After the import I had very few things that into comment fields that I didn't want there or that couldn't be easily edited. I just wondered if anyone knew why things like the two examples I gave stayed in the Place field. I guess not. I'm happily working with Legacy now and I hope that I don't have to continue to hear complaints about FTM.
Tom On 8/29/07, Leon Chapman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Thomas: > > These all come from the data that you entered into FTM. FTM does not > have the ability to keep track of locations in a structured format > like Legacy, hence, an FTM user is forced to enter all kinds of text > into what normally would be a location field (city, county, state, > country). The bad part of FTM, the user doesn't even know about this > unless a complete report for everyone is printed out and reviewed in > detail to find these little errors. > > Legacy trys to take its best shot at converting locations from FTM, > but it all depends on how rigorous the FTM user was in enter the > original data -- normally not very good is what I have found. > > If you have lots of things going into comment fields, you may want to > go back and edit your FTM GEDCOM with a text editor to correct these > fields to a standard GEDCOM location field and then import it into > Legacy. Otherwise, you will have to edit within Legacy one person at > a time. > > This may serve as some incite into the problem of GEDCOM transfers. > GEDCOM transfers are never perfect -- the current standard is based on > the original 1985 version which was geared for LDS submissions. The > most current version is 5.5 and was putblished in 1996 - that is about > 11 years old and in the software business and computer business, 18 > months is about the half life before a greatly improved version is > available - look at FTM - it is updated about yearly, so is Legacy. > The bottom line with GEDCOM transfers, you can expect something like > about 90% export of information and about 70-80% success on import. > > Legacy proabably does the best job of importing a GEDCOM. I have > found if you want to truely be compatible between software programs > and rely on GEDCOM transfers between those programs, then you should > only use about four fields: Birth, Death, Marriage, & Burial. > Normally the Notes field will also transfer OK, but with problems of > blanks in words -- most of the newer versions of software have solved > the word split issues of a few years ago. > > FTM has been the one of the worst softwares for importing and > exporting GEDCOM information correctly. They know about their problems > (they have been reported numerous times to them) and choose not to fix > their bugs - that is one of the major reasons I left FTM - they do not > listen to their users for correcting their software - they just > release a new version and charge a retail price for each new version. > The most recent release of FTM is based upon a complete rewrite of > FTM, so one can expect major bugs until they have about 2-3 more > releases - which in FTM's case, that will be 2-3 years and correspond > to new versions and more $$ for the user. > > Ok, I have over extended my FTM comments. > > Leon Chapman > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > On 8/29/07, Thomas Herson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Now that the problems of spaces in words imported from FTM has been > > solved, I'm left with correcting the comment/location items. This time > > when I imported the GedCom I opted to "Move All Comments To The Event > > Description Field." This worked great as it put things like Catholic, > > Laborer, City Directory entries, Social Security numbers in the > > Description field, rather than the Place field. In the Place field it > > left locations and I now need to enter missing countys and add USA to > > the end of each location in the United States. > > > > I am curious about the rationale that Legacy used to move non-location > > (mostly) information from the Place to the Description fields. It left > > things such as the following in the Place field: > > > > "Adopted by Timothy and Catherine Cross of Elmira" > > "Ashes Scattered in A Lake Near Trinidad, Texas, In Hawaii, And On A > > Ski Slope In Colorado" [My Texas relatives have an unusual notion > > about burial, which I think is wonderful] > > > > I am wondering why things like this were left in the Place field. The > > number of things like this is extremely minimal, but I'm curious as to > > why it happened. > > > > Again, thanks for all everyone's help! > > > > Tom > > > > > > Have you unlocked the real power of Legacy? Legacy 6.0 Deluxe has 92 > > features not found in the Standard Edition. Learn more about these features > > at http://legacyfamilytree.com/DeluxeEdition.asp. > > > > Legacy User Group guidelines can be found at: > > http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Etiquette.asp > > > > To find past messages, please go to our searchable archives at: > > http://www.mail-archive.com/legacyusergroup@legacyfamilytree.com/ > > > > For online technical support, please visit > > http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Help.asp > > > > To unsubscribe please visit: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/LegacyLists.asp > > > > > > > > > -- > Leon Chapman > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > ----- > > > Have you unlocked the real power of Legacy? Legacy 6.0 Deluxe has 92 features > not found in the Standard Edition. Learn more about these features at > http://legacyfamilytree.com/DeluxeEdition.asp. > > Legacy User Group guidelines can be found at: > http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Etiquette.asp > > To find past messages, please go to our searchable archives at: > http://www.mail-archive.com/legacyusergroup@legacyfamilytree.com/ > > For online technical support, please visit > http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Help.asp > > To unsubscribe please visit: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/LegacyLists.asp > > > Have you unlocked the real power of Legacy? Legacy 6.0 Deluxe has 92 features not found in the Standard Edition. Learn more about these features at http://legacyfamilytree.com/DeluxeEdition.asp. Legacy User Group guidelines can be found at: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Etiquette.asp To find past messages, please go to our searchable archives at: http://www.mail-archive.com/legacyusergroup@legacyfamilytree.com/ For online technical support, please visit http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Help.asp To unsubscribe please visit: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/LegacyLists.asp
