File Type?

[davet65]

I am new to PAW2U, Mac OS 10.6.7. Thank you for providing this tool as I enter the word of ancestry tracking.

I got a file from a friend who uses a PC and did some initial family tree documentation for me. I opened it in PAW2U successfully. And I have added to it.

I see in my folder that my current file now shows up as Name: myfile.GED & Kind: GEDCOM, while the backup shows up as myfile.GED-bkp and Kind: PAW2file. The original file from the friend, which I saved for archive, now shows up as PAW2file.

I don't understand what is going on? How did my current file become a GEDCOM while the others are PAW2file? And how can I control the file type? Or should I not even be concerned?

Thank you.

Dave T

[Howard Metcalfe]

Jun 7, 2011 9:57:21 GMT -5 davet65 said:

I am new to PAW2U, Mac OS 10.6.7. Thank you for providing this tool as I enter the word of ancestry tracking.

I got a file from a friend who uses a PC and did some initial family tree documentation for me. I opened it in PAW2U successfully. And I have added to it.

I see in my folder that my current file now shows up as Name: myfile.GED & Kind: GEDCOM, while the backup shows up as myfile.GED-bkp and Kind: PAW2file. The original file from the friend, which I saved for archive, now shows up as PAW2file.

I don't understand what is going on? How did my current file become a GEDCOM while the others are PAW2file? And how can I control the file type? Or should I not even be concerned?

Thank you.

Dave T

Hi Dave,

That's weird. I assume that your friend sent you a GEDCOM file of his tree (with the extension .ged), and that you imported that GEDCOM file into PAWriter.

Then you saved the imported info as a PAWriter data file called MyFile.paw, and the file name MyFile was NOT the name of the GEDCOM file to avoid OS confusion.

Then you later opened, modified and saved MyFile.paw, thereby automatically creating MyFile-bkp.paw. And perhaps later again later opened, modified and saved MyFile.paw, thereby automatically updating both MyFile.paw and MyFile-bkp.paw.

At least that's what should have happened if you are using the latest PAW2U version 98.

If so, then the Kind of the original GEDCOM your friend sent you would be GEDCOM, and the Kind of the data files you created, MyFile.paw and MyFile-bkp.paw would be PAW2File.

If you keep on modifying MyFile.paw and the data file Kinds are not proper, let me know and I will have you send me your data file as an attachment to an email and investigate the problem.

My suspicion is that you gave your data file MyFile the same name as your friend's GEDCOM file. That's a no no in any file system.

Best regards,
Howard

[davet65]

Howard,

Thanks for the prompt response.

I don't recall what I did, but likely did do something along the lines that you suggested, and wasn't careful when importing my friends GEDCOM file and initially saving it.

I took my GEDCOM file, which is the one I have been updating [PAW2U apparently keeps saving it as GEDCOM, but saves the backup as PAW2file], tagged all, and exported it as a GEDCOM file for PAWriter. I then restarted PAW2U, told it to import that file with notes, then saved it under a new name. I ended up with a PAW2file that, based on a quick look, appears to be complete including notes and links to photos. Is this what you would expect, and that I can now safely use that as my "master" file? It is slightly smaller is size than my GEDCOM file - 78 KB vs 86 KB.

ADDED:
Duh!!! Why don't I just take the -bkp of my current file, which is already a PAW2file, make it my primary, and begin using it!!
I did that, and I think that should take care of this issue. I'll rename it and discard the GEDCOM version. Agree?

[Howard Metcalfe]

Jun 7, 2011 20:26:58 GMT -5 davet65 said:

Howard,

Thanks for the prompt response.

I don't recall what I did, but likely did do something along the lines that you suggested, and wasn't careful when importing my friends GEDCOM file and initially saving it.

I took my GEDCOM file, which is the one I have been updating [PAW2U apparently keeps saving it as GEDCOM, but saves the backup as PAW2file], tagged all, and exported it as a GEDCOM file for PAWriter. I then restarted PAW2U, told it to import that file with notes, then saved it under a new name. I ended up with a PAW2file that, based on a quick look, appears to be complete including notes and links to photos. Is this what you would expect, and that I can now safely use that as my "master" file? It is slightly smaller is size than my GEDCOM file - 78 KB vs 86 KB.

ADDED:
Duh!!! Why don't I just take the -bkp of my current file, which is already a PAW2file, make it my primary, and begin using it!!
I did that, and I think that should take care of this issue. I'll rename it and discard the GEDCOM version. Agree?

Hi Dave,

Sounds like you're on track.

There's no way PAWriter will save a data file as a GEDCOM, only if it's exported. I think you still had the .ged extension on your old data file and that confused the Kind the MacOS listed. Anyway, just go ahead with your new file and all should be well.

Best,
Howard

[davet65]

You're correct.

I manually removed .GED from my original working file [using Get Info] and it now shows as a PAW2file. So my data is intact it appears.

Thanks for helping me through a careless error on my part.