To get started select the program located under the Start Menu > Genota 6, or double click on the Desktop shortcut should one exist. This will launch Genota and display the main screen overlaid by the Welcome dialog requesting that a data file be either created or an existing data file be opened.



Select the appropriate option and the OK Button will enable for selection. As a first time user select Create a new data file.

The option Open the sample data file will load the sample data to allow the user to examine the information structures.

Selecting the Cancel Button will terminate the program.

Creating a new data file

Selecting the option Create a new data file displays the view as shown below and complete the steps as listed.



1. Enter a name for the new data file in the File Name input field. DO NOT  attempt to add a file extension as this will be added automatically.

If you do not  want to store the new data file in the default data folder click on the Select Location button to display the Browse for Folder dialog.




2. Select the folder into which the new data file is to be stored and click the OK button to close the dialog.
 
3. Configure File Options. These option allows for setting the default values to be applied in the new data file. 2 options are available.

• Date Format
• Character Case

Select the required options from those available in the drop down lists.

4. Click in the checkbox Use as the default data file to enable the new data file to open automatically each time Genota is opened.

5. Click on the OK button to create the new data file and close the view. Once the new data file has been created and made ready for use its name will appear in the screens Title Bar.

You have now created your first data file and ready to move to the next step. Refer to the appropriate sections of the User Guide for more information.

Users of Genota versions 3.2, 4 and 5, and Genota Forms 2 can migrate their existing data files into Genota 6.

To begin first ensure that a Genota 6 data file into which the source (old) data is to be migrated has been created and is the active data file.
Next, select Tools > Migrate Genota Files from the Main Menu to display the dialog as shown below.


1.Select the Genota or Genota Forms file that you want to migrate into Genota 6 by clicking program name.

2.This will cause the Open File dialog to open to enable the selection of the data file to be migrated.

As Genota 5 and earlier data files are comprised of multiple files the folder in which these files are located must be selected instead.

Once the source data has been selected and the open button selected the migration process will begin.

The time that this process will take is dependant on the number of records in the source data and may take up to more than 10 minutes where 30,000 or more records exist due to the conversion processes required.

A separate Genota 6 data file is not required for loading a combination of source files , however some massaging of the migrated information may be required due to the different data structures used in each of the software packages.

To recover from data file problems you need to restore the data from an existing backup file.

Data file errors can result from any number of causes. Although a bit technical, a list of possible causes for data file corruption can be found at:
www.sqlite.org/howtocorrupt.html

Genota employs a SQLite database server for managing data files. To access data files directly, there are a  myriad of SQLite tools available for download from the Internet for this purpose.

Extreme care should be taken when directly accessing data files and Ausgen Family History Services does NOT accept responsibility for data corruption that  may result

This may occur when the data file has not been closed correctly and displays a dialog similar to that shown below.



 Open the configurations file at C:\Users\<user name>\Documents\Genota 6\Genota.ini using Notepad and  delete the entire line commencing with the text :    DefaultDB=    
It is found under the section headed [Database]

When you restart Genota you will be asked to select a data file.

After migrating from an earlier version of Genota some strange characters appear in the notes, e.g.

-8 1 3-9 2 0 0 2 0 1RVS¯

    StyleNameNormal textFontNameArial
    StyleNameHeadingFontNameArialStylefsBoldColorclBlueProtectionrvprStickToTop
    StyleNameSubheadingFontNameArialStylefsBoldColorclNavy
    StyleNameKeywordsFontNameArialStylefsItalicColorclMaroon
    StyleNameJump 1FontNameArialStylefsUnderlineColorclGreenJump    
    StyleNameJump 2FontNameArialStylefsUnderlineColorclGreenJump    -9 2 0 0 2 0 2RVSX
    StyleNameParagraph StyleTabs
    StyleNameCentered    Alignment    rvaCenterTabs-9 2 0 0 2 0 4RVS0 26 0 0 0 01

This is some text formatting code that is incompatible with the current Genota 6 Note Editor. Simply highlight the unwanted characters and resave the Note.