TMG-L Archives

Archiver > TMG > 2000-05 > 0957233908


From: Wayne Barner <>
Subject: [TMG-L:] RE: TMG-L: TMG Beginners luck
Date: Mon, 1 May 2000 22:18:28 -0400 (EDT)


Dave Ward Wrote:

snip
>> But again, surely there are other ex FTM users who >> must have been able to convert without problems? >> Lets hear from them as well.

Hi Dave et al,
I converted from FTM 7.5 to TMG and I won't say that I didn't have issues (I loathe the word problem)that needed addressing but at least TMG provided me with the tools to address the issues. FTM certainly didn't!

There's an old expression in the computer industry that states "garbage in - garbage out" meaning that data going into a program that is not valid will come out of the program equally as invalid. In our case it means, data coming OUT of FTM that is not in the proper format etc will not by means of some miracle come out clean in TMG. Remember, TMG assumes NOTHING and I like it that way.

A concrete example of an issue I had was that in FTM, for Occupation I simply stated the person occupation where I *should* have stated location/occupation or at least /occupation. If I had done so, TMG would have migrated the data with NO problem but since I didn't TMG placed the occupation in the location field. Now you tell me, whose problem is this, FTM or TMG? I say FTM but ultimately, ME.

I never talked with a genealogists yet that hasn't found it necessary on occasion to go through their dataset and clean things up. I looked at the migration from FTM to TMG as a very good opportunity to do just that. At least TMG provides us with the tools to make the task a LOT less painful.

The time that's been used writing and reading these threads bemoaning migrating to TMG could be better used cleaning up your data. Have FUN !

Sorry for the length.

Wayne / VA
another satisfied customer
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