Page 3 - Gen Mag Online November 2020

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Editorial

Welcome to the revamped and re-launched Gen Mag Online. I hope you like it. It’s been a long time
since the last magazine was published. Sadly, a lot of things have happened in the intervening years.

Originally, Gen Mag was published using a piece of software called Desktop Author. It was a great
piece of kit, and I expected to use it for many years. But the company behind it suddenly disappeared
leaving hundreds, if not thousands of its customers high and dry. I also had a couple of ebooks listed
on its companion bookseller site.

What’s more, normally companies give you time to sort things out and continue offering support while
you look for some alternative. This didn’t happen with Desktop Author. Support disappeared overnight
as well. What’s particularly annoying is the software is still on sale on a number of websites. So,
people will no doubt buy the product only to discover they can’t use it as it requires a specific
registration key to inserted. This key will not be forthcoming. But potential customers will also have
lost money.

So, that left Gen Mag Online in limbo. I did not want to use PDF, as the whole point of Gen Mag was
it was supposed to have the look and feel of a magazine. Desktop Author enabled this to happen.

There was a potential solution however - flip technology. This enables PDFs to be converted to
documents which can be read in a similar fashion to normal books and magazines. The trouble
though, nothing I tried at the time was suitable. They were also expensive and didn’t offer features
and benefits that I wanted.
That changed very recently. I found software which is more than adequate. In some respects it is
better than Desktop Author, but the latter had features which I will miss.

All in all I am pleased with the results. I hope you will be too. Incidentally, as previously you have a
choice of either downloading a .EXE file or datafile.

As well as old favourites, it is intended to introduce new topics. For instance, in this and on-going
issues mediaeval family history is introduced. This is a growing and massive area in genealogy. Also
to be included in a future issue is DNA testing. This, however is a very complicated topic, so will be
dealt with carefully.

Is there anything you would like to see articles about? Would you like to contribute? Just email
genmagonline@gmail.com.

Contact Details

Steve Kelly (Proprietor & Editor)
106 Mossdale Drive,
Rainhill, Prescot, Lancashire, L35 4NQ

Tel: 0151 430 7261
Mob: 07950 037 727
Email: genmagonline@gmail.com
Web: www.genmagonline.uk