When I try to create a journal report I get the message "Conversion error #y; one or more errors in configuration file." I have created a couple of other reports with no problem. Does anyone have any idea of what is happening?

On 8/11/18 12:30 AM, Gloria Hanson wrote: > When I try to create a journal report I get the message "Conversion error > #y; one or more errors in configuration file." I have created a couple of > other reports with no problem. Does anyone have any idea of what is > happening? > That might be a corruption in the report definition file. Try resetting the settings and create the definition anew and see if that works. Copy down the current settings to make it easier to recreate. -- Richard Damon

I used to get it when the report included a certain person. Checked all the custom source tags in his record and found one where I'd left off a ] in one of the source sentences. I fixed that and the journal report concluded correctly. And of course, that error would have applied to anyone else with that source. Probably lots of other areas which could cause the problem. I can't remember which person on this site told me to check for that error. On Sat, Aug 11, 2018 at 8:02 AM, Richard Damon <Richard@damon-family.org> wrote: > On 8/11/18 12:30 AM, Gloria Hanson wrote: > > When I try to create a journal report I get the message "Conversion error > > #y; one or more errors in configuration file." I have created a couple of > > other reports with no problem. Does anyone have any idea of what is > > happening? > > > That might be a corruption in the report definition file. Try resetting > the settings and create the definition anew and see if that works. Copy > down the current settings to make it easier to recreate. > > > -- > Richard Damon > > _______________________________________________ > Email preferences: http://bit.ly/rootswebpref > Unsubscribe and Archives https://mailinglists.rootsweb. > com/listindexes/search/tmg > Privacy Statement: https://ancstry.me/2JWBOdY Terms and Conditions: > https://ancstry.me/2HDBym9 > Rootsweb Blog: http://rootsweb.blog > RootsWeb is funded and supported by Ancestry.com and our loyal RootsWeb > community >

Where do I find the "report definition file?" On Sat, Aug 11, 2018 at 8:03 AM Richard Damon <Richard@damon-family.org> wrote: > On 8/11/18 12:30 AM, Gloria Hanson wrote: > > When I try to create a journal report I get the message "Conversion error > > #y; one or more errors in configuration file." I have created a couple of > > other reports with no problem. Does anyone have any idea of what is > > happening? > > > That might be a corruption in the report definition file. Try resetting > the settings and create the definition anew and see if that works. Copy > down the current settings to make it easier to recreate. > > > -- > Richard Damon > > _______________________________________________ > Email preferences: http://bit.ly/rootswebpref > Unsubscribe and Archives > https://mailinglists.rootsweb.com/listindexes/search/tmg > Privacy Statement: https://ancstry.me/2JWBOdY Terms and Conditions: > https://ancstry.me/2HDBym9 > Rootsweb Blog: http://rootsweb.blog > RootsWeb is funded and supported by Ancestry.com and our loyal RootsWeb > community >

You don't need to find the file itself, but if you open up the report settings you can either delete it and recreate it, or if you are working on the base report definition reset it to defaults using the button in the upper right. On 8/12/18 4:15 AM, Gloria Hanson wrote: > Where do I find the "report definition file?" > > On Sat, Aug 11, 2018 at 8:03 AM Richard Damon <Richard@damon-family.org> > wrote: > >> On 8/11/18 12:30 AM, Gloria Hanson wrote: >>> When I try to create a journal report I get the message "Conversion error >>> #y; one or more errors in configuration file." I have created a couple of >>> other reports with no problem. Does anyone have any idea of what is >>> happening? >>> >> That might be a corruption in the report definition file. Try resetting >> the settings and create the definition anew and see if that works. Copy >> down the current settings to make it easier to recreate. >> >> >> -- >> Richard Damon -- Richard Damon

Dear all, I use a complex method for managing the data on my TMG dataset that I need to update. This involves using custom flags, and outputting regularly from reports to an Excel spreadsheet. It works but is cumbersome. I have to constantly regenerate my reports and from that manually update fields on my Excel sheet. Does anyone know of something that will read the various TMG databases, from which I could then output to Excel? It would not save much time but every little helps. Note I do not want or ever intend to use any such reader to update the TMG files, just read them, as and when I ask it to. Any suggestions appreciated. Tom

Tom, There may be tools that can help, but you'll have to provide more details about what data you need exported. John

John, I export a number of custom flags, plus dates of birth, marriage and death, plus Spouse id#, and both parents' id numbers. Tom On 13/08/2018 18:03, John Cardinal wrote: > Tom, > > There may be tools that can help, but you'll have to provide more details > about what data you need exported. > > John > > _______________________________________________ > Email preferences: http://bit.ly/rootswebpref > Unsubscribe and Archives https://mailinglists.rootsweb.com/listindexes/search/tmg > Privacy Statement: https://ancstry.me/2JWBOdY Terms and Conditions: https://ancstry.me/2HDBym9 > Rootsweb Blog: http://rootsweb.blog > RootsWeb is funded and supported by Ancestry.com and our loyal RootsWeb community >

Tom, My TMG Utility program will export data from TMG, but those options do not include the data items you listed. You could export a GEDCOM file to get most of the data, but TMG's GEDCOM export does not include custom flags, and you'd have to process the GEDCOM data to make it usable in Excel. My GedSite program is focused on making a web site, but it has a "List of People" report that is flexible. You could make a list of people with all the data items you mentioned except for the custom flags. I could add the ability to include flags, and I will even if you don't proceed to use it. With the GedSite LoP, you could make an HTML table that you can probably copy/paste into Excel. However, if you have a large project, the table would be quite large and that could be an issue. The only other solution that comes to mind is to read the TMG project tables with a utility program that reads FoxPro databases. That would be tedious to implement. You'd have to understand the TMG data model and implement the linkages between tables and other access methods. I wouldn't recommend that route to anyone except a skilled programmer. John

At 8/13/2018 5:58 PM, Tom Coughlan wrote: > >Does anyone know of something that will read the various TMG databases, >from which I could then output to Excel? It would not save much time but > >every little helps. > If you are still running a 32-bit version of Windows (or, maybe, just a 32-bit version of Office) you might be able to install the VFP OLEDB driver. That will allow you to open/import VFP tables into Access (technically, anything with ODBC/OLEDB query ability -- but using Access will likely allow one to create the needed joins to make sense of the data*). Unfortunately, not an option for 64-bit software (I have Win10Pro 64-bit, with Office 16 64-bit -- I miss being able to open TMG files in Access). * For example (simplified) -- places are not stored as place ID placeField1 placeField2 ... placeField10 but as placeID placeFieldNumber placeFieldData so a place using all 10 fields will take up 10 rows in the place table; and they may not be next to each other if one has added data to formerly blank fields. -- bieber.genealogy@earthlink.net Dennis Lee Bieber HTTP://home.earthlink.net/~bieber.genealogy/

Thank you Dennis and John. Dennis: I use 64 bit Windows 7 with a definitely not 32 bit Office 2003, and have tried downloading both VFP OLEDB and VFP ODBC but both appear incompatible. This is a shame because while out of practice now I used to be familiar with MS Access and reckon if I could read the $.dbf file in it that should meet my need perfectly – but as I can’t that’s too bad. John: The LOP option from Gedsite sounds like it could work for me, if the ability to output custom flags was included. My database has around 8K people at present but I wouldn’t expect it to grow beyond 10K. So a HTML paste into Excel would probably be manageable. Your other suggestion of using something to read the Foxpro dbs and outputting from it might also be feasible. I have a copy of the TMG9 File Structures document and think one file (the $.dbf file) should contain the data I need. So the challenge would be exporting from any reader into something (presumably Excel or Access), ensuring the data was intelligible to me, and then using it for my checklist. Which quite possibly would not be any more efficient than my current process of outputting TMG List of People reports to Excel and taking it from there. But I’ll certainly keep an eye on developments on the Gedsite front and look further into your other suggestion. Tom On 13/08/2018 20:11, Dennis Lee Bieber wrote: > At 8/13/2018 5:58 PM, Tom Coughlan wrote: >> Does anyone know of something that will read the various TMG databases, > >from which I could then output to Excel? It would not save much time but >> every little helps. >> > If you are still running a 32-bit version of Windows (or, maybe, just a 32-bit version of Office) you might be able to install the VFP OLEDB driver. That will allow you to open/import VFP tables into Access (technically, anything with ODBC/OLEDB query ability -- but using Access will likely allow one to create the needed joins to make sense of the data*). > > Unfortunately, not an option for 64-bit software (I have Win10Pro 64-bit, with Office 16 64-bit -- I miss being able to open TMG files in Access). > > > * For example (simplified) -- places are not stored as > > place ID placeField1 placeField2 ... placeField10 > > but as > > placeID placeFieldNumber placeFieldData > > so a place using all 10 fields will take up 10 rows in the place table; and they may not be next to each other if one has added data to formerly blank fields. > > > -- > bieber.genealogy@earthlink.net Dennis Lee Bieber > HTTP://home.earthlink.net/~bieber.genealogy/ > > _______________________________________________ > Email preferences: http://bit.ly/rootswebpref > Unsubscribe and Archives https://mailinglists.rootsweb.com/listindexes/search/tmg > Privacy Statement: https://ancstry.me/2JWBOdY Terms and Conditions: https://ancstry.me/2HDBym9 > Rootsweb Blog: http://rootsweb.blog > RootsWeb is funded and supported by Ancestry.com and our loyal RootsWeb community >

Tom, If you found something that would read FoxPro tables, you would still have some work to do. The $ table does not contain all the information you described. You said you wanted custom flags, dates of birth, marriage, and death, plus Spouse id#, and both parents' id numbers. The $ table has custom flags(note 1), dates of birth and death, and parent ID numbers(note 2). That leaves marriage dates and spouse IDs(note 3). 1 - For custom flags, you cannot determine the name of the flag based solely on the $ table. However, you can manually review the "C" table to determine which fields you need and then hard-wire your code. 2 - TMG has two ID numbers, an internal number and an external number. The $ table has the internal number of the parents. To convert the internal number to the external number, you need to find each parent's entry in the $ table to find their external number (Ref_ID). 3 - The marriage dates and spouse ID are not in the $ table. To find marriages, you need to link to the G table for any "marriage group" events where the internal ID number of either P1 or P2 matches the internal ID number from the $ table(note 4). To determine which event types are in the "marriage group", you must review the T table. You could do that manually, and then hard-wire your code to check for those specific types. The spouse ID will be the other ID, i.e., if the person is P1, the spouse is P2, and vice-versa. There may be no spouse. The IDs are internal numbers, so to get the external number you need to join back top the $ table. And, of course, there may be multiple marriages. 4 - For joining with the G table, you may want to detour through the E table; it lists all participants in all events, and has an index on the internal person number. So, you'd join the $ table to the E table, and join that to the G table. Lastly, you must be careful with deleted records, and if your project has more than one dataset, you need to ignore records that are not in the dataset of interest. Lastly, the date fields (primary birth and death in $, and event date in G) are in TMG's internal format. You'd have to unpack those into string format. That could be a fun project, but there a bit of housekeeping to do before you get to the meat of the effort. John

Tom, The free program DBF Commander will read the TMG Foxpro files and can do an extract (csv) to Excel. But as John has pointed out, you need to understand the TMG file structure - as you have the TMG9 file structure document, you should be able to work things out (subject to John's caveats). Don F -----Original Message----- From: Tom Coughlan <tomcoughlan@tomcoughlan.net> Sent: Wednesday, August 15, 2018 8:22 AM To: tmg@rootsweb.com Subject: [TMG] Re: Database suggestions Thank you Dennis and John. Dennis: I use 64 bit Windows 7 with a definitely not 32 bit Office 2003, and have tried downloading both VFP OLEDB and VFP ODBC but both appear incompatible. This is a shame because while out of practice now I used to be familiar with MS Access and reckon if I could read the $.dbf file in it that should meet my need perfectly � but as I can�t that�s too bad. John: The LOP option from Gedsite sounds like it could work for me, if the ability to output custom flags was included. My database has around 8K people at present but I wouldn�t expect it to grow beyond 10K. So a HTML paste into Excel would probably be manageable. Your other suggestion of using something to read the Foxpro dbs and outputting from it might also be feasible. I have a copy of the TMG9 File Structures document and think one file (the $.dbf file) should contain the data I need. So the challenge would be exporting from any reader into something (presumably Excel or Access), ensuring the data was intelligible to me, and then using it for my checklist. Which quite possibly would not be any more efficient than my current process of outputting TMG List of People reports to Excel and taking it from there. But I�ll certainly keep an eye on developments on the Gedsite front and look further into your other suggestion. Tom On 13/08/2018 20:11, Dennis Lee Bieber wrote: > At 8/13/2018 5:58 PM, Tom Coughlan wrote: >> Does anyone know of something that will read the various TMG databases, > >from which I could then output to Excel? It would not save much time but >> every little helps. >> > If you are still running a 32-bit version of Windows (or, maybe, just a 32-bit version of Office) you might be able to install the VFP OLEDB driver. That will allow you to open/import VFP tables into Access (technically, anything with ODBC/OLEDB query ability -- but using Access will likely allow one to create the needed joins to make sense of the data*). > > Unfortunately, not an option for 64-bit software (I have Win10Pro 64-bit, with Office 16 64-bit -- I miss being able to open TMG files in Access). > > > * For example (simplified) -- places are not stored as > > place ID placeField1 placeField2 ... placeField10 > > but as > > placeID placeFieldNumber placeFieldData > > so a place using all 10 fields will take up 10 rows in the place table; and they may not be next to each other if one has added data to formerly blank fields. > > > -- > bieber.genealogy@earthlink.net Dennis Lee Bieber > HTTP://home.earthlink.net/~bieber.genealogy/ > > _______________________________________________ > Email preferences: http://bit.ly/rootswebpref > Unsubscribe and Archives https://mailinglists.rootsweb.com/listindexes/search/tmg > Privacy Statement: https://ancstry.me/2JWBOdY Terms and Conditions: https://ancstry.me/2HDBym9 > Rootsweb Blog: http://rootsweb.blog > RootsWeb is funded and supported by Ancestry.com and our loyal RootsWeb community > _______________________________________________ Email preferences: http://bit.ly/rootswebpref Unsubscribe and Archives https://mailinglists.rootsweb.com/listindexes/search/tmg Privacy Statement: https://ancstry.me/2JWBOdY Terms and Conditions: https://ancstry.me/2HDBym9 Rootsweb Blog: http://rootsweb.blog RootsWeb is funded and supported by Ancestry.com and our loyal RootsWeb community

Thanks to everyone for your helpful suggestions. I've work to do, I see... Tom On 15/08/2018 03:10, Don Ferguson wrote: > Tom, > The free program DBF Commander will read the TMG Foxpro files and can do an extract (csv) to Excel. > But as John has pointed out, you need to understand the TMG file structure - as you have the TMG9 file structure document, you should be able to work things out (subject to John's caveats). > > Don F > > -----Original Message----- > From: Tom Coughlan <tomcoughlan@tomcoughlan.net> > Sent: Wednesday, August 15, 2018 8:22 AM > To: tmg@rootsweb.com > Subject: [TMG] Re: Database suggestions > > Thank you Dennis and John. > > Dennis: I use 64 bit Windows 7 with a definitely not 32 bit Office 2003, > and have tried downloading both VFP OLEDB and VFP ODBC but both appear > incompatible. This is a shame because while out of practice now I used > to be familiar with MS Access and reckon if I could read the $.dbf file > in it that should meet my need perfectly � but as I can�t that�s too bad. > > John: The LOP option from Gedsite sounds like it could work for me, if > the ability to output custom flags was included. My database has around > 8K people at present but I wouldn�t expect it to grow beyond 10K. So a > HTML paste into Excel would probably be manageable. Your other > suggestion of using something to read the Foxpro dbs and outputting from > it might also be feasible. I have a copy of the TMG9 File Structures > document and think one file (the $.dbf file) should contain the data I > need. So the challenge would be exporting from any reader into something > (presumably Excel or Access), ensuring the data was intelligible to me, > and then using it for my checklist. Which quite possibly would not be > any more efficient than my current process of outputting TMG List of > People reports to Excel and taking it from there. But I�ll certainly > keep an eye on developments on the Gedsite front and look further into > your other suggestion. > > Tom > > > On 13/08/2018 20:11, Dennis Lee Bieber wrote: >> At 8/13/2018 5:58 PM, Tom Coughlan wrote: >>> Does anyone know of something that will read the various TMG databases, >> >from which I could then output to Excel? It would not save much time but >>> every little helps. >>> >> If you are still running a 32-bit version of Windows (or, maybe, just a 32-bit version of Office) you might be able to install the VFP OLEDB driver. That will allow you to open/import VFP tables into Access (technically, anything with ODBC/OLEDB query ability -- but using Access will likely allow one to create the needed joins to make sense of the data*). >> >> Unfortunately, not an option for 64-bit software (I have Win10Pro 64-bit, with Office 16 64-bit -- I miss being able to open TMG files in Access). >> >> >> * For example (simplified) -- places are not stored as >> >> place ID placeField1 placeField2 ... placeField10 >> >> but as >> >> placeID placeFieldNumber placeFieldData >> >> so a place using all 10 fields will take up 10 rows in the place table; and they may not be next to each other if one has added data to formerly blank fields. >> >> >> -- >> bieber.genealogy@earthlink.net Dennis Lee Bieber >> HTTP://home.earthlink.net/~bieber.genealogy/ >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Email preferences: http://bit.ly/rootswebpref >> Unsubscribe and Archives https://mailinglists.rootsweb.com/listindexes/search/tmg >> Privacy Statement: https://ancstry.me/2JWBOdY Terms and Conditions: https://ancstry.me/2HDBym9 >> Rootsweb Blog: http://rootsweb.blog >> RootsWeb is funded and supported by Ancestry.com and our loyal RootsWeb community >> > > _______________________________________________ > Email preferences: http://bit.ly/rootswebpref > Unsubscribe and Archives https://mailinglists.rootsweb.com/listindexes/search/tmg > Privacy Statement: https://ancstry.me/2JWBOdY Terms and Conditions: https://ancstry.me/2HDBym9 > Rootsweb Blog: http://rootsweb.blog > RootsWeb is funded and supported by Ancestry.com and our loyal RootsWeb community > > _______________________________________________ > Email preferences: http://bit.ly/rootswebpref > Unsubscribe and Archives https://mailinglists.rootsweb.com/listindexes/search/tmg > Privacy Statement: https://ancstry.me/2JWBOdY Terms and Conditions: https://ancstry.me/2HDBym9 > Rootsweb Blog: http://rootsweb.blog > RootsWeb is funded and supported by Ancestry.com and our loyal RootsWeb community

At 8/14/2018 18:21, Tom Coughlan wrote >Your other suggestion of using something to read the Foxpro dbs and >outputting from it might also be feasible. I have a copy of the TMG9 >File Structures document and think one file (the $.dbf file) should >contain the data I need. So the challenge would be exporting from >any reader into something (presumably Excel or Access), ensuring the >data was intelligible to me, and then using it for my checklist. Yes, various database managers iwll read the TMG databases. And likely will export the data into a spreadsheet or other output as you wish. I strongly recommend that you make a copy of the *$.DBF and *$.FPT files to a work folder and use that copy as it is easy to change data inadvertantly unless you are very careful (and event then there can be sccrew-uips). Lee

Tom, I believe that LibreOffice Base (its database program) will open dBase and VFP files.  You could then manipulate them with a query or export them to Calc or Excel. David On 8/13/2018 10:58 AM, Tom Coughlan wrote: > Dear all, > > I use a complex method for managing the data on my TMG dataset that I > need to update. This involves using custom flags, and outputting > regularly from reports to an Excel spreadsheet. It works but is > cumbersome. I have to constantly regenerate my reports and from that > manually update fields on my Excel sheet. > > Does anyone know of something that will read the various TMG > databases, from which I could then output to Excel? It would not save > much time but every little helps. > > Note I do not want or ever intend to use any such reader to update the > TMG files, just read them, as and when I ask it to. > > Any suggestions appreciated. > > Tom > > > > _______________________________________________ > Email preferences: http://bit.ly/rootswebpref > Unsubscribe and Archives > https://mailinglists.rootsweb.com/listindexes/search/tmg > Privacy Statement: https://ancstry.me/2JWBOdY  Terms and Conditions: > https://ancstry.me/2HDBym9 > Rootsweb Blog: http://rootsweb.blog > RootsWeb is funded and supported by Ancestry.com and our loyal > RootsWeb community >

That did it! Thank you sooo much. Gloria On Sun, Aug 12, 2018 at 4:04 AM Richard Damon <Richard@damon-family.org> wrote: > You don't need to find the file itself, but if you open up the report > settings you can either delete it and recreate it, or if you are working > on the base report definition reset it to defaults using the button in > the upper right. > > On 8/12/18 4:15 AM, Gloria Hanson wrote: > > Where do I find the "report definition file?" > > > > On Sat, Aug 11, 2018 at 8:03 AM Richard Damon <Richard@damon-family.org> > > wrote: > > > >> On 8/11/18 12:30 AM, Gloria Hanson wrote: > >>> When I try to create a journal report I get the message "Conversion > error > >>> #y; one or more errors in configuration file." I have created a couple > of > >>> other reports with no problem. Does anyone have any idea of what is > >>> happening? > >>> > >> That might be a corruption in the report definition file. Try resetting > >> the settings and create the definition anew and see if that works. Copy > >> down the current settings to make it easier to recreate. > >> > >> > >> -- > >> Richard Damon > > -- > Richard Damon > > _______________________________________________ > Email preferences: http://bit.ly/rootswebpref > Unsubscribe and Archives > https://mailinglists.rootsweb.com/listindexes/search/tmg > Privacy Statement: https://ancstry.me/2JWBOdY Terms and Conditions: > https://ancstry.me/2HDBym9 > Rootsweb Blog: http://rootsweb.blog > RootsWeb is funded and supported by Ancestry.com and our loyal RootsWeb > community >

I have a couple of questions about the best way of using TMG: 1. Does one include images as internal, or external? What are the pros and cons of each? How does Second Site use these images? 2. If you need to refer to a citation in several tags, e.g. for several different people, how do you do this easily without duplicating data entry? E.g for a census entry, it may give evidence for the birth of several people, for their residence, for their occupation. You could easily end up with 10 or 20 tags all referring to this one document. You don't want to have to enter the details of the document 20 times, and certainly you don't want to enter its scan 20 times. 3. When citing an online source, what is the best way to do it? Does one include an image of the document, and/or a transcription? If the latter, where do you put the transcription? What is the source and the repository in this case? Does the source need to mention the exact URL of the web page, or just the web site, or just a generic "Web"? Is the repository the web site you got this from (e.g. Ancestry or Findmypast), or the original source of the document (e.g. "Buckinghamshire Parish Records 1575-1911", or "West Wycombe Marriage Register 1830"). I hope someone can help me with best practice or recommendations in answer to these questions. Thanks - Rowan

On 8/12/2018 8:13 AM, Rowan Sylvester-Bradley wrote: > I have a couple of questions about the best way of using TMG: > 1. Does one include images as internal, or external? What are the pros > and cons of each? How does Second Site use these images? Rowan, The universal advice seems to be to use external exhibits. If you plan to use then with Second Site that's a requirement as Second Site does not use internal exhibits. Even if only for use in TMG, external exhibits keep down the size of your backups, making frequent backups more feasible. If you use an image more than once it need be stored only once. For more on my views on using exhibits, see my article at https://tmg.reigelridge.com/exhibits.htm > 2. If you need to refer to a citation in several tags, e.g. for > several different people, how do you do this easily without > duplicating data entry? E.g for a census entry, it may give evidence > for the birth of several people, for their residence, for their > occupation. You could easily end up with 10 or 20 tags all referring > to this one document. You don't want to have to enter the details of > the document 20 times, and certainly you don't want to enter its scan > 20 times. The "Repeat" key is your friend. The F3 key repeats the previous entry in most fields in TMG. Pressing it repeatedly cycles through the last 15 entries, or you can use Ctrl-F3 to open a list of those last entries. For Citations, place the cursor in the Source number field and press F3 to recall the previous entries, both the source number and the Citation Detail. Place it in the CD field and it will recall the previous entries in that field without changing the source number. > 3. When citing an online source, what is the best way to do it? Does > one include an image of the document, and/or a transcription? If the > latter, where do you put the transcription? What is the source and the > repository in this case? Does the source need to mention the exact URL > of the web page, or just the web site, or just a generic "Web"? Is the > repository the web site you got this from (e.g. Ancestry or > Findmypast), or the original source of the document (e.g. > "Buckinghamshire Parish Records 1575-1911", or "West Wycombe Marriage > Register 1830"). That's largely a matter of preference, and I'm sure you will get varying suggestions. For online sources that include an image of an original document I save a copy of the image to my hard drive, but do not attach it as an exhibit in TMG. I do that for several reasons. While I think having exhibits attached in a website built with Second Site would be great, the task seems overwhelming to me. I don't see any other use for attaching images as exhibits. They have to be too large to be readable in printed reports. They are too hard to access to view in TMG - I think  it's easier to find them on my hard drive than in TMG. For online sources without and image I record the relevant details in the CD -- "shows age 23 at marriage 2 Mar 1922" -- but do not record a full transcript of the entry. I make similar entries from those with images, and do not record a transcript. In my view the "source" is the original document when an image is provided, and that's what I record. If I know the repository of that original I record that as well. I note in the Comments field of the Source Definition something like "image found on Ancestry.com." but give no other recognition to the online source, which in my view is nothing but a glorified version of the copy machine you would have used if you had made a copy at the original repository. I don't record specific URLs because I've found they seem to change often. Terry Reigel

Your articles are great.  I wish I discovered you earlier. Now I know why my exhibits don't print, they are PDF.  I will re-save in one of the formats you recommended.  Would second site put my data in a web based format? Leo Glueckstein 920 698 1669Sent from my U.S.Cellular© Smartphone S9 -------- Original message --------From: Terry Reigel <terry@reigelridge.com> Date: 8/12/18 8:58 AM (GMT-06:00) To: The Master Genealogist Rootsweb Email List <tmg@rootsweb.com> Subject: [TMG] Re: Best Practice for Citations/Sources/Repositories On 8/12/2018 8:13 AM, Rowan Sylvester-Bradley wrote: > I have a couple of questions about the best way of using TMG: > 1. Does one include images as internal, or external? What are the pros > and cons of each? How does Second Site use these images? Rowan, The universal advice seems to be to use external exhibits. If you plan to use then with Second Site that's a requirement as Second Site does not use internal exhibits. Even if only for use in TMG, external exhibits keep down the size of your backups, making frequent backups more feasible. If you use an image more than once it need be stored only once. For more on my views on using exhibits, see my article at https://tmg.reigelridge.com/exhibits.htm > 2. If you need to refer to a citation in several tags, e.g. for > several different people, how do you do this easily without > duplicating data entry? E.g for a census entry, it may give evidence > for the birth of several people, for their residence, for their > occupation. You could easily end up with 10 or 20 tags all referring > to this one document. You don't want to have to enter the details of > the document 20 times, and certainly you don't want to enter its scan > 20 times. The "Repeat" key is your friend. The F3 key repeats the previous entry in most fields in TMG. Pressing it repeatedly cycles through the last 15 entries, or you can use Ctrl-F3 to open a list of those last entries. For Citations, place the cursor in the Source number field and press F3 to recall the previous entries, both the source number and the Citation Detail. Place it in the CD field and it will recall the previous entries in that field without changing the source number. > 3. When citing an online source, what is the best way to do it? Does > one include an image of the document, and/or a transcription? If the > latter, where do you put the transcription? What is the source and the > repository in this case? Does the source need to mention the exact URL > of the web page, or just the web site, or just a generic "Web"? Is the > repository the web site you got this from (e.g. Ancestry or > Findmypast), or the original source of the document (e.g. > "Buckinghamshire Parish Records 1575-1911", or "West Wycombe Marriage > Register 1830"). That's largely a matter of preference, and I'm sure you will get varying suggestions. For online sources that include an image of an original document I save a copy of the image to my hard drive, but do not attach it as an exhibit in TMG. I do that for several reasons. While I think having exhibits attached in a website built with Second Site would be great, the task seems overwhelming to me. I don't see any other use for attaching images as exhibits. They have to be too large to be readable in printed reports. They are too hard to access to view in TMG - I think  it's easier to find them on my hard drive than in TMG. For online sources without and image I record the relevant details in the CD -- "shows age 23 at marriage 2 Mar 1922" -- but do not record a full transcript of the entry. I make similar entries from those with images, and do not record a transcript. In my view the "source" is the original document when an image is provided, and that's what I record. If I know the repository of that original I record that as well. I note in the Comments field of the Source Definition something like "image found on Ancestry.com." but give no other recognition to the online source, which in my view is nothing but a glorified version of the copy machine you would have used if you had made a copy at the original repository. I don't record specific URLs because I've found they seem to change often. Terry Reigel _______________________________________________ Email preferences: http://bit.ly/rootswebpref Unsubscribe and Archives https://mailinglists.rootsweb.com/listindexes/search/tmg Privacy Statement: https://ancstry.me/2JWBOdY  Terms and Conditions: https://ancstry.me/2HDBym9 Rootsweb Blog: http://rootsweb.blog RootsWeb is funded and supported by Ancestry.com and our loyal RootsWeb community