Mysterious merge?

[Carrie Gross]

Hi,

I'm wondering if anybody has had this problem before, or knows what might have caused it. I work at the Maryland Department of Legislative Services, and I have a newer employee working on some of the legislative publication indexes that we do (journal of proceedings for each chamber of the General Assembly, and laws passed in each year's session). When my deputy director and I checked their work, we found that an early version of the journal of proceedings index had somehow been merged into the laws index. It's kind of a nightmare of a huge file. The employee said she didn't know that had happened, or how it happened, but that she did have trouble with Sky opening not with the most recent file she'd been working in, but with the previous file. 

Does anybody know what is going on here and whether there's some glitch we should have recognized as a problem before this point? (Besides the program opening with the wrong file loaded.) 

Thanks

Carrie Gross

[Deborah Patton]

While I haven't a clue about some of the stuff, you can likely figure out which records were merged.

Put the big file in page order (Shift+F7)

You also need to find an early (or the first) record of the proceedings index that had been merged into it. Go to that record and look at the index in the Grid. 

Then go to View and click either Record Numbers or Date Edited or Date Created. I'm not sure which date will help you the most. Maybe created.

You may be able to determine the exact first record of the proceedings index with either a radical record number or a way different 'date created.' That will be your demarcation line. 

Open and name a new blank index.

Then go back to the merged index and select from the first record of the proceedings index all the way to the end (with fingers crossed that there are no laws entries beyond that one). 

With all that highlighted, it's probably best that you cut all those records. Then click on the new blank index and paste. 

That may help -- hope it does!

Deborah

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "SKYIndexUsers" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to skyindexuser...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/skyindexusers/CANTj91S6JhVfMaLLy7hN_0afOr_xDQqFy3MPZCCdVOSsrDcDbw%40mail.gmail.com.

[Carrie Gross]

Thanks Deborah, we'll try that for cleaning it up!

Carrie

[Indexing]

I have no suggestions but just want to recognize Deborah for how helpful she is with stuff like this. 

I hope you get it all sorted, Carrie.

Heidi

On Sep 16, 2026, at 4:21 PM, Deborah Patton <ma...@pattonindexing.com> wrote:



To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/skyindexusers/XvdKNVwE-4tR-A5cE2QURyRpI74JxHZL_4GCAQywlrynGspzoi1YAZ7DEeo6zAix2OHD2JBoawioXotw0IHC69O-AA-rIf3y9lSoaevDKVE%3D%40pattonindexing.com.

[Deborah Patton]

Thanks for your kind words Heidi,

Our software is a big puzzle, and it's fun for me to figure out what's going on with it. I've experienced the sinking feeling of things like -- changing page numbers chapter by chapter from the front instead of the back, and merging files that goodness -- should that have happened? Record numbers and date created or edited have saved my neck numerous times. It's fun to pass that stuff along.

Humbly,

Deborah

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/skyindexusers/08B43CC5-83CE-4141-83C3-45F9224CD81A%40heidiblough.com.

[Indexing]

I’m deliberate and thoughtful before merging files and particularly when renumbering pages. I don’t always think about the utility of checking record numbers and date created. I appreciate you sharing your experience. Using this software for almost 25 years - I started with a different one and switched to SKY early on - and I still learn things from you, Deborah. Thank you. 

Heidi

On Sep 17, 2026, at 7:06 PM, Deborah Patton <ma...@pattonindexing.com> wrote:



[Judi Gibbs]

I'm late to this discussion--but I've recently noted that SKY seems to open, not to the latest version, but to the version immediately before that. When I shut down the computer and then re-open SKY, I check the version carefully. 

I'm using SKY 7. I have SKY 8, but prefer SKY 7--and I've only recently noticed this glitch. I don't know if it is a bug that has appeared out of nowhere...

It may have to do with the way that I save. I do NOT use the Save feature native to SKY. I do a Save As and then create an entirely new index. I have found that approach to be preferable to the native Save feature. 

But I will underscore that I label successive versions very carefully and then check if I have to re-open to ensure that I have the correct version. 

~Judi Gibbs

[Carrie Gross]

Hmmm okay thank you! I was wondering if it's maybe a bug in Sky 8 but if you're having that problem in 7 then that's not the case. Honestly the "save as" is looking more and more attractive.

Carrie

--

You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "SKYIndexUsers" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to skyindexuser...@googlegroups.com.

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/skyindexusers/cd328288-20be-4329-9d0c-bb6c5b2f0b12n%40googlegroups.com.

[Maria Sosnowski]

I use Sky 7 and have never had it open a previous version.  However, I also avoid using save as.  I don’t recall why, but I do recall Kamm saying not to use save as.  I wish I remembered the reason.

 

Maria

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/skyindexusers/CANTj91RMpnujTo-4BO98G6DHRcdqWUNzgekrUGuyBNyiAORZxg%40mail.gmail.com.

[Theresa Duran]

I think it's because people often get confused on which version of the file is currently open (the original vs. the one with the new filename). For that reason, whenever I use "save as," I close down SKY and then reopen the file that I want to be working on.

Theresa

---

From: 'Maria Sosnowski' via SKYIndexUsers <skyind...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Friday, September 18, 2026 12:30 PM
To: 'SKYIndexUsers' <skyind...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: RE: [SKYIndexUsers] Mysterious merge?

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/skyindexusers/014a01dd47a4%241f374f30%245da5ed90%24%40index-plus.com.