Wishlist - Improved Web Page Creation

[Grimesgang 0]

I keep my data largely in FM because of its ability to create a web page. I know that there is a web page creator available for TMG data, but it tends to be largely narrative-based. I am looking for something that puts together information more in family groups, with citation notes available shown and available as links.

 

What attracted me to TMG is the citation feature and tree diagrams. However, the citation feature seems to be so difficult. I've read all the helps (Reigel, et al), and I'm still confused.

[John Cardinal 0]

I presume you are referring to Second Site when you say, "I know that there is a web page creator available for TMG data, but it tends to be largely narrative-based." It is true that many people use Second Site to create narrative-based sites. You can create non-narrative sites, however. Here's an example of the Bullets format.

 

I am not sure what you find confusing about citations. Citations link a piece of evidence, such as a birth date or place, to a source record. The source record describes the source information that applies to all the citations. So, for example, if you were citing data from a compiled genealogy published in book form, you would add a source record for the book, and it would have the title and author of the book, the publisher and year oif publication, etc. At that point, that source record wouldn't support any particular piece of evidence in your TMG project. Next, you'd add a citation. Let's assume you found a birth place in the book. You'd open the birth tag (or create a new one), and add a citation. The source number for the citation refers to the source record you created for the book. In the citation details, you'd probably put the page number on which the birth place appeared.

 

When TMG produces a report, it will combine information from the source record and the citation record to make a footnote or an endnote, based on options you set in the report definition.

 

Hope this helps.

[Grimesgang 0]

Yes, I was referring to Second Site for the web page creator. However, I was NOT aware that any of the bullet formats were available. All the examples I had seen on all the other support sites were narrative-based. I guess I hadn't looked at the right web page (yours) yet. Your link was quite enlightening, and raised my interest level, especially in SS.

 

As for confusion on citations, I am not confused on what a citation (or a source, for that matter) IS, as much as how I should specify them. My confusion is how specific to make a source (entire document vs. individual page or record, entire census vs. specific county, twp, page, etc.) and where I should put information in citations (comments vs. memos vs. body of citation). Sometimes flexibility makes decisions difficult, especially since I am a person who wants to do my research documentation "right", rather than trying it then changing it again later. IOW I am an engineer, rather than a lawyer. I have heavily cited my research that is in Family Matters, but it doesn't translate at all into TMG, and the sources translate badly. That means I must re-enter thousands of citations, and recreate all my sources.

 

Between all the help articles (Riegel, et al) and the TMG help book, I just need to develop the philosophy on citations and sources that will fit my desires on my research. That is probably my biggest confusion. The only way anyone other than myself will be able to help with this is perhaps to show examples of the different styles all together.

 

As for improved web page creation, perhaps you already have it there. However, what I am looking for is having multiple indices (person, family, pictures/exhibits) available for creation; descendant/ancestor chart support and having the names as links to the bullet-point format; and biography/sketch/obituary/other narrative access via link.

[John Cardinal 0]

Yes, I was referring to Second Site for the web page creator. However, I was NOT aware that any of the bullet formats were available. All the examples I had seen on all the other support sites were narrative-based. I guess I hadn't looked at the right web page (yours) yet. Your link was quite enlightening, and raised my interest level, especially in SS.

See my comments below about SS.

 

As for confusion on citations, I am not confused on what a citation (or a source, for that matter) IS, as much as how I should specify them. My confusion is how specific to make a source (entire document vs. individual page or record, entire census vs. specific county, twp, page, etc.) and where I should put information in citations (comments vs. memos vs. body of citation). Sometimes flexibility makes decisions difficult, especially since I am a person who wants to do my research documentation "right", rather than trying it then changing it again later. IOW I am an engineer, rather than a lawyer. I have heavily cited my research that is in Family Matters, but it doesn't translate at all into TMG, and the sources translate badly. That means I must re-enter thousands of citations, and recreate all my sources.

 

Between all the help articles (Riegel, et al) and the TMG help book, I just need to develop the philosophy on citations and sources that will fit my desires on my research. That is probably my biggest confusion. The only way anyone other than myself will be able to help with this is perhaps to show examples of the different styles all together.

I think most TMG users have a mix of detailed sources and general sources. The division between "lumpers" (people who use very general sources) and "splitters" (people who use very specific sources) is evident for certain common sources like census records. Some people use very specific sources, others use more general sources. I don't think there is a right answer. You may want to solicit input on this topic on the TMG mailing list. Let the advocates of each approach make their cases, and see how that influences your opinion.

 

As for improved web page creation, perhaps you already have it there. However, what I am looking for is having multiple indices (person, family, pictures/exhibits) available for creation; descendant/ancestor chart support and having the names as links to the bullet-point format; and biography/sketch/obituary/other narrative access via link.

I think SS can do most of what you want, but probably not everything you want.

 

By default, SS produces a surname index and a name index. The surname index points into the name index. There is no family index, and there is no pictures/exhibits index. I am not sure exactly what you mean by a "family" index, but if you wanted an index of only the people who are descended from some common ancestor, you can ask SS to make a "custom index" for those people. Basically, you set a custom flag in TMG and tell SS to make a name index that contains only the people who have a certain value in the custom flag field.

 

SS will make various kinds of charts, including descendant and pedigree (ancestor) charts. The names in the chart are links to the "bullet" entries (called "person entries" or "person page entries" in SS lingo) unless the person does not appear in the site. (You can make charts that include anyone in your TMG project even if the person was not selected to be included in the site.)

 

I am not sure I understand your comment about "biography/sketch/obituary/other narrative access via link" but I will say that SS is very flexible with regards to exhibits. If you have an obituary stored as an exhibit, for example, you can have a link to that exhibit in the person entry. Other than that, all I can say is that the options for how you handle biography/sketch/obituary depends on how you have those items stored in TMG.