Terry Reigel

  Your Second Site idea looks quite workable, although I suspect some information will not be available through Second Site or not be searchable the way we would like. (But I don't have much experience with Second Site.)

There is little that can't be included in a website created by Second Site if yiu choose to do so, but you are right that TMG's search and analysis tools don't work in SS.

  There are products for PDAs that will load up a GEDCOM, to give you access to much of your data.

There are also a couple of products that import TMG files directly - look in the "Companion Products" section at the top of this forum.

I wish to be able to add birth order when I am adding a child (same screen). I'd like to reduce the steps now involved in setting birth order.

Just do it!

On the Add Person screen, click the Setup button. On the Setup screen, click the Flags tab. Select Birth Order, and click Add then OK to return to the main Add Person screen. The flag will be at the top of the screen - click on it and select the desired value.

Having read the online help multiple times it is not clear to me what a 'tag' is.  Is a tag just any one of the fields on the screen?  If so, what is hte benefit of a tag? Can someone explain?

You might see if my article on TMG Basics helps.

You have probably already thought of this, but have you considered using roles for this purpose?

Use of Roles for Matt describes is covered in my Article on this subject.

Is there any way to install TMG onto a USB flash drive so that I can use it at any desktop with a USB port?

No, you cannot install any modern Windows programs in that way. The reason is that the installation procedure generally writes information to the Windows Registry and sometimes files to other locations than the installation folder.

Some alternatives:

If you just want to review the data, create a website with Second Site that includes everyone in your Project, and put that on the flash drive - you can view it with the web browser on any computer.

Copy the full installer, and a copy of your registration information to the flash drive. Then you can temporarily install it on any machine - just remember to uninstall it when you are done.

The standard "Mills" sources types supplied with TMG are designed to have one source created per census household, will, birth record, etc. (It's been a while since I looked at the UK source types, so I'm not sure about them.) I think this is because the US style guides tend to place the person or household first in the source notes, and that's most easily done with one subject per source. The result is a lot of sources.

Many users choose to create more generic sources than that - the "lumper" school. If you do, you have two choices in how to deal with all the details. The easiest is to simply put the details in the Citation Detail (CD) field of the citation. They then all appear in source notes in a single place, generally at the end of the note. That's not exactly what the style guides suggest, but for many users that's just fine - the information's there; what difference does it make exactly how its arranged?

But you can do both if you want - put the details in the CD, but use a technique called "Split CDs" which allows you to place them anywhere you want in the notes. That's described on my website in my article on Split CDs.

TMG allows me to save box charts as Jpeg or Bmp files. But I'd rather use Adobe (.pdf) or MS-Word (.doc) files - or any other common structured document format.  Is there some add-on or setting I can use to get charts in these formats?

You could use one of the pdf converters that acts as a printer - then in VCF use File Print and select that "printer." I use PDF995 and it works. I expect there are others that work as well.

There used to be a place to provide for a task bar when setting preferences.  In TMG V6.08 I cannot find a place to set this.  As a result the data displayed in windows goes down too far on the screen, especially in the tree display.

 

Is this function no longer available?  Or should I be doing something else to correct the displays?

When you say "task bar" do you mean the "status bar" at the bottom of the TMG screen, which displays the Accent status and the status of the caps lock, etc? If so, it's turned on in Preferences > Program Options > General. However, the other screens will cover it if they are set low enough. If that's the case, just move the bottom of the lowest screen(s) up a bit to uncover it. Then save you layout so it stays that way when you reopen TMG.

I was wondering if it is possible to include witnesses in an "individual detail" report. I don't see an option for that.

You can include events in which your focus person was a witness, but not list witnesses for events in which that person was a principal. Those witnesses are included in reports by including them in the Sentence Structures, which are only used by Narrative reports.

Another problem concerns the source list. When I want to select a source for a tag, I get a screen with the different sources. However, with my current TMG version (V6.8), the colums are very narrow (I only see a feww words of the sentences) with a lot of blank space at the right. I can change this, but the next time I access the list, I have the same problem again. This did not happen with my previous version. Does anyone have the same experience?

This is a known issue, and should be fixed in the next update.

I solved my own problem today.  The step I was missing was I was entering only the abbreviated name of the Repository.  I did not enter a Name-Other, which is what prints in the endnotes.

Thanks for letting us know the resolution.

The Abbreviation is just used internally so you can recognize the Repostitory in the TMG screens. The name that prints in notes is the one you enter in either of the "Name" fields on the Repository Entry screen. The upper one is for use when you want to enter an ID# of someone who is entered in your data set, and the "other" one if for all other cases.

Using v 6.03.00, every so often for no apparent reason, all of my drop down menus go grey so that i can not select anything.

I'd suggest you upgrade to 6.08.000 - some of those issues have been fixed.

Jim Byram responded to the same question that you posted on TMG-L yesterday:

"TMG doesn't do UTF-8. Open the GEDCOM in Word and save it as ANSI text and

then you can import it."

I've another query that you might know the answer to. Is there a global way of altering tag names ? i.e. I want to change "christning" to "baptism". I can do it on an individual person basis but it is slow going.

I'm not sure what you mean here - Do you actually want to change the name of the Tag Type, or do you want to change tags from one type to another?

If you really want to change the name of the tag:

Tag Type names cannot be changed in individual tags, but can be changed in Tag Type Definition screen - open the Master Tag Type List, select a Tag Type, and click Edit. Note that you don't want to duplicate a name already used for another Tag Type.

If all you want to do is change the label, go to the Master Tag Type list and edit the label of the Christning Tag Type to something else (remembering that it cannot be "Baptism" unless you first change the name of that standard Tag Type). You probably would also want to change the wording of the Sentence Structure as well, as it includes the term "christened."

This change will be applied to all existing and new tags you create of this type.

If you really want to change from one Tag Type to Another

For a given tag, you can change from one Type to another in the same Group by clicking on the Tag Type button on the Tag Entry Screen. Note that the default Baptism Tag Type is in the Birth group (so it can be used as a substitute for the Birth tag when birth information is missing) and the default Christning Tag Type is in the Other Events group.

You cannot change a Tag from one Group to another within TMG. Nor is there any provision to change all the Tags of a certain Type within TMG. However, John Cardinal's TMG Utility will do those jobs for you.

Look about half way down this page for the item about TMG v4X Import.ini - the issue is explained, and there is a link to the required file.

I understand what a source is and what a repository is but I want to know exactly what to put in each field for each type of source.  For example on a Death Registration what does record type mean?  What is a file date?  Is every death certificate I have it's own source or do I somehow lump them all together as one?  And lastly is a Death Registration the same as a Death Certificate?  I know there are books out there and I'd buy one in a heartbeat but I don't know if they will actually give me the detail I'm looking for.  Does anyone have any books or websites that might help me before I convince myself to put off entering my sources again.

Lorna has already suggested my website - in particular I'd recommend the Source Tutorial. But it looks to me that you've got the basics down, but now are confused about details. I'd second Lorna's suggestion to subscribe to TMG-L - there are lots of friendly folks there happy to offer suggestions on "how best to" type questions.

I'd also agree with Norb's suggestion to buy Evidence! - but would point out that the best use of it in your situation is to compare the examples in the book with the Output Templates in the TMG source type you want to use. You can see what Ms. Mills intended for each spot in the note, and look in the TMG template to see what Source Element appears in that spot.

For example, doing so reveals that in the place where the TMG template puts [RECORD TYPE] Ms. Mills has "death certificate". Where TMG has [FILE DATE] she has a year - presumably the year when the death was recorded.

As to whether each death certificate should be entered as it's own source - you are now in the classic "splitters" vs "lumpers" debate. The standard TMG Source Types are designed with the intention that each certificate would be entered in a separate source. Many users favor that approach. Others like fewer sources, and would make one source for all death certificates, or perhaps one for all those recorded in a single county or state.

If you do that, you need to move the more specific information from the Source Definition and record it in the Citation Detail. You would modify the Output Templates to removed those elements that you are going to record in the CD, to get rid of the "Unknown name" type output.

If you put the details in the CD, you have two choices:

1) Just put all the details together, with the result that the notes will not read in the same order as in the Mills examples, but the information is all there.

2) Use "split CDs" - which allow you to put the information in the CD, but still have the information appear in various places in the note, rather than all together. This is more complicated to do, but results in "prettier" notes. There are articles on my site about split CDs that explain this and give some examples.

I don't see a way to get it from the Project Explorer, but it's easy with a List of Events report - look for a marriage tag with principals whose names include Robert and Sarah. A filter like this works:

Tag Type Group is Marriage AND

Principal1... Given Contains ROBERT AND

Principal2... Given Contains SARAH END

but you may need to also run it with the names for P1 and P2 reversed, or use a combined filter to look for both:

Tag Type Group is Marriage AND

( Principal1... Given Contains ROBERT AND

Principal2... Given Contains SARAH OR

Principal1... Given Contains SARAH AND

Principal2... Given Contains ROBERT ) END

The elements on the General Tab of the Source Definition screen are not really at random, but are not in any useful order. They are arranged according to the internal number of the Group in which the element resides. There is no practial way to control the order in which they appear.

Sounds like the problem is that you have changed your e-mail address since you bought TMG. Use your the same e-mail address for the "log-in" as you used when you bought the program because the serial number is keyed to that address.

The only down side is that address will appear in the Help > About screen, which makes no real difference at all.

John, I can't replicate this.

When you open the tag and click the Sentence button, then look at the sentences for each of the Principals, does the change appear in both sentences? It does when I've tried to replicate your result.

I have just updated to TMG 6.8 and now have a real problem. I first noticed that used place style names are preceded with a 1: when they hadn't been in 6.7.

Yes, in TMG 6.08 the styles are labeled to show which data set they belong to - prior to this it was difficult to know looking at the list which data set any custom style belonged to.

Then I made the mistake of adding a new place style. Now I can't edit any tag with a place style other than the new place style without winding up on an edit place style window which is trying to add a new place style like the old one.

Can you explain just what you do that gets you into the Edit Place Style screen? I'm not able to replicate what you describe.

If you are printing any report with source notes to screen or direct to the printer, the endnotes are accumulated until you print an Endnote report. This allows you to print several reports, say several Family Group Sheets, then print a complete set of endnotes, with no duplicate numbers.

If you print to a wordprocessor file, the notes are embedded in the file, and your word processor displays them as footnotes or endnotes as you choose.

You're welcome, Stoker.

Terry

I'd suggest the information is not totally useless - because it tells you that your source is not entered properly.

Here are three ways to fix it:

1. Enter the expected data into the empty source elements.

2. In the Source Definition, go to the Output Template tab, and either remove the un-needed Elements, or enclose them in Conditional brackets.

3. Go to the Source Types list (Tools menu), find the source type that is used, and add conditional brackets to those elements.

For details on how to do #2 or 3, seem my article on Working with Templates.

Have you considered using the Memo field of the Primary Name for your purposes? 

Name tag Memos cannot be printed with Sentence Structures. In order to print them in narratives you have to turn on printing of "memos not included in the sentence" which then prints the memos of all tags, no just those in name tags. This may or may not be an issue for you depending on whether or not you have memos in other tags which are not called in the sentences of those tag.

Using the primary name memo also limits positioning and formatting of the output. You have more control if you use a separate tag.

When I search a couple in the picklist, I only see the first spouse for the man. Is there a manner to see all the marriage for a man's name?

The Picklist has room for only one spouse. If a person has more than one, the "most recently viewed" one is listed in the Picklist.