John Cardinal

What is the specific error message you get when TMGU "errors out"?

Terry,

 

The part I thought you knew was that the OP wasn't referring to an SS file. I didn't express that clearly.

 

Anyway, I looked at the TMG export. It supports a Standard Data Format, which I suspect is an alias for System Data File. I never used that particular format. From what I can tell, it's a fixed-field, ASCII-only data file format. Although it contains ASCII text only, it's not intended to be edited directly by a user. In the bad old days, the simpler the format, the better, and you can't get much simpler than fixed-field ASCII. You can probably import an SDF file into MS Access or MS Excel. I suspect it's rarely used, if it's used at all.

Terry,

 

I don't think she's referring to a Second Site project file (SDF). I think she's referring to the extension for a Standard Data File. I assume that's one of the choices available in the Export feature in TMG. I think it's a variant of the ".dbf" format, perhaps a precursor to it.

 

I am pretty sure you know this already, but I thought some clarification might be useful to lurkers...

As far as I know, the Slideshow Manager in TMG does not create a web-compatible slideshow. If your primary goal is to make a slideshow that you can publish on the web or on a CD, both of which you will make with Second Site, then I suggest you use the Slideshow User Item in Second Site to create the slideshow. You can see an example on the Slideshow help page.

Here are some more details regarding the options for Find and Replace in TMG Utility:

• Field: External Exhibit File Paths
  
• Find what: C:\Users\Roger\Document\
  
• Replace with: K:\
  
• Contents must match Find What exactly: Unchecked
  
• Use Pattern Matching: Unchecked
  
• Match Case: Unchecked
  
• Find Whole Word Only: Unchecked
  

No problem, Mike. I posted a day before you, so you weren't tardy in your reply to me!

I can not find any way to do this with Cardinal's utility or the normal workings of TMG.

Mike,

 

You can use "Set Person Field" in TMG Utility to copy one flag value to another. You'd have to create a text file with two columns (TMG ID# and flag value), then use that file as an input to the "Set Field from File" sub-feature that is part of "Set Person Field".You create the text file by using a List of People report where column one is TMG ID and column two is the source flag. See: http://www.johncardinal.com/tmgutil/setper...htm#stepbystep1

Note that if you convert the internal images to external images using TMG Utility, you should use the TMG command File > Maintenance > Optimize after using TMG Utility. TMG Utility will delete the internal exhibits, but it does not do the optimize step.

Mike,

 

What group did you assign to the Birth-Plus tag type, i.e., Birth Group, Other Group?

 

Were you testing carefully to determine if the changes described by you and Mike H above were truly the causal factors? In other words, are you certain that adding a period in the memo and then inserting a reference to the memo is what made the tag appear, or was it some other change to the report definition? Similarly, did you test to see if removing the "" that Mike H. suggested--and that change alone--will trigger the problem where the tag doesn't appear?

I discovered since there was no date (other than the sort date), no location, and no memo data in the concatenation it never appeared.

 

This is a surprise to me. I am not aware of any rule where a tag is suppressed because it meets the conditions you described above. If a tag is suppressed under those conditions, then I think it's a bug. Furthermore, it's not clear why changing the sentence to include (or any other text / variables) makes a difference. As far as I know, the only sentence content that influences tag inclusion / exclusion are the single-exclusion and double-exclusion marks. A reference to the zeroTH memo part is a legitimate technique to avoid inserting the memo, but its presence shouldn't affect tag inclusion / exclusion.

 

I am going to try to reproduce these results and if I can, I'll report it as a bug.

John,

 

The Verify Exhibit Paths feature in TMG Utility will show the path names of all the external exhibits in your TMG project. It will also produce a report that lists all image files that are in the folders where you have stored exhibits but are not exhibits.

Mary Jo,

 

I hate to disappoint you, but I suspect the question isn't when there will be a Mac version, the question is if there will be a Mac version. I am just a customer, and only someone from Wholly Genes could say for sure, but I am not aware of any plans to create a Mac version of TMG. Many users run a copy of MS Windows on their Macs and run TMG that way. To do that, you need Parallels or other software that will let you run MS Windows, and you also need a license for a version of Windows.

Jim,

 

I forget the structure of those files so I couldn't remember if there was a file per test or something else. I was concerned that an existing test was updated, but that's not the case. All is well.

Glenn,

 

Do your files update an existing test template or create a new one?

Bonita,

 

TMG Utility does not include a facility to do a batch import to the DNA log. You might contact WG support and see if they can help.

 

It sounds like you made some progress using the SS features. If you have any specific questions, please let me know, but please experiment first.

Second Site has a couple DNA-related features that use the DNA Log entries.

Paul,

 

Are you working primarily with external exhibits? If so, you might consider using TMG Utility. It has a Verify Exhibit Paths feature that verifies that the external exhibit file exists at the path specified. In the log that it creates, the "context" for each exhibit file is shown. So, for example, an event exhibit includes the tag type and the TMG IDs of P1 and P2.

Jenny,

 

You can skip the Help Topic, and avoid having to read about data_paths.txt, if you are willing to modify Parallels to keep the Windows "My Documents" folder in the Windows file system. That's what I did, and it's simple and effective. I see no great advantage of mixing the My Documents folder with the Home folder under OS X.

 

I am using Parallels v4. To disable sharing the My Documents folder with OS X, you use the Virtual Machine > Configuration command and then navigate to the "Shared Profile" section. Uncheck "Enabled", and that's it. I believe you have to make that change before the Virtual Machine is running, so start Parallels, but don't boot Windows.

 

With the change above, you can install TMG v7 the same way as someone using a real PC.

Roy,

 

The sentence for a tag will often be more descriptive than the label. So, for "Excommuntn", the sentence for the principal is

 

[P] excommunicated

 

... and so, "Excommuntn" is a slightly abbreviated form of "Excommunication". I think--don't quote me--abbreviations were used in the label field because the label field had a character-count limit, and some columnar reports had limited space for labels.

I can't comment on the specific issue you raised, but I have a suggestion for adding exhibits that may help you minimize the time you spend navigating subfolders.

 

To add exhibits, start in MS Windows and open the folder that contains the exhibits. For each record in TMG where you want to add an exhibit, open the exhibit log. Arrange the folder window and the TMG window so that you can see the filenames in the folder window and the main area of the exhibit log. To add an exhibit, start with the folder window in front and drag a file from the folder and drop it on the exhibit log window. When adding more than one exhibit from a folder, I think this is the fastest way.

However, without a birth event being entered, parents aren't named in TMG reports or SS.

In SS, the presence or absence of parents is unrelated to the existence of a birth event unless all of the following are true: you are (A) using the Narrative Format and (B) not using the "Add Parent Sentence" option and (C) adding parents to the birth sentence output via witness roles or the [PAR] variable. If A, B, and C are true for you, I'd recommend you do it another way.

 

You can use the Narration Format rather than the Narrative Format; the Narration Format is similar to the Narrative Format but it includes a "parent section" that shows parent names, etc., and supports the option to show non-primary parents as well as primary parents.

 

If you want to stick with the Narrative Format, you can turn on the Format.Add Parent Sentence option. It will add a sentence to the narrative that identifies the subject's parents.

Following this conversation and wishing the same result as Paul I created a Buried Tag within the Death group and using the TMG utilities converted all my Burial Events to Buried Events. However, while they are still primary events they do not appear in life spans. Is there a further step?

I am a little late to the party, but for future reference, if you use the Change Event Type feature in TMG Utility to change events such that they move into the Birth Group or Death Group, you should follow that by using the Adjust Birth and Death feature to correct the lifespan info.

Mike,

 

I don't recall the details of how TMG v5 worked, but if it includes the option to have thumbnail images for exhibits, then that could explain a large increase in the size of the project given you have 12,500 exhibits. If the _i.ftp file in your project folder is by far the largest file, then that would tend to confirm my theory.

As a side note, even the web site created by Second Site does not display the unicode text file. John- can this be fixed?

Second Site 3.1+ should detect UTF files, but they must start with the Unicode "Byte Order Mark" (BOM; See Wikipedia). The software you used to create the text file can probably be configured to add the BOM for you.

 

(Haven't tried an rtf file in Second Site.)

Second Site does not read or process non-text, non-HTML text file attachments, it just copies them to the output folder and makes links to them. So, for RTF files used as attachments with Second Site, the computer of the person browsing the site will determine whether or not an RTF file in UTF format will appear correctly.

John,

 

There is no variable that returns the married name, but you can choose which name is used. In the upper-right corner of the Tag Entry screen there is a pulldown menu that defaults to "primary name". You can change that to one of the other name variations. As far as I know, there's no way to configure TMG such that a particular name tag is the default for a specific tag type.