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Genealogica Grafica: What's the problem? (FAQ)

13 Nov 2010

Covered in this document:

• Introduction
   

• I can't edit my Home link

• Names don't show in chart

• Suppressed names still show

• Names broken incorrectly

• Labels cover each other

• Not all generations show up

• Children not shown with their birth years

• Report is (nearly) empty

• I don't want NOTEs in my report

• Stillborn child has a life-line in timeline chart

• Report does not show children
   

• There's no frames page

• There's no report page

• Name index is missing
   

• It says 'married' but they were living together

• The report spelling is sometimes incorrect

• Gedcom check: FAM or CHILD out of order

• Dates are not recognized

• License required

• Why does it want to export settings?
   

• My web doesn't display special characters correctly

• I work with several tableaus and want them similar

• My language is not included

• I want two languages

• Can I automate the production?

Genealogica Grafica is now so rich in features that an incidental user may get lost. We list here answers to 'problems' that have been reported.

Note that the program's Help will give more and more relevant answers. In any window you can press F1 to get dedicated help.

Your chart shows empty boxes.

This means that the name has been suppressed. Suppression can be achieved in two ways: manually and automatically. Yo do manual suppression and un-suppression by right-clicking in the box while in the 'edit tabsheet'. Automatic suppression is a result of privacy rules. Go to menu Layout - Privacy rules and see if you have specified a rule that will suppress some persons (for instance the living persons).

Their details in the report will be minimum. You can still show their name, birth date and sex by clicking the appropriate boxes halfway the Privacy window. Such a choice applies to everybody who you have suppressed (manually an automatically).

Note that suppressed persons show in gray in the edit tab if their box is empty in the HTML output.

You have suppressed some names in the 'edit tabsheet' but the HTML still reveals them.

This is the result of a 'relaxation' you have specified for the suppression. Go to menu Layout - Privacy rules and see if you have checked the name box in the middle of the window.

It implies that details of persons will be suppressed in the report but that their name will still show up (in the report as well as in the chart). You can click the choice off but beware that it applies to everybody you you have suppressed (manually and automatically). There is no way to suppress one person different from another.

In the 'HTML tabsheet' the Frames page shows a browser error (file not found).

This implies that no frames page was produced. That must be because you do not need one. This is the case when you integrate the report text into the tableau or display tableau and text in the same html window.

Go to menu Layout - Tableau layout and select the left-most tab. The left-bottom panel allows you to select how to combine tableau and report.

The labels (Home, Info, color boxes for the sexes, etc.) in a tableau cover each other.

Pick a label with the left mouse button and move it to where you want it. (With the right mouse you can edit them.)

The gedcom error report claims that my FAMs or children are out of order, but that is wrong.

First of all: it is only a warning. Secondly, it will not show up in the reports because Genealogica Grafica takes care to correct the right order. Thirdly: you can click the warnings off in menu Options - Gedcom checks (rightmost tab).

The problem is caused by the program that produced the gedcom. It follows the gedcom standard to the letter, meaning that it does not have to care about the order in which FAMs and CHILdren are recorded. But in practice this leads to problems when marriage or birth dates are unknown while you know the order from different information. If Genealogica Grafica does not put marriages in the right order then there is most likely no way in which that order can be established from the gedcom data.

The gedcom error report claims that certain dates can not be recognized.

This is most likely the result of non-standard abbreviations for the months. Genealogica Grafica will recognize the default names (such as "MAR" for March and "ABT" for About). But when your gedom writes out the names or uses other abbreviations (eg. "MRT" for March, "CIRCA" for About) then you must tell it what to do.

Go to menu - Options - Gedcom date Xlation. In the left-most tab you can enter spellings for months in your gedcom. In the middle tab you can do the same for the date comparison operators.

Once you have done this it is wise to save your settings and restart. You have to be aware that the same gedcom will not be re-read if you try to open it. So to be sure: leave Genealogica Grafica and start anew. It will apply your date rules when reading the gedcom.

There is a mix-up between given names, surname and prepositions.

In particular: some prepositions are treated as part of the given names or part of the surname. Was the componist called "Johann" "von Beethoven" or "Johann Von" "Beethoven"?

Genealogica Grafica keeps a list of strings that must be interpreted as preposition. If in the example "von" is in that list, "Von" will not be treated as a given name. There may be several prepositions in a row. Their capitalization is tricky. When the whole word is in capitals, it will be transformed to lower case. If only the first letter is Upper case, it will be kept that way. Go to menu Layout - Name display (left-most tab) and add/remove prepositions in the list.

It appears that boxes for the later generations are missing.

You can specify the number of generations to be shown in a chart. This is particularly usefull when a 'tree' becomes too full when left to automatic selection of the number of generations.

Go to menu Layout - Tableau layout (left-most tab) and change the number of generations to show to "Auto".

There is no report OR
The reprt does list the names, but that is about all.

You must have specified that the report shouldn't contain anything.

In menu Layout - Tableau layout consider how you want to combine report and tableau. If you want them 'integrated' then no textual report will be produced. The text will appears in the tableau's pop-ups.

Go to menu Layout - Report layout (left-most tab) and click on the sections that you want to be included. On the next tab, check how detailed you want to report on certain aspects.

I've seen reports with a list of children per family, but it doesn't show up.

Go to menu Layout - Report layout (left-most tab) and click on the Children section. On the next tab, check how detailed you want to report on their birth/death dates.

The frames page has a tableau and a report, but no names index.

Go to menu Layout - Report layout (left-most tab) and click on the bottom checkbox.

The tableau or report report says "License required".

As of V1.23 a license key is no longer required for the advanced functions. Download the latest version.

GG asks "Do you want to export your settings?"

Genealogica Grafica will suggest this when you have made a change to parameters that have to do with the phrasing of your report. That will be the case when you have changed or added a FAM relation type or when you have modified a phrase or a 'language rule'.

The idea is that you will want to incorporate these changes in your other tableaus as well. (It knows about all the tableaus listed under Recent files.)

We recommend that you do the export but make sure to exclude files that relate to reports in another language.

The report does not (or wrongly) distinguish between married and other types of relationship.

The translation from gedcom to a readable report in your own language is complex. There are two main issues:

• how does the gedcom represent special forms of relationship?

• how would you like to phrase these relationships?

But first of all, check that you have not turned off advanced phrasing in menu Layout - Report layout (Information depth tab). If the middle section says that you want all phrases based on eg. Marriage, then that is what Genealogica Grafica will do.

Life is a lot easier if someone else has done the pre-work. Go to menu Files - Import parameters. Click FAM types and phrases, clcik Merge with exixting values and then Defaults. This will add to your relationship definitions the ones that have come standard with the last download.

Ask in a newsgroup if there is someone who uses the same program you use to create the gedocm. He/she may have definitions for the various relation forms (living together, lived together, common law, etc). You can then import them in the same way, but using Browse rather than Defaults. If you can't get help, send us a gedcom and indicate a person for each type of special relationship.

Also making the phrasings is quite a lot of work. Here we can't help you: you must find someone who is native in your own language.

There is a whole section about this subject here.

The report lists the children of a marriage, but without birth years.

Go to menu Layout - Report layout (information depth tab) and check the appropriate box.

I click on the Home link but it doesn't allow me to change the URL.

You must have been trying in the 'HTML  tab sheet'. You can edit the labels in the 'Edit tab sheet' by right-clicking on them.

My report is full of Polish-type characters and they don't come out well.

This is not a subject we are experts in. For some non-Western languages you need to inform the browser that your html uses a special way of formating the characters.

You will have to find out which character set to use and tell Genealogica Grafica via menu Layout - Report layout (General data) in the HTML charset edit.

The HTML reports contain NOTE fields. OR I see NOTEs and they won't go away.

In the mouse-over pop-ups NOTEs will be shown when you are in 'Nearby family' or 'Edit' tab sheets. This is just a display of what is in the gedcom for the person.

In the HTML report NOTEs will only be included if you wish to. Turn then on/off via menu Layout - Report layout (left-most tab).

A 'stillborn' child should not have any horizontal line in a timeline chart.

If such a life-line is shown this means that Genealogica Grafica has not recognized the stillborn aspect. This may depend on how the condition is recorded in your gedcom.

We've seen cases where the condition is just in plain text in the name field. You can tell Genealogica Grafica to look for a relevant string in any field, such as 'Lifeless' in the NAME.

Go to menu Options - INDI conditions and specify the relevant string and in which field it can be found.

"Fils de Anne" should be "Fils d'Anne"
"Né a le Mans" should be "Né au Mans"

"Overleden te op zee" should be "Overleden op zee", etc

These are cases where the normal rules for insertion of a name or place in a report phrase (like "born at @place") must cope with special spelling rules. These rules can be specified via menu Options - Spelling rules.

Genealogica Grafica will consider these rules after it has put together a report sentence. A rule has the format "if you find this" = "then use this". The left side of the "=" sign must contain a blank around which the rule focusses. To the left of that blank will be the end of one word to look for and to the right of it the beginning of the next word. Thus to prevent "de Anne" the rule would be "de A=d'A". Similar rules are then needed for "de E=d'E", etc. The 'le Mans' example asks for "a le=au" and the last (Dutch) example could be "te op=op".

The matrix to the left in the specification window shows for what combinations of 'end-letter, blank, begin-letter' there are rules defined.

I want all my tableaus to have the same look and feel.

Genealogica Grafica provides two mechanisms for the harmonization of tableaus: import and export of parameters. They serve different purposes.

Menu Files - Import parameters offers you a way of copying settings from another tableau. You can select which parameters you would like to copy. It is basically provided for the situation that you start with a new tableau, which you'd like to base on another one. But the import works also later in the tableau's life.

Menu Files - Export parameters will be called automatically when you leave a tableau while you have made changes to the way you treat the language dependent settings. These settings are then copied to all known other tableaus (unless you click them off). This is a means to make sure that changes in your definitions for gedcoms, language, etc. stay harmonized across all your tableaus.
Language dependent settings are:

• gedcom FAM definitions (see options)

• gedcom INDI conditions (options - from V0.99.9)

• date and place formats (options and layout)

• language phrases (options)

• spelling rules (options)

In the User Preferences I can't find my language.

That means that nobody yet has translated the User Interface. More problematic though is when you don't have report phrases in your language.

The User Interface language consists of all the static labels on the forms and all the dynamic messages the program uses to communicate with the user. Anybody can make a new UI. Go to menu Options - User preferences and select the language you want as a basis. Then, from the form's menu select New Language. Translating the labels will be easy since you can ask to show their context. Translating the messages is harder, since the context may be hard to guess. If so, make a note and send the files to us for comment.

You do not need a UI in your language if you just want to have the tableaus and reports in your language. All the tableau labels can be edited on-screen. And since they are saved in your parameters file, you can re-use them and share them with others.

The same is true for all the report phrases. This may be a bit of a job, but all the originals are already there in the language of your choice. The principal work is in menu Options - Report phrases. And thereafter you go through the other options and layout windows to check for other language-dependent strings.

Once you have a base set, we can include it in the distribution set, with or without a corresponding User Interface.

I have a tableau in Dutch and want it in English as well.

All the report texts are language dependent. There are default phrases for every language supported. So, changing the UI language will change the report accordingly and that's what you'll have to do.

In detail:

1. Create a new directory where you can save the parameters and where the output sub-directories will be placed.

2. Start with your existing language. Save the parameters in the newly created directory.

3. Change the User Interface language to the one you want for the new report (Options - User preferences).

4. Import the defaults for Language Rules, and FAM types and phrases and Date and Place formats via Files - Import parameters. Make sure you overwrite the existing settings rather than merge them. You now have the original tableau/report with new language phrases.

5. Set the program interface back to your working language.

You need to check that there are phrases defined for all the FAM types you use. Go to Options - Report phrases and walk through all the relation types. Basically, click on every field with a 'x' in the 3x3 top-right matrix. The 'x' implies that the gedcom contains such a situation and a phrase must be defined for it. If it is not, you will have to create one. This is not trivial. See here for the details.

You also need to check the labels in your tableau. They have a visible text and maybe a hint text (which will show when the cursor is moved over it in the browser). Both may need translating. This you do in the Make and edit tree tab of the main form.

Finally, when you save your settings, Genealogica Grafica will ask you if you want to export your settings to other files. This involves only the language-specifics (the language rules, FAM types  and the phrases). It is wise to update your other tableaus with new language settings. But make sure you only export to files with the same language. Otherwise you may end up with English phrases added to a Dutch tableau.

When I update my site I have to produce a dozen tableaus...

There are already facilities to manage easy access to several tableaus. Genealogica Grafica starts automatically with the most recent one (unless you want to bypass that: keep Shift pressed when starting the program). And the menu File - Recent files gives you quick access to other known tableaus.

But if you really want to re-do many tableaus in one run, you can use the command-line facility. When you execute like:
     GenealogicaGrafica "path/parameterfile"
the program will pick up the data from the parameter file specified, produce the tableau, make the html files and exit.

Put a number of such commands in a batch file and execute the batch. Make sure that both the program path and the parameter path are fully qualified.