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Kwykoff

Switching Data Sets

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New user here so forgive the barage of questions coming soon. I've imported two family trees into a single project as separate data sets. How do I switch between the two? I have a feeling it is in Data Set Manager--but not sure where. They both show as enabled--do I disable one? Can I view both DS at one time? Thanks.

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New user here so forgive the barage of questions coming soon.  I've imported two family trees into a single project as separate data sets.  How do I switch between the two?  I have a feeling it is in Data Set Manager--but not sure where.  They both show as enabled--do I disable one?  Can I view both DS at one time?  Thanks.

If both data sets are enabled then you will see them both in the project at the same time. If you look at a persons ID number it will be in the form 1:123 or 2:678 showing which dataset that person is in.

To only see one data set you can disable the other and it will not show in the project but will still be there.

You could also filter on DatasetID to save keep disabling the dataset and then enabling again

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New user here so forgive the barage of questions coming soon.

Welcome! Feel free - that's what we're here for. :)

I've imported two family trees into a single project as separate data sets.  How do I switch between the two?  I have a feeling it is in Data Set Manager--but not sure where.  They both show as enabled--do I disable one?  Can I view both DS at one time?  Thanks.

This is a common misconception. You don't "switch" data sets, nor do you "view" data sets. Rather, you view people. The person you are viewing is in a data set, but the next person you view may be in a different data set.

 

So, you "switch" data sets by navigating to a person who is in that data set. Since you can only see people in a single data set in the Details, Children, and Siblings screens, naviagating by double clicking in those screens won't get you to another data set. But the Project Explorer, Focus Group, and Picklist all show people in all data sets (unless filtered) so you can use them. Or, you can switch using the "Find person by ID#" function.

 

Similarly, you can "view" mulitiple data sets in the Project Explorer, Focus Group, and Picklist screens. The Find Duplicate People function can also work with multiple data sets.

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This is a common misconception. You don't "switch" data sets, nor do you "view" data sets. Rather, you view people. The person you are viewing is in a data set, but the next person you view may be in a different data set.

 

OK, I see that. One data set is my family tree and the second is my husband's. Mine starts with myself, adds my husband and his parents (leaving out his siblings) and our children. His starts with him, adding me, my parents and our children. Again leaving off my siblings. So the only duplicate people are me, my husband, both sets of parents and our children. Should I change that?

 

If I merge them for our kids, will the duplicates overwrite each other with the most current changes? I have already found that this could be a problem in that I'd neglected to enter my parents death tag in my husband's data set. So I can see that there should be another way to do this! Or maybe I should merge them to a single DS? Since I've just done the import and haven't started cleaning them yet, this would be easy to do. I think! I can delete one of the DS and redo the import wizard merging the 2nd with the first. If I need to do that can you tell me how to get my husband's ready to merge into mine? Do I delete the kids and leave my husband? Or delete him too, then link him to his parents after merging? What happens to the numbering? I want my husband and I to be #'s 1 & 2.

 

Just what is the best way to handle this? I guess the reason I had two trees or DS is I didn't want the pick list of people to be so long. And while our children are our children and they are interested in the family lines, they are both adopted and these are not their blood lines. So technically my and my husband's line ends here and I can see an argument for keeping them separate. Thanks for the help.

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One data set is my family tree and the second is my husband's.  ...  So the only duplicate people are me, my husband, both sets of parents and our children.  Should I change that?
In my opinion, yes. I strongly suggest you merge them into a single data set. A usual reason is to allow the people in both to appear in reports and charts, but you say that really doesn't matter to you. Another good reason is that as you get more comfortable with TMG and start to customize tag types, source types, etc., keeping those customizations current in separate data sets is a major pain.
If I merge them for our kids, will the duplicates overwrite each other with the most current changes?
When you merge them, all the duplicate people will show up twice. Then you need to merge the two copies of each of those people, keeping only one copy of each tag. For details, see my article on merging people. Or, you can delete the duplicates and fix the links, as mentioned below.
Since I've just done the import and haven't started cleaning them yet, this would be easy to do.  I think!  I can delete one of the DS and redo the import wizard merging the 2nd with the first.
Yes, it's easy to do, but not quite like you are thinking. Each import is always into a separate DS. So keep your imports, and use Data Set Manager to merge the two data sets. See my article on merging projects and data sets for details.
Do I delete the kids and leave my husband? Or delete him too, then link him to his parents after merging?
Merge first, then either delete the duplicate people and fix the links, or merge the duplicate people. If the data is identical for them in both data sets, the deleting the people is probably simplest.
What happens to the numbering?  I want my husband and I to be #'s 1 & 2.
When you merge two DSs, what actually happens is one is appended to the other (see article referenced above), with the second getting the next available numbers. The one that "remains unchanged" is the one that's appended - that will make more sense when you actually try it.

 

After the move use Tools > Renumber People to fix the numbers if you have to, but you may not if you choose which duplicate person to delete carefully.

I guess the reason I had two trees or DS is I didn't want the pick list of people to be so long.

Keeping separate data sets doesn't reduce the size of the Picklist, unless you filter it. I'd suggest creating a "Related-by" flag and using it to color code the lines, using the Accent feature. That makes it easy to see who is in each line in the Picklist (Expanded version), Project Explorer, and all the views. This is illustrated in my article on Accents and details for one such method are given in the linked article on "Related-by" flags. You could even filter the Picklist with this flag, but I don't think you will find you need to when you see how the Accents help.

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