I beg to differ about compacting not changing your file.  When I type in information, I put two spaces after a colon and between sentences.  Compacting removes one space, especially if I compact often. From: BJ <bhamilton3@cox.net> To: ftm-tech@rootsweb.com Sent: Friday, August 19, 2011 3:10 PM Subject: Re: [FTM-TECH] Compacting Linda is correct in one sense but incorrect in another.  As a user adds information, saved reports/charts and especially images; FTM adds space to the file to store this information.  If you delete some of these items again especially images; FTM removes the address information from the file but it doesn't actually remove the information from the file.  It simply says the information or image can no longer be found and makes the space available for other use within the file storage space.  So if you delete 4 or 5 images, they are no longer available for viewing or use within the file but the space is still there.  If you then add another image, FTM will reuse this supposedly empty space.  It continues to use the empty space until it is gone.  Then it will ask for additional space. When you compact the file, FTM examines all of the addresses, if they point to unused space, it removes the address and reduces the index area.  All of the empty space is then excluded from the file and there by can reduce the file size. After the file is compacted and the empty space is removed, if you add a new image, FTM finds there is no empty space and goes to Windows for additional storage space so the file size begins to grow again. In a sense Defragging seems like a valid comparison but it really isn't the same.  As a file grows, it requires additional space from Windows.  Windows provides the additional space but unfortunately, the space is not adjacent or even close the the existing space allocated.  Windows gets another block of space and enters a link to the new segment of space.  So when you start reading the file, Windows may have to jump around to different parts of the harddisk.  This slows the processing of the file.  The defragging process rearranges all of these segments (fragmentation) so they are all next to each other.  This speeds the process of reading the file. Hope this helps a bit. BJ On 8/19/2011 11:52 AM, Linda H Gutierrez wrote: > Compacting doesn't do anything to the information in your file. It will not > change anything or remove anything. > > As I understand it, the way FTM works, each time we make a deletion or other > change in our file, unused space is created in the file. If you delete a > photo and then add another, the new photo does not take up the space used by > the one that was deleted. So compacting takes all that unused space and > removes it from the file. > > So the more work you do in your file before you compact it, the higher the > percentage of the compact operation. > ********************************** List information page http://lists.rootsweb.com/index/other/Software/FTM-TECH.html Online Support for Family Tree Maker Version 16 and earlier http://pastftm.custhelp.com/ Version 2008 - 2011 http://ftm.custhelp.com/ ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to FTM-TECH-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message