Frequently Asked Questions

Clooz runs on Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8, and 10.   It requires installation of the Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 (or 3.5, depending on the Windows version).

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 cloozsetup.exe program at http://cloozsetups.ancestralsystems.com to your desktop or downloads folder, then execute the setup program.

If your Clooz database (.cdb extension) 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.

You can burn your own copy of the Clooz installation program as a CD using the .iso file found on the http://cloozsetups.ancestralsystems.com web page. This file is updated periodically, so you can keep your backup installation CD up to date.

For those users who do not have high-speed Internet service, a CD containing the Clooz installer can also be purchased in our Shop.

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 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.

In early 2015, Ancestral Systems, LLC established a new policy of having Clooz purchases support free updates for a period of one year following the purchase date (see update support policy for complete description).   Update support needs to be renewed annually to be able to continue to take advantage of new features and changes to Clooz.

Assuming you wish to run the latest versions of Clooz, renew your update support (if expired) on our Shop page.   Enter the new serial number provided to you into Clooz.

If you do not wish to renew, you can continue to run the most recent version of Clooz that was released while your support was still active.   Older versions of Clooz can be obtained on the cloozsetups web page (scroll to bottom part).   Uninstall the newer version of Clooz (if you had installed one), and then reinstall the older version.

In versions of Clooz at least 3.3.8, there is a License Status item in the Help menu.   It tells you when your update support will expire, and provides a convenient link to the Shop site to purchase a renewal when necessary.

There is a series of 12 Getting Started with Clooz videos available free for your viewing.   They provide a good demonstration of basic Clooz usage.

The user manual for Clooz is also a good starting point:  http://cloozsetups.ancestralsystems.com/Clooz3Manual.pdf

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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 document and source levels.

A Source in Clooz is a description of the document itself.   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.

A Document in Clooz is where the contents of the source document are entered.   It consists of two parts.   The general part where some additional information is contained relating to the source (such as the location it applies to).   Secondly, there is then a detailed set of information related to 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.

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
• 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 little bit trickier to use, but can be as effective.

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.

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 with Clooz 3.   However, it is a capability that will be added to the upcoming Clooz 4 sometime shortly after its initial release.