time again, another itch that finally needs scratching.....

[SoCalRivethed 0]

So, in my infinite wisdom of blasting through borrowed sources (books, et al), I seemed to have created a portability traffic jam.

 

When I switched [to TMG 6], I recorded Occupational titles (like Reverend and Docter), Military ranks (seargeant, Captain, etc) and Political titles (Governor, Sheriff, etc.) in the title tag of the name-var window. It was faster, at the time to hit CTRL+V and enter it there, with at least a starting date date, which allowed me more research time with borrowed books (a 20 second savings per record, over thousands of entires, really adds up, when you are on "loaner" time). But now, as I try to move the data bwtween apps (the reasons are irrevelant here), the title tag seems to get stripped from my ged exports.

 

So now, with my data-O.C.D. kicking in, I would like to move all "Title" entries to Occupation Tags. If it was 100 or less entries, I would trudge through and manually change it all. But we are talking thousands of entries. I tried looking into TMG-Utility, but it does not seem to offer what I seek (even in a dirty transposition, as I have had to resort to for previous itches).

 

Is there a clean, reliable way to do this, without resorting to installing postgresql and importing the dataset there, and editing with complicated queries, and then hoping tmg picks it up when reimpoting the data? Internally with TMG, externally with TMG-U (I have not found a reliable way), or another utility?

 

thanks

[Vera Nagel 0]

In case "Title" was indeed a separate tag what you try to do should most likely be quite easy going.

 

However, since "Title" is only one field/part of the Name-Var tag I for one don't see a way by either using TMG or TMG Utiliy to accomplish your goal. Sorry.

 

On the other hand what's been recorded into the Title field of a Name-Var tag perfectly exports to GEDCOM for me.

 

Run a test GEDCOM by exporting a single person's data where to used the Title field to GEDCOM only.

Then open the created GEDCOM file using a text editor (i.e. Notepad, Write) and check whether you find a line: 1 TITL

[Michael Hannah 0]

the title tag seems to get stripped from my ged exports

 

Well, yes, but by design A TMG Name-var tag type which has data in the "title" field is exported to GEDCOM as two separate tags. One is a GEDCOM TITL tag type with the title data, and the other is a GEDCOM NAME tag type with all the "other" name data. GEDCOM defines the title information as needing to be in a separate GEDCOM tag type. For historical reasons (which are too "dusty" to go in to) by default TMG includes the title in the Name tag type and not as a separate tag type like GEDCOM. But as you note, the user can put this data in a separate TMG tag type if they desire.

 

I would like to move all "Title" entries to Occupation Tags... But we are talking thousands of entries

 

Hmmm... I think the following steps, using two separate features of TMG-Utility, might automate this action.

 

First, I would create a "List of Names" report in TMG with output columns of (at least) "ID number" and "Title", and possibly "Subject Birth Group* tag; Date". I would filter this report for Name tags which have data in the title field. If you also use specific Name tag types designed to have data in their "Title" fields, for example Name-Marr tags, you might want to exclude those tag types. A possible filter could be:

Title // Is not empty // AND
Tag Type... // Label // <> Does not equal // NAME-MARR // END

Output that report as a Text file type. Note that if a person has multiple Name-Var tags which have title data, you will get a line of output for each tag.

 

Next, I would not use the standard "Occupation" tag type. I would define a custom tag type for the "titles" and probably would define a set of roles with appropriate sentences for various types of "titles". I would construct these sentences expecting the "title" text to be in the memo, probably as split memo part M1. I would suggest a TMG tag type label of "Title" or something similar. On the "Other" Tab of its Tag Type Definition I would specify its GEDCOM export as the "TITL" tag type. That way when you export to GEDCOM the data has a chance of being recognized by other apps.

 

Now, research the "Add Events" feature of TMG-Utility which adds events from a text file. For these events being added it expects the event tag type to already be defined in TMG, hence the creation of the tag type above. You should be able to do a series of "Search/Replace" actions in some text editor on the above report text file to reformat each line into the format required by "Add Events". The output of the report includes the needed ID number, and the "title" data for the memo. Each line will need some formatting text surrounding those two pieces of data. Further by a series of appropriate searches you could have the tag assign an appropriate role based on the title text. And you could create a default sort date based on the birth date if desired and if you included that in your report, or just leave the date blank.

 

Before using TMGU to add all these events, be sure to backup your project so you can easily "roll-back" to a project without these events if they are not created just the way you wish.

 

Finally, if you now wish to remove some or all of these titles from the Name-Var tags, you could use the TMGU "Change Name Parts" feature to change specific titles to become empty. I will leave that to your research. I would probably leave them in the Name-Var tags so that I could choose to include the title with the name in the narrative of other tags. But that is up to you.

 

I hope this gives you ideas which I think will get you close to what you want,

[SoCalRivethed 0]

Vera Nagel: I see what you mean, and it turns out after some testing, my jam is not the ged export itself, but one of the other apps I am trying to use appears to not read the TITL tag in Ged's. It does read the OCCU tag though. If I only worked on one pc it would be kinda moot, but I work form at least 3 different systems, and a tablet. One license for tmg is all I can spare, TMG on a tablet is not easy to use and I have found a lightweigtht app for rough entries and source recording. I also do not want to spend the bulk of my free time, scrubbing datasets on export or import. True, all apps should fully support the GedCOM standard, but it's like asking (warning, techie speak) all Connected peripherials on a Domain to listen to AD and it's GPO's. So I want to normalize my data to be interchangeable between apps. Which means using OCCU in place of TITL. As my title says, an itch that (i feel) needs scratching.

 

Michael Hannah: I will look into your suggestions, although, Narratives are not my end goals. i am more into core data vs. Book outputs or Ahnenfatels. Right now it is mostly collecting and cataloging information, occasionly outputting a tree or bracket chart. It is kinda difficult to explain my end goal completely, probably the way my mind works/perceives the output. I see what i want as a result of my work/research. I have learned to baby step through the progress, but from time to time, come across a snag in my method. Ancestors help me when I decide to add the image/graphics into my tree stuctures. Bayer/Excedrin stock will rise then.

 

If there are any other inputs/ideas, keep them coming.

[SoCalRivethed 0]

on a secondary note, it would also make my picklist (proj explorer) a lot shorter