Joe LaPointe

I finally figured out my problem; it is a sematic one. Let me use the Burial tag as an example. I've created the role of Interred. If I use the default when adding a person to the Burial tag, the person is assigned the "role" of Principal. I then get an error if I attempt to later assign the Interred role. However, if I assign the Interred role by using the drop down menu next to the ID#, I do not have a problem. My initial confusion is using the term "Principal" to describe a person. If you say a person is a "principal", in my mind you have assigned the role "principal" to the person and must use the variables [P] or [P1] in sentences. It appears that the term "principal" is used in two ways in these discussions: as the role and as the person before a role is assigned. Thanks for the assistance. Your questions and observations have helped clear up my confusion.

Hi Helmut, I don't agree with your last statement. I got the error message I mentioned in my original post when I entered a person as a Principal and then attempted to assign them to a custom role. I guess I don't fully understand roles though I use roles extensively. The issue with Principals and custom roles is a recent problem. Joe

Hi Helmut, The way you asked your question solved my problem. I was assigning a person as a principal then attempting to also assing a role. My problem is solved. Thanks for your assistance. Joe

I'm running TMG 8.08 on 64 bit Windows 7 Pro computer. According to Help, I should be able to assign a Principal in a Burial Tag to a role. Whenever I attempt to assign a role to the Principal, I get the error message "This person is already a Principal or Witness". Any suggestions how to fix the problem? Is Help wrong?

Terry, Your suggestion worked as advertised. Thanks for the timely assistance. Joe

Terry, I understand what you are saying. From my perspective, the report generator is deficient if I have to resort to using Blank Line tags to make journal reports more readable, i.e., wanting a blank line between the husband narrative and the wife narrative in a journal report. Regards, Joe

I have found the cause of my problem. I would call it unexpected behavior in the report writer. Here is the cause and solution. Let's start with the journal report for Nicolas Audet. In order to improve the readabilty of the journal report, I added two carriage returns to the beginning of Madeleine Després baptism tag so I would get a blank line before the start of Madeleine's narrative. These two carriage returns had an unintended consequence; her name was added to the beginning of the narrative, a blank line was inserted, then her narrative. My solution to this problem was to create a "Blank Line" tag with a sentence of [:CR:]. Using the appropriate sort date, I then add a Blank Line tag after Nicolas' burial tag. The problem went away. The issue with the journal report for Innocent Audet is the same as for Nicolas Audet. The solution was the same. Hope this helps! Joe LaPointe

The Journal Report for TMG v8.01 seems to have issues with spouse's narrative and extra line feeds. I need to describe a family with three generation in order to explain the issue. Please bear with me. Generation 1: Innocent Audet, Spouse Vincende Roy, Child Nicolas Generation 2: Nicolas Audet, Spouse Madeleine Deprés, 11 children Journal Report for Nicolas Audet including spousal narrative Narative for Nicolas Madeleine Deprés Blank Line Narrative for Madeleine Deprés Blank Line List of Children Note that there is no blank line between the narrative for Nicolas and the line with just her name. Why a single line with her name? Journal Report for Innocent Audet with spousal narrative Narrative for Innocent Narrative for Vincende Roy Blank Line Journal Report for Nicolas as above. Note that there is no blank line nor a single line with Vincende Roy's name between the narrative for Innocent and Vincende as in the example above. Has anyone observed this behavior? Is there a fix or is this a bug that should be reported? Thanks, Joe LaPointe

John, Sorry for my error in naming Second Site. I agree with your position except in my situation. Most of my PDF exhibits are scans of documents, articles, and multipage records. Some of these exhibits are in French. It is convenient to have them as exhibits in TMG because they are easily accessible especially if I am translating them. However, I cannot publish some of these articles because of copyright issues. I would need to get permission from the copyright holder to publish them on the web. There is no easy way to either exclude the copyrighted PDF exhibits or substitute a "Copyrighted Article" substitute PDF title page when creating a website with Second Site. I have this flexibility with jpg images by using the alternate image folder option in Second Site. I posed the question as a way to solve my dilemma. The long-term solution may be to request a new feature in TMG where the user can specify an alternate non-image folder. Regards, Joe

Exhibits can contain images as jpg files and non-image ones as txt, doc and pdf files. When creating a website with Second Source, you can select an alternate image folder that contains the original images "modified" to enhance the user experience on the web. Second Source just includes doc and pdf exhibits as they appear in TMG. There is no flexibility to tailor these exhibits for the web. I am using TMG v7.04. Besides jpg exhibits, I have doc and pdf exhibits. Which of the two following approaches will provide the most flexibility in creating and tailoring a website to enhance the user experience when creating a website with Second Source? Approach 1. Leave the non-image exhibits as doc and pdf files. Approach 2. Convert the doc and pdf exhibits to jpg images. Multipage doc and pdf files would become multipage jpg files. Any suggestions or insights on the best way to proceed will be appreciated. Thanks, Joe LaPointe

Hi Mike, Thanks for the explanation. Your example corrected my misunderstanding. In fact, your example also corrected my understanding of how TMG works. Thanks again for your patience!! Joe

Mike, My problem may be that I don't understand your system. So I will state my understanding then explain my problem. According to your document, JemimaPurdum.doc, you assign sort dates to the Section Headings and tags using the sort date ranges mentioned in the document. That way the Sections are properly sorted and the tags within each section are also properly sorted. That means that the sort dates for tags have to be assigned according to your system. It is the user's responsibility to assign the sort dates to maintain the BMDB order for an individual. My problem concerns implementing this approach for many individuals. Don't you have to use the sort dates mentioned in the document above for everyone? If so, won't you run out of sort numbers if you have a large database of people? Don't you have to assign sort dates so that each individual is properly sorted by BMBD and that all individuals are sorted by BMDB relative to each other? Thanks for your patience. I'm sure it is obvious once I understand the system. Joe

I like Michael Dietz's approach better because it is more flexible than grouping tags in the report generator as proposed by Michael Hannah. I understand how to apply Michael D.'s approach to an individual.. However, it is not clear how to apply it to multiple individuals so that everyone is properly sorted by BMDB and have everyone's sections properly structured. Joe

Hi Micheal, I like your idea of organizing the tags and output by sections. The organization makes it easier for family members who are not genealogists to read and understand. However, I have one questions concerning the sort dates you explain in the attached Word document. I understand how to use the sort dates for an individual. I don't understand how to use the sort dates for multiple individuals so that the output for each individual is properly sorted according to birth, marriage, death, etc. What am I missing? Joe LaPointe

I have TMG V6.12 running on Windows XP Pro SP2. According to Preferences Help for Data Entry Mode, "When Advanced is checked, the Beginner mode will be turned off and the following data entry fields will be visible: Roles, Event-specific name (name variation), Sort Date, Place Styles, Name Styles, Witnesses, Sentence, and Sureties." My problem is that I do not get the data entry fields when Advanced is checked. Any suggestions how I can fix this problem? I've attached a screenshot of the Preferences Data Entry Mode. Joe