Vyger

And not only that, since the matching and merging is automatic, there are not even any good traces of where the differences are that you need to reconcile. I therefore quickly abandoned ShareMerge as a good idea that was poorly implemented.

In my opinion the Rootsmagician will be remembered like many of the great composers of the past, not for his completed works but more for his growing number of unfinished symphonies.

Having said that I do find great time saving benefits with Sharemerge for different reasons than Jerry which I may well demonstrate when I return from vacation.

The problem with finishing those numerous previous and much heralded features is there is no commercial benefit in doing so, only pride in the product could drive that objective. I have been with Family Origins/Rootsmagic long enough to remember the days when every "why can't I..." question was eventually met by "now you can..." if the user need was a valid one. Sadly my observation of Rootsmagic in the recent years is to release such unique selling point features but never bring them to maturity following user feedback, this is a disappointing regression in development strategy.

In regards to this recurring topic of multiple updates and "syncing" to Ancestry, which I would never use, I now believe the following should be the goal to attempt to please all users with interest;

1. Button to Sync All Changes followed by optional direction selection of RM>Ancestry, Ancestry>RM or Both, and, as a disclaimer, I would follow any such selections with a dialogue warning users of the implications of their actions.

2. Button to Sync Selected where several individuals could be selected for update with the same follow on selections and warning.

Like the many previous unfinished symphonies I would doubt there is much commercial advantage in finishing this one. I'm truly sorry to be a cynic and post negativity but my confidence in the pride and desire of Rootsmagic to deliver a complete and quality product has been severely dented over the last ~10 years.

All above are my personal opinions only.

Hello,

 

I did the auto-clean for names, addresses, and dates to conform them.  But now when I go to sync the changes to my Ancestry tree, I have to manually tell it to update each fact for each person on multiple lines.  Am I missing something, or is this legitimately going to take months to sync what took minutes to fix?

There is currently no way to update multiple entries and just to state RM does not sync with Ancestry, it shares information.

Rootsmagic is my primary platform especially for the utilities you describe so when I make many changes I often just delete the Ancestry tree and then upload the new cleaned up tree, the downside is you upset the accepted/rejected hints.

Is it worth saving the $20 upgrade charge? RM8 will change the database structure from what RM6 and RM7 use.

 

Don't know about an u/g video...

Upgrade is a very simple process, see this for what is new in RM7

Rootsmagic have been very good in in the past by offering a free upgrade to anyone buying close to a new release window afaik, but none of us know if we are close to RM8 release and I doubt RM will even talk about the possibility for fear of anticipation and frenzy

Thanks for the link - very good overview

 

I get the "don't change file names outside of RM" stuff. But sometimes it makes sense if properly done to protect the links.

 

Also, off subject a bit, but the video talks about RM not having tools for comparing your RM media directory with your RM media gallery. I've found a way around this by downloading a multimedia list from RM, and a list of the directory contents from my PC. Then I import those to Excel. I tag the source of each item in the lists, and then I can sort the data. This gives you the ability to see something that is in one vs the other. Kind of crude but very easy to do. The items identified as orphans can then be handled appropriately.

 

Thanks again

Thank you,

Took me a while to find it but there is a download link to an old Excel based VBA workbook on the page below which judging by the content may be 10 years old, since then the routine has evolved into a personal workbook to suit my own needs. It should still be perfectly functional as it simply compared a Multimedia List report to the the contents of a chosen folder and it's subs producing an unmatched list, you might be able to make use of it.

http://www.vyger.co....ry-collections/

 I have very few common stones that list more than two names - a few, but not many.

You are very lucky, I think my record is 15and as you know I use Place Details, the association with that plot (memorial) are important indicators in many ways hence one of the reasons I keep banging on about the missing Place Details PRINT button. Customs and practicalities vary country to country and whilst the burials I have visited in USA appear to be side by side in UK & Ireland burials are stacked so maybe 12 in a double plot.

GPS the site - YES

Inscription in Citation - Logically YES

All contained in one Burial Fact - again logically YES

I say this as citation is searchable and I can't see me repeatedly wanting to print or exclude Notes in Narrative reports. Saying that I haven't always employed what I think is logical as I also want top level visibility of the Media or Text existence.