'Tag Type List' Default Abbreviations Explanation

[Roy Sprunger 0]

Where can I find an explanation for all of the default abbreviations used in the Tag Type List?

 

I look at the Tag Type List, see an item I think may be appropriate, but there is no explanation for the abbreviated text. So, I start looking for an explanation for any of the abbreviated items in Help. Then I search the Users Guide. Then I search GTMOOTMG. I cannot find an explanation anywhere.

 

So, now, I also want to know why there is no explanation for the default abbreviations in the Tag Type List? Do you assume that every user already knows the meanings?

 

I intentionally withheld the specific reference I am looking for because I want a consolidated explanation, not an individual explanation. In my experience, most software makers with an established clientele eventually begin filling in the gaps of their documentation. That does not seem to be the case here. I already started supplementing the information provided with TMG and want to know if I should ever expect to find comprehensive documentation listing every error message and dialog box that may present itself within the program.

 

 

Roy

[Terry Reigel 0]

Are you talking about the "Abbreviation" field for each Tag Type? Help (Tag Type Definition: General

article) defines it as:

 

"The Abbreviation field represents the short form of the Tag Label. It is used in some reports, such as the Pedigree chart, in which space is limited. The Abbreviation is limited to three characters plus a period and may be changed at the user's option."

 

In other words, it is just a short version of the label for the Tag in those reports that don't have room for the whole label.

[Roy Sprunger 0]

Are you talking about the "Abbreviation" field for each Tag Type? Help (Tag Type Definition: General

article) defines it as:

 

"The Abbreviation field represents the short form of the Tag Label. It is used in some reports, such as the Pedigree chart, in which space is limited. The Abbreviation is limited to three characters plus a period and may be changed at the user's option."

 

In other words, it is just a short version of the label for the Tag in those reports that don't have room for the whole label.

 

No, Terry, I am not. I am talking about the abbreviations used in the 'label' column of the following list of default Tag Types. Some are obvious to knowledgeable people, while others are not, such as: Birth-Covt; Excommuntn, Father-Fst and Father-Ste, to name a few.

 

label abbrev iscustom

Address add. No

Adoption ado. No

AFN afn. No

Age age. No

Anecdote ane. No

Annulment ann. No

Associatn ass. No

Attributes att. No

Baptism bap. No

BaptismLDS bap. No

BarMitzvah bar. No

BasMitzvah bas. No

Birth b. No

Birth-Covt bct. No

BirthIlleg b. No

BirthStill b. No

Blessing bls. No

BlessngLDS bls. No

Burial bur. No

CancelSeal can. No

Caste cst. No

Census cen. No

Christning chr. No

Codicil cod. No

Communion1 com. No

Confirmatn cnf. No

ConfirmLDS cnf. No

Criminal crm. No

Death d. No

Descriptn des. No

Divorce div. No

Divorce Fl dvf. No

Education edu. No

Emigration emi. No

Employment emp. No

Endowment end. No

Engagement eng. No

Event-Misc msc. No

Excommuntn exc. No

Father-Ado No

Father-Bio No

Father-Fst No

Father-God No

Father-Oth No

Father-Ste No

GEDCOM ged. No

Graduation grd. No

History his. No

HTML htm: No

Illness ill. No

Immigratn imm. No

JournalConclusion nar. No

JournalIntro nar. No

Living liv. No

Marr Bann mbn. No

Marr Cont mcn. No

Marr Lic mlc. No

Marr Sett mst. No

Marriage m. No

Milit-Beg mlb. No

Milit-End mle. No

Misc msc. No

Mother-Ado No

Mother-Bio No

Mother-Fst No

Mother-God No

Mother-Oth No

Mother-Ste No

Name-Baptm nam. No

Name-Chg nam. No

Name-Marr nam. No

Name-Nick nam. No

Namesake nsk. No

Name-Var nam. No

NarrativeChildren nar. No

Nationalty nat. No

Natlzation nat. No

Note nt. No

NullifyLDS nul. No

Num Child #c. No

Num Marr #m. No

Occupation occ. No

OrdinacLDS ord. No

Ordinance ord. No

Ordination ord. No

Parent-Ado No

Parent-Bio No

Parent-Fst No

Parent-God No

Parent-Oth No

Parent-Ste No

Probate pro. No

PrsmCancel prs. No

Psgr List psg. No

Ratificatn rat. No

Rebaptism rbp. No

Reference ref. No

Religion rel. No

Reseal rsl. No

Residence res. No

Restoratn rst. No

Retirement ret. No

SealChild sc. No

SealParent sp. No

SealSpouse ss. No

SSN ssn. No

Stake stk. No

Telephone tel. No

VoidLiving vdl. No

WAC wac. No

Will wil. No

 

 

 

Roy

[Jim Byram 0]

Terry explained the abbreviations. Please look at the General tab of the Tag Type Definition screen for any tag type.

 

The abbreviations are completely arbitrary (other than the form) and were created to make some sort of sense for each tag type.

[Roy Sprunger 0]

Terry explained the abbreviations. Please look at the General tab of the Tag Type Definition screen for any tag type.

 

The abbreviations are completely arbitrary (other than the form) and were created to make some sort of sense for each tag type.

 

Jim,

 

No, Terry did not.

 

You completely missed my point. You and Terry focused on the abbreviations used in the Tag Type definition field "for" abbreviations, which appear to be uniformly three characters long.

 

I am asking about the abbreviations used in the *label*, and offered a few specific examples of labels with abbreviations that I do not understand.

 

Birth-Covt; Excommuntn, Father-Fst and Father-Ste

 

I cannot find any explanation for "Covt", "Fst" or "Ste". And what kind of a word is "Excommuntn"?

 

Perhaps it is wrong to call them abbreviations, but that is what they are, abbreviated, concatenated or otherwise shortened words. The Tag Type Labels have many of these shortened words but there does not appear to be any sort of explanation for what they mean in the online help or the users guide.

 

In an effort to make sense out of it, I ran a List of Tag Types report and added a column for "Long Labels" where I can add a full interpretation/explanation for these short-hand words once I learn what they mean. But I really hate having to create my own tools to do this when they should be clearly defined in the documentation, 12 years after I started using TMG 4a.

 

But enough ranting. If you cannot find the right tools, make your own. I will just have to Google the abbreviations I don't recognize and make the best of it.

[John Cardinal 0]

Roy,

 

The sentence for a tag will often be more descriptive than the label. So, for "Excommuntn", the sentence for the principal is

 

[P] excommunicated

 

... and so, "Excommuntn" is a slightly abbreviated form of "Excommunication". I think--don't quote me--abbreviations were used in the label field because the label field had a character-count limit, and some columnar reports had limited space for labels.

[Terry Reigel 0]

No, Terry, I am not. I am talking about the abbreviations used in the 'label' column of the following list of default Tag Types. Some are obvious to knowledgeable people, while others are not, such as: Birth-Covt; Excommuntn, Father-Fst and Father-Ste, to name a few.

OK, let me try.

 

Address = Address

Adoption = Adoption

AFN = Ancestrial File number (look at the Sentence)

Annulment = Annulment

Associatn = Association (look at the Sentence)

Attributes = Attributes

Baptism = Baptism

BaptismLDS = Baptized in the LDS church (look at the Sentence)

BarMitzvah = Bar Mitzvah

BasMitzvah = Bas Mitzvah

Birth = Birth

Birth-Covt = Birth in the Covenent (look at the Sentence)

BirthIlleg = Birth Illegitimate (look at the Sentence)

BirthStill = Still Birth

Blessing = Blessing

BlessngLDS = Blessing in the LDS church (look at the Sentence)

Burial = Burial

CancelSeal = Sealing Canceled (look at the Sentence)

Caste = Caste

Census = Census

Christning = Christening

Codicil = Codicil

Communion1 = First Communion (look at the Sentence)

Confirmatn = Confirmation

ConfirmLDS = Confirmation in the LDS church (look at the Sentence)

Criminal = Criminal

Death = Death

Descriptn = Description

Divorce = Divorce

Divorce Fl = Divorce Filed (look at the Sentence)

Education = Education

Emigration = Emigration

Employment = Employment

Endowment = Endowment

Engagement = Engagement

Event-Misc = Miscellaneous Event

Excommuntn = Excommunication (look at the Sentence)

Father-Ado = Adoptive Father

Father-Bio = Biological Father

Father-Fst = Foster Father

Father-God = God Father

Father-Oth = Father - Other

Father-Ste = Step-Father

GEDCOM = GEDCOM (unrecognized tag, see Sentence)

Graduation = Graduation

History = History

HTML = HTML (Hypertext Markup Language)

Illness = Illness

Immigratn = Immigration

JournalConclusion = Journal Conclusion (special purpose - see Help)

JournalIntro = Journal Introduction (special purpose - see Help)

Living = Living

Marr Bann = Marriage Banns

Marr Cont = Marriage Contract (look at the Sentence)

Marr Lic = Marriage License (look at the Sentence)

Marr Sett = Marriage Settlement (look at the Sentence)

Marriage = Marriage

Milit-Beg = Military Service Beginning (look at the Sentence)

Milit-End = Military Service Ending (look at the Sentence)

Misc = Miscellaneous

Mother-Ado = Adoptive Mother

Mother-Bio = Biological Mother

Mother-Fst = Foster Mother

Mother-God = God Mother

Mother-Oth = Mother - Other

Mother-Ste = Step-mother

Name-Baptm = Baptismal Name (look at the Sentence)

Name-Chg = Name Changed (look at the Sentence)

Name-Marr = Married Name (look at the Sentence)

Name-Nick = Nick Name

Namesake = Namesake

Name-Var = Name Variation

NarrativeChildren = Narrative Children (special purpose - see Help)

Nationalty = Nationality

Natlzation = Naturalization (look at the Sentence)

Note = Note

NullifyLDS = Nullified by LDS church (look at the Sentence)

Num Child = Number of Children

Num Marr = Number of Marriages

Occupation = Occupation

OrdinacLDS = Ordinance in the LDS church (look at the Sentence)

Ordinance = Ordinance

Ordination = Ordination

Parent-Ado = Adoptive Parent

Parent-Bio = Biological Parent

Parent-Fst = Foster Parent

Parent-God = God Parent

Parent-Oth = Parent - Other

Parent-Ste = Step Parent

Probate = Probate

PrsmCancel = Presumed Cancelled (look at the Sentence - LDS term)

Psgr List = Passenger List (look at the Sentence)

Ratificatn = Ratification (look at the Sentence - LDS ordinance)

Rebaptism = Rebaptism

Reference = Reference

Religion = Religion

Reseal = Reseal (LDS ordinance)

Residence = Residence

Restoratn = Restoration (look at the Sentence)

Retirement = Retirement

SealChild = Sealed as Child (look at the Sentence - LDS ordinance)

SealParent = Sealed as Parent (look at the Sentence -LDS ordinance)

SealSpouse = Sealed as Spouse (look at the Sentence - LDS ordinance)

SSN = Social Security Number (look at the Sentence)

Stake = Stake (LDS term)

Telephone = Telephone

VoidLiving = Void Living

WAC = don't know - an LDS term involving initiatory ordinances (look at the Sentence)

Will = Will

[Roy Sprunger 0]

John, thank you for your explanation. That is what I concluded from my continuing search.

 

Terry, thank you for the effort you put into creating the list of full terms. I will add it to my "toolbox".

 

After posting my original questions, I continued searching and accidentally found what you both have stated, regarding "the Sentence". The initial column width in the List of Tag Types was too narrow to make the terms readily obvious. After several attempts, I made the width wide enough so that I could see the whole sentence structure for each Tag Type.

 

However, lets review my original questions.

 

Where can I find an explanation for all of the default abbreviations used in the Tag Type List?

Answer: I cannot. There is no "one" source that names "all" of the Tag Types with full disclosure of the terms in plain English.

 

I also want to know why there is no explanation for the default abbreviations in the Tag Type List?

Answer: There is in an oblique, off-hand way through the sentence structure for each tag definition.

 

Do you assume that every user already knows the meanings?

Answer: Unknown. To be answered by the software developer.

 

While I now have the information needed to create my own reference tool, there is still nothing available within the existing documentation. Once again, I have to supplement the original documentation with my own as I expand my knowledge and use of TMG, which apparently is how GTMOOTMG came into being.

 

 

Roy

[Jim Byram 0]

For the relationship tag types...

 

-Ado adopted

-Bio biological

-Can candidate

-Fam ?

-Fst foster

-God for example, godchild

-Oth other

-Pri ?

-Ste step

-Unk unknown

 

The extensions have no real meaning other than to the user.

 

Relationship tags are primary and non-primary. Primary relationship tags are used in reports and charts to show lineage and are always treated as biological links irrespective of the tag type extension.

[Michael Hannah 0]

Hi Roy,

 

Your confusion over some of the tag types having somewhat abbreviated tag names seems to have been heard by WhollyGenes. As Bob announced over a year ago, the upcoming Version 8 will use expanded full words for tag type names in new projects. As posted in his announcement here:

"New projects include expanded tag labels ("Immigratn"->"Immigration") for easier readibility."

I don't know for a fact, but would suspect that your list of "Birth-Covt, Excommuntn, Father-Fst and Father-Ste" would likely be expanded in Version 8 to: Birth-Covenant, Excommunication, Father-Foster, and Father-Step. If that turns out to be true, then hopefully this should become less of a confusion factor.

 

Since a user can rename a tag type, I have expanded/changed some of the names to be more obvious to me. (For those unaware of how to do this, go to the Master Tag Type List, edit a tag type, and on the General tab change the name in the "Label" field.) There does appear to be a maximum of 20 characters possible. Also as John noted some columnar reports have limited space for labels, so a long name may cause you issues elsewhere. But you can name the tags whatever you wish so they are understandable to you. When Version 8 comes out I intend to rename all my current custom tag names to full words to match that new default.

 

Hope this gives you ideas,