Daryl Edmonds

Hi Daryl,

 

If I don't have a source, I don't attach one. However, I will modify the narrative sentence to say something like:

George Smith is presumed to have been born c 1845 probably in Ohio for him to be in his twenties when he son Albert was born. I always try to record my reasoning in a split memo which produces this narrative. Actually I have an alternate custom tag called "BirthAssume" that has this sentence, but you could set the sentence on the standard Birth tag with a custom role instead.

 

Just my way of doing this.

Thanks, Michael, I guess I'm doing something similar, although I don't include what my reasoning behind "all avilable relevant details" might be, at this stage; that might be something to aim for in the future!

I realise the answer to this query can many and varied but I am wondering what the experienced TMG users use as a source sentence for the events that don't have a date. The main events I'm concerned with would be the date of birth when I have the christening date but no birth date & the death date when I have the burial date but no death date. I've been using "Author's estimation, relying on all relevent available data", but that looks a bit ambiguous to me. What do others use?

I hadn't been entering the birth events if I didn't have a date, as christenings occassionally can be quite some time after the birth. eg. I have one example of a father being christened at the same time as his first child! Death dates can usually be "guestimated" to be usually within a few days before the burial (and often the following day) unless there's been a coronial inquest or an autopsy required. However, without a birth event being entered, parents aren't named in TMG reports or SS. I've now started entering the birth, with just a sort date, which overcomes the report issue, but I'm having trouble getting my head around a suitable sentence to use in the source output.

After years of putting all programs on their own drive, I've now concluded that it's best to put them in their default locations. Not only does this make installation and maintenance of the programs simpler, but it offers a bit of added security now that MicroSoft has added some protection to the identified program folders.

 

However, I think all data should be on a separate drive, such as your D:\ partition. If you only have one project it's easy to simply put your TMG Project there and change the paths in the Preferences > Project Options > Advanced section. It gets a bit more complex if you have more than one Project, so I think in that case it's better to read the Help topics on Data File Storage, including the advanced ones, and create a Data_paths.txt text files as described there to redirect all the data storage to that data drive.

 

That said, if you plan to copy your data back and forth between several computers, it is much easier to do that, especially if you have external exhibits, if the paths to your data are identical on each computer. If you have the same version of Windows on each computer, you can do that using the default data locations, provided that your user name on each machine is identical. If you have different versions of Windows on the various computers, that is very difficult to do unless you set up a separate drive for your data on each one.

Thanks Terry,

I'll stick with the defaults and set up a folder on D:\, that's how my previous setup worked, anyway; I just wanted confirmation that it was the way to go.

I have had my computer completely rebuilt and now have a 1TB hard drive. I intend to partition this into C Drive and D Drive. The query I'm making refers to the discussion that was had on the thread titled "Moving data to "D" Drive" back in June. I regularly transfer the data between my three computers and the other two have a "user_data" folder that the TMG backups go into (as did this one before the rebuild) but the program was on C Drive.

Now I have to do a new installation would it be easier for me to instal the whole program on D or is there a valid reason why the program itself should go on C and I move the backups, etc., onto D?

Just to note... A focus group is a list of names, not a list of people as you have discovered. If you create a focus group from the Project Explorer, it helps to make sure that the Project Explorer is filtered for primary names only so that you only add one name per person to the focus group.

Thanks, Jim, I hadn't thought of that before. I'll keep it mind for next time.

I am trying to set flags for various family groups by generating a focus group and then doing a "list of people" report on the focus group, setting the flags under the Secondary Output tab. I've done a couple and they have worked successfully and as expected. But I have one group which has 1551 people in the focus group but the "list of people report" only lists 1209. Where did the other 300+ go or what am I not doing correctly? I thought I did things the same in each case.

(Edit)

Once again, it was my own fault. The "Name variations" box was inadvertently ticked, so some people were being listed more than once!

The sentence I included in my query was from Help>Variables>(Name Tags)

You are looking at the wrong help topic since you are primarily discussing event tag sentences.

You want: Sentence Construction / Variables (Event Tags)

Thanks, Jim, I realise now I was looking in the wrong section. Unfortunately the mind isn't as nimble as it used to be

Daryl,

 

Not sure where you got that sentence from Help or what your problem sentence is. It sound like your problem may be because your sentence has another variable, probably [D], before the variable for [P].

 

The below is from the Help page titled: Variables (Event Tags)

 

Principals

 

[P] Current Principal, Full name. The first time the variable appears in a paragraph,

the full name will be used. During second and subsequent appearances, if the name

variable appears before any other variable in a sentence, a pronoun (he/she) will

be substituted for the name. You can force the use of the full name by using [P+].

A plus after any name variable cause that form of the name to be printed in full

rather than allowing a pronoun to be substituted, e.g., [W+], [PG+]. They may

also be used with role name variables, e.g., [R+:Rolename].

 

So, AFTER the first sentence, if the [P] variable appears BEFORE any other variable, THEN a pronoun will be used. For example:

 

[P] lived <[L]> <in [D]>

 

[P] lived <[L]> <in [D]>

He lived in Dighton, Bristol County, Massachusetts in 1850.

 

Whereas the following sentence will always give you the full name:

 

On [D], [P] lived in [L]

 

On June 3, 1850, Alvah Chace lived in Dighton, Bristol County, Massachusetts.

 

If this is not the problem, please post your sentence.

 

Janis Parkison Rodriguez

 

P.S. Another variable will force a he or she: The [RP:%] variable, with the % being the rolename. The variable is not available with the [P], [PO], [P1], or [P2] variables... You can use Principal for the role here.

 

<On [D]> [RP:Principal] lived in [L]

On June 3, 1850, he lived in Dighton, Bristol County, Massachusetts.

Janis,

Thank you for your reply. It would be the [D] at the beginning of the sentence that would be the culprit. Thanks for setting me straight. I like the idea of the sentence in your PS regarding the [RP:%] variable; I'll use that quite often, I'm sure, as I often like to have the date at the beginning of a sentence, particularly if I have an exact date.

The sentence I included in my query was from Help>Variables>(Name Tags)

In the Variable (Name Tags) section in the Help files, it says "[P] . . . . . . . (always produces He/She)".

When I use [P] I get the full name all the time. Most tags after the initial use of the full name I have used [PF] to make the output a bit more readable, but it gets a bit tiresome reading John did this, John did that, John did something else. I would much prefer the use of a pronoun (he/she) in most of those occasions. I realise I can change the sentence to something like "[D] he was living [L] <[M]>" but the way I read the Help files, I shouldn't need to. Or am I missing something? Where and under what conditions are the pronouns produced?

You need to partition the drive. What is the operating system? Win7 has the tools built in. WinXP doesn't.

Thanks, Jim. I've just started using Win 7 and wasn't aware that those tools were available. All good; TMG 7 up and running.

When I got my laptop a few years ago I was advised to create a backup folder with the same name as the backup folder on the desktop, which was D:\User_data\The Master Genealogist v7\Backups. That works well when updating and moving backups for restoring the other computer to the newer data.

I've now "invested" in a 10" netbook and have installed TMG7, mainly for use in research centres, libraries, etc. My problem is that the netbook only has a C:\ drive. It's supposed to be 160GB but there's only 127GB free. Could I take a section (perhaps 30-50GB) of that drive and make into a D:\ and create a "user data" folder; if so, how do I go about that without interfering with the existing programs?

A = age of current principal

AO = age of other principal

Thanks, I knew it was something simple.

I seem to be finding it harder to sort out my own problems as I get older

I'm having a problem with a marriage sentence, trying to include the Principals ages into the story.

The sentence I'm using is: <[D]> <[PF],> [A], married <[PO],> [A] <[PARO]><[L]>

The output I was expecting would be: On 15 Oct 1918 Henry, 25, married Ivy May Green, 19, in the residence of Mrs. T. Green.

The output I get is: On 15 Oct 1918 Henry, 25, married Ivy May Green, 25, in the residence of Mrs. T. Green.

When you look at Ivy's sentence is says: On 15 Oct 1918 Ivy, 19, married Henry Robert Jones, 19, in the residence of Mrs. T. Green.

I would have thought it should be possible to include both parties ages in the same sentence. I guess it is something simple that I've missed.

Daryl,

 

If the sentence and Place style are defined correctly, you shouldn't see a comma followed by a period at the end of the sentence. Are you using a custom place style? Can you give us an example sentence where the problem occurs?

Thanks, John & Terry. As you suggested, the errors were self-inflicted where I'd put either a comma or full stop as <[L],> in the sentence structure.

Most of the report options screens have a "places" tab where you can select which place levels print in the report.

HTH

Robert

Yes, I know, Robert, but they all seem to have a trailing comma in most reports, even when they're not needed, as in the following case.

I have recorded a death and the last place field [L] is South Australia and I the put the cause of death as a memo. But the report reads ". . . Adelaide, South Australia, The cause of death was . . . . ". I wish I could put a full stop after South Australia. I know I could probably restructure the sentence (and often do) but I would like to be able to just type in data without having to review and edit a lot memos.

When I enter place names in my data I have usually put a dash (-) in front of Australia so that the word isn’t printed in reports as, in the case of Western Australia or South Australia, I feel it looks untidy with the unnecessary repetition as in Western Australia, Australia. However, when I print a report the sentence finishes with a comma and full stop (Perth, Western Australia,.).

Is there some way I can stop the comma being printed in such sentences?

I'm using TMG 7

Yes, Terry, that was the problem. I should have explained what I did in case others had the same problem. I had put both given and surnames in the first line

When I open the "add person" screen it has always, in the past when adding children, had the family surname pre-filled. Today it's decided not to do that and I have to fill in the surname myself. I've run the different maintenance options, ran the relationship option in "preferences", closed and restarted the program, all to no avail. Anyone know what to do next?

Thanks,

Worked it out; my own stupidity was the main cause!

Thanks Robin,

I was about to say "don't worry, it's been fixed" when your reply came in. My computer was getting sluggish (seems to be a Windows phenomenon, anyone know a cure?) so I closed all programs and rebooted the computer. When I reloaded TMG it created a new index, etc. and the restore went without a hitch. I'll file your repair method away for future reference.

I've been travelling, entering data in my laptop and, now that I'm home again, went to restore my desktop data to match my laptop, which I've successfully done many times before. This time, when I try to do that, I get the following error message: "There are problems with CDX files. Please let me know about it ASAP. Sher". I think I read somewhere that they are index files. How do I fix them, if I can?

When I opened TMG this morning I got the following error message from Microsoft Visual FoxPro:

"Microsoft Visual FoxPro

Fatal error: Exception code=C0000005 @ 2010.03.13 10:09:26 AM. Error log file: C:\Program Files\The Master Genealogist v7\VFP9Rerr.log

Called from – tmgappobj.msetlastperson line 48 {c:\programe files\common\libs\appobj.vct}

Called from – appobject.show line 286 {c:\programe files\common\libs\appobj.vct}

Called from – tmgappobj.show line 3 {c:\programe files\the master genealogist v7\libs\appobjtmg.vct}

Called from – tmgmain line 548 {C:\Program Files\The Master Genealogist v7\tmg\programs\tmgmain.prg c:\program files\the master genealogist v7\tmg7.exe"

The program is "dead", ie. it is not responding to mouse clicks. It was OK when I closed it down yesterday. It is on an XP computer; I also have it on a laptop running Windows 7 but I'm not game to do a resore on that one in case I import the problem.

Assistance required, please.

Thaks in advance.

Daryl.

Thanks

Can I produce a Descendant Box Chart of only two or three generations and, if so, how? I want to produce a chart for a forthcoming family reunion but it is a large family with 800-900 people in 7 generations.

What I would like to do is put out a chart for the first 2 generations and then individual descendant charts for for the children of the 20 of the third generation who had offspring. How do I go about doing that? There doesn't seem to be an option to use a Focus Group.

Thanks Andy

Thanks again, Terry,

I sort of figured that one out and I must admit, like you, I prefer the journal report as a detailed report but this particular family has given me another problem I can't seem to work out.

I have details of two children, Jack & Jill, born to Bill and Beryl. I have the details of Jack marrying Mary and having 4 kids, with dates, etc. I have the fact (year only) of Jill marrying Fred and the comment "they had 6 children and at least 10 grandchildren".

Jack & Mary's records and children all appear as they should (in a Journal report) but not those for Jill & Fred. I have added that sentence ("they had 6 children and at least 10 grandchildren") as a memo to a tag to get into a report. It came out in a Descendant Indented Narrative report when added to a "Num Child" tag but it wont seem to appear on a Journal Report. I've checked and double checked the options and everything appears to be as it should but, for the life of me, I can't get that sentence to appear in a Journal report. Jill doesn't even appear in the 5th generation of the report where her brother, Jack, wife and family are listed. I expected Jill to appear with her husband and the previous mentioned comment. They are both listed in the 4th generation section as children of Bill & Beryl.

All suggestions welcome!