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Archiver > TMG > 1999-11 > 0941998093


From: "Ken Nelson" <>
Subject: Re: TMG-L: Sharing TMG files
Date: Sun, 7 Nov 1999 13:08:13 -0500


Connie,
I was hoping someone else would have answered you by now. I only know that
there is no real automatic way to do it. Another software mfg claims that if
you use his product the problem is solved. This sharing of datasets is a
big part of their ad. When I first read the ad, I thought to myself that
this ought to be on the wish list for TMG. But as I read the review further,
I saw that the process being promoted was not so automatic as you were first
led to believe. We can do it in TMG with about the same effort as this other
program and we don't advertise a breakthrough. However, it would be nice of
Bob to
somehow put a ribbon on it and call it automated though (or maybe Lee could
write the formula on his webpage correcting the following as necessary and
clarifying my instructions.)

You and your sister need to begin with the same Dataset or at least have a
set of data that is common to both. For purposes of generalization this
could be a cousin and say that you and your cousin are working on a
couple of common ancestral lines. You would need to each have that subset as
a part of your larger set. I say that because my cousin and I are
researching common Reed and Hanslip lines, but there are plenty of lines
that are not common to both of us. She is not common to my Nelson and Bray
lines, nor is she related to my wife's lines that are in the same dataset.
So even though I am continually updating these other lines, she could care
less about them. What I need to send her and what she needs to send me at
regular intervals is a dataset of those relations that we have in common AND
that have been updated since the last time we swapped. Where I need Lee or
someone to first guide me is in "splitting off" a new dataset. My
understanding is that this process does not alter the original dataset. If
it does diminish the original dataset, you would need to copy the master
dataset first and do the following from the copy. [If you have not guessed
already my cousin does not use TMG, so.... this is only hypothetical on my
part.]

To create a new subset to swap you would need to first create a report that
would use these filters (I have named mine "Co-operative Data Set
Generator")
Go to Custom Report Writer/Wizard.
Click on the Wizard/Utilities/Create A New TMG Data Set/Those who are
ancestors of a certain person.
This will complete the initial report, and boot you out to select the report
for further editing. Select the report and make these modifications
General Tab/[check the box under screen print which says "Suppress for
Secondary Output.]"

Secondary Output/ [Check the box "Create a New Data Set"]

Focus Tab/
(Is an ancestor of_Person Number_[your number])_AND
(Is an ancestor of_Person Number_[your sister's number or your cousin's
number or whoever you are doing this cooperative work with])_AND
(Last Edited Date_Comes After_[Agreed cutoff date, i.e 15 Aug 1999])_END

Check the boxes at the bottom as appropriate for your research. At this
point it may be easier to have as filter numbers in the above filter the
numbers of your mother and father rather than you and your sister and then
the boxes at the bottom could all be checked.

This report would need to be designed for both computers (anyone out there
to tell us how to exchange reports once we have the specs written??) One way
is for you to design the report, back up your configuration, which includes
the reports, and then send this TMG.cfg file to your sister and she could
then restore her config from it.


Once you have this subset of ancestors common to both of you AND that have
been edited since you last swapped,you would send the subset to your sister
and/or her to you. I think it would be best if both of you did it at the
same time. You would then merge the subset with the master set. You would
need to merge the individuals common to both sets and then begin a process
of meticulously editing the people that have been updated and merged. I
would suggest that in interests of thoroughness before you merge this new
set that your sister has sent you, generate another report called "A List of
All People"(of the set she has sent you). Then as you edit each person after
the merge of people you could check off that person from the list as being
done. You could also keep a change log to help one another find what has
been changed. If you rush to the National Archives in 2001 and get the 1930
census data on Uncle Bill and aunt Emily, you might want to jot that down on
this change log to give your sister an idea what has changed. If your sister
has found another source for the wedding date of your Aunt Bertha and Uncle
Albert, you could then zero right in on that one change. I think some of the
stone cold silence from folks is that they are, one, envious of someone who
can get a relative to get TMG to work with them and 2) they are aware of the
kind of housekeeping necessary after a merge. It is not a small matter. A
change log and a list of people would go a long way to simplify the
housekeeping. Sometimes, the change one makes to a person is a small and
seemingly insignificant one that can be overlooked if you are trying to
merge. In fact, if the change is very insignificant, you may not want to
merge but rather update your person and delete the duplicate person sent to
you by your sister.
Does any of this make any sense or have I only confused the matter. Let me
know and I will try to help the best I can. I would truly suggest printing
this out and seeing if you can follow the instructions as written. As a
beginner, I suspect much of this is mysterious to you.
Let me know what happens.

Ken Nelson


I was just reexamining your question and I see that I missed one of your big
questions. To exchange the file, the "best" and probably the easiest way
would be to create a *.sqz file which is a backup, to this subset and send
that via E-mail to one another. Upon receipt you would then "restore" from
that backup into a temporary folder. (Note: the TMG is a collection of
datafiles and the *.sqz file has compressed them into one.]

From: <>


>My sister and I are recent purchasers of the new version of TMG and expect
to
>be working together to get our family data entered into both of our
identical
>programs. We live in two different states. We have not figured out how
we
>go about transferring our work from one of our computers to the other and
>visa versa. We're hoping we can create a file and then attach it to
e-mail
>to send it to the other for adding to the family information. How may this
>best be accomplished?
>Thanks very much, Connie


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