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sjordan

Shortcut to source exhibit

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I am wondering if there is a shortcut to view a source exhibit, starting from an individual detail view.

 

When I am looking at the detail window for an individual, I often find that I want to view an exhibit attached to a source associated with an event. This is how I access the exhibit:

1. double click on an event, which opens the tag entry screen for the event

2. double click on a citation, which opens the citation screen

3. click on the binoculars for the source, which opens the master source list with the appropriate source highlighted.

4. click on edit in the master source list, which opens the source definition screen

5. click on the green exhibit log icon, which opens the exhibit log for this source

6. view the exhibit

 

Is there a shortcut to view the source exhibit? Or is there another way that users do this, e.g. view the citation but then just manually find the exhibit in your exhibit directory?

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There is none that I know of. This is the primary reason I don't see value in attaching Source Exhibits, unless you are going to create a website with Second Site from your Project, with the exhibits attached. That can make a very compete website.

 

If the purpose of attaching the exhibits is to make them easy to access, in my view it's much quicker to save images of source documents in a well-structured tree on your computer totally separate from TMG. I use a file structure that is related to the Source abbreviation, so once I open the Tag Entry screen so I can see the Citations listed, I can quickly find the image in my files.

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sjordan, As you noted, once the tag is open, the source(s) and source number(s) are visible, and from there it's as you pointed out 4-5 "clicks" through to viewing the exhibit. Another way to do this, you could try keeping a second "instance" of TMG running and open to the master source list and sort the list on the source numbers. Then in the first instance of TMG, with a tag open and the source number(s) visible, you could open the source and then view the exhibit in the second instance of TMG.

 

Similar to your method, I'm also attaching exhibits to sources. I don't "do" this for the sole reason of being able to view it, rather it is to attach the "proof" to the source and have them connected within the database, albeit as external exhibits. Thus, the "proof" travels with and is a part of the database as long as the exhibit paths are maintained. I realize that others don't "do this" and thus with TMG, there is flexibility allowing different work methods. Similar to Terry, I also have an organized filing system for images and as another option for viewing the exhibit, I could keep an instance of windows explorer or any photo/image viewing software open and nagivate quickly and open the TMG exhibit. The difference in number of clicks to get there would not sway me to use one method or the other.

 

Another method to view the exhibit that I use most often, is to view it through a Second Site "local" website on my local hard drive. So, my workflow when adding tags/events, may consist of adding one or more and then "build" a new Second Site local website to view the tag sentences and citations as a way to proof / check the work. When viewing the person in Second Site, there are various ways to show the footnotes, and the way that I choose to do so, means that I can view the person detail, tags, sentences, with the footnote number and scroll to the bottom of the page and open the attached exhibit which shows up as an icon after the footnote.

 

 

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Would very much be interested in learning how to add Exhibited to my TMG event tags as explained by tmomeyer on 9 Sep. I would like to add maps (jpg files) to Land Transactions. Also how can the maps be annotated, if possible, in TMG?

Nancy

 

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Nancy,

 

You add Exhibits to Event Tags by opening the Tag Entry Screen, then clicking on the camera icon in the top right corner of that screen. This opens the the Exhibit Log. Click the Add button to add the Exhibit.

 

Note that only images in jpg, gif or tif formats, and text files in txt format, can be included as output in TMG reports.

 

You can add a caption to the Exhibit by clicking on the Exhibit in the Exhibit Log to select it, then clicking Properties. On the Description tab you can enter a caption.

 

By selecting the Exhibit and clicking the View/Edit button you can open the editor, which allows limited editing of the image. If you want to do more extensive annotation on the image itself you would need to do that in an image editing program.

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Note that only images in jpg, gif or tif formats, and text files in txt format, can be included as output in TMG reports.

 

 

Huh? I would think that any image format supported by TMG and by the target application would work. I just tested a PNG image to a Word document and it worked just fine.

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Really? Wasn't there a whole thread on TMG-L in the past two weeks about how to convert png to jpg so they would print? Or am I confusing that with a problem with jpeg images?

 

How about images in pdfs?

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Terry, Thanks, I finally found that 'little' icon tucked away up in the corner that lets me attach Exhibits to Tags. Appreciate the help. But now for some reason I can't get my JPG files in the Exhibit folds. Thought they were to be in the same Director that The TMG files were in. NO!

I know how to do the Captions but I can't seem to get the Highlighting feature to work. Are there only two shapes for Highlighting? And can they be moved about in TMG editors?

Nancy

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Thanks, Virginia.

 

Nancy,

 

First, did you make the exhibits Internal or External? If you make them Internal, they are copied into TMG's database files, and you can't see them. Most users recommend against doing that.

 

If you make them External, the "Exhibits folder" is wherever you choose to put it. TMG doesn't care were they are - they can stay where you found them. But most users seem to agree that putting them all together in a single folder or a set of tree folders is best. But you have to do that yourself - TMG doesn't move them when you attach an Exhibit. You can set your default Exhibit Folder in Preferences > Current Project Options > Advanced. But all that does is tell TMG where to start looking when you click the Add button - it doesn't move any Exhibits.

 

I find I usually want to edit image Exhibits anyway - crop, resize, and/or adjust the brightness of them. So I open the original in an image editing program (I use PhotoShop Elements) and adjust as I prefer, then save that copy in my Exhibits folder. Then I use that copy for my Exhibit.

 

Sorry, I've never used TMG's image editing tools, so don't know what you can actually do with them.

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Terry, I do put all of my images in one folder. But for some reason the newest addition is still not being reconized by TMG. Not to worry I will continue working on this. Must be some silly something I am doing or not doing. Have a nice day and thanks for the help.

Nancy

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A PDF is a document. TMG does not support any document exhibit in report output.

Yes, I understand TMG doesn't support PDFs. But increasingly images are being offered as PDFs. Many scanners offer to do that, but I've found some of the better online archives are making images of original documents available for download only as PDFs. Doing so allows multiple images in a single file, but more importantly, allows one to search the image for text (by overlaying the images over invisible text that can be searched).

 

So I think it's relevant to warn users that such images can't be used as Exhibits in TMG if you want them to appear in TMG reports.

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So I think it's relevant to warn users that such images can't be used as Exhibits in TMG if you want them to appear in TMG reports.

Hmmm. I am not sure how much more warning the user could be given?

 

Both "HELP / Add Exhibit" and "HELP / Exhibit Log" (which is linked directly from the Add Exhibit screen) warn about this. Both of these Help pages warn about Text exhibits:

 

While any type of file may be included as a text exhibit, only true text exhibits (.TXT) will be included in reports.

 

and they both have a warning under "Insert new exhibit (other)", which is what one must use to add a PDF:

 

You should use this option to add any document that is not directly supported by TMG but has a Windows file association... These documents ... cannot be output in TMG reports.

 

They can be used in TMG, but simply won't be output in TMG reports. Since my personal preference for output is SecondSite, which handles these external exhibit files without a problem, I am not sure it would be appropriate to warn users that such files "can't" be used as exhibits?

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Hmmm. I am not sure how much more warning the user could be given?

Michael,

 

I was talking about the warning I had posted above. Jim correctly noted that my exclusion of png images was in error. But then suggested that my reference to PDF format was unnecessary because it's a document format, not an image format.

 

I was trying to explain that distinction is irrelevant, because many images of original documents are now supplied as PDF files, with no apparent content other than the image itself. Thus, while the technically included may realize PDF is not actually an image format, to the common user it really seems to be.

Both "HELP / Add Exhibit" and "HELP / Exhibit Log" (which is linked directly from the Add Exhibit screen) warn about this. Both of these Help pages warn about Text exhibits:

While I wasn't really talking about Help, that is my point - warnings about "text exhibits" have no actual meaning to those who quite reasonably see their images received in PDF format as images, not as text.

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