What is your favorite report

[GenerationGoneBy 0]

We all have our favorite reports that help with our research. Offlist, I have been discussing how to keep up with census research via a report.

 

Here's mine. You can see how to set up the TABULAR language that this report uses on my website. YOu use the IN report and this custom language with all census tags, birth tag, marriage tag, death tag and burial tag.

 

Do you use TMG to create a custom report that you could share with others?

Edited January 23, 2011 by GenerationGoneBy

[Virginia Blakelock 0]

We all have our favorite reports that help with our research. Offlist, I have been discussing how to keep up with census research via a report.

 

Here's mine. You can see how to set up the TABULAR language that this report uses on my website. YOu use the IN report and this custom language with all census tags, birth tag, marriage tag, death tag and burial tag.

 

Do you use TMG to create a custom report that you could share with others?

 

VCF charts aren't just for family reunions! I make a lot of simple black and white charts on plain paper - often on legal size paper with landscape orientation, and usually have a chart in front of me of the family on which I'm working. It's easy to jump quickly to an ancestor using Ctrl-I and often I'll make notes on the chart as I work. It really helps me to see the big picture - especially with the siblings included in the chart as in the example below.

 

Virginia

 

[Excalibur 0]

VCF charts aren't just for family reunions! I make a lot of simple black and white charts on plain paper - often on legal size paper with landscape orientation, and usually have a chart in front of me of the family on which I'm working.

<snip>

 

Virginia

"VCF charts aren't just for family reunions," how true Virginia. I'm glad Teresa started this Topic. Your chart example gave me an example of what I need to do for a web site project I'm working on. I think that EASY, obvious things sometimes escape me. HA HA HA HA Thanks for posting your example.

[Virginia Blakelock 0]

In home-printed VCF charts, it's a challenge to fit as many generations as you can on as few pages as possible. One way is to move the progenitors to a location under the tree. These simple left-to-right descendancy charts are in 2 sections, printed landscape on 8.5x11 cardstock and joined on the back with Linen Adhesive (not gummed) Hinging Tape (much simpler and more durable than scotch tape!). The chart color legends are at the lower left in the charts.

 

Virginia

[Virginia Blakelock 0]

Here's another example, on left, of a small home-made chart, fitting 5 generations on a simple one page (letter-size paper) chart. When using a small font (9-pt), I think the chart is easier to read if the box lines are transparent. Printed on plain paper or cardstock and put in a clear sheet protector, these are easy to make and great to hand out to family.

 

The chart on the right is the first page of our family's ancestor chart with our children on the left, and numbers on the right where the lines are continued. I can get 2 or 3 family lines on each page and some lines don't continue, so all together it may be 4 or 5 pages, letter size. Each page is independent of the others - no need to do any pasting.

 

Virginia

 

Edited April 12, 2007 by Virginia Blakelock

[Virginia Blakelock 0]

NOTE: These instructions were written for TMG v6, and the references to the rrw folder are correct for that version. For TMG v7, the RRW folder is located in the shared program data files folder, by default in

 

Windows Vista:

C:\ProgramData\The Master Genealogist v7

Windows XP and Windows 2000:

C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\The Master Genealogist v7

 

There is also a new batch file for the default TMG7 installation.

 

 

To print Family Group Sheets colorcoded for a family line and/or to match the colors on a box chart, you can substitute your own colored bmps for the 3 default gray bitmap files that TMG uses. Here's how I've done it:

 

1) Make a folder named 'Colors' off your C drive (C:\Colors). In that folder make subfolders for each color including gray eg \gray, \blue, \green under C:\Colors.

 

In the rrw folder in your TMG installation, find the 3 shade files for small fonts ('small fonts' as defined in your MS Windows Display) and copy all 3 files to each of the folders - gray, blue, and green. The files are:

 

shadesf1.bmp

shadesf2.bmp

shadesf3.bmp

 

[i have not used the large-font shade files but the process should be similar. Those bmp's are shadelf1.bmp, etc. ('sf' for small font; 'lf' for large font)

 

The copies you put in the gray folder are for backup, the other sets are for you to color using MS Paint or a similar program. After changing each bmp color, save the file using the original name (shadesf1.bmp, etc.)

 

2) Using Windows Explorer, you can manually copy your colored bmps to the rrw folder (when TMG is closed), overwriting the gray files, or - much more conveniently - do it automatically using a MS DOS batch file to copy the colors while opening TMG.

 

My batch file assumes the location of the Colors folder and the default TMG installation; you can change that to match your own folder tree. There are 3 commands in the batch file in a specific format:

 

- type the commands in a pure-text editor like Notepad - not Wordpad or a word processor.

- type the commands on separate lines exactly as shown including quotation marks and all other punctuation.

- save each batch file to your desktop with the extension .bat (eg blue.bat) and save as All Files - not as a .txt file. This is important.

 

The commands for a blue batch file for v6 are:

copy C:\Colors\blue\*.* "C:\Program Files\The Master Genealogist\rrw"

"C:\Program Files\The Master Genealogist\tmg.exe"

Pause

 

The commands for a blue batch file for v7 are:

cd C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\The Master Genealogist v7\rrw

copy C:\Colors\Blue\*.*

cd C:\Program Files\The Master Genealogist v7

tmg7.exe

PAUSE

 

[The Pause command is optional to keep the batch file open after it has run so you can see any error messages - which can be helpful. You can delete the Pause if you don't need it. The batch file will then close itself after running - saving you closing it manually]

 

Doubleclick on the batch file icon on your desktop to open TMG with the desired color. You can have multiple icons on your desktop to open TMG with the color you want.

 

NOTES:

- To make another color set, copy an existing color folder and batch file, re-color the bmp's and change the color name where applicable (including in the batch file).

- To edit a batch file, rightclick on the batch file icon. Retain the format - and save with a .bat extension as All files.

- You can print in black and white (grayscale) even if you have color bmp's installed. Most light colors will print as light gray. Or you can copy the gray bmp's back to the rrw folder either manually or with a batch file.

 

For a starter, I've attached a zipped set of small-font blue bmps which you can unzip into your C:\Colors\blue folder. Be sure to copy a backup set of the default gray bmp's to your \gray folder before making any color changes.

 

See PDF examples of colorcoded FGS files below.

 

For help in using custom colors and a downloadable collection of custom color chips, see:

 

http://www.whollygenes.com/forums201/index...ost&p=28011

 

Virginia

 

green.PDFblue.PDFbrown.PDFblue.ZIP

Edited December 15, 2008 by Virginia Blakelock
to update location of the RRW folder in TMG v7.