If you want to know more about a highlighted word in this help screen, use your tab key to position your cursor to a highlighted word and press enter. t
Welcome to InstaRel. The purpose of this program is to find out who is related to you so that you can share research. This is accomplished by comparing your GEDCOM file with other people's GEDCOM files. To do this, you must load in your GEDCOM file into "Your" database, and then load a friend's (who may soon become your relative) GEDCOM file into "Their" database. You can load as many GEDCOM files as you wish into each database. When you start the comparison process, you will get a report of possible "matches." This is a list of ancestors in "their" GEDCOM file that match your ancestors found in your GEDCOM file. Z
started, press ESC to put this help screen away, then press the F3 function key. +
See also: "submit" Changing
Threshold
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Changing the Threshold
To increase the number of possible matches that show up in your report, you can lower the threshold. This may cause you to get matches that are not really matches.
To change the threshold edit the file called "RULES". Find the line at the bottom of the file containing the word "threshold". For example you may see the following:
threshold 190
Change the 190 to a higher number or lower number. Experiment with this number until you get a match report that you like. The threshold can be changed after you load the GEDCOM files into your database. [
A future version of InstaRel will allow you to change this value from within the program.
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What is GEDCOM?
GEDCOM is an acronym for GEnealogical Data COMmunication. You may have a computer program that stores your genealogy information. That information is stored on your computer in a way that only your computer program knows how to access. But what if you wanted to share your genealogy with another person who has another kind of a computer? 2
GEDCOM to the rescue! Most genealogy computer programs can make a GEDCOM file. So if you wanted to share your information with another person you would use your genealogy program to create a GEDCOM file. You can put that file on a floppy disk or send it over a modem to be "read" by the other computer. 1
Click here
return
default
screen
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InstaRel Report Window
The InstaRel Report window views the contents of the InstaRel Error Report. You can use the arrow keys to move about in the report. A report is loaded via the InstaRel
GEDCOM menu item. i
Up Move up one line
Down Move down one line
Right Move right one column
Left Move left one column
PgUp Move one page up
PgDn Move one page down
Home View right most column of the Report
End View left most column of the Report
Ctrl-PgUp View top of Report
Ctrl-PgDn View bottom of Report.
Report viewers can be resized and moved using the Windows menu.
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About
When you choose the About command menu, a dialog box appears, showing copyright and version information. G
To close the box, press Esc, Space, or Enter, or click the OK button.
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InstaRel (Alt-F)
You can to enter the name of the GEDCOM files that you wish to compare. You also start the comparison from in here. You can also change directories from within the program or exit the program here.
See also: !
GEDCOM Change
Dir Exit
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(F3)
This command brings up a dialog box that is the main part of the program. Here is where you load in the GEDCOM files to compare. You also start the comparison here.
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InstaRel
Change Dir...
InstaRel
Change Dir brings up the Change
Directory dialog box, in which you can change the current directory.
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InstaRel
DOS Shell
With the DOS Shell command, you can leave the program temporarily to perform a DOS command or run another program. If you change directories while in the Shell, the change will remain in effect after you return to InstaRel. 9
To return to this program, type EXIT at the DOS prompt.
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InstaRel
Exit
(Alt-X)
The Exit command terminates this program.
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Window
(Alt-W)
The Window menu contains commands to close, move and perform other window-management commands. :
Window-management commands
Size/Move Zoom Close
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Window
Size/Move
(Ctrl-F5)
Choose this command to change the size or position of the window.
Size
If you press Shift while you use the arrow keys, you can change the size of the window. Once you've adjusted its size or position, press Enter. S
If the window has a Resize corner, you can drag that corner to resize the window.
Move
When you choose Window
Size/Move, the window moves in response to the arrow keys. Once you've moved the window to where you want it, press Enter. H
You can also move the window by dragging its title bar with the mouse.
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Window
Zoom
(F5)
Choose Zoom to resize the window to the maximum size. If the window is already zoomed, you can choose this command to restore it to its previous size. {
You can also double-click anywhere on the window's title bar (except where an icon appears) to zoom or unzoom the window.
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Window
Close
(Alt-F3)
Choose Close to close the window. O
You can also click the Close box in the upper right corner to close a window.
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Help on Fix GEDCOM Dialog Box
The Fix GEDCOM dialog box contains an input box, a list
GEDCOM
files, a file information panel, a Cancel button, an OK button, plus a history list of files that you have fixed.
(See Name
inputbox.)
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Name
The Name input box is where you enter the name of the GEDCOM file to fix, or the file-name mask to use as a filter for the Files list box (for example, *.GED).
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Files
GEDCOM01.GED
GEDCOM09.GED
GEDCOM02.GED
GEDCOM10.GED
GEDCOM03.GED
GEDCOM11.GED
GEDCOM04.GED
GEDCOM12.GED
GEDCOM05.GED
..
GEDCOM06.GED
\DATA
GEDCOM07.GED
\SCRATCH
GEDCOM08.GED
\SMITH.DIR
The Files list box lists the names of files in the current directory that match the file-name mask in the Name input box, plus the parent directory and all subdirectories.
C:\PAF\MY_NAME\*.GED
MY_FAM.GED 52 Jul 14,1990 12:00pm
The File information panel shows the path name, file name, date, time, and size of the selected file. =
None of the items on this information panel are selectable.
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[ OK ]
The OK button starts the process of loading a GEDCOM file into a database.
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[ Cancel ]
If you choose Cancel, nothing changes and no action occurs, and the dialog box is put away. M
(Esc always cancels a dialog box, even if a Cancel button does not appear.)
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Help on the Change Directory dialog box
The Change Directory dialog box consists of an input box, a list box, an OK button and two other buttons (Chdir and Revert). |
Directory Name
The Directory Name input box is where you type in the path of the new directory.
Directory Tree
Drives
C:\
PAF
DATA
The Directory Tree list box enables you to navigate directories by using the selecting bar and pressing Enter.
If you're using the keyboard, press Enter to make the selected directory be the current directory, then choose OK or press Esc to exit the dialog box. +
[Chdir ]
The Chdir button changes the current directory once you've selected or typed in a directory name. +
[Revert]
The Revert button goes back to the previous directory, as long as you haven't yet exited the dialog box.
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Options
Togle Video Mode (Alt-V)
You use this to toggle between a screen size of 25 lines and 43/50 lines.
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Potential Sources of Pointer Errors
Pointer errors can be generated by your genealogy program under certain circumstances. Until the bugs are deleted from these programs, InstaRel is required to repair the corrupted GEDCOM that are created by these programs.
Pointer errors can be generated by hardware damage. If a floppy disk containing a GEDCOM file is damaged, there may be other errors besides pointer errors. The current version of InstaRel will only repair pointer errors. Q
A user can also generate pointer errors by incorrectly editing a GEDCOM file.
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Add or Start New Dialog Box
If you already have a database, this dialog box asks you if you want to start a new database or add to the new one.
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Start Comparison
This command will start the comparison of the two databases, one of which is called "Yours," and the other "Theirs."
As the comparison progresses, you will see the name of your ancestor being compared to all of their ancestors. You will also see some of the possible matches scroll up the screen. If there are many matches, you will not see any more matches until after the comparison is completed.
The name of the output file that has the matches is called "out.std." This file will be deleted when you start another comparison, so it is good to make a backup copy of this file after starting a comparison.
Another file that is generated is called "submit". This file contains a list of submitters that have contributed to all files that you have inserted into your database.
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The SUBMIT File
This file contains a list of submitters that have contributed to all files that you have inserted into your database. Following is a sample of the report that you will see in out.std. The submitter field matches the cross reference number of the submitter found in the "submit" file. Future versions may make this easier to read.
| GIVEN| | |
SURNAME| NAME| BIRTH DATE| BIRTH PLACE| DEATH DATE
This is an example of a submitter record found in the "submit" file. |
0 @S73@ SUBM
1 NAME Larry Allen Maddocks
1 ADDR 935 Best Ave.
1 PHON 801 484 6958
1 COMM To be used with InstaRel.exe
See also the Start
Comparison command.
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Add to Their Database
This button brings up a list of GEDCOM files that you can add to "their" database. If this database has already been created, you will get the chance to delete the database and start a new one.
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Add to Your Database
This button brings up a list of GEDCOM files that you can add to your database. If your database has already been created, you will get the chance to delete the database and start a new one.
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