TMG had to be aborted each time. Most of the reports did not display the screen preview of the report as described above, but there were a few exceptions. The Descendant Indented Chart and the Family Group Sheet-no sources will display the screen preview window but no report is generated. The Ahnentafel and Audit reports will display the screen preview window and the report is generated correctly.

 

Just to eliminate a permissions problem, I ran TMG as Administrator and had the same results with the reports.

 

As a programmer and systems analyst in my past life, this seems to point to the report generation program(s) as the issue but I am willing to try other testing to narrow down the problem.

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Just to note... I'm running Windows 8.1 Update 1 and have never seen these issues. That's I continue to believe that it is an issue created by third party software. TMG is seeing more and more conflicts with third party software. GEDCOM export is the prime example at the moment.

 

The only time that I ever run TMG as administrator is to enter the registration information. And that is to deal with a Windows 8 'feature'. Otherwise, I run as Standard user (although I'm using an administrator account).

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I too, run as a Standard user except when I installed the pdf printer and tested for a permissions problem as described above.

 

Is there a list of third party software that creates known problems with TMG that I can check for and remove for testing?

 

Has anyone else reported problems with report generation that have never been solved?

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Dropbox can cause the GEDCOM export issue and, supposedly, some anti-virus software. You can find a topic on this issue in the v8 or v9 forum.

 

I'm not aware of the issue that you are having being reported by anyone else.

 

Virginia, have you seen anything like this?

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"C:\Program Files (x86)\The Master Genealogist v9\pdf\pdfinstall.exe"

 

I wonder if removing the driver from Devices and Printers and then running the installer above as Administrator would resolve the problem.

 

You might need to copy the pdf folder to your Desktop and run the installer from there.

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Jim R-

 

Assuming your Preferences / Current Project Options / Advanced / Configuration Files path is current for v9, have you tried resetting the report defaults using the Reset Defaults button under the report configuration name?

 

When you save your pdf report to a named file - say 'testfile.pdf' - on your desktop, do you get a prompt to open the file?

 

Virginia

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Yes , I uninstalled it and reinstalled it per my second post above while running TMG as Administrator. I had no problems with the reinstall. All messages in the install window showed a successful install.

 

In the meantime I did try most of the other reports with various results. All the reports I tried to save to "Adobe Reader (PDF)" file type hung up TMG as described above and TMG had to be aborted each time. Most of the reports did not display the screen preview of the report as described above, but there were a few exceptions. The Descendant Indented Chart and the Family Group Sheet-no sources will display the screen preview window but no report is generated. The Ahnentafel and Audit reports will display the screen preview window and the report is generated correctly.

 

Just to eliminate a permissions problem, I ran TMG as Administrator and had the same results with the reports.

 

As a programmer and systems analyst in my past life, this seems to point to the report generation program(s) as the issue but I am willing to try other testing to narrow down the problem.

I have Win 7, TMG 9, and have experienced this same problem. The save to Adobe Reader (PDF) hangs up. TMG has to be aborted each time. There is no preview of the report.

Marilyn Symonds

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Hi Virginia,

 

I do have my folders in a tree under a separate Public documents genealogy folder and I always set that up carefully in the advanced preferences screen and the default project path when I restore each project after a version upgrade. I do have v8 projects separate from v9 projects.

 

I tried the "reset defaults" on all the reports I tried before and got the exact same results as described above. All reports saved to Adobe Reader (PDF) hung up as before and TMG had to be aborted. A temporary rtf file is left in the document list of the WG PDF Writer print queue for each pdf report I tried to create.

 

The screen previews worked the same afterward also. The Ahnentafel and Audit reports still work correctly. The Descendant Indented Chart and the Family Group Sheet-no sources still present a screen preview window but no report. All other reports requesting a screen preview show the windows about generating the report but do not produce the screen preview window. TMG continues and does not have to be aborted.

 

 

Jim Byram

 

I will try your last reinstall suggestion later today as I have to run an errand now.

 

Thanks.

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Jim,

 

I did as you suggested and reinstalled the WG PDF Writer v4 using the steps you last suggested. Afterwards, all the reports sent to pdf files and to the screen preview acted exactly the same as described before. There was no difference.

 

It is interesting to note, however, there was a change noted in the devices and printers window. Not only was the Wholly Genes PDF Writer v4 reinstalled but an Amyuni Document Converter was also installed. When I first noticed this after the install I thought there would be a change in results, but sadly there was not. I did notice that no documents ever appeared in the Amyuni print queue.

 

I see that Marilyn Symonds is having the exact same issue with the pdf file saves as I am. I wonder if she is seeing the same behavior as I do with the Screen Preview where a couple of reports work and the others do not. Have you had a chance to test that Marilyn?

 

Thanks,

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As a further test for possible interference, I uninstalled my Adobe Acrobat XI Pro program (leaving Adobe Reader XI installed) and retested all the previous report and Screen Preview scenarios. I got the exact same results with a minor exception. The "Please Wait" window described in post 3 above did not appear when I was saving the report to a pdf file. However the TMG program still hung up as before and had to be aborted by MS as in all the previous testing. Again a temp rtf file with an "error - printing" status was left in the WG PDF Writer print queue.

 

I think it is time for the support staff to look at this as a possible bug.

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Jim,

 

You can remove the Amyuni driver from Devices and Printers. It's a unusable duplicate.

 

I'm looking for other possible solutions.

 

Jim

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Jim,

I opened a different one of my other large projects today while doing some research. I ran a few report tests when I finished. I got the same hang up results when I tried to save to an Adobe Acrobat Reader file.


However, I got some extra error messages and a couple of different results when I tried to send a report to the screen preview window. When I send the Family Group Sheet to the Screen Preview Window I got an error window with the message - File "C:" does not exist. I clicked OK and then got a blank Screen Preview window with no report. In the other project a Screen Preview window did not appear for this report.


I then tried the Ahnentafel report screen preview which worked correctly in the other project. This time I get a blank Screen Preview window with no error messages.

The strangest set of extra messages came when I sent the Descendant Indented Chart to the Screen Preview. As before the normal Progress windows display then I get an error window with the message - File "C:\Users\" does not exist. I clicked OK and got another window labeled "C:\Users\" with the message - File does not exist, Create a new file - and with the buttons Yes and No. I click on NO because the folder does exist on my laptop. Then I get a Program Error window with the message - OLE exception error: Exception code c0000005. OLE object may be corrupt - with three buttons; Cancel, Ignore and Help. Behind that program error window is a faded window that looks like the Screen Preview window but has the label "Form" at the top. When I click on the Ignore button the program error screen goes away and the Form label on the faded screen changes to Print Preview but the screen is blank - no report is generated.

If I click on the Cancel button when I get the OLE exception error window I get another program error window with the message - Object GOINI is not found - with the same Cancel, Ignore and Help buttons. I get this same error window over and over if I hit the Cancel or Ignore buttons. I have to click the x button which closes the error window and the faded window. No Screen Preview window is displayed.

Hopefully the programmers can follow my examples in the report programs and can find the spots where these problems occurred.

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