loribragg

How do you know there is a lack of progress? All we know is what we are told- and one thing you can bet we won't be told is a definitive statement about when the product will, or will not, be released.

Exactly! I no longer want to deal with a software company that cannot and will not communicate with its users. Really... who needs that kind of aggravation? Version 8 will have to be amazing for me to pay premium $$$ for it and we have no indication of any kind what it will be. We might as well move on.

I woke up this morning with an idea I thought I'd share - right now it's still just a germ of an idea really. See the attached image of my dual monitor screen print to get the gist. My TMG layout is on the left screen and the right screen has a notebook from SpringPad.

I got an iPad for Christmas and I found this great app called SpringPad that is phenomenal and fun. It's a productivity tool and has several features which make it stand out in that crowded field -

1. the ability to 'clip' any image or text from the web and send it directly to a notebook within SpringPad and you can look up stuff from within the app,

2. it is web-based so you can update your notebooks on the mobile app or on your browser and they will stay synced always,

3. it's FREE!

4. you can layout a notebook as a 'board'.

We all know how complex genealogy can be - lots of facts, people, places - details! And when you are researching TMG does a really good job of letting you lay out a lot of those in the best way for you. There are still holes though - at least for me. I'm one of those people that likes everything visible and close. I started a notebook in SpringPad dedicated to one of my favorite ancestors. I have a few pictures of him and places he lived, lots of documents, etc. SpringPad isn't made for genealogists, so it's a little rough laying these out and I've only done a few here to see if its a viable tool. Some things, like an hourglass chart, are small icons that you can blow up to a larger size if you need it and otherwise make room to see other stuff. The map item will pin any place that is noted within the notebook - automatically. You can make checklists, shopping lists, etc. As with many computer programs, it has trouble with dates outside the realm of computer lifespans (Excel has an issue with this as well).

What do you think of this as an idea for your research? Do you think this could be a useful tool if it was tweaked toward genealogy research? It couldn't replace all the links and details that are within TMG - just be another tool.

Frankly, the unicode and FoxPro issues are, to me, indicators of a much larger problem: COMMUNICATION. The lack of it. In any form. On any topic. unfortunatley, this does send a message and we are hearing it loud and clear:

"Our customers are too difficult/moody/cranky/uninformed to understand our business. They will just have to wait until we are good and ready to talk at them. Let them talk to each other - we're too busy to care what they think about our product."

In an era when companies from all industries, including software, are using Facebook, Twitter, RSS feeds, blogs, etc to get information to and from their customers Wholly Gene's lack of communication and attitude is all the more obvious and grating!

TMG is the most complete, most useful genealogy product on the market. It probably has a few years of viability before another product overtakes it. The company attitude is what will kill it.

Lori Bragg

I am wondering if I am missing some newsletters or have fallen off the mailing list? It seems like there is less and less communication... especially since several people wanted to know the status of the next version. Honestly, in an era where most companies are using the latest technology to communicate constantly with their customer-base, not hearing at all is a little worrisome. My two cents.

On a Need To Know basis: We have not heard a word from TMG for quite a while now. As with the current BP situation, no news is NOT good news. Though I hope that there are still plans to bring Version 8 to us as soon as possible, I believe that some sort of announcement from TMG should be forthcoming.... anything, just something to let us know that they are still working on it. I really do not want to have to use another program - though I know that some people are doing just that because they are beginning to feel abandoned.

I too wish for some kind of update. I love TMG. There are things I would like to see that are not in version 7. I have no idea whether any of these things are going to be in version 8, 9 or ever. I don't want to change software. Technology changes a lot; a lot more than we probably need it to change and yet over time we find many of these changes/upgrades are very useful. WG is a small company. Users can be cranky - both when they hear something and when they don't hear something. One aspect of technology that is changing is that users want to be more interactive with the companies they buy hardware and software from [ie: apps].

All of these are true statements. I use another database program for my library catalog that is from a small company (Collectorz.com). They probably have a similar business model - few employees, devoted users, database software that needs/wants updating continuously, etc. They use Facebook and other communication tools to constantly update their customer base on what is happening and they put out several smaller upgrades to keep their users up to date (and I would guess this provides a more regular revenue stream as well). Even on major shifts in technology they keep their users informed. There will always be cranky customers; most people are pretty calm, though opinionated.

I think more information/interaction would be appropriate and appreciated. We all want TMG to do well. Unless there is competitive information that would damage market standing, open communication would benefit all parties.

I am wondering if there is a way to find the people, or the tags, that have a specific source cited. I haven't found a way to filter for it or to print a report based on it. I may be brain dead here...

 

List of Citations with filter of Source No. = [?]

 

Save this report configuration and you can use it anytime you wish.

When you run it it will ask for the Source No.

Brain dead it is! Thank you for your help. Lori

I am wondering if there is a way to find the people, or the tags, that have a specific source cited. I haven't found a way to filter for it or to print a report based on it. I may be brain dead here...

Thanks so much Virginia! That will help a lot! Lori

Also, I would like to be able to have an image in the boxes above the Name field. I can't figure out how to do this now, if it can be done. Even after the chart is created I can't move the image separate from the box. In a descendant chart I'm doing for a wedding, I want to include a lot of living people, birth-death years for them and the ancestors that tie them together and possibly their relationship to the wedding couple. The picture isn't allowed to be more than half the width of the box which makes the pictures either very small, or the boxes very big.

The chart is really huge, as you can imagine - 42" tall and about 10 feet wide. People love these though, especially at weddings where they are all together. If anyone has any great ideas I would love to hear them.

Lori Bragg

I am trying to create an Ancestor chart and had to stop and send this request before I forget...

When I am in the 'chart option, data types' I would like to be able to change the order of data bits or insert one into the list instead of at the end. I like to put the events in roughly chronological order - so birth, marriage, death. Then I realize I want the cause of death which is in the death memo and I add it after, no problem. Then I decide I want the primary occupation... which seems odd after death, or the immigration data, which is definitely not after death. I think the only way to do this now is to replace death with occupation and death memo with immigration and then add death and death memo again. A 'move up/move down' function would be lovely.

Thanks, Lori

I would love to see a drag-and-drop interface for images. Lori

What are you referring to? You can now drag and drop image files from Windows Explorer into the Exhibit Log.

Sorry. I did notice that later. I have never found the media portion to be very intuitive though. I don't know if you have seen the new software My Blood, but it has a very visual interface for things like data, media, mapping, including sibling, parent, child data in the timeline, etc. I'm not looking to switch because from what I can see there are also drawbacks and things I would miss, like the some of the flexibility of the interface and reports - it just has a different and somewhat more current feel. For example, being able to put one picture in and identify all of the people in it, linking it to each of those in the database. I couldn't get the map portion to work at all but the way it is 'supposed to look'

from the documentation looks very interesting. It might prevent me from putting New York in the country space or misspelling Manhattan.

Just thoughts. I love TMG. Lori

I would love to see a drag-and-drop interface for images. Lori

Is there a way to get tags from "other info" box to show up in charts? For example, number of children would be an interesting thing to show in an ancestor box chart and it is something that can change as you add data so it is not something I want to create a note for. Even last edited would be handy when you are using a chart as a reference and trying to figure out what lines you may have neglected.

Thanks, Lori

I am trying to use the Journal Report to create a 'flowing narrative' ala Terry Riegel's suggestions (and others'). Each generation has a subtitle (ie, Generation One) and each paragraph after has a number at the beginning (ie 1. Katherine Calamari was born...). Also in the list of children of the couple it numbers them twice: once for the paragraph reference (I think) and once in lower case roman numerals. Do I just need to edit these out after I export to a Word file or can I get the report to take these out?

Much thanks! Lori Bragg

Thanks everyone for the insight. I probably don't need to weed then; it just seemed like it would speed things up. I have about 18000 names in my database now and maybe 3000 to 5000 are people who seem to be related to people who are related to people who married people who are cousins several times removed.

I will live with it for now and work thru other puzzles. See if that helps clarify. Lori

I have been doing genealogy for many years and along the way, as technology and knowledge got better, got into better habits than when I started. Certainly, TMG makes it easy to source and keep up with the records. However, some of my early efforts are still in my database - including (dare I admit it) data I merged from other distant cousins. Some of the people in there aren't even related! So I am trying to come up with an system for 'weeding' my file of those lines that really are completely superfluous and also any data the is either duplicate or unsourced and I should therefore go back and research.

I have started with the Audit Report (reminded of in the recent newsletter). Many of these people fall into the 'weed' category though and it might be easier just to whack them than try to fix them. So my question is:

Does anyone out there have experience with this and will you share your system for weeding your tree? People-weeds are the primary concern but also the other files: sources, places and any other weed types you find.

Thanks in advance, Lori Bragg

We figured it out! One of the ancestry.com employees successfully loaded it on his side so it wasn't ancestry either.... it turned out to be that I was using Google Chrome as my browser during upload! When I used IE it worked first time!

Man, it's always somethin'....

Thanks for everyone's help.

Lori

I am interested in sharing my work with extended family and am considering using Ancestry.com's My Trees feature for this. Has anyone else here tried this? I cannot seem to upload any gedcom I have made from TMG7. I created a subset of my database using the focus group and then exported it to gedcom.

I have tried several changes in the configuration but Ancestry's upload simply says "Error: There was a problem uploading your family tree file, please try again." If there is a quirk - like they can't accept anything but short address format - please let me know.

I would also be interested in other thoughts on using this tool. I'm planning to keep it private - for extended family on invitation - so that we can freely share anecdotes and pictures. I think the documentation online and the interactive charting will make this option more interesting for non-genealogists than the other options available.

Thanks for any insights you can provide. Lori Bragg

Once, for a lark, I generated a 15 gen. VCF ancestor chart. VCF editing was slow and moving components was downright unusable for such a monster chart. But what use would such a large chart be, anyway? Where would one keep it or display it? How would you index it or find anything?

I love this topic and just wanted to add a note: I did a genealogy for a friend when her daughter married. They have a huge family and I was able to go back about 7 generations on most lines. For the wedding reception I was able to gain access to a 42" roll printer and print a giant (42"x10 foot) chart with pictures that included all relatives that were attending the wedding plus some - and also show a few generations back to show how they were all related! I added a tag that showed their relationship to the bride and/or groom (which I had copied from the 'Automatic Relation tag' set up in Preferences/Options). I had pictures of most everyone!

It was the hit of the reception, if I do say so myself! So there are great resons for a really large chart - even if eventually you have to store it away. It wasn't 'easy', if easy is clicking a button and boom, there it is... but it was totally worth it in the end.

Also, I love your idea of putting regiment or country flags in place of the image when you don't have a face! I may steal that!

Do you find using the exhibit log difficult in TMG? I cannot seem to keep track of images that way.

Thanks for all the ideas and discussion presented here. Lori

Create a custom flag, set it by 2 runs of a suitably filtered List of People - Seconary Output to match the ANCESTOR INTEREST flag. Then use this custom flag in your chart accenting.

 

I hope that helps,

Robin

Worked like a charm. It might have been TMG5 or I might have heard this before...!?

Thanks, Lori

I am currently using TMG7 and trying to create an ancestor chart that includes siblings. However, I want to make it clear who the direct line ancestors are so I used the Ancestor Interest flag and changes all those with a direct relationship to 1, leaving the rest at 0. Then in the Ancestor Chart options, on the Boxes tab, I checked Use Accents and defined a light blue background color for the Ancestor Interest = 1 and a white box for the Ancestor Interest = 0. However, all of the boxes are white.

Any ideas as to why this doesn't work? I've used this feature before, using TMG 5 and 6.

Thank you, Lori Bragg

Bob - Thank you so much for this list. I think all of us can understand the way software development works and will not hound you or take your time away from development. The software works great the way it is, so anything more is gravy!

Lori

As Wholly Genes has announced a version 7 and is showing an early version at the conference this weekend, can we get a list of possible changes? Or a report from someone who saw it demoed on what we can expect. Lori Bragg

Whilst FTM is nowhere as good a database as TMG, it also does a far far superior desendant chart which is efficient on paper, includes spouses, and spouses parents, much more useful as a working document. GENBOX seems very powerful and much "slicker" than TMG and I'm sure it will make strong competition if TMG neglect their reporting options.

 

3. Complain to whollygenes at the lack of this facility, and ask for an update. They should be able to do an "All in one" tree for say the focus group.

I tried Genbox for my tree (see above post) but honestly it was a mess. I could not get anything remotely useful. I haven't used FTM in years; I think I grew past their database capability and they lagged on many important areas, such as source data.

I think several people have asked for the Everyone chart over time, so if they can do it I'm sure they will. Probably with a caveat that you may have a mess at the end. Other than this report, I think their reporting options are far more flexible than most software.

Lori Bragg

One quick and easy way is to find each end-of-line ancestore and make each one a child of one set of fictional parents, generate a descendants chart of either of the fictional parents and then remove the fictional parents from the chart.

 

Note that this will place all end of line ancestors on the same line and be a bit deceiving as to generational placement but it will get everyone .

What a good idea! I wish I'd thought of it! I made a similar chart using cut and paste of several charts for a friend's wedding. It was over 10 feet wide but it was the hit of the wedding as the large family could finally see how they were all related! It's tricky also as some people had to be removed -black sheep and some had to be artificially added - adopted/significant others/etc.

Also, I added a tag called 'Relationship' which I basically copied from the >Relation note in advanced preferences and added that tag to the chart. It would have been nice to have that as an automatic tag.

As complicated as a chart like this can be - and it really does take some maneuvering to get it to fit to 10 feet! - it is far less confusing than trying to verbally explain relationships or even use separate charts.

Lori Bragg