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John Weidner

Master Source List sorting options

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Under the Master Source List in TMG Version 7 the following sorting options are available: Sorce Number, Abbreviation, Title and Default Surety.

 

Does anyone feel, as I do, that an additional sorting option to "sort by date" would benefit them in any way? If so, please continue reading and then let Mr. Velke know that you want this feature.

 

I have long wanted this sorting feature. I believe I sent a letter to Bob Velke about this very issue some years back. His reply was that if other customers asked for the same thing he would consider adding this option. Well, I'm hoping that additional TMG users might find this feature useful and will request it.

 

I want to sort the Master Source List by date for four reasons:

(1) with date sorting, I could renumber my sources and these sources would automatically appear in the correct chronological order without having to change them in any event;

(2) currently, I have sources on reports that are out of numerical order, such as 1, 8, 3, 5, etc. (this looks sloppy on reports) I want these sources to appear in the correct numerical and chronoligical order;

(3) Generating a Master Source List report by date would aid in my research by more efficient source tracking;

(4) I am now up to 1,057 sources - manually sorting these and renumbering them would require a significant amount of my time - time that I don't have to do this.

 

I realise that one would normally not want to change source numbers when generating reports or books over time. However, an occasional sort by date and renumbering would not negatively impact the grand scheme of research to any significant degree. After all, a "renumber" option is already there, so why not sort by date and then renumber from that point?

 

Thank you,

John Weidner

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All of the properties used to sort sources exist for every source (although the Title field might be blank). Sources have no universal date property to sort by.

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Under the Master Source List in TMG Version 7 the following sorting options are available: Sorce Number, Abbreviation, Title and Default Surety.

 

Does anyone feel, as I do, that an additional sorting option to "sort by date" would benefit them in any way? ...

Hi John,

 

One issue, as Jim pointed out, is that a Source Template does not have to have a Date field, so what would TMG sort on? Many of my sources have no date, e.g. family newspaper clippings with no date, or photos with no date, etc. Further, the source element fields that do exist for dates are really just text fields and will simply do alphanumeric sorting, which as you notice is not date sorting.

 

Two workaround alternatives come to mind that you could already use. First, you could add an additional Source Element to your sources where you put an alphanumeric sortable date, perhaps an eight-digit number of YYYYMMDD. You would not need to include that element in your output templates, just use it for holding that date. Then the standard TMG columnar List of Sources report could sort on that field.

 

Another alternative used by many users is to adopt a structured method to construct the Abbreviation and then sort on that field. I don't find the need for your suggestion since I use this to cause Source records to sort exactly as I wish, grouping similar sources together and then sorted as I wish within each group. For example, those sources you wanted to sort by date you could start the Abbreviation with that eight-digit field of YYYYMMDD.

 

As for the order of TMG MSL source numbers in reports, I do not include those numbers for any reports I give to others. I only include them for reports for me, as they simply refer to the number in TMG which is only accessible to me. It does not bother me that they are not in order or have gaps.

 

Hope this gives you ideas,

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I am not opposed to it, but what date field? Some of my sources don't have any dates (like books) but other's have several (like web pages). If I want them sorted by date entered, wouldn't that be the same as by source number since we enter them one after another.

 

Let me state, that I am not against a feature if you need it, and if you can show me how you use it, I would probably want it ;) but I'm not sure I understand this request.

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