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Tilia & Tilia*Graph - Frequently Asked Questions

This Tilia FAQ is an evolving document, additional inclusions are welcome.

  How to Obtain Tilia and Tilia*Graph
  How to Obtain and Install TGView
  TGView Updates and Older .tgw Files
  Running Tilia*Graph from Windows NT
  Running Tilia*Graph from Windows 2000
  Running Tilia and Tilia*Graph from Windows XP
  Displaying Rare Types in Tilia 2.0
  Converting Tilia*Graph Files
  Oh no! Creating segment...Domain error pow: Overflow error
  TILIA-L - The Tilia Users' List


How to Obtain Tilia and Tilia*Graph

Tilia and Tilia*Graph were developed by and are distributed by Dr. Eric Grimm at the Illinois State Museum:
          Dr. Eric Grimm
          Illinois State Museum
          Research and Collections Center
          1011 East Ash Street
          Springfield, IL  62703
          USA
          Phone:    217-785-4846
          Fax:      217-785-2857
          Email:    grimm@museum.state.il.us
Tilia is available free of charge; Tilia*Graph costs US$250.
If you have purchased either version 1.x or version 2.x of these programs, upgrades are available via anonymous FTP from:
  ftp.ncdc.noaa.gov
(or from any of these mirror sites) in the directory /paleo/pollen/pdb/get-files. The current self-extracting upgrade file is t20b4.exe (size 550 Kb). Note that you must have a prior version of Tilia installed before you can upgrade.

How to Obtain and Install TGView

TGView is a Windows (95 and above) program that views and prints *.tgf files generated by the DOS version of Tilia*Graph. The program will read *.tgf files versions 1.10 through 1.26. An important feature of the program is that it will print to any printer supported by Windows. Because DOS drivers do not exist for many newer printers, this feature alleviates a major shortcoming of Tilia*Graph. The program also uses Windows TrueType fonts. TGView is the first step in the production of the full Tilia*Graph for Windows.
Download the latest version from:

    Site       demeter.museum.state.il.us
    Directory  /pub/grimm
    File       TGV1311.EXE   [released 18 March 2002]
You may point your Web browser to http://museum.state.il.us/pub/grimm/.

Instructions for installation

1. Copy TGV1311.EXE to a temporary directory. TGV1311.EXE is a self-extracting executable.

2. In the Windows Explorer, doubleclick on TGV1311.EXE to extract and run the setup program.

3. Select a temporary destination directory in the "TGView 1.3.1.1 Self-Extractor" dialog box. All setup files will be extracted into this directory. I recommend you choose a directory or subdirectory with nothing else in it, because you may delete these files after installation. This directory is not the directory in which TGView will be permanently installed. Click "Finish" when ready.

4. The standard InstallShield setup program will then run and lead you through the installation.

5. To make a set of installation diskettes for installation on another computer, see the Readme.txt file in the temporary directory.

6. The files in the temporary directory may be deleted after TGView is installed, but save these files if you think you may want to make a set of installation diskettes.


TGView Updates and Older .tgw Files

After upgrading to the latest TGView, the program works with old .tgf files, but old .tgw files give an error. TGView is still in development and there are so many changes between versions that maintaining backward compatibility is unfortunately just not practical. Backward compatibility will be maintained once a version of TGView with all (or about all) of the Tilia*Graph options is complete.

Running Tilia*Graph from Windows NT

Setting up Tilia*Graph to run under Windows NT (see below for Windows 2000) is somewhat different than setting it up for Windows 95. Here is how to do it:
1. Add a Path variable to User Variables in Control Panel/System/Environment. Set this variable to your Tilia directory, i.e. set Variable to Path and Value to C:\TILIA:
  Path             C:\TILIA
If you already have a User Variable named Path then just append C:\TILIA using a semicolon to separate path names. Alternatively, you can add C:\TILIA to the System Variable Path, but that requires Administrator privileges.
2. Next add the Tilia environment variables to User Variables (or to System Variables, if you prefer):
  CGIPATH          C:\TILIA\DRIVERS
  CURSORMODE       TRUE
  KERNEL           C:\TILIA
3. Now create an AUTOEXEC.TIL file in your system directory (this is usually C:\WINNT\SYSTEM32). Just copy the following into a NotePad file and save it as AUTOEXEC.TIL (note that this assumes your Tilia directory is C:\TILIA):
  @echo off

  REM AUTOEXEC.BAT is not used to initialize the MS-DOS environment.
  REM AUTOEXEC.NT is used to initialize the MS-DOS environment unless a
  REM different startup file is specified in an application's PIF.

  REM Start Tilia drivers
  C:\TILIA\DRIVERS
  REM Specify a network printer for printing diagrams
  NET USE LPT2 \\<NETWORK_HOST>\<PRINTER_NAME>
(This last line in AUTOEXEC.TIL sets up a network printer. You may or may not need to set up a network printer in this fashion, but if you do then this is how you can do it. If you don't need a network printer then delete or REM out this line. If you do want to use a network printer in this fashion then replace <NETWORK_HOST> with the name of the NT server that controls the printer, and <PRINTER_NAME> with the name of the printer on the network.)
4. The last step is to open the Windows Explorer to your Tilia directory (usually C:\TILIA) and right-click on TG.EXE to open its Properties window. Now click on the Program tab and click the Windows NT... button. This brings up a Windows NT PIF Settings dialog. Under Autoexec Filename change the extension of AUTOEXEC from .NT to .TIL. It should then look like:
  Autoexec Filename:  %SystemRoot%\SYSTEM32\AUTOEXEC.TIL
Click Ok and then Ok again to close the TG.EXE Properties window. You should now see (you may need to resort your filenames first) a Tg - Shortcut to MS-DOS Program (i.e. a PIF file) entry that will run your AUTOEXEC.TIL, and therefore load the device drivers, whenever you start Tilia*Graph from a Command Prompt by typing tg.

Running Tilia*Graph from Windows 2000

Setting up Tilia*Graph to run under Windows 2000 is different than setting it up for Windows 95, and slightly different than setting it up for Windows NT. Here is how to do it:
1. Add a Path variable to User Variables in Control Panel/System/Advanced/Environment Variables. Click the New button under User Variables and set this variable to your Tilia directory, i.e. set Variable Name to Path and Variable Value to C:\TILIA:
  Variable Name:     Path
  Variable Value:    C:\TILIA
If you already have a User Variable named Path then select that variable and click the Edit button and append C:\TILIA using a semicolon to separate path names. Alternatively, you can add C:\TILIA to the System Variable Path, but that requires Administrator privileges.
2. Next add the Tilia environment variables to User Variables (or to System Variables, if you prefer):
  CGIPATH          C:\TILIA\DRIVERS
  CURSORMODE       TRUE
  KERNEL           C:\TILIA
3. Now create an AUTOEXEC.TIL file in your system directory (this is usually C:\WINNT\SYSTEM32). Just copy the following into a NotePad file and save it as AUTOEXEC.TIL (note that this assumes your Tilia directory is C:\TILIA):
  @echo off

  REM AUTOEXEC.BAT is not used to initialize the MS-DOS environment.
  REM AUTOEXEC.NT is used to initialize the MS-DOS environment unless a
  REM different startup file is specified in an application's PIF.

  REM Install CD ROM extensions
  lh %SystemRoot%\system32\mscdexnt.exe

  REM Install network redirector (load before dosx.exe)
  lh %SystemRoot%\system32\redir

  REM Install DPMI support
  lh %SystemRoot%\system32\dosx

  REM Start Tilia drivers
  C:\TILIA\DRIVERS
  REM Specify a network printer for printing diagrams
  NET USE LPT2 \\<NETWORK_HOST>\<PRINTER_NAME>
(This last line in AUTOEXEC.TIL sets up a network printer. You may or may not need to set up a network printer in this fashion, but if you do then this is how you can do it. If you don't need a network printer then delete or REM out this line. If you do want to use a network printer in this fashion then replace <NETWORK_HOST> with the name of the server that controls the printer, and <PRINTER_NAME> with the name of the printer on the network.)
4. The last step is to open the Windows Explorer to your Tilia directory (usually C:\TILIA) and right-click on TG.EXE to open its Properties window. Now click on the Program tab and click the Advanced button. This brings up a Windows PIF Settings dialog. For Autoexec Filename change the extension of AUTOEXEC from .NT to .TIL. It should then look like:
  Autoexec filename:  %SystemRoot%\SYSTEM32\AUTOEXEC.TIL
Click Ok and then Ok again to close the TG.EXE Properties window. You should now see (you may need to resort your filenames first) a Tg - Shortcut to MS-DOS Program (i.e. a PIF file) entry that will run your AUTOEXEC.TIL, and therefore load the device drivers, whenever you start Tilia*Graph from a Command Prompt by typing tg.

Running Tilia and Tilia*Graph from Windows XP

You can run Tilia and Tilia*Graph from either icons on the desktop or from the DOS command prompt. First you have to install Tilia and Tilia*Graph with the Tinstall program on the CD or in the downloaded version. Do not modify the AUTOEXEC.BAT file when asked. This file is not used by Windows XP.
A. Running Tilia from an icon on the desktop.
1. Right click on the Start button and select Explore.
2. Find Tilia.exe (normally in C:\Tilia) and drag it to the desktop while pressing the Alt key to create a shortcut. A shortcut arrow will appear by the icon. (Suggestion: by default Explorer does not show the file type extension. To show the extension, click Tools/Folder Options, then click the View tab and clear the check box for Hide extensions for known file types.)
3. Right click the Tilia shortcut icon and click Properties. Click the Program tab and in edit box after Working: enter the directory containing your .til files. Example: C:\Pollen\MyBog. If you change working directories, change it in the Tilia properties box. Click Ok to save.
4. Double click the Tilia shortcut icon to start the program.
B. Running Tilia*Graph from an icon on the desktop.
1. Right click on the Start button and select Explore.
2. Find TG.exe (normally in C:\Tilia) and drag it to the desktop while pressing the Alt key to create a shortcut. A shortcut arrow will appear by the icon.
3. You must denote a batch file to set up the environment for TG. You can either modify the file AUTOEXEC.NT or create another file, e.g. SETUPTG.BAT. AUTOEXEC.NT will be found in the SYSTEM32 directory, usually C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32 or C:\WINNT\SYSTEM32. If you modify AUTOEXEC.NT, add the lines below to the bottom of this file. Otherwise, create the file SETUPTG.BAT in the \Tilia directory and add the following lines:
    PATH=C:\TILIA;%PATH%
    SET KERNEL=C:\TILIA
    SET CURSORMODE=TRUE
    SET CGIPATH=C:\TILIA\DRIVERS
    C:\TILIA\DRIVERS
This example assumes that you have installed Tilia and Tilia*Graph on the C drive. If not, replace C with the appropriate drive letter.

You can edit AUTOEXEC.NT or SETUPTG.BAT with NotePad or with Word. If using Word, save as a plain text file. You may have to rename the file in Explorer to remove the .txt extension.

I recommend that you create the file SETUPTG.BAT, because, as you will see below, this file can also be used for running Tilia*Graph from the command prompt.

4. Right click the Tilia*Graph shortcut icon and click properties. Click the Program tab and in Working: enter the directory containing your .til and .tgf files. Example: C:\Pollen\MyBog. If you change working directories, change it in the Tilia*Graph properties box. In Batch file: enter the name of the batch file created above, e.g. C:\Tilia\SETUPTG.BAT. Click Ok to save.
5. Double click the TG shortcut icon to start the program.
C. Running Tilia from the Command Prompt.
1. Click the Start button, then All Programs/Accessories/Command Prompt. You may want to drag the Command Prompt icon while pressing the Ctrl key to the desktop. Then you can simply double click the Command Prompt icon on the desktop.
2. Change to the Tilia directory by typing CD \TILIA. If Tilia is installed on a drive other than the C drive, type the drive letter followed by a colon first, e.g. D: changes to the D drive.
3. Type Tilia to start the program
D. Running Tilia*Graph from the Command Prompt.
1. Create the SETUPTG.BAT file in the \Tilia directory as described above.
2. Start the Command prompt as above.
3. Change directories to either the Tilia directory as above or to the directory containing your data with the CD (Change Directory) command. If you change to the Tilia directory, type SETUPTG to set up the TG environmentals. If you change to the data directory, type the complete path, e.g. C:\TILIA\SETUPTG. You will run SETUPTG only once per DOS session. If you close your DOS window, then you will have to run SETUPTG again.
4. Type TG to start the program.

Displaying Rare Types in Tilia 2.0
Occurrences of rare pollen grains may sometimes be important information. For example, small amounts of introduced cultivars such as Secale indicate the dawning of agriculture in northern Europe. Because these types may be barely visible in a typical percentage graph, a common procedure is to plot the actual numbers of these grains as small plus (+) signs or circles. This feature was possible in Tilia 1, but was quite clumsy. Tilia 2 has a new method for designating "rare types."
1. In the Tilia spreadsheet, designate the cells of "rare types" by typing 'r' (without the quotes). A small 'r' will appear before the value. If entering a value for the first time, press the number, then 'r'. To designate a value already entered, simply move to the cell and type 'r'.
2. The "rare types" will be used for calculating sums, but when percentages are calculated, the actual counts remain in the designated cells, rather than being converted to percentages.
3. Tilia*Graph will plot a small symbol for each rare type. For example, if the value in the cell is "r3," then 3 small symbols will be plotted at the appropriate level.
4. If the rare type graph is too narrow for taste, widen by adding more end space, with menu selections .
5. Plotting options for rare types include turning rare-type plotting on or off, changing the size of the symbols, and selecting the type of symbol (plus sign or circle). Select from the Tilia*Graph main menu.
6. Rare and normal (non-rare) values may exist for a single variable in the spreadsheet. The normal values will be converted to percentages and plotted as usual silhouette (or histogram) graph, whereas the "rare" values will be plotted as symbols for individual occurrences.

Converting Tilia*Graph Files
Tilia*Graph files (.TGF files) are specific to the version of Tilia*Graph you are using. If Tilia*Graph complains when you try to Load a Tilia*Graph file, i.e.
  DEMO.TGF not version 1.26!
  Hit any key...
or some similar message, you must use the utility, TGFCNVT.EXE, to convert your old Tilia*Graph file to a newer version.
Note that conversions are uni-directional, so if you think you might ever need to revert to the earlier version, you should make a backup copy of it before converting. Perhaps you should always make a backup copy.
Released versions of TGFCNVT.EXE for converting to Tilia*Graph:
          TGFCNVT.EXE             Converts to Tilia*Graph version
   61,827  09/22/94  02:59p                 ????
   38,862  03/28/96  03:52p                 ????
   59,522  04/22/96  02:29p                 1.26
The most recent version of TGFCNVT.EXE is available from ftp.ncdc.noaa.gov (or any of these mirror sites) in the directory /pub/data/paleo/pollen/pdb/get-files. Download the compressed file named tgfcnvt.zip.

Oh no! Creating segment...Domain error pow: Overflow error
If this error message appears on your screen when trying to Create a Diagram in Tilia*Graph for some, but not all Tilia files, the most likely problem is that your sample numbers are not in ascending order. You can sort samples in the spreadsheet with Alt+O or Sort Samples, or just F6.

TILIA-L - The Tilia Users' List
The Tilia Users' List exists to share information and news concerning both Tilia and Tilia*Graph. Such information shall include: help on using and installing the programs, tips for beginning and advanced users, bug reports and work-arounds, and upgrade announcements.
How to subscribe:

Users must subscribe themselves to this list. They should address a message to:

  listproc@lists.colorado.edu 
with the contents of their message being:
  subscribe tilia-l 
Example:
  subscribe tilia-l Carolus Linnaeus
The subject line of the message should be blank.
How to unsubscribe:

You may leave the list at any time by sending a UNSUBSCRIBE TILIA-L command to listproc@lists.colorado.edu. Please note that this command must NOT be sent to the list address (TILIA-L) but to the TILIA-L LISTPROC address (LISTPROC).

To remove yourself from this list, address a message to:

  listproc@lists.colorado.edu 
with the contents of the message being:
  unsubscribe tilia-l
To repeat: this command must NOT be sent to the list address (TILIA-L). PLEASE note the address: listproc@lists.colorado.edu
How to send a message to the list:

To send to the list, address messages to:

  tilia-l@lists.colorado.edu
Your message will be sent to everyone who is subscribed to the list. You must be a member of TILIA-L to send a message to the list. As currently set up, you will receive a copy of your postings.

Send additional inclusions for this page to: John Keltner

11 November 2002