37 replies to this topic

[mmurosky]

You people are scaring us. RM has plenty of issues.

We're evaluating other softwares as well.

Maybe you guys should try FTM... and then join us in wishing Ancestry would sell it to someone to continue. It's not "the #1 selling genealogy program" for nothin'.

 

Hi Rob p - I am also in the same situation as an FTM user. Did you end up making any final decisions regarding a software package? 

[CLMartin]

I am trying to get on every forum topic here to ask if anyone knows answers to these questions:

 

(1) Media dates and description do not transfer from FTM2014 to RM7.  Ugh!!!

 

(2) Event fields are truncated to 67 characters when transferred.  Really Big Ugh!!!

 

(3) Unless you put everything in FTM2014 sources into the Citation Detail in RM7, you have to go popping everywhere to find the Citation Text, and Web addresses aren't transferred at all. I can handle cutting and pasting A LOT of source information in FTM2014 into just the Citation Detail, but that's a lengthy process.

 

Thanks for your help on any of the above questions!

[Vyger]

I am trying to get on every forum topic here to ask if anyone knows answers to these questions:

 

(1) Media dates and description do not transfer from FTM2014 to RM7.  Ugh!!!

 

(2) Event fields are truncated to 67 characters when transferred.  Really Big Ugh!!!

 

(3) Unless you put everything in FTM2014 sources into the Citation Detail in RM7, you have to go popping everywhere to find the Citation Text, and Web addresses aren't transferred at all. I can handle cutting and pasting A LOT of source information in FTM2014 into just the Citation Detail, but that's a lengthy process.

 

Thanks for your help on any of the above questions!

 

I would hope Rootsmagic respond to you and other possible FTM customers.

 

Everything can be transferred it's just a matter of RM doing the conversion on import. You should find a .LST file in the same folder ad your RM database, open it in a text editor and see what problems RM has reported on the input process.

 

Should I assume you did a direct import rather than a gedcom transfer?

 

Post as much information as possible, RM support should be very interested in making the transition from FTM to RM as smooth as possible for all those who are interested.

[CLMartin]

I am reposting some questions made on other forum topics here and definitely have question regarding media. They transfer just fine to FM7, but....

 

Problems with FTM2014 gedcom to RM7:

 

(1)  No Media dates or descriptions transfer. This would be very time-consuming to edit each one in RM7.

 

(2)  Event fields are truncated to 67 characters (including spaces). This would not be impossible to copy and paste into RM7, but I think I’d be dead and memorialized on Find A Grave before I could get it done.

 

(3)  If you want to see your citations all in one place without popping around, you have to transfer your Citation Text to Citation Detail. And you still don’t get the Web Address, so have to copy and paste that into the Citation Text also.  I could deal with this and probably will have to.

 

Help with any or all of the above would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

[rob p]

 

I would hope Rootsmagic respond to you and other possible FTM customers.

 

Everything can be transferred it's just a matter of RM doing the conversion on import. You should find a .LST file in the same folder ad your RM database, open it in a text editor and see what problems RM has reported on the input process.

 

Should I assume you did a direct import rather than a gedcom transfer?

 

 

 

1) I hope RM responds, too.

2) My .LST file is 8200 items!!! mostly related to my comments below.

3) I'll repeat what's been said here before: RM DOES NOT "direct import" from FTM, except 2006 & earlier.

 

These are shortcomings that could be lived with:

NO Name Fact, or at least Sources for "Person" in lieu of a fact. (see forum topic http://forums.rootsm...ugee-name-fact/)

Media Management - I don't know where to start this description. RM is totally unacceptable here.

NO Tree View - see forum topic, http://forums.rootsm...6001-tree-view/

 

But these, however are show-stoppers for me:

Media Date and Description do not transfer.

Event fields are truncated to 67 characters.

NO Weblinks for Source Citations go over. (Unfortunately for me, I have many source citations where I depended on the web link to display the information and images - Find-a-Grave citations, for instance.)

[Renee Zamora]

It is not helpful for me to monitor this when the same discussions are all over the forums. I am moving all FTM Import discussion and issues to the RM Discussion forum. Please try to keep the same topic on one thread. Thank you.

[TomH]

 

These are shortcomings that could be lived with:

NO Name Fact, or at least Sources for "Person" in lieu of a fact. (see forum topic http://forums.rootsm...ugee-name-fact/) Maybe the RootsMagician will address this longstanding problem. Until then, you can use my SQLite script or my RMtrix utility from Citations Invisible Revealed

Media Management - I don't know where to start this description. RM is totally unacceptable here. Agreed. 7.0.9.0 at least now makes citation media visible in the Media Album for a person.

NO Tree View - see forum topic, http://forums.rootsm...6001-tree-view/ I would not hold my breath waiting for this.

 

But these, however are show-stoppers for me:

Media Date and Description do not transfer. Does FTM export or RM ignore?

Event fields are truncated to 67 characters. That may be FTM's fault on export. RM 7.0.9.0 now puts longer values into the Note

NO Weblinks for Source Citations go over. (Unfortunately for me, I have many source citations where I depended on the web link to display the information and images - Find-a-Grave citations, for instance.)  Now imported by 7.0.9.0

[Vyger]

Event fields are truncated to 67 characters.

NO Weblinks for Source Citations go over. (Unfortunately for me, I have many source citations where I depended on the web link to display the information and images - Find-a-Grave citations, for instance.)

 

TomH has addressed this and I also find this is difficult to understand without seeing a FTM gedcom export fior a dummy person containing these items.

 

Whilst RM CONC's about 72 characters on gedcom export it will accept a continous string of 255 characters on import.

[kbens0n]

 

TomH has addressed this and I also find this is difficult to understand without seeing a FTM gedcom export fior a dummy person containing these items.

 

Whilst RM CONC's about 72 characters on gedcom export it will accept a continous string of 255 characters on import.

 

will accept a continous string of 255 characters (inclusive of the 4 characters in the tag name CONC and the 1 space character that delimits the text to be concatenated) on import.

 

FTFY ,'o)

[Vyger]

 

will accept a continous string of 255 characters (inclusive of the 4 characters in the tag name CONC and the 1 space character that delimits the text to be concatenated) on import.

 

FTFY ,'o)

 

Exclusive of the 5 characters you mention, in other words 255 characters of continuous Note

 

FTFY

[TomH]

What is FTFY, FTLOG? Iirc, RootsMagic does not care how long the GEDCOM line is so the value for an EVEN tag can be very long. But RM does not support the event value being spread over multiple CONT and CONC lines. On export, unless there has been a change, event Description is truncated at the 100th character which seems logically inconsistent.

[Vyger]

What is FTFY, FTLOG? Iirc, RootsMagic does not care how long the GEDCOM line is so the value for an EVEN tag can be very long. But RM does not support the event value being spread over multiple CONT and CONC lines. On export, unless there has been a change, event Description is truncated at the 100th character which seems logically inconsistent.

 

Well I took FTFY to be the most popular acronym meaning, what else could I take it to be look at Kevins signature, I don't think it's code.

 

Anyway, looking back at the original post of rob p and your reply I may have misunderstood whether the reference was to truncating of the Note or Event name.

 

Anyway, all good fun and learning, enjoy the holidays.

[Renee Zamora]

On export, unless there has been a change, event Description is truncated at the 100th character which seems logically inconsistent.

 

7.0.9.0 - 17 December 2015
Fixed: Importing GEDCOM from FTM with long fact descriptions will put the description into the fact note rather than just truncate it

[TomH]

 

7.0.9.0 - 17 December 2015
Fixed: Importing GEDCOM from FTM with long fact descriptions will put the description into the fact note rather than just truncate it

The logical inconsistency within RootsMagic is that it can import long single line EVEN values but clips them at 100 chars when it exports.

 

The truncation we were seeing on import of EVEN tags from FTM was that FTM was extending the EVEN value with CONT and CONC tags/lines which is questionable GEDCOM practice and which RootsMagic ignored; it was not because RM was truncating the value on the EVEN line. Now, 7.0.9.0 elects to put this extended value in the event Note on the inference that the use of such tags is due to a long value.

[kbens0n]

 

Exclusive of the 5 characters you mention, in other words 255 characters of continuous Note

 

FTFY

 

This states INCLUSIVE

 

http://wiki-en.genea...COM/Field_Sizes

 

The total length of a GEDCOM line, including level number, cross-reference number, tag, value, delimiters, and terminator, must not exceed 255 ( wide ) characters

[Vyger]

 

This states INCLUSIVE

 

http://wiki-en.genea...COM/Field_Sizes

 

The total length of a GEDCOM line, including level number, cross-reference number, tag, value, delimiters, and terminator, must not exceed 255 ( wide ) characters

 

Practice makes perfect

[TomH]

Iirc, the GEDCOM spec has a qualifying statement that 255 may be exceeded but developers are advised that much software, especially old software, was constrained by technology of the day to 255. I ran a test years ago that proved RM handles much wider lines on import, far beyond anything that one could practically edit in the Description field; I never did find the limit.

 

The continuing issue is the 100 char limit on export. TMG has a choice between 248 characters or around 70 for the value.

[Vyger]

One thing I'm not sure about with Vyger's spreadsheet to GEDCOM to RM approach is the entry of source and citation data along with their associated media. Because of the deep layering of the interface to sources and citations, entry of sources and citations can take lot longer than the basic entry of dates and places for events.

 

Jerry, I just uploaded another video and some source examples are towards the end. The explanation is citation centric and if memory serves this may not exactly suit your style although the method would be easily modified.