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GenerationGoneBy

My new favorite layout

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1. Everybody – how do you make these neat thumbnails?

You don't - the forum software does it. Just "Attach" an image file to the post, using the "File Attachments" function below the text entry box in the Reply screen.

 

Or was you question really how to make the screenshots? There are a number of utilities around to do that, but the easy way is to press the "Print Screen" key, which copies the screen to the Windows Clipboard. Then paste it in any application that can work with and save image files. I use PhotoShop Elements, but there are lots of them.

2. Everybody – What is the purpose of the Focus Group?

It's a way to collect a group of people for another process. Rather like using a filter, but more graphical, seems to me. You can add people individually, or add ancestors, descendents, or spouses of selected people already in the group.

 

Once you have a group, you can:

 

- Export them to a GEDCOM file

 

- Copy or Move them to another Data Set

 

- Make the the "subjects" of a report

 

- Navigate to them one-by-one, say to do some editing or research on a specific group.

 

There are probably more, but those are the ones that occur to me. :)

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This thread has been excellent and quite an eye-opener for me. I’ve seen several things I’d like to incorporate into my layout (if I can find the space). However, this thread has also brought up some questions, both for individuals and more general.

 

1. Everybody – how do you make these neat thumbnails? I have looked all over TMG and Windows XP, and cannot find out how to do that anywhere. Granted, my layout is no great thing next to what I’ve seen, but this seems to be a useful thing for passing some info.

 

 

 

Print screen then I copy it to Irfanview and then save the file. Then use Terry's directions to upload it to the forum

 

2. Everybody – What is the purpose of the Focus Group? I’ve read the section in the TMG Guide about it, and still cannot see how it is useful. Then again, I learn far better by visual and example rather than a written description only. Can anybody give me examples on how it is used?

 

There are so many uses. Currently I have my ancestors in it so I can work on census work. You can use it for people who have civil war service, or for census work, or to move easily amonst a group of descendants.

 

3. Teresa, Janis (and others) – Your custom toolbar is extensive, but what do all those buttons do? It looks like they are names of tags, but if you explain, that would help.

 

 

 

Most of mine are for tags. Each tag type has it's own button. You can also use it to create reports, open other programs, toggle primary, Search the PE.

Edited by GenerationGoneBy

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OK - I had been pushing the Print Screen button, but I couldn't figure out what to do from there. I did the paste into PhotoFiltre (a shareware photo program) and JPG'ed it from there. Let's see how it works.

 

Thanks for the info, Teresa. I'm still not sure how valuable the Focus Group would be to me yet, but I'll try to absorb your description. I'll have to play with the custom buttons to see how they work.

post-5834-1161297606_thumb.jpg

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2. Everybody – What is the purpose of the Focus Group? I’ve read the section in the TMG Guide about it, and still cannot see how it is useful. Then again, I learn far better by visual and example rather than a written description only. Can anybody give me examples on how it is used?

Hi,

I save a lot of focus groups.

My main use is to sort out a set of people I want to examine in more detail for one reason or another, eg have I found them all in census x yet? Have I checked off their birth/death/marriage info in official records yet? etc. But as I can never stay focused long enough to finish each passing fad, I export them to a saved group for recalling later.

The other main advantage over a filtered Project Explorer is that you can unfilter the PE and work from the focus group (deleting those you've finished with from the group) without having to put up with those annoying filter refreshes that happen otherwise when you add/alter people.

 

4. Lorna – I really like your use of Flags, particularly for keeping track of some standard research activities. Are there other ways you use the Flag info?

 

The main reason there is what I consider duplication that could be squashed into one, say AREA, flag, is for my people lists in second site.

On second site I provide viewers with the option of looking at all the KING descendants eg

And I also have, what are probably annoying, little icons next to the names in an index to indicate the area of interest and/or whether or not they're direct descendants

 

One other important use for me is to mark which people I have published to the wider world, either on Rootsweb (that's the FREEPAGES one), or my other web site (that's the CLEANED one), or on Genes Reunited (GEDGENES), or in my Rootsweb databases (GEDANCOM - Y or P)

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Teresa,

Thanks so much for starting this thread. I'm blown away by what people are doing with their screen layouts!

 

What is that large lime green box that takes up the lower right quarter of your layout? It says "custom", but custom what?

 

I can't see the picture clearly that you have posted with your name. Is that a cat curled up around something? If it is, undoubtedly he/she is "helping", right?

 

Barbara Heard

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Teresa,

Thanks so much for starting this thread. I'm blown away by what people are doing with their screen layouts!

 

What is that large lime green box that takes up the lower right quarter of your layout? It says "custom", but custom what?

 

I can't see the picture clearly that you have posted with your name. Is that a cat curled up around something? If it is, undoubtedly he/she is "helping", right?

 

Barbara Heard

 

Teresa's large lime green box is her Custom Toolbar. A floating rather than docked toolbar shows the toolbar name - Custom in this case. A couple of the other screenshots show docked Custom toolbars - attached to the top of the window. You can see the difference by dragging one of the standard toolbars like Easy Search onto the layout. All the toolbars can be floated and resized, and most of them can be docked at the top, bottom, or sides of the layout. They don't need to be at the top.

 

Virginia

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Teresa,

Thanks so much for starting this thread. I'm blown away by what people are doing with their screen layouts!

 

What is that large lime green box that takes up the lower right quarter of your layout? It says "custom", but custom what?

 

I can't see the picture clearly that you have posted with your name. Is that a cat curled up around something? If it is, undoubtedly he/she is "helping", right?

 

Barbara Heard

 

That's my custom toolbar. Yes, that's my "secretary" in the little picture. A loud mouthed red tabby.

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Hi, All. Here is my current layout. I am doing a lot of Quaker research and data entry at this time, so I have my custom toolbar for Quaker events turned on.

 

post-3190-1161551687_thumb.jpg

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Genie Nut

Keep them coming guys. I noticed on your death tag, you state that you know it is wrong because of census data. I created a new DEATH-WRONG tag in the other group for just these types of events. That way I don't have to worry about the DEATH tag getting marked primary when that date is wrong. Just food for thought.

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Anyone else??

 

This thread has been very imforative. I love seeing the layout, from the basic TMG layout all the way to the most customized ones. Hopefully newbies will be able to see all the things available and this thread will continue to grow with thier questions and our answers.

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Here is mine.

Pretty simple, nothing like most of you have. :)

Once I have finished the first part of my data entry in this project, I will be adding more flags to keep track of what research has been done or is yet to be done.

When I get to that point I will just shrink the details window to the left to match the children/sibling windows and extend the flag window up to the top.

 

Just an FYI, this is the Goodrich Family Association project I am working on. Right now I am in the process of entering data from a book. After that is done I will go into research mode and try to confirm or deny what is in the book, plus add whatever else I or anyone of our trustees or members have or can find.

I figure I need to live to be about 400 years old to finish this. :rolleyes:

post-5405-1161654460_thumb.jpg

Edited by Matt_G

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Cheryl,

 

How do you get the Cen-ENUM tag types and date to show up in grey with purple?

 

Hi Teresa, I use Diane B.'s census system, so all the members of the household are added to the CEN-HEAD tags as witnesses. Then the head is added as a witness on their CEN-ENUM tags. On the PV of the head of household, because the head is a witness to the CEN-ENUM tags, the tags show up as grey (accent for witnessed events).

 

I use purple as my accent for all census people. Because every CEN-HEAD and CEN-ENUM tag has the census person as P2, the tag of the person in the PV has a purple highlight. In the view I posted, the head of household's tag is purple, and the household members' CEN-ENUM tags are grey. But when you look at the PV of one of the household members, it's reversed. That person's own census tag (the CEN-ENUM tag on which he/she is P1) is purple, and the CEN-HEAD (on which the household member is a witness) is grey.

 

I really like this because I can see at a glance on the PV of the head exactly who was living in the household each census year, and can see at a glance of everyone's PV in which household they were living. Accenting census people with purple makes it easy for me to see at a glance on which censuses I have found the person in the PV.

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I was confused at first but I think I see - people are accented purple and the witness event color is grey... But this brings up a really good idea (at least for me!) - could we highlight certain tag types? For example, when working on census work, all census type events could be highlighted, then turned off when done. Then BMD events could be turned on at another time. It would probably be too busy if all were turned on all the time... but there are probably reasons to have more than one type on at a time.

 

Wishlist! Lori

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I was confused at first but I think I see - people are accented purple and the witness event color is grey... But this brings up a really good idea (at least for me!) - could we highlight certain tag types? For example, when working on census work, all census type events could be highlighted, then turned off when done. Then BMD events could be turned on at another time. It would probably be too busy if all were turned on all the time... but there are probably reasons to have more than one type on at a time.

 

Wishlist! Lori

 

Wow, I hadn't thought of that, Lori, but that is a feature I would use all the time.

 

So I guess I'll have to drop my name in the wish-list bucket too!

 

Mike

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I'm returning very late to the party; sorry. Life intrudes. :ph34r:

 

5. DeAnna – What does your “Correspondent” flag signify?

 

My original answer to this devolved into quite a tangent, which I've sent by PM rather than clutter the thread. Much abbreviated version: Correspondent=Y is for people I've exchanged letters/emails with. I use it to help locate them quickly, and to make sure I don't inadvertently do violence to their records. I've been known to do some ruthless pruning of tangent descendancies; I'm all about the ancestry, baby! :lol:

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Here's my current layout, using the FG for my anscestors, and the PE open and of course, my huge custom toolbar. What does yours look like?

 

As a result of this thread I've adapted mine a lot. Including a larger custom toolbar (a la theresa). I just need some new button icons for some of the items.

 

post-1058-1162244161_thumb.jpg

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Virginia et al:

 

To continue our discussion of the every-moving custom toolbar, this is a screenshot showing my lazy custom toolbar. It stays in one place.

 

I am familiar with floating and docked toolbars from other applications. I don't remember seeing anything in TMG that indicates we have a choice.

 

Judith

post-3179-1163877361_thumb.png

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Judith,

I notice your windows don't tough. I wonder if your toolbar is changing and you just aren't noticing it. For mine, it stays the same height, but gets wider by about 1/4".

 

I have noticed if I don't save the layout, it stays the same size. It's just if I save the layout that I have problems.

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Judith,

I notice your windows don't touch. I wonder if your toolbar is changing and you just aren't noticing it. For mine, it stays the same height, but gets wider by about 1/4".

 

I have noticed if I don't save the layout, it stays the same size. It's just if I save the layout that I have problems.

 

 

Teresa - did you notice that both Judith and Jeff are using the Windows XP theme and we are using the old Classic theme? You don't suppose that makes a difference, do you?

 

Virginia

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Teresa - did you notice that both Judith and Jeff are using the Windows XP theme and we are using the old Classic theme? You don't suppose that makes a difference, do you?

 

Virginia

I changed to the classic theme and my window behaved the same. Depends on any latency on the toolbar.

Edited by jeffpiper

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Judith,

I notice your windows don't tough. I wonder if your toolbar is changing and you just aren't noticing it. For mine, it stays the same height, but gets wider by about 1/4".

 

I have noticed if I don't save the layout, it stays the same size. It's just if I save the layout that I have problems.

 

Theresa,

Can you post a shot of the layout that doesn't change.

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Okay it is SAVING THE LAYOUT that makes mine move.

 

Last night I saved the layout and closed TMG. When I opened it notice that the toolbar covers the Detail view by about 1/4".

 

 

post-101-1163957778_thumb.jpg

 

WITHOUT SAVING the layout, I closed TMG and reopened it and got

 

post-101-1163957846_thumb.jpg No change since the previous save.

 

Now I saved that layout exactly as it was. I did not move any other window.

 

And I got

post-101-1163957957_thumb.jpg

 

 

So it seems to me that I need to find a layout that is within 1/4 of what I want, save it and then when I open TMG, it should be perfect as long as I don't have to save the layout again.

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Okay it is SAVING THE LAYOUT that makes mine move.

 

Last night I saved the layout and closed TMG. When I opened it notice that the toolbar covers the Detail view by about 1/4".

post-101-1163957778_thumb.jpg

 

WITHOUT SAVING the layout, I closed TMG and reopened it and got

 

post-101-1163957846_thumb.jpg No change since the previous save.

 

Now I saved that layout exactly as it was. I did not move any other window.

 

And I got

post-101-1163957957_thumb.jpg

So it seems to me that I need to find a layout that is within 1/4 of what I want, save it and then when I open TMG, it should be perfect as long as I don't have to save the layout again.

The 2 things that seem to be consistent are that when it changes then it increases width by 1/4" and it always expands to the right regardless of where on the screen it is situated.

Mine seems to be stable with some space for more buttons.

 

I've just added a button, saved and opened and it extended. Saved again and it's changed again. I've now got it back to somethig I believe is stable.

 

:taz:

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