Last Edited Date

[dreward 0]

I’m not quite sure whether these two subjects have been aired on this forum but being “related” to one another I’ll group them together.

 

Firstly, Edited date for an individual: if I go via the picklist to check out a particular event for an individual that date, say 9 July 2009, always changes to the current date despite the fact that I made no changes to the item – just looked. Now I don’t call that editing in any shape or form. Why then does the date change?

 

Secondly, Last edited date: is it not possible, either as a permanent fixture or option column, to include the true last edited date in the in the Expanded Picklist. I tend to do non-urgent editing on the basis of the oldest edited date, which I refer to elsewhere - Excel, but it would make life much easier if I could see visually that date in the picklist and even sort individuals by that date.

 

Can anyone tell me why this hasn’t been addressed before? I only have a reasonable 3500+ individuals and I get frustrated, so what, as I read recently, does someone with 10 to 40 thousand people feel like??

 

Anyone?

 

Dave

[Jim Byram 0]

Firstly, Edited date for an individual: if I go via the picklist to check out a particular event for an individual that date, say 9 July 2009, always changes to the current date despite the fact that I made no changes to the item – just looked. Now I don’t call that editing in any shape or form. Why then does the date change?

If you open a tag and click [OK], the record is updated and the last edited date is updated.

 

If you open a tag and click [Cancel], the last edited date isn't updated.

[John Cardinal 0]

Dave,

 

If you click [OK] to close the Edit Event window, the Last Edited date will be updated. If you click [Cancel] it will not.

[Michael Hannah 0]

Secondly, Last edited date: is it not possible, either as a permanent fixture or option column, to include the true last edited date in the Expanded Picklist...

Hi Dave,

 

I don't really know the reason there are no further options for data on the PE. Maybe performance since the PE can be linked to all the other windows? Your comment makes a good "wish" for a future enhancement.

 

However, in the meantime the only "workaround" I could think of would be a List of People report. The Last edited date is an option for an output column, and you can sort on it. You might set up a report configuration with a Filter that limited the List of People to those whose Last edited date comes before (or comes after) '[?]' so you could enter a date and thus limit your list to people you haven't recently (or have recently) edited. With a saved configuration you could just print it to the screen whenever you wanted to check it.

 

Hope this gives you ideas,

[dreward 0]

Thanks Jim and John for the reply to the first question - obvious when spelled out.

 

Michael - Thanks for your suggestion too but I had tried that a while back and that's when I decided to go over to Excel as a temporary measure. The point being that the list of people report has to be compiled each time you want to view whereas the Excel report is always open on a second screen. On top of that I have Excel sheet divided into 3 columns - Person Ref.nr., Edit date and Tag(BMD or whatever). This way I can see when and where changes were made to any one person of my family.

 

I realise my original request for a Last Edited date column can never give as much information as Excel - it wouldn't need to - but I would much prefer to have the first option within TMG at a click of a button.

 

Hope this explains my thinking

 

Dave

[nbradley 0]

Dave

 

The Last Edit Date is also of no use if you use Custom Flags to record whether or not you have checked a person against a database or CD. Manual changes to Flags update the Last Edit Date.

 

A field which stored the date of the last change/addition of a person or to a tag would be really valuable (or even if we had the same preference options for Manual Changes to the last Edit Date as we do with changes made from the "List of ..." reports).

 

I understand about the issue of OK vs Cancel which makes sense. It would complicate the programming too much to do otherwise.

[Wiley 0]

Dave,

 

I had a similar problem. My solution was to create an 'update' tag by making a copy of the history tag, changing the label to 'update' and show the memo field which contains who submitted the update by name, record id and my custom reference number. I can add citations if needed and surities.

 

Since the tag has a date field that never changes I don't care what the change date is.

 

John

[Michael Hannah 0]

Michael - Thanks for your suggestion too but I had tried that a while back ... the list of people report has to be compiled each time you want to view whereas the Excel report is always open on a second screen.

Dave,

 

I create such reports as Word files and keep that open as a second screen just like you do with Excel.

 

But I agree with John that while a custom Tag isn't updated automatically, it can give you complete control over recording your update activities.

[Virginia Blakelock 0]

I enter the day's date in new tags and when I make major edits. I've done this since the early days of TMG and wouldn't be without that information. At first I put the date in the L10 place field, but that made too many unique places, so I switched to M2 - dedicated for that purpose (and filterable in reports). It's quick and easy with a text macro, updated each day. I would prefer, and have asked for, a dedicated field with user control on the Tag Entry Screen.

 

Virginia