Place styles

[Vicus Scurra 0]

I am based in the UK. I am importing data from gedcoms into TMG databases.

Some of these gedcoms contain data that is mainly US based. 

I want in those cases to set the default place style to US Standard Place.

I cannot see how to do this. There are no options to set styles on an empty database nor can I see any import options. Import chooses UK Standard Place as the default. 

So I get all the data imported then have to change all those place records manually. 

What am I missing?

[ConstanceHorne 0]

Please subscribe to our new email list at Groups.IO. I have personally never worked with any place style other than US Standard. I'm not sure you can mix place styles in a single database, but what do I know?

Constance 

 

[Jim Byram 0]

You can set the place styles globally in the Data Set Manager (File / Data Set Manager). If you do that in a blank data set and then import a GEDCOM, the places should use those place styles.

Existing places in a data set will need to have their place styles changed manually in the Master Place List.

You don't want to mix UK and US place styles in the same data set since you would have comparable place entities at different levels.

 

[Vicus Scurra 0]

Thanks Jim, but I tried that and couldn't get it to work. 

It will not allow me to set a place style in an empty  database/data set. 

[Jim Byram 0]

That's surprising. Your default, I assume, would be UK and you should be able to select the data set in the Data Set Manager and select the US place styles since they are "built in". Maybe a dummy person is needed.

I can send you a empty project with the US styles selected. You could keep this as a template and copy it as needed for new imports.

Email me by clicking the link below...

Jim Byram

[Vicus Scurra 0]

That is very kind.

Email sent. 

Thank you

 

 

[Terry Reigel 0]

Jim,

Isn't the default Place Style set for a Data Set, not a Project? Since you cannot import into an existing Data Set there would seem to be no way to set the default Place Style for an import. So a TMG-UK user can't set the place style for an import to US other than having using a US version of TMG to make the import. No?

[Vicus Scurra 0]

Thank you Terry - That seems to be in line with my investigations and experience. 

Damn!

 

[Jim Byram 0]

If you use a copy of the template project that I sent and import directly into the existing data set (that has US styles), the data should be imported using the data set styles.

Tested and this doesn't work. Data Set Manager / Import imports to a new data set (not the selected data set) and that will use the installation default styles.

Terry's suggestion of using TMG Utility (below) appears to be the only solution and that will require editing the Master Place list to shift the levels for the place parts.

[Terry Reigel 0]

So one could install the US version and import into that, then merge the resulting Project with an existing Project created in the UK version? Would that work? 

As I recall you can't install TMG twice on the same computer, so the US version would have to be on a different computer? I don't remember all the details about how the two versions work. That seems complicated.

On the other hand, I see that TMG Utility has a a feature to change Place Styles. So one could import, then change the Place Styles before merging into the main project. 

I don't recall what happens during Merge with you happen to have two places otherwise the same but with different Styles, which could happen if you already have some US places in the main Project.

[Jim Byram 0]

You never want places using the US style and the UK style in the same data set because of the place levels differences. 

Good tip about TMG Utility. See my comments two replies up.

[Vicus Scurra 0]

Thank you both. I had forgotten about TMG Utility - not used it for years. I used it,  it did exactly what I wanted - should have thought of/remembered it. 

We can close this now.