to use use the principal role or the child role...that is the question!

[tlc 0]

This seems such a basic question, but I can't find it clarified anywhere, so hopefully someone can advise me.....

 

All the FAQ's and manuals talk about the fact that roles can be assigned to principals, but when I look at the tag entry screen it seems that you select EITHER prinicpal or a role. For example, in the Birth tag in the pull down menu you can choose principal OR child OR mother, etc.

 

When creating a new birth tag, it appears that principal is the default.....which is fine but, probably because I have imported data from UFT, there is a mixture of roles in my birth tags. Some are principal and some are child (thankfully none are parent, which would be a real worry!!!).

 

Anyway, the upshot is that these 2 roles have different sentence structures and therefore print differently in reports resulting in inconsistent reports.

 

The solution is obviously to make a choice of which role to use and stick to it, but before I make this decision I'd like to understand if there are any reasons or pro's/con's for choosing principal over child (or any other role......this issue crops up in other tags as well).

 

Humble apologies if this is clarified somewhere in the manual or on the forums......but I can't seem to find it anywhere.

 

Thanks in advance for any advice you can give.

 

Teresa

[Paul Lawrence 0]

This seems such a basic question, but I can't find it clarified anywhere, so hopefully someone can advise me.....

 

All the FAQ's and manuals talk about the fact that roles can be assigned to principals, but when I look at the tag entry screen it seems that you select EITHER prinicpal or a role. For example, in the Birth tag in the pull down menu you can choose principal OR child OR mother, etc.

 

When creating a new birth tag, it appears that principal is the default.....which is fine but, probably because I have imported data from UFT, there is a mixture of roles in my birth tags. Some are principal and some are child (thankfully none are parent, which would be a real worry!!!).

 

Anyway, the upshot is that these 2 roles have different sentence structures and therefore print differently in reports resulting in inconsistent reports.

 

The solution is obviously to make a choice of which role to use and stick to it, but before I make this decision I'd like to understand if there are any reasons or pro's/con's for choosing principal over child (or any other role......this issue crops up in other tags as well).

 

Humble apologies if this is clarified somewhere in the manual or on the forums......but I can't seem to find it anywhere.

 

Thanks in advance for any advice you can give.

 

Teresa

 

I'm also a convert from UFT years ago...what I did was make the sentences for both roles the same so they all print the same...I think I used the UFT sentence...that way I didn't have to search and change all of the tags that had a different role...I then made the Child role the default role so that all new adds used Child...

 

Did similar for death and burial tags....

[Terry Reigel 0]

Many former users of UFT seem to favor assigning Roles to everyone. Not being a former UFT user I can't see any point in that. I use the default Principal and Witness roles unless I see some specific value in assigning another Role.

 

In Birth and Death tags I use the default Roles. In Marriage tags I use the default Roles unless one of the spouses had multiple marriages, in which case I use my custom First, Second, or Third Roles.

 

I think in fact it's a matter of personal preference, with no real significance. If you prefer to use Roles, I think Paul has offered good advice.

[tlc 0]

Thanks guys......it's a bit clearer now and I feel well equipped to solve my issue!

Cheers,

Teresa

[GenerationGoneBy 0]

Teresa,

 

If you want TMG to default to the child role everytime you use the Birth tag, you can go to the MASTER TAG TYPE list, and move it up to the top of the list.

 

I rarely use the Principal and witness roles that shipped with TMG. Former UFTer here too. One, I like to see the role name on the PV for the person. Two, I like to be consistent.

 

Three, it allows for more complex sentences if each person has an unique role in the tag. My census tags have roles like Head of household, household member01, household member 02, household member03. That allows me to control printing of the roles a lot, and each household member can have a different sentence structure.