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jonreed

globally change data

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Hello,

 

I've used TMG for awhile now, and I cite everything very completely. When I create reports, it shows every single citation. For "names", and "births" of some individuals, I have upwards of 50 to 60 citations. Obviously, when creating reports, including this display amount of citations is obviously overdoing it.

 

I have recently found that if I put a minus sign in front of the citation assignment, I can get the citation to not show unless I choose "show excluded data". This works perfectly, and unless there's a better way to exclude citations, and make one, two or three citations primary(to only show only these on reports), this is the best way of doing what I want. If anyone knows a better way, please let me know.

 

So given the way I think I want to do this now, I will have to retrofit all the citations to match this paradigm. Is there a way to globally change all citations from a number to include the negative sign in front of it, for example, change the citation with source number "36" to source number "-36"?

 

Jon Reed

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Jon,

 

As Jim says, the TMG Utility can exclude citations by for particular sources, which may help. It has provisions for not excluding citations to a source when it's the only citation in a tag. But still, it's a rough-cut approach. A given source may be a poor source for one tag and the best for another. The only way to really do this accurately is manually. But there is an easier way than opening the citation and adding the exclusion marker. You can right-click on the citation in the list at the bottom of the tag entry screen and choose "Exclude," which allows you to exclude the citation without actually opening the citation.

 

I've been doing this gradually over the last several years as I create reports or a website for a new section of the family. My "rule" is no more than three un-excluded citations except where conflicting sources require them, fewer if possible. I try to keep the most trustworthy sources, and exclude any I suspect are derived from other sources I'm including or come from a common original source. I try to include at least one "official" source when my most detailed source is private family record.

 

In addition to excluding extra citations I also sort them with the most trustworthy first, then sort the excluded ones roughly in order of trustworthiness, but keeping all the excluded census citations in date sequence.

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Thanks for the answers guys. I'll download the TMG Utility again. It's been awhile since I've looked at it. Never used it though.

 

Also, thanks for the "right click" edit trick for the citation. I think that will help a lot.

 

I figured that there were ways to do this without either manually doing it all, or going into the database and messing with it directly (which I don't prefer to do, even though I work as a DBA).

 

BTW, on a side note, I can't "Like" either of your comments, it says I've used up my quota of votes for the day even though I haven't voted for anything.

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