Jump to content
SteveH

Exhibit organization and naming conventions

Recommended Posts

Hi all!

 

I'm diving back in to my genealogy research after an absence of many years. Just upgraded to v7 and love it. I've been searching through the forums and getting a ton of ideas, tips and hints which are just incredible! I've been inspired by the thread about internal vs external exhibits...call me three quarters stupid, but including exhibits with TMG just hadn't occurred to me before. So, in preparing to collect all my exhibits, I'm looking for some advise....

 

I've definitely decided on external exhibits (vs internal). Which leads me to my question: How do you organize your exhibits and name the actual files?

 

I'm thinking of just a simple directory tree of Surnames and then Given Name (and perhaps their ID Number). For example:

 

Surname1

|_ John Henry (215)

|_ Mary Jane (243)

 

and so on, just two levels deep: Surname and Given name.

 

Any thoughts on this? Also, what naming convention to you use for the actual files themselves? Before I get knee (or neck) deep in to this, I'd like to "get it right" since going back and re-organizing would probably be a fairly large project.

 

Thanks!

Steve

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Hi Steve

 

Welcome

 

You will probably receive many suggestions, but here is my naming pattern.

 

I do as you suggest but I also add in, what the exhibit is, and if the year is not in that title, the year ie

 

1851 English Census Lancashire - John Stephenson 1190

1861 English Census Cumberland - John Stephenson 1190

 

Marriage - John Stephenson 1190 and Dorothy Skirrow 2381 1874

Death - John Stephenson 1190 1889

 

I do this as to date I have 17 Joseph Stephenson's in my tree, and its not a one name study

 

These are the names of the exhibits and the file names are

 

1841 English Census

1851 English Census etc etc

Births

Marriages

Deaths

 

I hope this helps.

 

Regards

 

Half Pint

 

Hi all!

 

I'm diving back in to my genealogy research after an absence of many years. Just upgraded to v7 and love it. I've been searching through the forums and getting a ton of ideas, tips and hints which are just incredible! I've been inspired by the thread about internal vs external exhibits...call me three quarters stupid, but including exhibits with TMG just hadn't occurred to me before. So, in preparing to collect all my exhibits, I'm looking for some advise....

 

I've definitely decided on external exhibits (vs internal). Which leads me to my question: How do you organize your exhibits and name the actual files?

 

I'm thinking of just a simple directory tree of Surnames and then Given Name (and perhaps their ID Number). For example:

 

Surname1

|_ John Henry (215)

|_ Mary Jane (243)

 

and so on, just two levels deep: Surname and Given name.

 

Any thoughts on this? Also, what naming convention to you use for the actual files themselves? Before I get knee (or neck) deep in to this, I'd like to "get it right" since going back and re-organizing would probably be a fairly large project.

 

Thanks!

Steve

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I use a naming scheme from a Legacy tip article written many years ago (and which has disappeared) and keep all exhibits in one folder. And have a duplicate second folder with the exhibits resized for Second Site.)

 

The filename works like this: bush0053ind.jpg

 

bush - first four letters of the surname

0053 - ID# (obviously don't renumber IDs)

ind - a code for where the image is linked (ind = individual, bir = birth tag, cen = census tag, etc.)

n - a number after the code if there are more than one exhibit for the code... ind, ind2, ind3)

 

Variants of this pattern can be used for any exhibit.

 

You can keep your exhibits in a single folder or in a tree. If you use a tree, you should do all exhibit maintenance outside of TMG (backup, restore, etc.).

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I am sort of lost! I've been away from TMG a couple of years and am now trying to find my way back. I am drawn to TMG but it's hard in the beginning to get it all figured out. I have been trying to figure out external vs. internal for a couple of days. I have a TMG project that is a couple of years old. When I now opened it in v7, the exhibits did not open even though the file path and name was still the same. I want to be able to make a gedcom file, send it to my cousin and have the exhibits go with it. I do not have all the exhibits in one folder but in about 3 different folders in my Genealogy folder. The path listed the three different folders and was correct but I had to go to the folders and then LOAD the image and then the thumbnails and images could be viewed. Can someone please explain 1) external vs. internal, 2) where to locate the one folder (which I'm assuming this is going to come down to, i.e. Documents/TMG/Exhibits or Genealogy/Exhibits) and 3) how to make a gedcom file whereby the exhibits go with it? Thanks!!!

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I use a folder for all my exhibits (external) called PICTURES

 

Under PICTURES is a surname folder for each surname I am researching

 

Under each surname are a variety of document types (census, wills, deeds, marriages, etc.)

 

Under that I file by person's name JohnGee.jpg

 

So a will for JohnGee would be filed under C:/PICTURES/GHEE/WILL/JohnGee.jpg

 

My filing cabinet works exactly the same way, so the image in the filing cabinet would be found in the same manner.

 

 

 

Barb,

 

External images have to be backed up outside of TMG. They are not backed up as part of a TMG backup (though I think there is an option to do so). You only back them up when you want to. They can be used with other programs, such as Second Site.

 

Internal images are backed up every time you backup TMG. This can make a backup large and make it take a long time to run. Second Site can not use internal images.

 

You can locate the folder anywhere you want. You tell TMG where the folder is located. Mine is in C:PICTURES.

 

I don't use GEDCOM, so I will leave that to another user to answer.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now

×