* V7 PDF creation very slow, creating huge files

[LornaCraig]

I have never had the problem of blank pages, and have just checked again in 7.0.2. All the text and pictures are present and correct in the PDF!
(Still the problem of the large file size, of course)

[tatewise]

... and the pages are images rather than searchable text

[MartinB]

Fyi, I just checked with CP about the status of this PDF printing problem. They said "this is their highest priority fix" but could give no further details about timescales, technical solutions, etc. I'll check again in a month.

[Mark1834]

I’d be very surprised if they give any details about what the root cause problem is or how it was eventually fixed. Like most commercial software companies, they tend to be relatively tight-lipped about the interal plumbing.

[MartinB]

Hi everyone, this could be big news.

CP have told me that they've fixed the PDF printing problem! This is what they just emailed me: "Hello - we have a new Family Historian update for you, 7.0.3.0, which should fix the problems with PDFs you reported: https://www.family-historian.co.uk/lnk/ ... .0.3.0.exe Please click on the link and run the program to install the upgrade, and let us know if you have any problems."

As you might imagine, it may be a big step forward but I'm reluctant to go through the upgrade again (I have reverted back to V6) until I'm sure it's going to work, i.e. PDFs running quickly and not crashing my machine all the time.

I wonder if any of you good people who had also experienced the PDF problem - and are still on v7 - will be taking the upgrade and could kindly report back once you've used PDF reporting in v 7.0.3.0. ?

Many thanks in advance.

[NickiP]

Just to add to Martin's post as I've also received the email from CP having reported the issue, it doesn't though fix the problem with web links:

"we have a new Family Historian update for you, 7.0.3.0, which should fix most of the problems you reported with PDFs (the only exception is that entered web links are still not converted to pdf web links when you generate a PDF - the PDF product we use does not support this)"

Assuming though it allows select and copy of text, then I'm not too bothered about that as my web links are the full url.

I'll look myself to upgrade at the weekend. At the moment due to supply issues of some medication, I'm struggling rather a lot with fatigue and working.

[Mark1834]

It does look like the fundamental issue has been fixed . I installed version 7.0.3.0 and tried saving a couple of narrative reports as PDF. Text is now selectable, and file size has been reduced hugely, so it is outputting normal text, not a page image. I can also print the reports.

My most common report type from FH is a compilation Family Group Sheet of the principal family, plus the FGS of all their children that had their own families, and including source thumbnail images. These reports range from a few pages to over a hundred, depending on the size of the family, and were totally impractical as PDFs in FH7 up until now. I have just run off the report for the family I am working on at the moment. It is a 66 page report with dozens of thumbnail images, and comes in at 7.9 MB at the default settings. This is still a lot larger than the PDF I get from exporting the RTF file to Word and writing to PDF from there (1.1 MB), but the Word settings are optimised for web publication.

[NickiP]

Suffering from a dose of insomnia (having fallen asleep early evening for a few hours), curiosity got the better of me having seen Mark's reply so decided to install the update. Installed OK, albeit lost all my report options again, but save to pdf now working OK. Exported 336 page 15 Generation ancestors narrative report which includes a fair number of images and web links to pdf, pdf was 9.5mb in size and, apart from the already mentioned pdf web links not able to work, all is OK. Didn't take very long to save to pdf either. Nice to get the change of colour in the sources and as text can now be selected and copied, it gets around the lack of pdf web links.

[fhtess65]

I haven't received the email yet and don't see where in the store to download it. Not that I need it this moment, but I recall with the last update it took a while before I received the email. As I said, not a big deal. I guess they roll it out gradually to keep their servers from being overloaded.

[BillH]

Teresa,

You would use the same link that was in the email when you purchased version 7.

At this time when I use that link I am still being offered 7.0.2 not 7.0.3.

Bill

[fhtess65]

Thanks, Bill - at this point then, I'll just wait until it comes round to me. Don't want to contribute to an overload on their server. It's not like any of this is crucial and I've lots to work on other than generating reports to .pdf.

Teresa,

You would use the same link that was in the email when you purchased version 7.

At this time when I use that link I am still being offered 7.0.2 not 7.0.3.

Bill

[BillH]

Teresa,

Yes, I think the few people who have been notified of 7.0.3 got a special link to it. Eventually we will all get access.

Bill

[Mark1834]

Calico Pie sometimes do a "soft release" of a new version, whereby they only notify users who reported problems that have been fixed by the update. I received the link due to an unrelated issue that I had reported. It enables a smaller base of keen users to test the release before it is made available as the default new version.

The more general solution to the issue of blowing away customisations is to remember to run the Backup and Restore Family Historian Settings plugin prior to upgrading, then restoring after upgrade. I have a simple one-click desktop shortcut that does a complete backup of all settings, and simply copy the relevant customised files back manually. IMO it's quicker and easier than using the plugin for this type of restoration to the same PC, but it does need knowledge of how FH saves its various customisations and settings.

[Jane]

As Mark says CP do a soft release so a version can be tested by a few people prior to hitting the "check for updates" option and updating the download link on the page.

If all goes well with the soft release I suspect the update will be generally available soon.

[paultt]

I, too, received a soft release email for 7.0.3 and it has now meant that I can see what is actually coming out in a report, Descendants by Generation for 15 gens and approx 2,200 individuals, with pictures, sources, etc amounting to over 410 pages. AND, I can save it to pdf in a reasonably good time frame, and comes out as a 4meg file instead of a 270meg file of nothing, with copyable text and clickable links. So that is good news and a relief.
I can now see that I need to do some tidy-ups with Fact Sentences - <para> and <br> now appear to do what they say on the tin, but I have spotted a couple of Report Options - Source and Citation Text from Source and Notes and the ...elipses that seem to be truncating the content of those fields. These I will investigate and raise issues through the normal channels.
But, it is a BIG step forward, so well done the CP team!

[BillH]

... I have spotted a couple of Report Options - Source and Citation Text from Source and Notes and the ...elipses that seem to be truncating the content of those fields.

I was just wondering if you could clarify this. Are you saying that the Text from Source fields for both sources and citations and also Notes for both sources and citations are being truncated when included in reports? For notes is it just source and citation notes or also other notes as well? I rely on all of these in reports that I send to some of my research group.

Thanks,
Bill

[David2416]

I have installed 7.0.3.0

Pleased to say have produced two reasonably sized pdfs in which text is selectable.

Looking good

Also am running fully updated Windows 10

[MartinB]

Thanks for all the comments above indicating that PDF reporting is much improved.

For your information, I just received an email from CP with a link to the description of all the updates made in version 7.0.3.0 https://www.family-historian.co.uk/v7-updates (This wasn't on the CP web-site yesterday).

There's a lot in there! I have not gone through it all yet, only skimmed it, but a lot of bugs are fixed. Good news.

[paultt]

BillH

I was just wondering if you could clarify this. Are you saying that the Text from Source fields for both sources and citations and also Notes for both sources and citations are being truncated when included in reports? For notes is it just source and citation notes or also other notes as well?

Having had another good look at this, I am not too sure that they are actually truncating the info, but the printed Sources layouts seemed to be a bit messed up, as they still show the elipses... in places where I do not expect them.

Try Publishing say a Narrative report of Decendants by Generation. Click the more options and make sure that on the Sources tab, the Append from Sources and Append from Citations for both TfS and Notes are all UNTICKED. Click the Oks to run the report.
Scroll down to the Sources section and examine the Source layouts.
Now click options on the right hand side, Sources tab, and cycle through the Append from Source Record and Citations by ticking each box in turn and note what changes on that Source record (and all the others) on the report.
Elipses... are still being shown in places, and the Appends or expansions of the elipsed text are also being shown.
General notes seem to be ok.

Do you get the same result?

Paul TT

[LornaCraig]

Paul, it sounds as if you have used Tools>Preferences>Sources>Generic Source Formats to include Text from Source and Notes within the footnotes, as well as appending them using the Report Options. If you click the Help button in the Generic Source Formats dialog you will see that the Help files recommend that Text from Source and Notes should be appended to the footnotes, using the Report Options, instead of included within them, to avoid truncation. You don't need to do both.

(This has drifted off topic, so if you need to continue the discussion it would be best to start a new topic).

[paultt]

Thanks Lorna, that has fixed it. I set up the generic footnotes during beta before we had the appends.

[tatewise]

I have installed 7.0.3.0 and happy to report that it now produces PDF Reports with searchable text instead of blank pages.

There is a useful batch of other fixes too!

[BillH]

BillH
Do you get the same result?

Paul,

I am not yet on version 7 so could not test myself. This PDF issue was one that was keeping me from updating to version 7. I'm glad CP was able to fix the problem. I just wanted to make sure there wasn't a new truncation problem introduced.

Thanks,
Bill

[BillH]

Lorna,

Thanks for your settings tip. No need for a new thread. I will leave this one to its original topic.

Bill

[MartinB]

Hi everyone,

Many thanks for your thoughts, additional information and support through this PDF problem. Today, I upgraded to V7.0.3.0 (again) and verified that all is well with printing (for my requirements at least) . I have also thanked CP and asked them to close my original ticket.

I can now move on and enjoy the rest of the enhancements.

Just thought I'd close out this thread.

Best regards, Martin.