Your checklist makes very interesting reading Jerry! While I'm trying to keep a bit of an open mind about RM8 its hard not to wonder about what we might see!

I must admit a possible change to the structure of RTF output had not occurred to  me but I had wondered if as well as RTF we might see Open Document Format as an option given its now a native format in Word as well as the open source office suites.

Very high on my checklist though is how RM8 will handle Gedcoms!

How do you do a print screen in roots magic 7 and windows 10,  I keep trying to use the print screen button and it does not seem to work right.

I think you need to hold down the shift key and then press printscreen key to get a copy of the screen in your clipboard for pasting elsewhere.

Alternatively and perhaps better as it copies just the  area of the screen you want you might try try the Windows Snipping Tool - from the start menu select Windows Accessories and snipping tool is in that list. You can drag across just the area of the screen you want to copy and then save the resulting image to disc or paste it into a word processing document etc.

 

 

 

.  When you suggest network to share between my old and new laptop, do you mean just connect them via a USB cable???

Assuming you have both of your laptops connected to a broadband router at home (via network cables or wifi) you already have a 'home network' with both devices connected to it, sharing files across your network requires changing settings on the laptop you want  to copy files from - google can help with this - share folders on win 10  brings up lots of hits.

If as suggested above you already have access to the files you need via OneDrive it would seem easier to follow the suggestions others have made above.

Good luck!

Muppet81 wrote:-

I would love to go back to my old laptop. which is working fine, albeit neither my mouse nor any of the USB ports work since MS forced its recent update on me.  I would like to perhaps make a new backup, this time with data.  I can't as I cannot connect my external drive due to the USB ports not working.  

I don't have either a Dropbox or a Google Drive account.  

Feeling sick at the thought of having lost so many years of family research.  Now totally out of my depth and scared.

Most of the online storage accounts are free  up to a point (MS onedrive for example offers 5gb of free storage) so you might open an account with one of them and use that to copy between your 2 laptops or alternatively perhaps 'share' your old laptops hard drive (or relevant folders) on your home network so you can access them from your new laptop and copy the files you need - google turns lots of sites with instructions on how to share a folder in win 10

Good luck!

I've never had a facebook account and don't see that changing in the near future.

Much prefer this type of forum for RM and peer support.

Although a few years ago (perhaps Android is different now?) I tried to get a non JS 'website' of my research to run on an Android tablet without success - at that time lots of internet posts seemed to report the same problem. I suspect your tablet problem may be slightly different to JS websites not running from hard drive under windows in that Android does not support (or perhaps only  limited support)  running 'websites' on local storage.

I moved to using a windows 7 netbook or my data on USB stick when away on research trips so gave up trying to get something working on Android.

I would be interested to hear if things have changed.

Gramps, with the free add on, Network Chart  - has a fair stab at an 'everybody chart' which can be saved in .svg format to scroll around in a browser or .pdf. I don't think you can edit anything and its not anywhere  near as nice as the 'Ancestry view' Robert & Vyger mention but as its free you could have a play to see if it works for you.

It does, though it's a bit frustrating (not RMG's fault).  Does it mean that we've lost the ability to preview a web page, and must upload it to find out if it works?

 

I don't use RM's website option but I suspect the pre RM6 - plain HTML - website will work OK from hard drive, later version won't because of Java Script.

Personally I prefer website options from other software than RM and it may be worth you looking around to see if there is something that suits but is plain HTML? or accept you have to trial RM website online?  Not forgetting RM8 is on the way, perhaps there will be new alternatives  worth considering?

Hopefully somebody else can point you towards a solution for special characters.

This thread may answer the 'blank page' part of your question:-

http://forums.rootsm...rating-website/

I tried my browsers (Chrome, IE, Edge & FF) on a JS website on my hard drive although not produced by RM, only FireFox (69.0.2 64 bit)  worked, I don't remember changing any of its settings but I guess its possible.

 

My modest hope for RM8 is that it might be able to export GEDCOM and import the same GEDCOM back into itself without any data loss.

 

Jerry

I too would think that a welcome improvement :-) 

I do agree we need a much much better solution than just a minor gedcom update!!

Perhaps the 'elephant in the room' is, would we be happy if RM8 does not include any gedcom export at all? I don't think I would be and my previous comment was really intended as a friendly reminder to RM that data transfer is important to me and I expect to others, in truth I would be surprised if 5.5.5 ever appears in RM.

Any improvements in exporting / importing data to / from other programmes would be welcome. Sure this attempt at a 'better gedcom' is far from perfect, but perhaps a small step. I would have thought it has the advantage of being fairly easy to implement alongside existing gedcom so if implemented it would at least 'show willing' to let me transfer my data when I want to.

That said I won't be holding my breath and it would only be useful if other software adopts it as well -  so RM, please  be a leader on this one :-)

I don't use RM's web creation tool but I am aware the default settings in some browsers restrict javascript being run from files on hard drive for security reasons and I suspect this is the problem. You might try FireFox as I seem to remember this is a bit more tolerant or I suspect a google search would point you to the relevant settings in other browsers.

I was pointed to this site when talking about exchanging data between programmes in another thread -

https://github.com/OpenGenOrg/rosetta    unfortunately there does not seem to be any recent progress.

I should have been clearer in that I  expect 32 & 64 bit versions of RM8 for Windows, still a lot of older  PC's out there who's users might want to buy (or have perhaps already pre bought?) a copy of RM8,  but I take your point Jerry and in truth I will most likely only ever use a 64 bit copy, but there may still be one or two users out there who will be disappointed.

 

The RM7 software is installed in C:\Program Files (x86)\RootsMagic 7\ because it's a 32  bit application. RM8 will be installed in C:\Program Files\RootsMagic 8 because it will be a 64  bit application. Well, I assume the lowest level folder name will be RootsMagic 8, but it has to be a folder under Program Files rather than under Program Files (x86) because it's 64 bit. So there is no conflict with the software installation.

 

Are we sure yet that RM8 for Windows will be 64bit only?     Windows 10 32 bit  still seems to be supported, I just sort of assumed there would be versions for both depending on your OS?

Left sidebar is a common feature on many modern genealogy programs and leaves the top row available for the standard mac menu items and a row of icons. It is great that you can collapse it once you learn the icons and use only a thin strip of the screen.

 

I've only had a quick glance at the blog post but of course noticed the left side bar, my 1st impression was that it is a little like the latest version of Gramps, perhaps this is a trend forming?

I too would like to see this!

I have wished for an option to exclude media from output, both would be very useful :-)

On a side note, I've not yet linked the scans of certificates I have to the database at the moment. I wanted to ensure that I created a stable/organised file structure for everything I was going to add by way of certificates - directory for Birth, Bann, Education, Marriage, Death certificates etc etc.

As I mentioned above RM does not presently allow you to select which images are exported or published if for example you create an online tree, website or book and there may be copyright issues to consider, I too have Scottish ancestry so am mindful of the restrictions ScotlandsPeople places on reproduction of their images, and sadly this has been a consideration in which certificates I link directly to the database and which I just transcribe.

I too like to create a full picture of individuals and also add lots of 'extra images' to peoples records, it all adds to their story :-)

I too am keen to fill in many of those missing certificates and doing so where I can but without breaking the bank!

I think there may be a side point about media exist / not exist searches, I have lots attached as you would expect but in some cases I have a document but its not attached to the database because I believe I don't have permission to publish it - I gather a 'tick box' to include or exclude individual  media items in any export is on the enhancement list - so the suggested searches might not work as I would want at present but perhaps that wished for tick box will surface in RM8?

Its another area where I need to improve my recording but a little bit of help from RM would be nice as well :-)

Linux was touched on in this thread http://forums.rootsmagic.com/index.php?/topic/19033-rootsmagic-linux/?hl=linux  including a note of somebody using RM under Linux / Wine

I fully echo Jerry's enthusiasm for GedSite.  I have tried many times to use RM's built-in webite generators but - even with my (admittedly limited!) abilities with HTML - I have not found them capable of producing satisfactory results.  GedSite works very well with RM files and produces a range of different pages that can be customised to suit different needs.  The help facility gives useful assistance and guidance and there are a number of example sites to give a flavour of what can be done.  That said, many like me, will benefit from careful attention to that help and some experimentation to achieve the look you want.  I have found that this is the most satisfactory way to produce a readily usable (and easily update-able) output of your genealogical data (which can incorporate images and other media items) - either as a website or for distribution on a USB drive.

 

Perhaps RM8 will eventually incorporate similar functionality.  But, rather than reinvent the wheel, it would probably be better ensure  close compatibility between the two products.

I'm sure somebody will correct this if wrong but I'm under the impression RM is dropping website creation (in RM8 ?) except on its own servers, so compatibility with 3rd party products would seem to be the best option for the foreseeable future.

Thank you for the Gedcom info KFN, nice to know its supported, I guess the next step is a few trials on a test database as time permits, it would be nice to improve my records in this area!

Hi Jerry

Thank you for you detailed thoughts! I kind of thought there would have to be pitfalls (as there is with my current approach) so there is a lot to consider but I would like to improve on my current approach, so this is a good prompt to re look at things.

I also have situations relating to informal and formal adoption, name changes, child keeping birth name or even switching between to two, seemingly at random!

Our ancestors had so little consideration for those who now  record their lives :-)