Word to PDF via Family Tree Maker

[DTW]

Hello,
 
I’m using Family Tree Maker version 16, 2005 (bought then because it was a bargain).  Having written up my family history narrative in Word 2002 (containing text, formatted extracts from censuses etc. with tabs, and some simple pedigree charts) I sought to create a Book in FTM by pasting from my Word docs., the Book could then be distributed as a PDF (presumably, I haven’t got that far yet).

This is not working.  The Book accepts the paste but underlines everything and imposes half a dozen random font sizes so I relayed the text.  I also relayed the census extracts to cater for the fact that the FTM Book won’t do tabs etc. In spite of this, FTM Book retains the tabs so the layout is all wrong.  Not only this, when previewed as a PDF, random large areas of blank space appear in the text.  So far lots of work for an unacceptable result.

Have these problems been solved with a later version of Family Tree Maker with a better Word/PDF converter?

I’m not wedded to FTM, is there another genealogy software with similar features that can successfully produce a PDF book (incorporating the data contained in the genealogy software) that has some flexibility so I can control the result and lock it?

Hope you can help.

Regards,

David

[stannarp]

Hi there,

Without looking at your documents I'd say the problem is coming from formatting codes applied by Word...it is possible that FTM isn't able to interpret these as you originally intended.

Ideally the solution would be to remove these codes entirely from the Word document (http://www.timeatlas.com/5_minute_tips/general/clearing_format_codes_in_microsoft_word), paste the pure data into FTM and then apply FTM formatting codes (whatever those may be, sorry I use Legacy and am unfamiliar with FTM), then produce your pdf.  However, I can see the immediate downside to this, in that you've spent time over the years or months getting your Word document looking just the way you want it to, and don't want to lose the formatting you've done on it!

You could also download OpenOffice, which would open the Word document, and give you the option to create a pdf from it, but then you wouldn't be able to incorporate the FTM information as directly as you'd like...

Sorry, no real solutions here, just many options to consider!

Regards,

Patricia

[[Ray]]

Hi

By far the best people to ask
1) what is happeing
2) whether later versions will do it
3) the best way to approach the overall problem

is their own helpline

Great Britain & Northern Ireland
0800-404-9723 (toll free)    
Monday - Friday    : 9:00 am - 7:00 pm GMT
Saturday    :      9:00 am - 5:00 pm GMT
Sunday    :      Closed

Ray

[DTW]

Thank you both.  I was hoping someone out there had already resolved (this surely common) requirement.

I'm going to try RootsMagic but early days yet.

If there's no help with FTM I'll try the help-line but I'm in France so not toll-free, and in my experience, two more questions for everyone solved, so getting in touch with FTM wasn't my first thought.

Thanks again

[danuslave]

Do you know that you can create a PDF directly from your Word doc?

I use something called PDF-XChange 4.0 lite, which I downloaded (free).

It effectively sets itself up as another printer, but writes to a PDF file instead.  Really easy to use.

The downside is that you can't edit the PDF afterwards, but you wouldn't be able to do that anyway.

Linda

[Stumped!]

David
I don't know whether this helps or not...it's not something that I have tried.
I've copied this from the FTM V16 help pages
Peter

Copying text from another Windows program into a text item
If you have family stories in another Windows program, you can copy and paste them into a text item in your book. When you copy formatted text from another program, it appears as unformatted text in Family Tree Maker. To format the text, see Formatting text in a text item