Terry Reigel

I put the township in the "city" field unless there is an actual town also listed - which I find is most often not the case.

I put the township, district, ward, or whatever there may be in the citation, but omit it from the place fields in the tag if there is a more definitive place name (like town) listed.

The "Prompt next time" option is really just a short-cut to what you can do from the Prompts screen in Preferences. There you will find that this prompt has only only on or off positions - there is not a "yes" "no" or "ask" choice.

You're welcome, Tom.

Terry

You can use F2 and F3 as Paul describes in most fields, not just place fields.

There are two special rules:

1. For places, entries made with F2 populate the level where you are when you use F2 and also all higher levels. They do not change anything you have already entered in lower levels.

2. For source citations, F3 in either the source number or Citation Detail field populates both those fields.

But one issue. In the backup Wizard, Step 2:Data, there are 2 options - "date & time" and "backup number". I have been using the "backup number" option but I have to select it every time I backup. The "date & time" option appears to be the default and it is also used in conjunction with the custom button. Is there a way to make the "backup number" option the default so that it can be used by the custom button?

Yes. Since you can't change the default backup configurations, you need to create a custom configuration, then attach that to the button.

You create the custom configuration by choosing "save as a new Configuration" on Step 1, and entering a name for it in the field below that option. Then, step through the backup, selecting all the options you want saved, and make the backup.

Now specify that "backup" when you create the button, or go back and change the "backup" used by your current button it you've already created it.

Kathleen,

It would help a lot if you could post examples of the:

1. Sentence you are using,

2. the data in the fields used by the sentence, and

3. the output you are getting.

Trying to diagnose the probem without that information is difficult.

No, version 4 and prior date to before the advent of right-click menus.

In those versions you place the cursor in one of the fields for that column, then:

- Press F6 - the "delete" Key in TMG, or

- Choose Delete from the top line menu.

You're welcome, Polly.

Terry

You're welcome.

Terry

TMG5 and TMG6 are versions of the same program. The way the unlock system works, you cannot install a "30-day free trial" on the same computer in which you have been running an earlier version of the program.

In fact, installing both versions on the same computer is not recommended because of the possiblity of files from one version interferring with those of the other. Also, you can only have the unlock code for one of the two versions loaded on your computer, so unlocking one version effectively locks the other.

I see the problem, Polly. It seems that the Tag Entry screen comes on top of the Sentences screen, and there is no way to get back to the Sentences screen. I'll report the issue.

In the meantime, you can resolve the problem this way:

1. After you click on the Sentences button to open the Sentences screen, move that screen so that some part of it extends beyond the edges of the Tag Entry screen (which at this point will be below the Sentences Screen).

2. Proceed to enter the citation.

3. After the citation is complete, and the Tag Entry screen appears on top of the Sentences screen, click on the exposed part of the Sentences screen - this will bring it to the top and you can close it.

It would be very nice if Wholly Genes recognised that there was a need for an "International English" version that gave the user easy access to the combined resources for multi-country input and reporting. Such a version could make this discussion obsolete.

Robin,

How would you see an "International English" version working? How would it deal with all the issues raised here?

A Family Group Sheet is, by definition, the record of a "family." A family, by long-standing convention, consists of two parents and their children. TMG observes this convention when it produces FGSs. TMG does not create a "FGS" as you describe.

The running of reports in either language needs to checked carefully for use of the correct spelling. If you then create custom tags or modify sentences then you need to make adjustments in both the English UK and English US forms of these sentences. You ought to save separate appropriately named Report Configurations if you regularly want similar output in each language.

Robin, have you verified that your methodology loads the correct sentences into both English(US) and English(UK)? I've not got the UK edition installed to test that.

In any case, I think trying to run narrative reports in both languages is begging for trouble. One would have to be very diligent to keep all custom sentences current in both languages. I'd think it much better to make sure all sentences are loaded into the language you intend to operate in (the one set in File > Languages) and then always run reports in that language.

I agree with Virginia that exporting to a speadsheet is uncommon - I don't recall ever doing it.

On the other hand, I've never printed a serious report directly from TMG - I always send it to Word for review, final formatting, and often conversion to pdf. Before investing in Word or the entire Office package, I'd explore how well you can import in Works. As I recall, recent versions of Works include Word, so that should not be a problem. If you don't have Word, try "rich text file" and the older Works formats and see what works for your system. However, there are some functions that many not be available when exporting to other than Word or WordPerfect.

In my case, I don't use multiple datasets, so that's easy. Then what does apply to the existing dataset?

I'm not sure of what you mean here. As the article says, "the setting of new default tag types, name styles, place styles, and source categories does not affect existing data sets in any way." So as far as existing datasets (including projects with only one data set) none of the UK-specific tag types, styles, or source categories will appear upon use of the UK edition. They will only be there if you follow a proceedure like that described in the article to copy them into it.

Whoa, I thought I didn't lose anything. My custom sentences don't print? 

Is this where I get my custom sentences back? Or is that not really a problem if I'm not creating a new dataset?

Your custom sentences, which you created in the standard language, English(US), will remain in your data set. They work fine, as long as you continue to create your reports in that language.

But, one of the features of the UK edition is that it switches your system to English(UK). That means: 1) That any new report definitions you create will use by default will use that language, so they will not see your custom local sentences. If you use your existing defined reports, which use English(US), or you purposefully choose that language, they will be seen. Or, you can copy them over into English(UK). 2) By default, all sentences you see will be those for English(UK), so any sentences you created in English(US) will not be visible unless you change them to that language. And, any new custom sentences will by default be entered in English(UK), so will not appear in any reports you create using English(UK). It's entirely possible to end up with your custom sentences mixed between English(US) and English(UK).

You can deal with this by either a) changing back to English(US) and continuing to operate in only that language, or 2) copying all the custom sentences to English(UK) and afterwards working in that language.

Thanks for your help, Terry.

P.S. Have you actually done this, or are you just going by what is posted at WG?

You're welcome. No, I have not moved a working Project from the US edition to the UK edition. But I've run quite a number of test projects in English(US), English(UK), and German, and understand quite well the behavior of sentences and other features when you change languages. What I'm telling you is not based on what I read on the WG web page.

Nothing is lost, and it's all very predictable. TMG has some powerful features for managing language issues. But you can't switch languages casually. You need to understand the underlying processes and manage them to get the results you want.

There's an article on use of languages on my website, but I'm afraid it's now outdated and incomplete. The one I've got under construction will be about 5 or 6 times as large, but it's still only about half done, sorry to say.

That page does not describe:

(1) What happens to your projects and the reports from those projects already created in one version then opened in the other?

Actually, it does address that:

"As noted above, the setting of new default tag types, name styles, place styles, and source categories does not affect existing data sets in any way. Those new defaults are only applied to data sets that are subsequently created."

Basically, what it's saying is that converting to the UK edition does not mess with your exiting data. You have to decide which of the listed features you want included in your data, and use the proceedures described in that page to include them.

Beyond that, if you have created custom sentences either for standard or custom tag types, or for local tags, those sentences will be in whichever language you were using at the time. That is, they will be in English(US) if you were using the standard edition. If you then change to another language - as you would by default if you moved to the UK edition, changing to English(UK) - Those custom sentences would not be visible, nor would they be used in newly defined reports set to English(UK).

There are tecniques for copying the sentences between languages, and if you have created custom sentences, you would want to manage that if you change languages.

(2) Whether it is possible to have most of the UK features/customized styles of the both US and UK version available within the one installation? (So that you can create a TMG project with both US and UK data within it that can use both sets of customizations to advantage.)

Yes, as described in the page you reference, you can copy the custom tag types, styles, and source types so that both exist in the resulting project. What features would you think could not co-exist?

(3) Whether it is possible exchange projects with users of the other version so that they can get the same report output as you see?

What output would you expect to be different? Tag types, styles, source types, etc. are all project data, so if you exchanged projects that data would be available for output, provided you used the same source definition settings.

The only possible complication I can see would be that the user of the US edition would have to have the language modual installed in order to set report to use English(UK), assuming that was the language used to create any customized sentences.

Is it possible to choose the data printed in the Pedigree chart like you can in the Ancestor chart.  I would prefer to choose Baptism, marriage and burial for my chart for earlier ancestors.  Not the birth, marriage and death.  Any ideas how?

The regular Pedigree offers no choice in which tag types are included. The Compressed Pedigree allows you to choose from Birth, Marriage, Death, and Burial.

The latter may do what you want. If there is no birth tag for some people, and you've used the default Baptism tag, which is in the Birth group, it should be marked as primary and will automatically appear in place of the missing birth tags.

Another alternative might be the Ancestor box charts, which allow more flexibility in choosing which tag types to include.

Thanks Robin - that was it. I'll do some type of work around since it seems to be  just my census tags having the problem.

Carol, be careful with this. GEDCOM provides for only a few two-person tag types. Only those tags recognized in the GEDCOM specs as "family" tags can have two people, and those two people must head a family - that is either be married and/or have children.

Two-person census tags are allowed, provided the two principals are married or parents of children together. But even if they are exported, they may not import into another program.

If you have other two-person tags (Living, Residence, Memo, Immigrated, Moved...?) verify that they are exporting. I expect if you have them that many will not export.

For a fuller discussion on this sort of exporting issues, see Jim Byram's chapter on Exporting in GTMOOTMG.

I, in retrospect, stupidly imported both a FTM v6 file and a GEDCOM file into TMG.  This has resulted in numerous duplications of people and various tags.  Where identical people were identifiable by having different ID#s, I have managed to merge them.  What I now have left is a picklist of people, many of whom are duplicated, and can only be differentiated by the fact that one of the names is marked as primary. 

To be more precise, you have a list of names - the Picklist is a list of name, not of people. If you have more than one name with the same ID#, that means that you have a person with more than one name.

Strangely, the names in most cases are identical but there are variations in the case used (i.e. a mixture of upper and lower case names).  I have contacted the Wholly Genes Technical Support site and have been guided towards John Cardinal's TMG Utility software.  This does show promise in the fact that it will delete all non-primary tags but is potentially very dangerous.

I agree that's very dangerous - you would loose nicknames, alternate spellings, etc. if they exist in the data.

What I want to know is, is it possible to run a report with a filter that will compare the various Name-var tags within the same record and then, using secondary output, write those records where the Name-var tags are ACTUALLY DIFFERENT rather than just written in upper-case rather than lower-case, for example, to a new Data Set?

Sorry, no. There are no filter terms that compare the contents of fields as you would need to do this.

I assume that you have already done too much editing or made too many additions to just delete the project and re-import? That would be the obvious solution.

Do you know whether the two sets of data contain identical information, such and dates, places, and sources, about each person? Only if it does could you consider deleting the non-primary tags on a wholesale basis.

You might be able to get some idea whether there are more than one different name for people by creating a List of names report, and sorting it my ID# - that way all the tags for each person would sort together, and you could examine the list to see if you find different names for the same person.

You could limit the report to people with multiple names by using the secondary output of the List of People report to set a temporary flag for everyone with more than on name group tag.

Sounds like you want the CR before the first line of text in the Memo. You should be able to do that by putting the [:CR:] code in front of the Memo variable in the Sentence:

<[:CR:][M]>

You need to be in "Advanced Data Entry Mode" to see the Sentences. Go to Preferences > Program Options > Data Entry if you need to change that.

I imported a GED file that capitalized all of the surnames.  Is there anyway I can gang update surnames, say replace all my "SMITH"s with "Smith"s?

You can't do this one within TMG itself, but John Cardinal's TMG Utility will do the job. See here for more information.

Yes, this was discussed some time back, but there was no change. The Ctrl-L, and the "Last viewed Person" button and menu command, all take you to the last viewed person as listed at the bottom of the View menu. Trouble is, that is actually a list of names and views, rather than being people and views.

When you change the name of the current person, the new name becomes the current name, and the previous name (even though it's the same person) becomes the previous entry on that list. So when you go to the "last viewed person" its actually the same person.

Here's the PV screen showing the tag EST-Administration of Estate.  Unless TMG doesn't count capitals, spaces, and dashes as characters, that is 28 characters by my count.

Full response on TMG-L. Peter's got it - you can save more than 20 characters as long as you use a language other than the standard English(US).

Thank you Terry!

You're welcome.

One note: you need to print to screen in order for the secondary output to save to a file.

I just tested by sending the LoP report to a text file, and the creation of a new project worked. Where did you send the report that didn't produce the new project?