*** G e n S m a r t s N e w s l e t t e r ***

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Saturday, September 27, 2003 Contents

• New Version News

• Online Research Tip

• GenSmarts Usage Tip

• PC Utility Tip

• PC Trivia

*** N e w V e r s i o n N e w s ***

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Current "Production" Versions: 1.0.2.2 & 1.0.2.3 (same as 1.0.2.2 but adds PAF support)

Current "Beta" Version: 1.0.2.21

This is our "work in process" that will shortly become 1.0.3.0. The following features are already complete:

1) Direct support for TMG and RootsMagic

2) The Welcome Wizard, which guides a new user through setup and first use (it's in the HELP menu).

3) SMARTLINK and SMARTSEARCH. GenSmarts can now remote control your MS Internet Explorer, which allows more integration options and supports deeper integration with sites where all we could previously do was get you to a search page. The old GenSmarts linking, now called BROWSE, is still there as well.

4) NEHGS (New England Historic Genealogical Society) integration added. We're linked to a couple of their bigger online databases, and we'll add more in the future. This is available in the registered version only.

5) Support for a "default country", which significantly reduces place name recognition errors if your data assumes a country other than the U.S.

6) Many more TOOLS...SETTINGS... to allow finer control of how GenSmarts works.

7) Better support for working with multiple genealogy files.

8) Support for the "living" flag in TMG, RootsMagic, and Legacy.

9) Improved date estimating.

Registered users who are interested in trying 1.0.2.21 can find a download link at (see your email version of the newsletter)

Non-registered users can get a trial version of 1.0.2.21 at http://www.gensmarts.com/download.asp

We're currently working on adding the following features:

10) More improvements to date estimating.

11) Recognition of census tags from all the file formats.

When these two above our complete, we'll do some final testing and release it generally as 1.0.3.0. Our current estimate is that this will occur towards the end of the week of 9/29.

*** O n l i n e R e s e a r c h T i p ***

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Using wildcards in your searches can be a great way to find records hidden due to misspellings. Here's an example from the U.S. Land Patent Database http://www.glorecords.blm.gov

This database supports the percent sign ("%"), which will match any number of characters in the search field, and also the underscore ("_") match any one single character. I have a Pierpoint line in my family, which I know was sometimes spelled Pierpont. Instead of trying those two searches (Pierpont, Pierpoint), I type in P%rp%nt, which will get me anything that starts with a P, ends in NT, and has a RP in the middle. This search catches some entries recorded under PEARPOINT, which is a variation I don't usually think to check.

Different databases will use different characters and approaches for wildcards. Look at the "search tips" or "advanced search" or "search help" links on your favorite database search pages to discover which wildcards are available.

*** G e n S m a r t s U s a g e T i p ***

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Double clicking on an item in the "To Do" list is the same as pressing the AVAILABLE ONLINE button. If you see an item you want to search on, you don't have to select it, then press the AVAILABLE ONLINE button... you can simply double click on it, which does both.

*** P C U t i l i t y T i p ***

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Tired of having to re-download things that were almost complete when they failed? Think your download speed is rather slow? Perhaps you need a "download manager", a product that can increase your download speed and is capable of restarting where you left off.

(EDIT - as this newsletter is now several years old, we have removed the link to the product - I'm sure if you google "download manager" you'll find lots of products that do this sort of thing.

No connection or affiliation to GenSmarts - just a product we find very helpful.

*** P C T r i v i a ***

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This is unrelated to GenSmarts, but one thing that has amazed us as we correspond with many of you is the number of hardware failures you endure - things that require you to re-install Windows and re-setup your computer. Based on our un-scientific survey... we'd estimate 2 percent of you have this happen EVERY MONTH. That's 25% or so per year... that seems much higher than we would have thought.

*** S u b s c r i p t i o n I n f o ***

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Tags:  TMG  RootsMagic  Legacy Family Tree  Family Tree Maker  

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