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rlgleason51

Reorganizing Exhibits

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I have started to reorganize my exhibits (all external) by re-naming them into a more standard format. For example: Old format for a death certificate was yyyy_mm_dd_fname lname of deceased_death certificate.

New format: Lname Fname 'death certificate'_yyyy_mm_dd. Before, my naming convention was rather slapdash. (census records, fortunately , were already standardized)

 

I'm doing this to keep are sources together by subject's name.

 

Question: Is there an easier way to do this other than going to each individual record and re-attaching them?

 

Thanks

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I don't believe so. It is my understanding that an external exhibit is linked solely based on the filename. Once you change that filename TMG cannot find the file. There are ways to find that filename if it was moved to a different folder, but I know of no way to realize its filename was changed. So unfortunately I believe you must do them individually. To be sure I got them all, I would do them one at a time as follows: delete the TMG link to the external exhibit, rename the file, relink the external exhibit to the new name. Sorry.

 

The most thorough and reliable way I can think of to work through such exhibits is using the Exhibit Log.

 

I would have open both the Windows folder with the exhibit files and the Exhibit Log in TMG. Set the Focus and Types in the Exhibit Log as appropriate, even just using "All Exhibits" and "All Types". Now I would select an exhibit in the Exhibit Log whose name I wished to change and click on the Properties button to popup the Properties subwindow. With that open, I would now change the name of that exhibit in Windows. Now back in the still open TMG Properties window of that exhibit click on the "Load" button. Select the newly named file. That will change the link of that exhibit to that newly named file.

 

There still will be an issue if you have linked the same exhibit to multiple people or events etc. in TMG. If you have done this then each time you rename an exhibit, in the Exhibit Log you will need to right-click on the exhibit just renamed and choose "Refresh all thumbnails". Now only the other exhibits which used to link to this old now-missing name will have a frowny face and you can relink those from their Properties using the "Load" function. Don't be confused that when you open their Properties you still see the correct image. You do not have a link, that is just the old stored thumbnail.

 

Yes, this will be tedious, but can be done.

 

Hope this gives you ideas,

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I figured as much. But the silver lining is that I discovered several exhibitsI ha not put into TMG. Plus, I also discovered that several US census's have related sets of families by marriage. What I am doing is making duplicates of the files, renaming them as appropriate, then replacing them for each individual. IN the case of the Census, I am making one copy for each family, with the name head of household in the file name, for ex:

 

Instead of having "YYYY US Census of Gleason Wonder families", I am changing to "Gleason Robert family_YYYY US Census" and "Wonder Jose family_YYYY US Census", even if it is the same document. May have to do similar acts with my sources, but maybe not.

 

I scored a breakthrough in my research so the number of documents mushroomed to where I needed to do this so as to keep family exhibits together in my computer. Because o this, I've stopped data entry until I get my house in order.

 

Does this make me a lumper or a splitter?

 

Thanks.

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If you are making copies of the identical exhibit file so that you can have multiple names for the same exhibit, then I would probably label you a splitter. I also think this is unnecessary and generally a bad idea. I prefer to have only one external file for a given exhibit, and then have multiple exhibits pointing to that one file linked to however many people and events desired. Therefore I name the file based on the nature of the exhibit itself rather than what it is linked to. In my mind being able to link multiple exhibits to the same file is the main value of external exhibits. And if you edit or update that one file, as long as you keep the file name the same all the exhibits will now have the updated image. Using your example, if you have a page of a census record which contains multiple families, I would name the file something like "CENS US 1860 Indiana Wells SD8 ED158 pg12A". I would then have an exhibit on each Census event for each family, all of which linked to that one file but each exhibit could have it own separate caption.

 

Even if you want to have multiple Windows file names for the same file for some reason, you can do that in Windows by making a Windows "shortcut" of a different name to the same file without the need to copy the file. However, whether you link a TMG exhibit to the shortcut name or to the actual file name, the Exhibit Log will show that it is a link to the actual file name not the shortcut name.

 

Hope this gives you further ideas,

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I am coming late to this; I don't internet all that much, but I use a different naming convention for digital research files (I scan everything, documents, photos, books, etc), and keep files in all sorts of digital formats (.doc, .pdf. .jpg, etc). I let TMG name the files, with some modifications.

 

Every source is entered into TMG, and TMG gives that source a source ID number - I name the file that number. The digital file of source number 8212 (a photograph), is named "TMG Source 8212.jpg". Some files require a little more information. The digital files for source number 8232 (a book) is named "TMG Source 8232 Page 11.jpg" indicating the page number. There are other various of the file name, depending upon the kind of source (e.g. a blowup of a photograph includes "Zoom" in the file name), but you get the idea.

 

With a lot of sources it may seem difficult to find a particular source, but I let the program do that for me. If I need to find a particular source, I do a search in the Master Source List, look for the source number, and that tells me which file I am looking for.

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I use two monitors on my desktop computer and love it. I have TMG showing on one of them and whichever research site I'm working on showing on the other, drag and drop from one to the other. The renaming of exhibits ought to be much easier with two monitors for the same reasons, even if you just set them up temporarily till you get the job done.

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