Excalibur

If only... <sigh> I'm still hoping, too. Colorizing at the MTTL level would go a long way toward making me happier. Being able to indicate say green for 1850 census, yellow for 1860 census, brown for 1870 census, etc. or to say that all occupation tags are peach or to say that all death/burial tags are black background with white text would all be tremendously helpful. The visual picture might not be appealing to some folks, but it sure could say those "thousand words" we always hear about.

Virginia, this is simply great stuff! I particularly like the notebook view. It shows the charts "in action" and perfectly illustrates how they can be used. Well done!

Well, DUH! Just pick one? Teresa, that's obviously much too easy for me. I'da nevah thunk of just pickin' one. Sometimes the simplest of things escapes me. In all seriousness, I had thought about what to do with multiple people and decided it fell into the "Very Hard to Impossible" category. So I pretended it didn't exist. I've been doing this for years, so the little tidbits posted on here aren't just for newcomers. A couple of words from you and you provided a simple solution for what I made into a complex problem.

Paul, Are you able to delete the boxes and enter the correct characters? If you are able to do that, the only thing I can come up with is that it almost has to be coming from something external to TMG - word processor generating spurious characters.

Teresa's on a roll! She plays a big role around here and, because of her role, the Roles just keep rolling along... rollin', rollin', rollin'... I think I would shrivel up and die if I didn't have my Roles. Teresa, doancha just love the recently implemented Reminder section? I have been able to pretty much do away with Post-It notes, duplicate Post-It notes I'd make when I couldn't find the first ones, Post-It notes to remind me of where the Post-It notes were, and the bazillion little files scattered everywhere that tell me what goes where! It's amazing how much that little Reminder really meant as an upgrade for the Tag Type Definitions.

Hi Teresa, My um-m-m-m-m cable bill includes cable TV and internet. I'm getting ready to knock another $14.00 off the bill, but it will still exceed $100.00 per month. How many channels do I get? Hm-m-m-m, 60 or 70 I would guess. How many do I watch? Maybe, 4 or 5 ... especially the Discovery channel (my fav I guess). I like your "Ancestor Doll" idea! I'm not sure how I would use the web site, but I like the concept. In addition to your comment about the cost of another unnamed product, there is one other huge thing that TMG has going for it. People! Yep, people. I cut my genealogy software teeth on the other unnamed product. On their support boards, everybody seemed distant, removed... like I (or anyone) was just another ho-hum number or the duty dummy. No so with TMG. Over the last few years I feel like I know or live down the street from some of you. I've written personal emails to some of you and you to me. I've disagreed with some of you, only to come back and agree with you about something else 10 minutes later. There is never any residue hostility from a disagreement. My problems have been self-generated (99% of them), yet I've always gotten help. When we laugh at our mistakes, we all laugh. We are not made to feel like some kind of idiot -- well, except for me, because being an idiot is a sign that I have been recognized for something in my life. Sheeeeeeeeeeesh, I could ramble on and on. Bob needs to get this stuff for his advertising.

While my math skills might not be as good as they once were, I find it refreshing to note that if a person jumped on the TMG bandwagon 15 years ago they would have paid for a grand total of five (5) releases, plus the original purchase price! HOLY MOLY! AND, after the initial purchase, each subsequent upgrade release has been for the insane price of $29.95! Double HOLY MOLY! That's a grand total of $248.75 I would have spent for TMG since July 1993. I spend nearly that much for cable bills in two (2) months. How does Bob and crew continue to do it? Check around on some of the other genealogy software out there and find out what the cost would have been over the same period of time. Lesser products, more costly products, and nowhere near the support that TMG offers. It is no wonder that Bob has, what might be, the most loyal following of users of any software product out there. All that AND there is never a bug or problem or new thought or whatever that Bob and crew does not listen too or try to fix. Hate to insert these ramblings with this thread, but it just seems like a good place to let these thoughts escape from my old head.

In my book, Teresa has it right on. I work with a lot of Eastern Shore material and people and it can become daunting to keep track of some of the changes. BUT... if you put a person in Wicomico County when Wicomico County didn't exist would be wrong and confusing. On the same token, if you put a person in Somerset County when it was actually Wicomico County it would be wrong and confusing. By using Somerset County as the birth place and Wicomico County as the place of death, with no apparent movement of the individual, you are showing the correct county, the correct information, and the fact that the county lines did change.

Well said, elevator. Yes, the subject of visual appeal has come up several times, but nobody seems to be able to define what they want to see. I've asked for examples, either here or on the TMG list, but have not gotten an answer. IMHO, just because it doesn't look or maybe feel like a MS product doesn't make it a lesser product. The TMG interface is so customizable that many of us are running something totally different than the next person, than the next person, etc. -- as evidenced by another thread, showing pages of customizations, on this site. BoricuaSeeker, please take some time with TMG. Poke around, play with it, input some data that seems to make sense to you, get a feel for it. Then run some filters, make some reports, feel its raw power all at your fingertips. I think you will enjoy what you find.

Ah-h-h-h-h, 'I see' said the blind man to his deaf and dumb daughter as he picked up his hammer and saw.

Well, color me confused. Are you talking about the same thing that I'm talking about that you were talking about that I thought I was talking about or are you talking about something different from what I thought I was talking about when I was talking about it?

Bob, The Forum spam and abuse has really been curtailed over the last several days. I can see you upgraded the software (love this new posting screen), but don't know if anything else was done. I just wanted you (and any others) to know that I appreciate whatever action was taken. It is definitely noticeable! Maybe the abusers will find somewhere else to play for awhile. Thank you

Um-m-m-m-m, under personal info, pick your sex. Do you want male, female, or unknown? Hm-m-m-m-m, does that sound right? At any rate, the selection box shows blue for male, pink for female, and gray for whatever is left.

Find somewhere to click on GenerationGoneBy, your profile will come up. Look at Personal Info and select Female.

Thank you, Bob. I appreciate you taking time to reply. I'm sure the new attachment policy is a result of this mornings spam posting in The Master Genealogist v7 Forum. I believe having to be a Senior Member to post an attachment is a small price to pay to rid the Forum of picture postings. Plus, if a valid Member (not yet a Senior Member) had an attachment that needed posting they could talk with an Administrator or Moderator and it would get posted. In my humble opinion, a good move. I am aware that spam is not going to go away. On the other hand, an automatic subscription validation does not eliminate all spam bots. The spam bots of today are very sophisticated and, as I understand it, some are able to get through an automatic validation. If a human did the validation, it could very well eliminate more spam bots and many other undesirables. I do not believe that asking a prospective member to wait six, 12, or 24 hours for validation is an undue hardship on the prospective member. Once that human verification element was in place, spammers might not be so eager to register and post. I realize that your staff is small and that it would take some quantity of time to accomplish this on a daily basis, but it might be worth the effort. I definitely would not want to see all posts approved. Ugh! What about the Members list? When an IP/domain/User has been banned, can't that persons name be removed from the Members list? What will ever happen to those names on the Members list that have never validated, dating back as far as 2004? What will ever happen to those names on the Members list that are offensive or bogus? There are hundreds, if not thousands, of those that could be removed. What can I do to help?