Frequently Asked Questions

Clooz 4 runs on Windows 8, 10 and 11.   It requires installation of the Microsoft .NET Framework 4.8.

Despite our best efforts, Clooz 4 is no longer targeting the Mac OS.  It remains a possibility in the longer term.

Clooz 4, like the current version  3, will run on Mac’s currently when a virtual Windows configuration is established, such as with VMWare Fusion.  This requires a licensed copy of Windows.

You will need the latest Clooz serial number issued to you (original purchase or renewed update support), along with the unlock password.   These would be in the email you received after purchasing the program or renewing update support.

Download the clooz4setup.exe program at http://downloads.clooz.com to your desktop or downloads folder, then execute the setup program.

If your Clooz database (.clz extension in version 4; .cdb in version 3) and any associated media files have not already been moved to the new system, do so now.

Once you enter the serial number and your user name (your preferred identification) into Clooz, you can use the File menu->Maintenance->Media Location Tool to help you reestablish all the proper file links between the Clooz database references and the actual file locations.   It’s always simplest if you follow a general practice of keeping Clooz documents within the same folder structure, where the entire structure can be copied to another system and maintain the same file path.

We have discontinued generation of .iso files or sales of CDs.

Clooz requires the Georgia Regular font to be installed on your system.   It is one of the standard fonts Windows provides.   If it has been deleted, the Georgia.ttf font file needs to be restored in the Windows fonts folder.

This error means your Windows Installer service (the MSIserver in Windows that processes application installers) is either missing, corrupted, or otherwise not running.

Commonly, it is often the result of some previous program installation or uninstall not completing properly.   Some users have had success using programs such as Revo to install Clooz (although this should not be taken as our endorsement of any program).  There are also various solutions described on the Internet when you search for “Windows Installer Service could not be access”.

Contact us at support@clooz.com for further assistance.

The Crystal Reports runtime library is likely the cause of this conflict within your system configuration.   This is a third-party product we use as the report generation engine in Clooz.

Download the library installer separately:  http://cloozsetups.ancestralsystems.com/CRRuntime.msi

Once it’s on your system, right click the file, and select Install.   Then attempt to run the cloozsetup.exe program again.

This is not applicable to Clooz 4, which does not use Crystal Reports.

This is most likely due to a security access limitation being encountered within your system.

Try right clicking the cloozsetup.exe file, and select:  Run as Administrator.

Also be sure that the data folder you designated to hold your Clooz data during the install procedure process provides write access for both the System and User windows accounts.   Normally, if you have not tinkered with these Windows settings, keeping the Clooz data within your My Documents folder area will avoid this issue.   The setup program default is a “Clooz Data” folder within your Windows documents folder.

Clooz 4 requires a serial number that provided update support as of July 23, 2016, or was purchased after that date. If you did not renew update support prior to that date, a new user license will be required.

Be sure you have your latest serial number by using the tool at: https://support.clooz.com

Check out the frequently asked questions regarding upgrading at https://support.clooz.com.

Clooz 4 help topics and videos are provided online at https://support.clooz.com. The Clooz User Guide provides this content in the form of a pdf file, downloadable at: https://downloads.clooz.com/Clooz4UserGuide.pdf.

There is still a series of 12 Getting Started with Clooz videos available, but they refer to Clooz 3. Many of the concepts in Clooz have not changed, so you may still find value in watching them even though you are using Clooz 4.

Sign up to be on our mailing list.   The profile settings control which types of mailings you want to receive.

We promise not to share your email address with other parties.

Please notify us of the change at support@clooz.com

If you have signed up for our mailing list, update you account information at Constant Contact.  Find one of our email messages and click on the Update Profile/Email Address link at the bottom of the message.   There you can edit your email address and make any desired modification of your profile.

In Clooz, information that contributes to the formation of a complete source citation for a piece of information is contained in both the Information Record and source levels.

A Source in Clooz is a description of what contained the information.   It could be a census, book, church record book, marriage certificate, tax record, etc.   The Repository is where this item is physically held.   In the case of online databases, the database, perhaps listed as a Collection, would be the source.   The web site/company publishing this database would be the Repository.

An Information Record in Clooz is where the contents of the source document are entered.   It consists of two parts.   The general or common part where some additional information is contained relating to the source (such as the location it applies to) or otherwise applies to all of the people.   Secondly, there is then a detailed set of information for each individual person linked to that document.   For a census, everyone in the family might be linked, with the document detail containing the information listed on their line of the census.   Typically, it is in this detailed set of information where the page number reference is listed, since different persons might be mentioned on different pages of the same document.

This way of organizing information and source identification (some programs call these type of sources Master Sources) results in the most reuse of source records.   Clooz is flexible enough for you to adapt these definitions to your own desired approach.

Sources in Clooz refer to a description of the document (book, certificate, journal, etc) the information came from.   The Source Title is the exact title of the item, such as from a book’s title page or cover).   The Source Label is any form of description you choose to use to identify the source when it appears in lists of sources in Clooz.   This is usually some form of composite of location and document type, such as  Pennsylvania, Lebanon County, 1850 U.S. Census   or  U.S. Census, 1850, Pennsylvania, Lebanon.   The trick is to determine a system of labeling you want to follow that results in your desired grouping and ordering of the sources when display in an alphabetical list.    Labels are not used as part of citations, only in lists of sources.

Note that you can select whether Titles or Labels are used for sources when appearing in lists within Clooz by going to the Edit menu->Options item.

Check out the frequently asked questions regarding upgrading at https://support.clooz.com.

Yes, Clooz supports the export of people, their events, the source, associated media files, and source citations as related to a single Clooz document in various ways:

• Direct read/write with Legacy Family Tree databases
• Direct read/write with Family Historian files
• Direct read from RootsMagic databases, with transfer to RootsMagic through special GEDCOM files that preserve linking of people
• Direct read from Ancestral Quest databases, with transfer to Ancestral Quest through GEDCOM files that include special linking for people
• Data transfer (import/export) using GEDCOM files (including a GEDCOM tuned for use with FamilyTreeMaker)

The two programs which Clooz has direct read and write capability to interface with are Legacy Family Tree and Family Historian.  Family Historian maintains data in memory until you save the file, so Clooz does put up a reminder to save the Family Historian file before proceeding with imports or exports. So there is one small manual step there, but Clooz steps you through it.

RootsMagic is somewhat similar, but does not allow Clooz to write data directly to the database. Rather, a special GEDCOM file is produced by Clooz and has to be manually imported into RootsMagic. It is special in that it includes record identifiers so that RootsMagic knows whether the person the data is for is a new person (to be added), or already existing in its database (thus avoiding duplication of people records). It’s just a few extra steps to do, but can be as effective.

Clooz also directly reads data from Ancestral Quest databases, but like RootsMagic, you’ll need to use GEDCOM to export from Clooz to Ancestral Quest. There are some special identifiers used to better link the people between Clooz and Ancestral Quest.

Clooz is not permitted to have direct access (read or write) to FamilyTreeMaker, so all data transfers must be done via GEDCOMs.   The process of importing a GEDCOM into FTM does provide some support for identifying people already in the database (to avoid duplication), but this requires the user to be very attentive and examining all the details.   Clooz will adjust for some of the non-standard aspects of FMTs use of GEDCOM files.

Using a generic GEDCOM, data can be imported from or exported to nearly all other genealogy programs.   However, duplication of people may result depending on the program.

Additional interface improvements are planned for the future.

When you import people and/or sources into Clooz using the Data Transfer Manager, you are simply importing the individual people (which Clooz then remembers who they are in the other program), or in the source case, the individual source.   No events are imported, since Clooz is entirely document-based.   It is the events (or characteristics) in your family tree program that link a person to a source.   Thus, there is no real way to reproduce that link in Clooz.

However, when you export a document from Clooz back to the family tree program, Clooz will exact information from the document and produce a list of events.   These will be automatically linked to the source of the document in order to have the event in the family tree program proper cite the source.

Think of it this way…    You can create a birth event based on information in a birth certificate, however, you cannot create a birth certificate based on a birth event.   Clooz is dealing with the documents, which becomes evidence of events occurring.   It is not a substitute for your family tree program.

In Clooz 4 there is a new feature to help meet this need. When you import people who have events which cite sources, the source record can be imported automatically and research tasks can be established to provide a list of the sources that should be reviewed for you to generate Information Records in Clooz. You would still need to determine what information a particular source really provided regarding that person’s events, but this is an organized way to step through that process.

Whenever Clooz exports data to an external program, it will always create additional people, events and sources (however, the user can designate to use the person or source already in the external program instead of creating a duplicate one).   Existing data in the external file is never overwritten or changed.   For example, if a person in the family tree program already has a birth event, and the Clooz document contained birth event information, Clooz will create an alternate birth event in the external program for that person.   The user then has to designate which is the preferred birth event (since the date may not be exactly the same).

The philosophy of Clooz is to maintain a precise record of the information contained in the source document, including the exact date, spelling of a location, or spelling of a person’s name.   Thus as multiple source documents are accumulated for a person, the data must be melded together into the form desired by the user for display in the family tree.  Clooz provides the capabilities to do this in an efficient manner without requiring double entry of all the information.

Unfortunately, this isn’t possible yet.  It’s something being considered for the future.