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General => Technical Help => Topic started by: Joy Dean on Friday 01 May 15 15:47 BST (UK)
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A laptop will need to be replaced in the not too distant future (we have two in the family). We feel almost certain that the Ultimate Family Tree programme will not work on a new one; it has not worked on our other laptop, windows 7 home premium with a 64 bit operating system; having said that, we had put a virtual computer on the laptop with the XP and the UFT in it, but we really don't find it that easy to use the virtual and the real one at the same time - fortunately, for us, the UFT does work on the Vista laptop, so we have been adding things to the UFT on that.
So now may we ask for some advice, please? We had been thinking of buying the Family Tree Maker 2014 and importing a GEDCOM from the UFT. However, after reading posts about it and other programmes, I am wondering what would be best, especially after reading about best free family tree software in http://www.techsupportalert.com/best-free-genealogy-family-tree-software.htm. We had previously used the Mormons PAF but our information is not up to date in that.
We would appreciate thoughts and advice. Thank you.
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I have today uploaded from PAF5 one of my trees on to family tree maker 2014 - I have a desktop running Windows 8. I am not a happy person as it has dropped dates, linked people with the wrong families and who knows what else.
Rosie
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I have today uploaded from PAF5 one of my trees on to family tree maker 2014 - I have a desktop running Windows 8. I am not a happy person as it has dropped dates, linked people with the wrong families and who knows what else.
Rosie
That's scary.
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PAF is no longer supported and has been discontinued. (although if you can get hold of the installation program it does still work)
Use your current program to create/export a gedcom file and use this file to try out the various programs still available until you find one that suits you - many of the commercial programs offer free trials.
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It is scary. ::)
I only uploaded to FTM2014 as I wanted to completely edit my tree removing a lot of unnecessary people so that I could pass it on to my brother who has recently purchased the programme but is only interested in the 'closer' family. There is quite a lot of information that has not transferred over and it is also listing information out of date order.
I have previously done the same transferring PAF (gedcom) to rootsmagic with no problems on a couple of my OH's trees.
Rosie
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Yesterday evening I tried downloading trials of roots magic, my heritage, family historian, ancestral quest 14 and PAF, and imported a GEDCOM into them.
I don't have any notes about the first one, I'll try that again to see what happens. My heritage told me the GEDCOM file in its format could not be supported, family historian stated there were some issues, I wasn't sure what, I didn't understand the next one, and PAF had loads of errors.
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Hi Joy,
There are some topics about GEDCOM in the Reference Library
http://surname.rootschat.com/lexicon/reflib-lexicon.php?letter=G&lang=EN&input_form=0
but basically, it is a plain text file which is the standard interchange for various genealogy programs.
But ... and it is a big but ... some firms use a non-standard GEDCOM to enhance their own programs with stuff that isn't in standard, ... and to bind you to their product.
If you look at a GEDCOM file in an editor, you will see something like this:
0 HEAD
1 SOUR Legacy
2 VERS 7.5
2 NAME Legacy (R)
2 CORP Millennia Corp.
3 ADDR PO Box 9410
4 CONT Surprise, AZ 85374
1 DEST Gedcom55
1 DATE 22 Sep 2013
1 SUBM @S0@
1 FILE C:\Legacy\Data\ag-mm-02.ged
1 GEDC
2 VERS 5.5
2 FORM LINEAGE-LINKED
1 CHAR ANSI
0 @S0@ SUBM
1 NAME Not Given
0 @I9@ INDI
1 NAME Hanns /Margulies/
2 GIVN Hanns
2 SURN Margulies
1 SEX M
1 BIRT
2 DATE 27 Nov 1889
2 PLAC Sosnowice, (Russian-)Poland
1 DEAT
2 DATE 30 Mar 1960
2 PLAC London, England
1 _UID 37EE84C86B7142EEBBEF37DE17CA0B39619D
1 CHAN
2 DATE 9 Oct 2011
3 TIME 12:10
:
:
:
Note that most keys (in the 2nd. column) have 4 characters, and more important, _UID has an underline.
The underline is usually a sign that this is non-standard.
In this case it is an ID number that Legacy uses.
You could try making a copy of your GEDCOM file and then deleting all lines with a non-standard key and then see what it looks like in other programs.
BUT .... only do this with a COPY of the original GEDCOM file :)
Bob
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ps
this might give a clue:
1 DEST Gedcom55
The current version of GEDCOM is 5.5. Perhaps UFT has used an earlier version ?
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Thank you, Bob. My brain hurt just now :)
From memory, I could be wrong but I think it was 5.0. I shall have to have a look. It could be easier just to start all over again.
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I too started out with .paf5 and I still like it, but decided to move on when technical support ceased.
I went to Roots Magic 6 which is ok but takes some getting used to. It did however accept my .paf5
gedcom ok and may suit you to whittle down the tree for your brother.There is a very good 'drop and drag' facility whereby the screen splits into two halves side by side and you can move across the ancestors required to the new/modified tree.
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Sorry I didn't spot your post re rmg6 :-[
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Sorry, I can't see any way to identify if it is 5.0 or 5.5.
I have tried importing into roots magic again; all the names with births and deaths and biographical notes are there, but no marriages nor relationships to connect anyone.
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Are there options to tick/untick w :-[hen you create the gedcom?
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Sorry, I can't see any way to identify if it is 5.0 or 5.5.
I have tried importing into roots magic again; all the names with births and deaths and biographical notes are there, but no marriages nor relationships to connect anyone.
Have you been using the same GEDCOM file throughout? If so it might pay to start again and create a new one in UFT, making sure it is the standard format. I believe UFT has several options for GEDCOM exports, though it is many years since I used it.
I found this which might help: :-\
http://www.reuniontalk.com/showthread.php?t=4745
For what it's worth, I am a long-time user of RootsMagic (now on version 7) which I find covers all my needs. It took a little learning to get the best out of it, but it has many excellent features.
Mike.
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I cannot see anywhere to tick or untick.
We have a few GEDCOMs and have been using UFT for many years. We don't want anything complicated (getting older :) ).
Looking in UFT again, it looks as if the GEDCOM is 5.5.
I shall try Roots Magic again.
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Is there some form of tool bar to select 'options' on UFT before you send a Gedcom e.g. 'hide living'
'include notes' etc ?
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Is there some form of tool bar to select 'options' on UFT before you send a Gedcom e.g. 'hide living'
'include notes' etc ?
There may be, but I can't see it.
I have just tried again importing a GEDCOM into Roots Magic and, again, all the people are there with dates of birth, christening, death, burial etc and places of them, and with biographical notes, but they are not connected to anyone.
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So how do you create and export the Gedcom? Is it just a 'click here' type of thing?
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While in an open project, (from memory), click on save as, and there are options to save as a new project or a GEDCOM or a back up (sqz file, I think it is called).
It has to be something that I am doing incorrectly; there is an example GEDCOM in the UFT so I tried importing that one and it worked okay.
I have no idea what to do. :'(
I just cannot see any other way to save it.
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I have sent a message to Roots Magic Support to seek if they can help with the GEDCOM.
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Yesterday evening I tried downloading trials of roots magic, my heritage, family historian, ancestral quest 14 and PAF, and imported a GEDCOM into them.
I don't have any notes about the first one, I'll try that again to see what happens. My heritage told me the GEDCOM file in its format could not be supported, family historian stated there were some issues, I wasn't sure what, I didn't understand the next one, and PAF had loads of errors.
If none of the programs could successfully import it, but the example file was OK, I would say there is definitely something amiss with your GEDCOM file. Did you try creating a new one from scratch in UFT?
Mike.
P.S. Some of the free trial versions will only accept a limited number of people, but in that case they usually work but don't import all the individuals. I still think the GEDCOM file is corrupted somehow.
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Yesterday evening I tried downloading trials of roots magic, my heritage, family historian, ancestral quest 14 and PAF, and imported a GEDCOM into them.
I don't have any notes about the first one, I'll try that again to see what happens. My heritage told me the GEDCOM file in its format could not be supported, family historian stated there were some issues, I wasn't sure what, I didn't understand the next one, and PAF had loads of errors.
If none of the programs could successfully import it, but the example file was OK, I would say there is definitely something amiss with your GEDCOM file. Did you try creating a new one from scratch in UFT?
Mike.
P.S. Some of the free trial versions will only accept a limited number of people, but in that case they usually work but don't import all the individuals. I still think the GEDCOM file is corrupted somehow.
Thank you. I just tried a new file with a few imaginary people and then had the option of saving as GEDCOM in various ways ie 1.0 or 5 something, I think; I did the latter and it imported okay.
I feel even more worried now - how does one uncorrupt a GEDCOM, do you know, please?
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Thank you. I just tried a new file with a few imaginary people and then had the option of saving as GEDCOM in various ways ie 1.0 or 5 something, I think; I did the latter and it imported okay.
I feel even more worried now - how does one uncorrupt a GEDCOM, do you know, please?
You shouldn't need to keep working on the gedcom file unless you erased all of your original information (creating a gedcom file does not erase the information). With your data in UFT go back and create a new gedcom file and try importing that into your chosen program.
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Thank you. I just tried a new file with a few imaginary people and then had the option of saving as GEDCOM in various ways ie 1.0 or 5 something, I think; I did the latter and it imported okay.
I feel even more worried now - how does one uncorrupt a GEDCOM, do you know, please?
You shouldn't need to keep working on the gedcom file unless you erased all of your original information (creating a gedcom file does not erase the information). With your data in UFT go back and create a new gedcom file and try importing that into your chosen program.
Brilliant! Thank you very much. I have just done that and it worked!
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Glad you finally got it sorted out 8)
Whichever program you settle on, I'm sure you'll get plenty of help here while you're getting used to it.
Mike.
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Thank you.
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We decided to buy Roots Magic. Now comes the fun of trying to get used to something new. :)
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I'm sure you'll be fine One tip... it may just be me but...make sure you hit the save button when entering data/facts to a person. Sometimes I think data is going missing.."I'm sure I entered this person's facts?" only to realise I must not have hit the save button before moving on, for example, to add a note to a fact.