Genealogy Chat

Hi Jeanette, The CD contains a file called a PDF file. If nothing happens when you put the CD in, open up My Computer and double-click on your CD drive (probably D). Next double-click on the PDF file. If it works, get transcribing ! If it gives you an error, tell us what it says & we'll work through the to next stage. If you can't see anything on the CD it could be faulty (or you've put it in the floppy disk hole !!!!:-)) Rick.

Jeanette, have you got abode acrobat reader? If not search for a free version, cant think of hand what it is but it is free. Not sure but I think there may be a link on the freecen for the site. Give a shout if you dont find it. Good luck,Jo

Just had a look and I think this may be the site http://www(.)adobe(.)com/products/acrobat/readstep2(.)html take the brackets out though. You do need it to read lots of things too. My Cd you had to go from, my computer,then the drive, it didnt start by itself, just incase you have you the reader. Hope you manage ok, I know Carol is off for the holidays but I'm sure we will all try to help if you get stuck

Hi Rick Got the CD working thanks but I think there may be a hiccup on it. Get back to you in a mo. Jeanette

Ok I'm back. When I click on Contents Page and Index I get a message saying 'could not open specified file'. Also when I click through the menu down the left hand side it won't open one of the description pages plus the number 30 that follows. It jumps from 20 to 40, description page even when I go through it a page at a time. Jeanette

Sounds like it's corrupt to me. Check there are no obvious bits of fluff stuck to the silver (face-down) side of the CD. Are there any obvious manufacturing defects ? Do you have Adobe Reader 6.0 from www.adobe(.)com ? Rick.

Hiya Rick No obvious bits of fluff or scratches. Cleaned it, put it back in and the same thing. I have adobe acrobat reader 4.0. Jeanette

Hi Jeanette, Try getting version 6 down first to elimate that as the problem. The link is.... http://www.adobe(.)com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html Tell them in the form what "platform" - that is operating system - your PC uses and whether you're connecting by dial-up or broadband & away you go ! Then retry opening the file. Let me know the result. Rick.

Thanks Rick, Karen and Jo Think I'll try tomorrow when my heads a bit clearer. Will let you know how I get on. G'nite. Jeanette ps. Rick - I couldn't get it in the floppy disk drive. Is that right? lol

On mine I cant see anything other than what I am transcribing. I have to click on RG9, then I can see from the start of the disc. After that it has page numbers listed as 10 and plus pages. Have you tried that?

Hi Jo Yes mine starts with RG9 it's just that it has Contents page and Index before that that it won't let me open. I can then see all the numbers + pages except when it gets to 30 and the description page before it. I've tried starting at 20 and going through it a page at a time, but when it gets to the end of 20 it just jumps to 40. Is there another co-ordinator standing in for Carol that I could contact? I'm just desparate to get on with it! Jeanette

hi everyone ive transcribed the first page of my cd(as well as the sample pge)..durr i have saved in my docs went to start the 2nd page but my blank is now full of the 1st pge...following me??? do i have to down load another blank???? im confused here and need some advice also wat do i put in the folio column and page column susie

Hi Susie, OK, the first thing is that you transcribe the whole piece into one big file. I don't know what spreadsheet software you use - I use Excel which writes files with an xls file extension - so you may need to adjust these instructions a bit. I think all of these intructions were in the various readme files & bumph that we downloaded. I completely ignored the bit about the floppy disk, but otherwise followed them I put everything I downloaded into a folder called FCTOOLS off the root of my c: drive & extracted all the compressed files. I then opened the blank.csv file, did the formatting of the columns, locked the title rows and then saved it as blank.xls in the same folder. I then typed the stuff in the two cells on the first row and then did a File, Save As RG91456.xls - this names the file after the piece you've working on and keeps both your blank.csv and your blank.xls intact. I guess this is the bit you didn't suss out ? Don't worry though, all it means is that your blank.xls has your real data in it. All you need to do is rename it to match the number of the piece you are transcribing (same as the contents of cell A1). Let me know if you get this far OK & I'll tell you what to do next !!! It's all gonna be OK ;-) Rick.

hi rick i have put all the info straight oto the blank csv.is that wrong? i didnt realise that it could be put onto anything else susie

Hi Susie, It's not quite what the instructions said to do ! Don't despair though - we'll sort it out. Do you know what I mean by your spreadsheet program ? I'm trying to find out how you put the data in the blank.csv file. Rick.

rick i just typed it in lol i have got excel but i have never used a spreadsheet and dont know where to start. im beginning to think im really thick here...lol everyone else seems to know exactly wat to do,why dont i:( susie

You're not thick & as Chris Tarrant always says it's only easy if you know the answers ! OK - so how did you "open up" the blank file - just by double-clicking on it ? Did it come up in Excel ? Rick.

rick yes,i just double clicked(left hand)and it opened it is also in excel it has all letters and marks (like the demo one ) across the the first 3 lines susie

At the top left of the window that Excel opens up in does it say "Microsoft Excel - blank.xls" or something similar ?

rick ive just opened microsoft excel in my programmes and then opened file it is identical to the blank csv that i downloaded from freecen does this mean that im getting there lol susie