Tuesday, May 26, 2009

RootsMagic 4 Wall Chart problems

I posted Working in RootsMagic 4 - Post 8: Creating a Wall Chart last month and have been working with it a bit trying to create large wall charts with a proportional background picture on it.

I figured out a fix to one of my problems. For example, here is a RootsMagic 4 wall chart produced by the RootsMagic Chart program for an 8 generation chart of my ancestry. I put the wedding photograph (the original is an 8" x 10" photograph) of my parents in as a background. The 8 generation chart measures 45" x 124" full scale. As you can see below, the photograph is distorted because it fills the space available (I showed only a screen shot of some of the top of the chart, but you can see the distortion):



There are no sizing or transparency options for the photograph (that I can find!) like other software programs have (e.g., Legacy Family Tree 7). In order to get a true size image I reduced the generations to five and then in the RootsMagic Chart program I clicked on Layout and then set the Canvas to be 40 inches wide and 50 inches high. That worked, as shown below (screen shot of the top half of chart):


In my earlier post, I complained that "I still cannot get RootsMagic Chart to export a file. There is no way to register it from the program. I have registered my RootsMagic 4 program."

Below is a screen shot taken today of a chart that I wanted to Export to a file.
When I go to File > Export in the program menu, I get the popup box that says "Export is disabled in the demo version."

I thought, "well, did I register my RootsMagic 4?" I thought I had, so I found my Registration Key and registered it again. In Help > About RootsMagic I saw "Version 4.0.0.158, 4 Mar 2009, registered to Randall Seaver." So it knows that I'm registered - but is that the Demo version?

I exited the program and started it again, and I still got the "Export is disabled in the demo version."

Then I thought "well, do I have the latest RootsMagic 4 version - maybe they've updated it?" I went to the RootsMagic Update site from Help>Check for Updates (in RootsMagic 4) and the latest version they have there is Version 3.2.6, so I have no clue if I have the latest update or not.

I really like RootsMagic 4, and understand that the program was released just two months ago, but I want it to work flawlessly for my purposes. Am I the only user that has problems like this?

Any suggestions from RootsMagic 4 wizards?
UPDATED: 5 p.m. See the comments from Bruce, Chris and Tamura. My Export problem is solved. I downloaded (using the "secret" web site http://rootsmagic.com/download/ - there is no link for this on the RootsMagic web page) the updated version of RootsMagic 4 and registered it again. Now I have Version 4.0.2 dated 26 May 2009. Thanks, guys, for good advice. The squeaking wheel gets some grease once in awhile.

7 comments:

Chris said...

The latest version is 4.0.1.1 dated 30 Mar 2009.

I just tried to export a chart and it worked fine. There are several different formats you can save it as.

I haven't messed with the backbround image.

RootsMagic said...

Randy,

We just released a new update (v 4.0.2.0) which fixes this problem for those who encounter it. Just run RM4 and you can get it from the RootsMagic News screen, or by doing Help > Check for Updates from the menu.

Chris said...

Here is the help section from the chart maker about background images.

Image – Lets you select an image to use as the background. RootsMagic Chart will stretch the image to fit the canvas, so the image needs to be proportional to the canvas size so it isn’t distorted, and also needs to be a high enough resolution so that it isn’t grainy when it is stretched to fit the canvas.

So it doesn't look very good for adjusting image size. Bummer.

I guess that is something Bruce might want to try to work on after he gets all the fires stomped out from the program.

RootsMagic said...

Randy, I just noticed you said you had version 4.0.0.158. That is a prerelease copy (and may not even have the auto update I just mentioned above).

Go to:

http://www.rootsmagic.com/download

and download the current version and install that and you should be up and running.

Anonymous said...

Randy,

I can only repeat my suggestion that you should update by downloading and installing the newer version (and then register the key again).
I guess that what you are really experiencing is that the version you are using expired,
and that the message you get is misleading because registering a beta using a valid key is an unexpected scenario.
I experienced something similar and had to use the reset procedure to re-enter the key.

The key apparently only works with the 4.0 release, which is 4.0.1.0 (25 Mar 2009) or later.

By the way, I experienced the same "RM 3.2.6 is the latest version" problem and reported it months ago.
In the release the update check from within the application works fine,
but the web site still hasn't been updated.

I just noticed they released a new update, which upgraded 4.0.1.1 (30 Mar 2009) to 4.0.2.0 (26 May 2009).
No details yet on what it fixes or adds.

- Tamura

Chris said...

Boy, Bruce is fast!

I just tried a couple of quick charts and it appears that if you assign an image as background it will fill the page. So it has to be proportional.

If you don't use a background image you can insert images and change their sizes by dragging corners. They will retain their proportions. However unless you have a picture proportional to your chart the result gives you a lot of white background.

However, you can add more than one image and place in different parts of the chart. Make sure you send the image to the back.

Anonymous said...

RootsMagic blog updated:

RootsMagic 4 Update Released (4.0.2.0)