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Exhibits linked to events

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I notice when i scan a photo linked to a marriage event (eg the wedding photo), that although it shows up in the individuals exhibit log, i have no option to make this photo primary unless i seperately make it a general exhibit. What is the reason for this?

jrw

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I notice when i scan a photo linked to a marriage event (eg the wedding photo), that although it shows up in the individuals exhibit log, i have no option to make this photo primary unless i seperately make it a general exhibit. What is the reason for this?

jrw

 

Only exhibits attached to an individual can be designated primary...exhibits attached to an event cannot be designated primary...

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I understand that. The question is why?

jrw

 

There is not need for a primary designation for event exhibits. The primary designation for exhibits attached to an individual designates which exhibit shows in the Exhibit window and which exhibit shows for an individual in some reports. You cannot designate an event exhibit to show in the Exhibit window.

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Pictures scanned and put in linked to an event do show in the persons exhibits field. You just cannot make them primary

jrw

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Let me make my question clearer. I have a lot of scanned wedding pictures. I link them in the marriage tag. They show in both the husband and the wifes exhibit log. I cannot make them primary for either unless i individually link the picture in their exhibit log. This then makes two thumbnails of the same picture in each

jrw

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There's no way to make a single exhibit be primary for two (or more) people. If you use a single picture in multiple exhibits, the image will appear multiple times in the exhibit log.

 

One approach to consider is to crop the wedding picture twice, once to select only one person and the second time to select only the other. Attach each of those two cropped pictures as the primary person exhibits. Leave the full-size picture attached to the Marriage event.

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Actually a single exhibit can be primary for several people. I have done this with family photos where there is no alternative photo of someone. At least it shows on computer and visual chartform printout

jrw

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Actually a single exhibit can be primary for several people.

That's not a 'single' exhibit. You are referring to multiple exhibit records each of which links to a single external image file.

 

Each person can have a primary person exhibit. Those records can link to one external exhibit file or to different external exhibit files.

 

The point is that each person can have an exhibit record marked primary and this record is unique and has nothing to do with any other person's exhibit record that is marked primary.

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Actually a single exhibit can be primary for several people.

That is not accurate.

 

A single picture can be used as the primary image exhibit for multiple people, but to do so you must create multiple exhibits. Images and exhibits are not synonyms and it's wise to recognize the difference. Exhibits are attached to a single TMG record (name, event, person, citation, source, place) and cannot be attached to more than one such record. With events, you can attach multiple people to the event, and thus a single exhibit is effectively shared by multiple people, but it's still a single exhibit attached to a single event that happens to have more than one principal or witness.

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OK i stand corrected. A single picture can be used as the source of multiple exhibits and linked to multiple events. Still doesnt answer the main question

1. WHY can a picture used as an exhibit for a marriage, which shows in the exhibit log for a individual not but used as a primary exhibit. I understand what john is saying that it is an exhibit attached to the marriage event. This event is shared by multiple principles. Since it shows in the individuals exhibit log why disable the ability to make it a primary short of making additional exhibits under the person. Must of my pictorial exhibits are not linked to a single event

jrw

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We're going over the same ground again and again.

 

An 'exhibit' is one database record linked to one focus (below) and to one multimedia object.

 

Exhibits can only be linked to one focus... a person, event, citation, source, repository, place.

 

Different exhibits can be linked to the same multimedia object (such as an external image file). But, in that case, the exhibits are still different database records and are completely independent of one another.

 

The person view of the Exhibit Log shows both exhibits linked to the person and exibits linked to events linked to the person.

 

Only exhibits linked directly to the person can be made primary.

 

Exhibits linked to events linked to a person cannot be made primary.

 

The exhibit selected as the primary person exhibt will show in the Image window for that person and will be the person exhibit used in reports such as the Individual Detail report and the Family Group Sheet and in charts and will be the default person exhibit used in narrative reports. In all of these contexts, you normally want a person image in portrait form and the point of marking a person exhibit primary is to select such an image.

 

That's the design.

 

%%%%%%%%%%

 

This is unlike the design seen in some other programs where you link objects to a multimedia library in the database and then you can link from different focuses such as different people and/or different events to the same record in the library. This sort of design appears to be what is influencing your questions above... but it is not how TMG works.

 

%%%%%%%%%%

 

We can tell you how TMG works.

 

Paul and I have both explained the reasoning behind the primary person exhibit selection.

 

But there is no point trying to hash over why TMG was designed this way as opposed to being designed that way or some other way.

Edited by Jim Byram

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Having never been flamed in a genealogy forum before i bit my tongue a few days before answering.

 

I understand that the external "exhibits" are the external pictures

 

I understand that TMG generates exhibits.

 

I understand that exhibits are linked to a given person or event.

 

I even understand that external pictures used to create exhibits linked to an event as a focus cannot be made primary for the the person.

 

The question I asked was not if any of these statements were tue but why they were true. For example, I didnt used to be able to print a visual chartform chart in old versions of TMG. Then a design change allowed me to. The answer that was given to my question was that that is the way it is. This is not an answer. The way it is, is subject to change. What i am asking really was is this a conscious decision in the program to disallow this? If so, for what reason? Is there a structure of the program that would prevent it? This seems to me to be a legitmate question, and not the subject of a hostile reaction. I can think of many reasons one might wish to do this. For example to scan in death certificates of all family members and then print a tree with death certificates. To scan in wedding pictures of all members and link to wedding. Then to print a tree with all the weddings.

 

Indeed when i first called tech support to ask the question we had to look to see if they could be linked. Hopefully someone from TMG will answer.

 

jrw

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Having never been flamed in a genealogy forum before i bit my tongue a few days before answering.
I am just a user of TMG, like Jim and John, but in reading their posts I don't believe there was any intent to flame. In the classic lines of a movie, I think that "what we have here is a failure to communicate". I am guessing that both Jim and John believe they have answered your question, so they don't understand why you keep asking it. Perhaps a new voice (mine) might try again to answer your question?

 

... I even understand that external pictures used to create exhibits linked to an event as a focus cannot be made primary for the the person.

 

The question I asked was not if any of these statements were tue but why they were true... What i am asking really was is this a conscious decision in the program to disallow this?

As users we cannot speak for Wholly Genes, but my perception is that this is not a matter of "disallowing" something, but of simply using terms that identify a specific capability among many capabilities. As I have come to understand it, there was a user community desire for there to be a way to designate one, and only one, exhibit/picture to be associated with a person. Why? I would guess that many users had many different reasons for why they might use this feature, but the common wish was for an ability to make that unique designation. The "primary" designation is the tool to provide this capability.

 

Perhaps you are more used to other programs that only provide one way to do something. I am pleased that TMG is generally not that way. For me the beauty of TMG is that it provides me with a toolbox of capabilities so that I can choose among many different ways to do something. It is up to me "why" I choose one way over another. For example, there is a way to link the same exhibit to multiple people, by linking it to an event with multiple witnesses. There is also a separate way to link one exhibit to a person so that only that one exhibit will show with that person, that is by the different method of linking it to the person and making it primary. "Why" you would choose to use one tool over the other is up to you. But "why" different tools exist are simply so that the user "can" do different things. And "why" one tool does it only that one way versus the other tool only doing it that other way is to make it possible to have different ways to do something, and each tool provides that way to do it. In this context, "why" one tool (e.g. primary) "disallows" doing it some other way isn't an issue when there "is" a tool that does it the other way. That method "disallows" the "other" way because by definition it is the tool to do it "this" way. The "why" is so that there are different ways.

 

Maybe the better answer to your "why" question is the classic "why not?" Is there something that this feature is "disallowing" you to do? If you mentioned what you are trying to accomplish, maybe one of us users can suggest a different feature of TMG that will do exactly what you are desiring with an exhibit?

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What i am asking really was is this a conscious decision in the program to disallow this? If so, for what reason?

The design intent for primary person exhibits is explained above.

 

Is there a structure of the program that would prevent it?

The way that the exhibit table is structured, I see no way to do this. As Michael points out below, a person exhibit is linked to one person. An event exhibit is linked to one event; however, the event can be linked to one, two, or more individuals. There is no practical way to make the event exhibit primary for one person but not for another person linked to the exhibit.

 

I can think of many reasons one might wish to do this. For example to scan in death certificates of all family members and then print a tree with death certificates. To scan in wedding pictures of all members and link to wedding. Then to print a tree with all the weddings.

Yes. Those are interesting ideas.

Edited by Jim Byram

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I too wish that an exhibit linked to an event could be set as the primary exhibit for the person I am currently viewing. I find myself on many occassions adding an exhibit twice so that I can have it linked to the appropriate event and also use it as the primary image for that person. (I think this is what jrw was asking for.)

 

I also understand that the underlying data structure and processing make this more complex to implement than it sounds.

 

Can this be added as a wish list item for a future release?

 

Sheila Altenbernd

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Sheila,

 

What you appear to be suggestiong is a two table exhibits solution.

 

Currently, TMG uses one exhibit table. A single exhibit record (in effect) links the focus and the multimedia object.

 

What you want might be best handled by two exhibit tables.

A record in one table would link to the multimedia object and could be considered a master exhibit list.

 

Records in a second table would be used to link a focus to a record in the master exhibit list.

 

So a multimedia object would be linked to the project once. Any focus could then link to that master record by way of the second table.

 

jrw appears to be asking for something much simpler (at least on the surface)... the ability to mark an exhibit linked to a person's events as primary.

 

There many open questions regarding how exhibits in TMG work and resolving all of those questions would probably require a complete redesign of the program's exhibit functions.

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Thanks Jim for providing an explanation of how the underlying structure works.

 

As a programmer myself, I understand things that appear simple can actually be quite complicated to implement. I've also discovered that the more features you provide, the more people want. :-)

 

Sheila Altenbernd

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Am really not sure if what i am asking for is that complicated. That is the reason i am asking.

 

As to which genealogy programs i have used, only used 2 over my lifetime, Roots III and TMG. Roots III didnt do graphics so i am not more used to graphics in a different program. I have owned every version of TMG since i think TMG 3, but didnt make the conversion from roots III until TMG 5 or 6, mostly because i mistrusted windows.

 

As to what i am asking, I really dont care to have more than one primary exhibit for a person. You can change them easily. The question is what is the reason that a exhibit linked to an event cannot be used as a primary. Is this inherently caused by the data base structure or is this a conscious decision. I am sure most users prefer 1 primary picture (so do I). The question is more about flexibility in its choice. I am not at all sure i understand why this would require a second data base, since the exhibit linked to the event appears in the persons exhibit log. All one would seem to need is the ability to click it for the designation of primary. Yes i understand the focus is the event and not the person.

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I too wish that an exhibit linked to an event could be set as the primary exhibit for the person I am currently viewing. I find myself on many occassions adding an exhibit twice so that I can have it linked to the appropriate event and also use it as the primary image for that person...

Sheila,

 

I guess I don't understand the issue. If the image is external to TMG, which is how most users store their image files, then you don't add the image twice. TMG is designed to make separate exhibit links to the same image file. You can link that same image to one or more persons and make it primary for any of those people, and to one or more events, and to citations, sources, repositories, and places. Further, by having these separate links, which serve very different purposes, TMG provides the capability of different captions and descriptions for each link. Personally I view being able to have different exhibit links from the same image/file for multiple different purposes as a valuable feature of TMG. Multiple external exhibit links are not multiple copies of the file, they are simply multiple pointers to the same image/file.

 

Further, since an event could have two Principals and multiple Witnesses, for whom should this event exhibit be considered primary? And which event exhibit, since an event can have multiple exhibits? Since currently you can only make primary one of the exhibits links to a single person there is no confusion. And with this TMG design you can still have the same image/file be the primary exhibit for multiple people, all it takes is linking, via the person exhibit link and primary designation, each person to that same file. If you got your wish, for an event with an exhibit that might be linked to multiple people you would have to create some way to tell TMG which one(s) were to use this exhibit link as primary. The separate person exhibit link is simply how you tell TMG about "primary" in a clean and unambiguous way. This is simply the purpose of that kind of link.

 

Just my opinion,

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Jim,

Is this a reasonable understanding of this issue?

 

An Exhibit is just a link to a media file, such as a picture or video file. As such, an Exhibit is quite small, just a pointer to the file. The media file, on the other hand can be quite large.

 

More than one Exhibit can point to a single media file.

 

In some situations, an individual's record (e.g. the individual display in TMG or a box within a chart) can handle only one media file (generally a picture). For these purposes, the Exhibit used is the one that is marked Primary. In these cases, an Exhibit usually points to a picture. Are there other situations where only one exhibit can be used?

 

There does not seem to be a situation where information on an event needs to have no more than one Exhibit shown. Therefore, there is no need to mark an event Exhibit as "primary".

 

The confusion in this conversation seems to be the use of the word Exhibit when the writer really means the media file, or when a reader sees the word Exhibit and thinks this means the media file.

 

I hope this is a simple enough view of the issue.

 

Pierce

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I went through all of this above.

 

'Exhibit' - a record in the exhibits table

 

'Primary Exhibit' - a selected record in the exhibits table that is linked to a person. Only one exhibit record linked to the same person can be marked primary. And the exhibit record can only be marked primary if it is linked to an image file.

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Is this a reasonable understanding of this issue?
Yep, that is basically what I understand and tried to say.

 

In some situations, an individual's record ... can handle only one media file (generally a picture)
As Jim said, only an image can be marked primary and only if linked to a person.

 

There does not seem to be a situation where information on an event needs to have no more than one Exhibit shown.
I can't think of any such situation. And with the flexibility of custom events you can make an event with only one Exhibit and then optionally concatenate another event with the "rest" of the Exhibits, so you could selectively accomplish this as well if you wanted to.

 

The confusion in this conversation seems to be the use of the word Exhibit when the writer really means the media file, or when a reader sees the word Exhibit and thinks this means the media file.
Yes, I think you are right.

 

I hope this is a simple enough view of the issue.
Works for me.

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