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From: Family Origins Newsletter <>
Subject: [FO] Family Origins Newsletter (Oct 2001)
Date: Tue, 2 Oct 2001 09:47:28 -0600


Family Origins Newsletter
http://formalsoft.com

October 2001

Copyright 1999-2001 FormalSoft, Inc.
All rights reserved

To subscribe to this free newsletter,
or view past issues, visit us at
http://formalsoft.com/newsltr.htm

==================================

Im hearing from a lot of folks wondering why they are missing
issues of the Family Origins newsletter. The two possible
answers are... 1) were still working out the kinks in the new
mailing software, or 2) a couple of months I didnt write one.
Im guessing that most people didnt get the ones I forgot to
write.

==================================

- Globally Unique IDs

What is this magical sounding feature? You cant see it... you
cant change it... but if you share the genealogy workload with
other family members, it may soon be your best friend.

The Globally Unique ID (or GUID) is a 32 digit number that Family
Origins 10 automatically assigns to each person in your database.
This number is unique for any person in any Family Origins
database, since it is based on the time a record was created, as
well as the computer it was created on. No two people (no matter
what database they are in) will ever be assigned the same GUID by
Family Origins. But if you export a person to a GEDCOM file,
that person will retain his GUID when imported back into Family
Origins 10.

Why is this so cool, you ask? Lets take a look...

You have a large database that you want to share with a relative,
but you know that both of you will be making changes and
additions to the database. And you know that combining those
modified databases has always been a pain in the neck.

But you and the relative both have Family Origins 10, so you
create a GEDCOM file of your database and send it to him. The
GUID for each person is transferred in the GEDCOM file, so when
your relative imports the GEDCOM file into his copy of Family
Origins 10, the people in his database will have the same GUIDs
as in your database.

Now you and your relative both start making changes and additions
to your databases. After several weeks (or months) of this, you
decide you need to consolidate your changes. So your relative
creates a GEDCOM file from his database and sends it to you, and
you import it directly into your own database. WHAT??? Hasnt
Bruce been telling me for years not to import a GEDCOM into my
main database? Yes, he has... but this is the one exception.

You will now have a ton of duplicates in your database (which is
usually bad), but since the GUID transferred with the people,
most of your duplicate records share the same GUID, so Family
Origins can easily figure out which people it needs to merge,
without even having to analyze them!

Simply do Merge, SmartMerge from the main menu, leave all the
check boxes marked (actually you can unmark the SmartMerge
checkbox if you want), and tell Family Origins to do the merge.

There are a couple of important caveats here... this only works
if both you and the relative have version 10, since earlier
versions will strip out the GUID. And second, make sure when you
do the merge to keep the Merge duplicate sources and Merge
duplicate repositories checkboxes marked, or you will have a
mess on your hands.

==================================

Do you have any useful Family Origins tips or tricks you would
like to share with other users? Tell me about them at
.

==================================

Buying or Upgrading Family Origins
http://formalsoft.com/orders.htm

Family Origins Message Board
http://formalsoft.com/forums

Technical support for Family Origins
http://formalsoft.com/techsupp.htm

Current version of Family Origins is 10
http://formalsoft.com/files.htm

Wish List (make a suggestion)
http://formalsoft.com/wishlist.htm

Newsletter suggestions and comments


Family Origins User Groups
http://formalsoft.com/usergrps.htm

Family Origins Utilities
http://formalsoft.com/utilities.htm

==================================

If you want to subscribe (or unsubscribe) from this newsletter,
visit us at:

http://formalsoft.com/newsltr.htm


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