> I just found a new cousin, and he would like to share info. <happy > dance> but, he has FTM and I have just downloaded Legacy, (and have > been busily filling it up.) I cannot open his FTW files, so he was > going to send them in RTF (Rich text format) Ok, I can handle Word. > > Now, I tried exporting a GEDCOM from Legacy, and got 400 pages with > all kinds of things I will have to delete since they make no > sense...empty blanks not filled in....there must be a better > way.....<sigh> Question: Does Legacy talk to a word program like MS > Word? Can I send my information to someone who doesn't have Legacy > or perhaps my family, who doesn't have any GEDCOM software? If so, > how? Does anyone know? Legacy also has something called a Clooz > file? (huh??) Who's Clooz? > > "Amie Peoples" <hismsg@cros.net> Amie - Gedcom files are the language of genealogy programs - they are transferable between most if not all genealogy programs out there today. If you open it as you did, what you will see is a bunch a data with codes in front of each line of information. Those blank spaces probably represent information that you do not have on that particular person, so they should stay blank. There's no way to make much sense of it by trying to read through it. If you have edited the file, you should export it again to be sure you didn't delete any vital codes or ??? Just follow the Legacy instructions to export a gedcom file, save it, and send that file either as an attachment, or on a disk to the cousin with FTM. He should be able to import that gedcom file into his program with no problem. He should do the same on his end, again exporting the data as a gedcom file [not an FTM file] Follow the instructions in Legacy to import a gedcom file. Clooz is a separate program which is used to analyze your data, and keep track of the odd bits and pieces of information that don't quite fit anywhere else. If you don't have any of those things yet, don't worry, you soon will. ;-) The only thing that may not transfer well are photos, or sounds or something like that, but the basic data should be fine. Lisa llepore@juno.com