Russ,

Moving the media files is just an experiment to see if the large file size is the problem. I will need to move them back to the correct folder because, yes, all of the links for those media files are broken.

It is only 11 files that are over 2 MG. One is a divorce decree that I scanned the original and it was a lot of pages. But the rest I notice tend to be part of the Michigan Marriages from 1868 - 1925 that I got off of familysearch.org. I've use their Save button on the page with the original so I don't know how they are creating the jpg.

I'm not sure if I can do anything to make the files smaller. I have Photoshop, but am by no means an expert user so it may take some looking around to see if Photoshop can compress the file somehow to make it smaller.

Joyce

Joyce,

I am not sure that what you are seeing and doing will help. I think that the larger images may be slow(er) when you try to view them and open them up from within Family Tree Maker. BUT, that should happen outside of Family Tree Maker as well.

Russ

Joyce,

I went through each of your messages on this Thread, trying to determine what the issue is that we are trying to address.

In the message that I am looking at, you said:

"4. The Select Media dialog box opens and the thumbnails start to load. Loading the media file thumbnails can take considerable time.
"

I tried to figure out what you are saying here.

When you are on the People, Person screen, Media Tab (center panel, bottom half of the screen, and you click New, a Select Media screen opens, right? Is this where you are seeing the thumbnails that take a "considerable time"?

IF that is where you are seeing the slowness, in that window, you should see a "Views" pull down. What do you have Selected? Mine is set to Details. I don't want the images, since I know the filename (you mentioned that you had very descriptive filenames) I don't want to see the image, but the filename. Does changing the View to Details help with this problem?

Russ

Photoshop (Elements) comes in several versions (V7 is perhaps the latest) and the few versions I've used have all had an Image>Resize option.

For pc display viewing I'd suggest 72 dpi which should greatly reduce the file size you listed. Presume data captured as jpg would react likewise.

Obviously one should save the original image and save any changes to a new file.

Russ,

I am actually double clicking on a source-citation (on the right side of the screen under the Source tab) on the People, Person page and selecting the Media tab from the dialog box. Then I click on the Attach New Media Button. The route I take is different than what you described in your post, but the results are the same.

I have changed my selection on the Views drop down to Details many times. But the next time I go to add media the Views drop down has reverted to the Thumbnail view. If you have a way of making the Detail option the default selection that would solve my problem.

Joyce

Joyce,

I have noticed that I need to reset my view to details. From what I can tell, that is a Windows issue. Prior to Vista, Windows Explorer, what is what I think that window is, would remember the way you had that folder displayed the next time you visit that folder.

I just tried something. I opened Windows Explorer. When to the Media folder for the file I last worked on. Windows Export showed the Details screen.

I opened Family Tree Maker, when to the Media Work Space, clicked on the Add button (Right side of the screen) and the Window opened, in the Details format. I then went to People, Person, Media, Add New and the Thumbnail screen opened, not Details. I then when to add a New Media item to a Source-Citation and it came up with the Thumbnail screen.

I could not find a way to set that window to open with Details. It was interesting that the Media, Add New would come up in Details, but the other two came up in Thumbnails.

Russ

Russ,

I am running XP. If I am in Windows Explorer I have my preferences set to remember the last way (details, thumbnails etc.) I looked at that folder. Unfortunately that doesn't carry over to FTM.

Even though I am on XP I tried the same process you did and got similar results. The difference being that thumbnails opened up in all of the areas.

It looks like this is something I will just need to live with.

Joyce

Joyce,

I would suggest that you use this link:

http://ftm.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/ftm.cfg/php/enduser/ask_feed...

And provide some detailed feedback to Family Tree Maker 2009. Let them know what you did and what you saw.

You will probably not receive feedback from them, but the developers do read the feedback.

Good luck,

Russ

Russ,

Image size depends on the resolution of the camera or the DPI setting of the document was scanned at. Most of my camera pictures are 3-4 MB from a DLSR (the more megapixels the bigger your images will get).

Scans of documents at higher DPI (for reproduction printing) can turn out much larger.

The building of the thumbnail cache is a Windows operation and outside that of FTM. I suspect the same speed issue would occur in Windows Explorer when viewing by thumbnails. RAM, disk space and file fragmentation of the image cache will all affect performance. So more memory and defragging the disk will help for local files. Not much you can do for networked files, however, except upgrade to 100MB/s or Gigabit Ethernet.

I ran across her issue during FTM2008 and 2009 beta testing and submitted it to the dev team. Thumbnail mode is a good default option, but it should save whatever display selection you choose. That would be a FTM2009 issue.

tschlarm,

Thank you. I agree with you on where the issue is. But the issue that remains is that when I use one of the "Add" image options, I think I should see that same View each time and place I do that.

Some folks Like the various sizes of Image and some of us like the Details view. It should be consistent. I have submitted feed back on that piece of the issue.

Russ