Some years ago, way back on TMG v4x and earlier, I often had text files that I had created about various persons that I researched. In order to speed up some of my data entry, I decided to include them in my TMG data set as they were with the intention of editing my data into TMG Tags or in some other way later. At that time, TMG had a nice way of handling those external text file. Fast forward to TMG v9x and I dig out an old TMG v4x data set that I had not looked at in more than ten years. I imported that data set into TMG v9x and began to look around. I noted the use of the external text files in that data set. I had not had occasion to use the feature since those early days. It is a nice feature and saves re-typing, or copy/pasting and still works in TMG v9x today. I doubt that many users know about it, so thought I'd mention it . To reference and external file in a TMG Tag, go to the Tag Memo and type in the File Path and File Name for the file -- preceded by an exclamation mark (!). For example, if the file name is Davis History.txt, and you have placed it in a folder named TextFiles in your TMG User Data Files folder, then you would enter the following in the Tag Memo field: "!C:\Users\username\My Documents\The Master Genealogist v9\TextFiles\Davis History.txt" (omitting the quotes). Now when you click on the [Memo] button. the Memo field will open in its own window as usual, but instead of showing the File Path of the External File, it will show the content of the file. The nice thing here is that you can edit that External File in the Memo field window just as if you opened the file in a text editor. See the Memo topic in TMG Help and scroll down about halfway for more information. Some tips -- 1. Be sure to type the File Path/File Name correctly!!! 2. Be sure the exclamation mark is the first character of the Memo field. and the File Path immediately follows it. You can type the entry directly into the Tag Memo field or open the Memo field window and enter it. If you do the later, click the [OK] button to close the window and then re-open it. If you make the entry and open the Memo field window and only see what you entered (File Path/FileName) then you made a mistake in entering it -- no exclamation mark, wrong spelling, or something like this. It is a nice feature. Try it, you may find it helpful. Lee

Follow-up on this idea/tool: I have a lot of gleanings in text files, e.g. a list of articles found in a newspaper online archive which mention family members. What I really need to do is go through these and make a tag for each event reported, but.... So using Lee's info, I've created a new Tag Type (which I've called Tidbits) and merely inserted a double-exclusion before the Principal Sentence (and should do so for the Witness Sentence also). I've moved each text file to a new folder in my TMG data path (I've used TMG9\Tidbits, which puts it parallel to Projects, Backups, Exhibits, etc.), then created a new Tidbits tag under the most appropriate person, and created the Memo entry to cross-reference the file. Many of these files refer to multiple people. I haven't added Witnesses to these tags, but that might be a good idea also. Note that this probably gets me no closer to proper data entry<g>, but it does get these separate files all in one place, with a reference within TMG that such a file exists. Since it took me only about an hour to create the Tag Type and get it working and move/reference about a dozen files, it was much more likely to "happen any time soon" than making "the correct" tags. Rick Van Dusen On 8/10/2015 7:46 PM, Lee Hoffman/KY via wrote: > Some years ago, way back on TMG v4x and earlier, I often had text > files that I had created about various persons that I researched. In > order to speed up some of my data entry, I decided to include them in > my TMG data set as they were with the intention of editing my data > into TMG Tags or in some other way later. : : : > To reference and external file in a TMG Tag, go to the Tag Memo and > type in the File Path and File Name for the file -- preceded by an > exclamation mark (!). For example, if the file name is Davis > History.txt, and you have placed it in a folder named TextFiles in > your TMG User Data Files folder, then you would enter the following > in the Tag Memo field: > "!C:\Users\username\My Documents\The Master Genealogist > v9\TextFiles\Davis History.txt" > (omitting the quotes). : : : > Lee