Training Bundles

[half pint 0]

Hi

 

Although I have been using TMG for some time now I still class myself as a newbie as I am still learning new things everyday. To speed up this process my dearly beloved has offered to buy me the Super Training Bundle.

 

I know it may sound as though I am "thick" but I find it alot easier to learn something when I am shown how, rather than having to interpret instructions.

So if anyone has this set of DVD's and book could they please let me how in-depth the training DVD's are ie do they show you step-by-step how to set up flags or is it just an overview.

 

Many thanks for your time.

 

Regards

Edited May 18, 2007 by half pint

[Lessie 0]

Hi

 

Although I have been using TMG for some time now I still class myself as a newbie as I am still learning new things everyday. To speed up this process my dearly beloved has offered to buy me the Super Training Bundle.

 

I know it may sound as though I am "thick" but I find it alot easier to learn something when I am shown how, rather than having to interpret instructions.

So if anyone has this set of DVD's and book could they please let me how in-depth the training DVD's are ie do they show you step-by-step how to set up flags or is it just an overview.

 

Many thanks for your time.

 

Regards

 

Hi!

I'm sorry no one has responded to your post. I have been wondering the same thing. The learning curve for TMG is VERY steep indeed. If all I do is simple things -- there's no problem, but when I read the listserv and the tip web sites posted by long-time users...I feel very freaked out! There are times when I wonder if I purchased too complex of a program, but then I try to calm myself down and remind myself that it does what I need it to. I can ignore the more advanced stuff until I'm ready. I just am anxious to learn it all right now! It's a slow and sometimes frustrating process.

I ordered the Lee Hoffman companion book -- and it is good but also overwhelming.

What I'd like to figure out is the concepts behind the actions. For example, I see stuff explaining roles and witnesses, but I wonder why do I want to use them? Why are they helpful?

Anyway -- glad to hear from another newbie!!! Lessie

[Terry Reigel 0]

What I'd like to figure out is the concepts behind the actions. For example, I see stuff explaining roles and witnesses, but I wonder why do I want to use them? Why are they helpful?

Anyway -- glad to hear from another newbie!!!

Good question, Lessie.

 

On my site there is a little on why one might use roles in my Using Roles article, and more in the Roles Tutorial that is linked at the bottom of that page. Have you not found that helpful? Could you tell me what you find missing?

 

On the other hand, while several articles discuss applications for Witnesses, there is really no overview of the Witness concept. I suppose there should be one. And, while Roles and Witnesses are really not all that much related, they do work handily together and I can see how one might find the then getting confused.

 

Here's the beginning of a discussion on Witnesses:

 

In it's most basic construct, TMG is designed to record events for a single person, or for two people. In fact, in Beginner Mode, that's all you can do. This works well for common events shared by two principal players - marriage, moving, living at an address, being recorded in a census, etc.

 

To record an event for two people, you enter the ID#s of each of them at the top of the Tag Entry Screen. The resulting Tag will appear in the Tag List for each of them.

 

However, many real events involve more than two people. A whole family is enumerated in a census. A whole family moved together, or immigrates together. A person writes a will and it refers to a list of heirs and an executor or two. And so on.

 

This where Witnesses come in. They allow you to add additional "players" in the event.

 

In it's simplest form, it simply saves you time and effort. Create one Tag for a census, enter the parents as Principals and the kids, in-laws, etc. as Witnesses, and enter the date, place, etc. just once and everyone has that event recorded. This all the default event Tags do - make the event show up for each Principal and Witness, and in Narrative reports, each person will get a line saying they were in the event.

 

But Witnesses are much more powerful than that. By entering additional players as Witnesses, you can create narratives that mention each other. For example, in a Census tag, you can have the parents' narrative list all the kids or other relatives. In a Will tag, you can have the narrative for the person who wrote the will list all the heirs and executors. In an Immigration tag you can have the narratives for each person list all the others in the party.

 

Use of Roles is not essential to the use of Witnesses. However, if you want to do the the sorts of things I mention in the preceding paragraph, use of Roles makes this easier. Roles allow you to assign an appropriate Role to a person, then create a narrative about that person that describes what they had to do with the event.

 

For example, in a Will tag you might have a Role for heirs and another for executors. The narrative for the person with the Heir role might say "He was named an heir in the will of John Jones written 3 Jul 1859." While the person with the Executor role might say "She was named executrix in the will of John Jones written 3 Jul 1859."

 

In addition, Roles allow you to construct Sentences that refer to people by their Roles. Continuing the will example, the narrative for the person who wrote the will might say "He named Suzzie Smith as executrix, and named John Jones Jr., Mary Jones, and Billie Jones as heirs." In each case, the names of the people mentioned are drawn from the fact that they are entered as Witnesses and given appropriate Roles.

 

Does this this get you started in understanding how they might be used?

[Lessie 0]

Hi, Terry --

Wanted to touch base. Since my previous post I have been reading more on roles and witnesses. You are right in that I found the info on your Web site very helpful. It gave me nuts and bolts to "see" how to do it. From there I was able to springboard -- with many false steps of course -- into applying it in my project. I appreciate your simple and complex role comparison. I can only look at the complex page in spurts otherwise I get the shudders! But I know in time I will progress to that point. (I also used Teresa Elliott's page as a companion as I went through yours. I found that they complimented each other well.)

I wonder if someone did a personality analysis on those using TMG what would be found. I spent all day Saturday figuring out my roles and witnesses -- my dogs kept looking at me as if to say, "You are so boring!" I can't imagine that everyone would want to spend this much time with such detail (or sitting in a chair in front of a computer) -- but maybe that interest in detail and completing a near "perfect" product is part of what motivates family researchers using TMG. While sometimes the TMG requirements seem burdensome, I only have 300ish persons entered. I know when I get to the thousands -- when, not if -- I'll be very glad for the roles and witnesses. If I can just get them completely figured out...which I haven't done quite yet! Oh, the journey!

Lessie

BTW -- I thought your chapter in Lee Hoffman's book was well written and easy to follow.

[GenerationGoneBy 0]

Hi!

I'm sorry no one has responded to your post. I have been wondering the same thing. The learning curve for TMG is VERY steep indeed. If all I do is simple things -- there's no problem, but when I read the listserv and the tip web sites posted by long-time users...I feel very freaked out! There are times when I wonder if I purchased too complex of a program, but then I try to calm myself down and remind myself that it does what I need it to. I can ignore the more advanced stuff until I'm ready. I just am anxious to learn it all right now! It's a slow and sometimes frustrating process.

I ordered the Lee Hoffman companion book -- and it is good but also overwhelming.

What I'd like to figure out is the concepts behind the actions. For example, I see stuff explaining roles and witnesses, but I wonder why do I want to use them? Why are they helpful?

Anyway -- glad to hear from another newbie!!! Lessie

 

 

Lessie,

First off, don't feel like you have to dive into the deep end on your first day. We long time users do come up with some crazy complicated stuff, but it will wait until you are ready for it. And if you never are, then that's okay as well. Many long time users never move beyond the program out of the box. TMG can be as easy as you want, but if you decide later you want something more complicated, it can handle that too, and TMG-L and it's users will be there to walk you through it.

I would definitely recommend the training videos to all newbies. They go slow, Bob explains each thing in detail. They run on the tv so you can watch and work at your computer at the same time and stop and rewind if something doesn't make sense.

 

And the great thing is someday you will be giving advice on TMG just like the rest of us, who a few years ago thought they all spoke some foreign language not offered at our high school.

[joanmc 0]

Lessie,

<snip>

I would definitely recommend the training videos to all newbies. They go slow, Bob explains each thing in detail. They run on the tv so you can watch and work at your computer at the same time and stop and rewind if something doesn't make sense.

<snip>

 

I definitely agree! I purchased the original VHS tapes which I've since replaced with the DVDs and have run seminars using them and now our TMG User Group reviews them regularly. The amazing thing I find is that, though I've probably seen the Beginners one nearly 20 times, I still pick up something that I either missed or hadn't yet tried every time I watch these tutorials!

 

I always remember Bob's explanation of sources and how it changed my entire recording of my Master Sources, making it so much simpler. It has also helped literally dozens of others in our genealogical community whether they were TMG users or not in understanding how to record their sources.

 

IMHO, you cannot make a better investment than the tutorials and the GTMOOTMG book.

 

Joan

[half pint 0]

Lessie,

First off, don't feel like you have to dive into the deep end on your first day. We long time users do come up with some crazy complicated stuff, but it will wait until you are ready for it. And if you never are, then that's okay as well. Many long time users never move beyond the program out of the box. TMG can be as easy as you want, but if you decide later you want something more complicated, it can handle that too, and TMG-L and it's users will be there to walk you through it.

I would definitely recommend the training videos to all newbies. They go slow, Bob explains each thing in detail. They run on the tv so you can watch and work at your computer at the same time and stop and rewind if something doesn't make sense.

 

And the great thing is someday you will be giving advice on TMG just like the rest of us, who a few years ago thought they all spoke some foreign language not offered at our high school.

 

Hi

 

Many thanks for all your thoughts and comments, I will definitely invest in a set

 

Regards

 

Half Pint