Jump to content
John Cardinal

TMG v4 and v6 screenshots

Recommended Posts

In response to some discussion on TMG-L about differences between TMG v4 and TMG v6, here are two screenshots that show the views being discussed. They contain almost exactly the same information and therefore I think it's fair to say that no functionality has been lost in TMG v6 relative to TMG v4.

 

Note that I spent about 60 seconds arranging windows in TMG v6 to get this view and if I was willing to spend a few more minutes I could have created a closer approximation.

 

TMG v4: tmg4family.gif

 

TMG v6: tmg6family.gif

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
In response to some discussion on TMG-L about differences between TMG v4 and TMG v6, here are two screenshots that show the views being discussed. They contain almost exactly the same information and therefore I think it's fair to say that no functionality has been lost in TMG v6 relative to TMG v4.

 

Note that I spent about 60 seconds arranging windows in TMG v6 to get this view and if I was willing to spend a few more minutes I could have created a closer approximation.

 

TMG v4: post-3-1181666778_thumb.png

 

TMG v6: post-3-1181666797_thumb.png

 

The following important funtionality has been lost in TMG 6 vs TMG 4:

 

1. There are no BMD dates on the TMG 6 Tree View (the mouse over dates do not help when comparing genrations or across generations)

2. You are limited to the last 10 viewed people with the View button in TMG 6 (20 or user defined as in TMG 4 would be better).

3. The standard Picklist does not have color Accent ability (I find the extended Picklist to be awkward)

4. Can you do what you did in your example to make the Family view useful, without screwing up the more important Person and Tree views?

 

I sincerely wish that these good TMG 4 features were restored to TMG 6, best wishes,

 

Mike Talbot

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
3. The standard Picklist does not have color Accent ability (I find the extended Picklist to be awkward)

To be clear... TMG6 has two Picklists - the Simple Picklist and the Expanded Picklist (with two views). The Simple Picklist is designed to be as fast as possible with very large projects and, for that reason, by design, does not include features such as accents that would slow down its performance.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I find that the current decoupled windows approach is great, and adds a superiority over other genealogy programs. I, for example, spend a LOT of time in Person view and so I create a layout that fits my needs exactly. For those circumstances where I do spend some time in Family or Tree view I can create separate layouts for those, and frankly TMG makes it really easy to switch between layout configurations.

 

For the picklist, I have to agree with Jim. I use the picklist to quickly locate someone, and would prefer not to sit and wait for the program to render pretty colors. If I do, the extended picklist and even the project explorer does the job just wonderfully (I think anyways).

 

Now, the last 10 people viewed, I complete agree with you. I sometimes wish the list was a little bit longer. I find it very discouraging when I am working on a few large families and previously viewed people fall out of the last viewed list.

 

I rarely use the tree view and when I do it's mostly to get a quick overview of the ancestors, but I can definitely see how a little more information on this view could be useful.

 

Ken.

 

The following important funtionality has been lost in TMG 6 vs TMG 4:

 

1. There are no BMD dates on the TMG 6 Tree View (the mouse over dates do not help when comparing genrations or across generations)

2. You are limited to the last 10 viewed people with the View button in TMG 6 (20 or user defined as in TMG 4 would be better).

3. The standard Picklist does not have color Accent ability (I find the extended Picklist to be awkward)

4. Can you do what you did in your example to make the Family view useful, without screwing up the more important Person and Tree views?

 

I sincerely wish that these good TMG 4 features were restored to TMG 6, best wishes,

 

Mike Talbot

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
The following important funtionality has been lost in TMG 6 vs TMG 4:

 

1. There are no BMD dates on the TMG 6 Tree View (the mouse over dates do not help when comparing genrations or across generations)

2. You are limited to the last 10 viewed people with the View button in TMG 6 (20 or user defined as in TMG 4 would be better).

3. The standard Picklist does not have color Accent ability (I find the extended Picklist to be awkward)

4. Can you do what you did in your example to make the Family view useful, without screwing up the more important Person and Tree views?

 

I sincerely wish that these good TMG 4 features were restored to TMG 6, best wishes,

 

Mike,

 

First, I'd like to mention that my message didn't say that TMG v6 was a superset of TMG v4. I was responding to a conversation on TMG-L that was specifically about the Family View in v4 and the combination of Family View and Children window in v6. I assume you knew that, but I'll reaffirm it just in case.

 

TMG v6 is different from TMG v4 and I am not surprised that some users miss some specific features or behavior of TMG v4. On the other hand, it's impossible to make major improvements in software without changing things, and impossible to please everyone when you make those changes. I am not saying it's wrong to request changes to v6, but stating them as features lost compared to an earlier version seems like an inherently negative point-of-view that devalues the many improvements and enhancements in v6.

 

I am not a WG employee and I was not privy to the design discussion about the Tree view contents, but I suspect the BMD dates were removed to reduce the size of the display, leaving room for other windows. To me, having those other windows, and the room to display them, is far more important than BMD dates on the tree view. So, I am glad TMG v6 is different in that regard.

 

I don't know why the last viewed list is limited to 10. I agree with you that having more people on that list would be good. I think the Focus Groups capability is very useful and pertinent here because it's a v5+ feature that provides functionality that complements the recently-viewed list. Specifically, when I am working on a family, there are some people that I know I will refer to often. I can set the focus group to that subset, and that effectively extends the recently-viewed list and the members of the focus group are not subject to any limits and do not disappear because I took a side-trip off to some other segment of the project.

 

Similarly, I know some TMG v4 users wanted a more detailed picklist, and so TMG v5+ has that. Meanwhile, other users want a fast and uncluttered picklist, and TMG v5 and v6 has that, too. It so happens that you aren't happy with either, and that's an example of not being able to please everyone.

 

Regarding your last question about layouts, I don't think the view I created screwed up the Detail View or Family view because I didn't even resize the main window; I just repositioned the Children window beneath the main window. In general, though, I wasn't trying to create an optimal view in v6. The views I use in v6 don't look anything like the screenshot I included above. I have the main window on the left, and the children and sibling windows on the right (the sibling window is a huge advantage over TMG v4's modal dialog window for siblings). I have the flag window and image window open, but I have another layout with them closed for when I have the PE open. I don't keep the PE often all the time, but when it is open, I make some space for it by closing the flag window and image window.

 

In the end, the TMG v5+ layout is customizable and I think the great majority of TMG users can configure very effective layouts that suit their work habits.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

These 2 layouts are as close as I can get with TMG version 6x to what we had in TMG version 4x.

 

There are several differences -- this layout has the added Flag window and the Siblings window. The Siblings window and Children's window do not display the full date for birth and death events (they were shown in TMG v4).

I added the Siblings window and decreased the size of the Children's window since there was more space available than needed for the Children's window.

 

I have not uploaded to the forum before so not sure if you will be able to see these views.

 

 

Family View

 

 

Person View

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now

×