Opening Legacy 7 deluxe files in FTM 2010, Issues With Source Text & Images

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Russ Worthington on November 9, 2009 at 9:33am

Angelique:

To help sort this out, I will reply several times, each reply will be associated with a specific issue. Please reply to each of my replies so that we can sort this out.


1. Some images did transfer and some did not. Images associated with individuals seemed to transfer. Images associated with events, or sources etc. did not.

What Feature is used to allow you to Transfer your file from Legacy to Family Tree Maker? Is that a Legacy Feature?

Not sure how, specifically, what would work.

But, I do have a question:

Are ALL of your Media Items, that you have in Legacy, files in ONE Folder on your computer?

Thank you,

Russ

Permalink Reply by Angelique Abeare on November 9, 2009 at 10:14am

Hi Russ,

Thanks so much for your help :)

Once I installed the FTM 2010, and opened it the first time, there was a screen (new tree tab) that had an option to "import a tree from an existing file", so I chose that and located my Legacy file from there.

Good question about the folders for images, since that may be an issue. I am not sure how legacy "stores" my images and if the file I create makes a directory somewhere else with images such as FTM does. In my own hard drive, I have a genealogy folder, but the documents and images are split up within the folder for various items. The main split is between my maternal/paternal stuff, then everything is split up into folders again for marriage, birth, death records etc. It is odd that some of the files are attached to who they are supposed to be, but others in the same folder may not be and others from other folders did show up.

We'll figure it out :)

Ang

Permalink Reply by Russ Worthington on November 9, 2009 at 10:39am

Ang,

I would look for those files in your folders somewhere on your hard drive. Although Legacy MAY link to them. In previous versions of Family Tree Maker, and the Current versions, we are asked if we want to Link to the images. Most of us, for many reasons, would either Import File (from earlier versions) OR Copy the file from the Folder to the Media folder.

I use the Copy, so that I have at least 2 copies of the Media files. I want the best file I can have OUTSIDE of Family Tree Maker.

Thank you,

Russ

Permalink Reply by Russ Worthington on November 9, 2009 at 9:35am

Angelique,

2. Some images were showing more than 15 copies of the same file in the media tab. Even though ONE image was linked to ONE person, it somehow replicated. This happened with about 20 or so images. Deleting them was a challenge because I could not "select" all of the duplicated images at once and delete them; it was a one at a time job. Why can't more than one file be selected in the media for deletion?

There are two or three Media Tabs. Are you in the Media Work Space OR are you in the People Space, People Tab?

When you look at the 15 Copies, do they ALL have the SAME filename (Lower Right side of Image)?

Hope many files are in the Media Folder on your Hard Drive (please use Windows Explorer for this)?

Thank you,

Russ

Permalink Reply by Angelique Abeare on November 9, 2009 at 10:20am

Hi Russ,

I was in the Media Work Space where all the files are listed.

Yes, when selecting each photo, they all had the same filename.

When I checked the Media folder that was created by FTM when I started, the files were not duplicated in there, only in the program itself within the Media Work Space (fun huh?). LOL, I thought I could just get off easy by deleting any duplicates in there, but everything was fine there.

Ang

Permalink Reply by Russ Worthington on November 9, 2009 at 10:43am

Ang,

Thank you. Are each of the Images Thumbnails or another ICON?

How did you have these images linked in your Legacy file? Were the images linked to the PERSON or to a FACT?

I have only looked at Legacy, and the trial time expired, so I can't look at how it works.

Sorry,

Russ

Permalink Reply by Russ Worthington on November 9, 2009 at 9:44am

Angelique,

3. This next issue is going to be much harder for me to articulate, please bear with me. FTM first had to “locate” many of my images before I could see them. I figured that once I “located” one file, FTM would recognize the copies of the same image, but it did not. Since it was silly to “locate” all of the copied files since I only needed one of them, I just left them as magnifying glasses, but before deleting a group of these duplicated images, it was necessary to use the "locate" for the first and last images of a group so I could make sure I only deleted copies of that image. This would result in two thumbnails in the list of the same image, and the copies between them. However, if I then deleted the 2nd to last copy (leaving myself with the one image with a thumbnail, there are a few things that would happen:

1. Say I have a few images with similar file names, but they are part of a group of duplicated images and I use the feature to locate more than 1-2 (with thumbnail to be sure I am deleting the right one). If I try to delete files that have already been located and try to save one, something evil happens. I decided at first that I was just going to delete the copied files all together and just manually add anything that did not transfer (LOL, do I really need to do this?). However, when I selected the last "evil" image file of each group to delete it, I was COMPLETELY kicked out of the program and an exception was thrown. Why would having a thumbnail of more than one image and then deleting one of them cause the last file to 'lose' its thumbnail and completely shutdown the program? This is the only way I can explain what happened. There were no errors, just the shutdown and window stating an exception was thrown. I tried numerous times to open the program and delete the last images (of any that had copied so many times) but shutdown happened each time and the only way I got around this problem was to start over, and do what I did next:

b. This time after starting over transferring, I still had the 15+ copies of the same images but instead of "locating" more than one at a time, I "located" the first one of the group, and then assumed (hoped) all of the others were the same image (without previewing them through locating them). Then I deleted the rest of them (one by one) and saved the first one. Everything is hunky dory, no issues (as long as only ONE file is located in the group and no more). The only problem with this is assuming the rest of the unidentified/not yet located files are the same as the first one.


I think the issue may be in the Legacy to Family Tree Maker application. I don't know it, nor how it works.

What I do know, is that when Family Tree Maker 2008, 2009, 2010 open an Earlier Version of Family Tree Maker file, ALL of the images in that earlier version of the file are placed into ONE Media folder on the hard drive. Earlier versions of the program stored all of the images into the Main Family File, as part of that file. In 2010 the, you would have a Family File AND a Media Folder Media and all of the images would be in that folder.

This gets back to an earlier question as to where your media files were stored in Legacy. It sounds like Family Tree Make did try and my not have found those files.

Russ

Permalink Reply by Angelique Abeare on November 9, 2009 at 10:24am

I wonder if we can try something?

Would it work if I just added all the images I need from my HD straight to my Media folder that is associated with FTM? Or do they need to be added from within the program?

Then, from within the program I can attach them as needed to whomever.

Would that work?

Ang

Permalink Reply by Russ Worthington on November 9, 2009 at 10:51am

Ang,

I put a Copy if my Media file, in to the Media Folder, the Link to the image from within Family Tree Maker and the Person(s) to attach the image to.

Russ

Permalink Reply by Russ Worthington on November 9, 2009 at 9:51am

Angelique,

I then checked my sources. Gawd, how in the world do I explain THIS?

Ok, so I have sources that are things like "Michigan Marriages XXXX-XXXX" that might have 6-8 or so individuals attached with different "details" because each record was different. In Legacy when you attach a main source to an individual, there are options to provide specific source details. For example, the main source is the Michigan Marriages, but the details contain the individual’s record information. When I checked out my sources in FTM 2010, there are sources without titles listed in the list. When I check them out, I see they are "details" that FTM must have pulled from my "main" source. Does that even make any sense? For example, now in my source list, instead of having one source (such as the MM above) attached to different individuals, I now have about 20 odd entries with just things like "record #XXXX" because it only grabbed the details and not the whole source?

Additionally, I spent years of my life putting in the “text” of my sources into Legacy. However, the text for my sources from Legacy did NOT transfer? It seems that “some” sources have text, but most of my sources do not. What happened here?

Where are you looking? Are you in the Source Work Space? or are you looking at a Specific Person, and the FACT item with the Source-Citation for that fact/

Not knowing, for sure, where you are looking, I think that if you look at a People Work Space, Person Tab, Source-Citation you will see the notes. OR, the Source Work Space, and selecting the Specific Source-Citation for that individual, you should see the Notes in the RH Panel.

You need to be a little careful here, as each time you used that Michigan Marriage, you should see a Separate Source-Citation, due to the Notes that you entered.

Russ

Permalink Reply by Angelique Abeare on November 9, 2009 at 10:30am

Hi Russ,

I am in the Source work space (which is similar to Legacy) where they are listed and on the right you can see any text related to that source. I should have used a more specific example for this instance of the text not showing up for sources.

Say I have a bunch of books or long documents that I have as sources. I usually transcribe the document or relevant pages in the text area of the source. However, many of these sources have no text at all attached to them now?

Ang

Permalink Reply by Russ Worthington on November 9, 2009 at 10:58am

Ang,

I think that you might consider this:

Transcribe your information into the Notes section for that individual and make a reference to the Source of what you enter into the Notes Section.

Now, before you make any changes, you might want to look at HOW you use that information in Reports or Trees. If you have the details in the Source-Citation, then those details would be presented as EndNotes. In my case, those EndNotes might be pages away from the Individual in question. If I didn't read the EndNotes (Source-Citation information) I would miss that detail. Transcribing (Copy/Paste) from the Source-Citation notes, into the Notes, then I would Include these Notes in the Reports that I was generating.

To this user, I try to keep the Person's story in one place. Those documents or Notes, to me, are part of that persons story. I don't want the reader to have to go looking for in.

Only a thought. But, check to see how your information is Presented in Reports or Trees.

Russ