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Phil Slagle

Changing a flag globally

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My copy of TMG defaults to "(?) Unknown" for the Adoption Flag and I have accumulated thousands of people with that flag. How can I globally change the Unknowns to "(N) No" and make that the default for future entries? I can then go back and reset the few that don't fit that criteria to Yes or Unknown.

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You change the Adopted Flag, or any other Flag, for all or a selected group of people by using the Secondary Output of the List of People report. Select the people by use of a filter, the Focus Group, or by selecting them in the Project Explorer. Or, to include everyone, choose that option on the Report Definition screen. Then click Options and on the Secondary Output tab, specify the Flag you want to change.

 

The Adopted Flag is a standard Flag (that is, one supplied with the program), and you cannot change the default value of standard Tags. So if you want it set to No you will have to do that for each new person. If you want to do that you can add that Flag to the Add Person screen and set it as you add the person.

 

Alternatively, you can do what I do, and Disable that Flag in Flag Manager so it disappears from the Flag Window, and just ignore it.

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On the other hand, why do you care about the default? For example, I have an Accent based on that flag, but it only looks for "ADOPTED equals Y", which is the only case I really care about. Thus the values of '?' and 'N' are both functionally equivalent to "not Y" to me.

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Thanks for the input.

I have another flag question.

On my system, standard flags - specifically the Multiple Birth flag show that you can put Y, N, 2=twin, 3=triplet, etc. into the flag but everything is greyed out so it will not let me change "Y" to "2" for twins.

How do I remove the protection so I can change the Multiple Birth flag?

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Hmmmm.... I can't seem to reproduce your "greyed out" situation. Could you explain, step by step, what you are doing that shows this greyed out situation? For me, in the Flag window I either double-click on the desired flag name, or right-click on it and choose edit. In either case the Edit Flag window pops up with the list of available values in a scroll list at the left, with the Key explaining the values at the right. I am able to click on the desired value on the left, click OK, and the value changes. Is this not happening for you? Maybe you are trying to click on the entry in the Key instead of the actual value in the list at the left?

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Phil

 

If it will help, I made a video showing how to drag and position the Edit Flag window so it will always open next to your layout Flag window for quick Flag changes. Handy if you have multiple flag changes to make. To view the video, click on Full Size at the top of that screen.

 

http://www.screencast.com/t/MwfTMzaVn

 

Virginia

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The only other thing I can think of to ask, Phil, is whether you imported this project or dataset and left it "locked" when you did so? To check, go to the File menu and choose "Data Set Manager". When your dataset name is highlighted, if the "Unlock" button is not greyed out then the dataset is still locked. That will prevent making any changes, including setting flags. Just a wild guess, but I can't think of anything else at the moment.

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When I open the Flag Window for any given person I can accept any of the options (?,F,M) for the Sex Flag. The same is true for all of the other Standard Flags except the Multiple Birth Flag. That Flag shows the options of Y and N in the left hand list, even though the greyed out detail area (the list on the right side) also mentions 2=Twin, 3=Triplets, and ?=Unknown. TMG defaults to ?, will not let me change to Y or N, and will not allow me to put in a 2 or 3.

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You can only change the Multiple Birth flag when the child that you are changing it for is the focus person. You cannot change the flag for a child from a parent's Person View. That said, I can't find a situation where the values are grayed out on the Edit Flag screen.

 

And you are editing the flag for the person from the Flags window, not the Flag Manager window, right?

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Virginia provided an image that illustrates my problem in her 04 December comment. Note that, in her image, there is a long list of options in the left column (the non-dimmed column). I am only presented with Y, and N and am not allowed to switch between them, but only for the Multiple Birth Flag. All other standard Flags work properly, that is to say: like the User Manual says they should work.

 

This is beginning to look like a glitch and I will probably need to re-install TMG.

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Virginia,

The Flag Manager looks the same for all the standard flags except Multiple Birth.

Multiple Birth shows "Y,N" in the Values column and that's all. In the Flags Window, Multiple Birth displays a "?" and I cannot change it.

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I have noticed that my TMG v8.08 Flag manager shows the "Adopted" flag options like this: Y,N,? whereas v7.04 shows: ?,N,Y

 

Since I cannot edit the standard flags, every new individual on the DB is "adopted" by default...

 

So, have I to remember to set the flag to N every time, or is there a way to change the options order? Or perhaps disable that odd standard flag and create a new one with similar purpose?

 

Thank you.

Edited by vabopi

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That's strange.

 

I don't get that either with my existing project in 8.08 or a new one I create in that version. In both cases the values are ?,N,Y

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It looks to me as though one can edit the Adopted Flag in other languages.

post-395-0-59257000-1368398690_thumb.png

Check the language.

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Good thinking, Glenn. You can indeed.

 

vabopi, if you set the Language at File > Language to a language other then English (U.S.) you can edit the values for the standard flags. I doubt that it was intended that you can edit the values - I'd think that the intent was to edit the labels and memo only. I have no idea what the impact is of editing the values.

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That is by design so that users can translate the name of the flag, and also can change the values that reflect appropriate words for those equivalent conditions in that other language.

 

However, the impact of editing the values does NOT change the order of the values for these standard flags, it only provides a translation.

 

By testing note the following:

Change your program language in Preferences to something else (e.g. French), and change the name of the ADOPTED Flag to "XYZ" and the values in that language to "Y,N,?". Adding a new person in that language will set the "XYZ" Flag value by default to 'Y' in that language. Your change only has the impact of using the character 'Y' as the appropriate letter for the "unknown" condition in that language, since you put it in the first (English '?') position.

 

Now change your program language in Preferences back to English (U.S.) and look at that new person. Their flag (still named ADOPTED) has a value of '?' since you are now in English. It is not 'Y' from having created that person while in French. Your change while in the other language only has the impact of claiming that the character 'Y' is the appropriate letter for "unknown" in that language.

 

Note also that while in a different language you cannot add or delete values of the standard ADOPTED flag. You must have three, but they can be characters appropriate for that language.

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So I see with further testing, Michael.

 

So it appears that vabopi is working in a different language, and the values for this flag have been translated. But the first value, which appears to be N in his case, still stands for "?"

 

The simple fix is to change the values in Flag Manager for his selected language, right?

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Right. The position of the value in the sequence of values for a flag is defined to have the same meaning in all languages. This is true whether the flag is a standard flag or a custom flag created by the user. The different values in different languages are only translations. The user should assign to each position whatever character is appropriate for that position's meaning in that language, but must keep in mind the position. Similarly the user can change the name of the flag itself, but its meaning will remain the same in all languages.

 

For example the three meanings for the flag named ADOPTED in English are fixed for this standard flag to the following positions:

Position one means "unknown". You should choose a character for this position that means "unknown" in that language.

Position two means "adopted". You should choose a character for this position that means "adopted" in that language.

Position three means "not adopted". You should choose a character for this position that means "not adopted" in that language.

 

Hope this is clearer. The ability to change the values in other languages is a valuable translation feature, but needs to be understood.

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As for vabopi working in a different language, his attachment file is named "Captura de ecrã" which is Portuguese for "Screen capture" and he lists his location as "Lisboa, Portugal". Thus I am assuming he is probably working in a custom TMG language and not in "English (U.S.)". Isso é correto, vabopi?

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I upgraded from v7.04 only 6 weeks ago, never changed the language, and that is why the order of Y,N,? cannot be changed. As this adoption flag is not really important to me, I noticed this glitch yesterday only by chance.

 

I did a few tests, and following Michael Hannah suggestion, I changed the language, having chosen English UK. Now the default is "N", and after the correction of the wrong values set before, this problem seems solved. I hope that the use of English UK has no drawbacks.

 

For now, I have also included this flag - together with "Living" - to the "Add Person" form.

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