TMG-L Archives

Archiver > TMG > 2005-07 > 1120257661


From: "Diana Powell" <>
Subject: RE: [TMG] WISHLIST: "Remarks" or "Comments" field for tag types in MTTL
Date: Fri, 1 Jul 2005 15:41:01 -0700
In-Reply-To: <002b01c57e89$3b7cef70$9865fea9@Linda>


Linda wrote:

> how about a dummy person
> containing each type of tag with the tag's usage guidelines placed in
> its memo field

Linda, I love dummy people and use one in the way you describe above. I
call "him" Data Design and assigned him #10,000 in my database so I could
find him easily. I attached one of every tag and used the memo field to
record my notes. This is especially useful for custom tags where I
sometimes need to jog my memory on why I created the tag in the first place.

If I make a major design change in my data entry I add a nonprinting -Note
tag to Mr. Data Design with my notes on why I made the change, etc.

> I'm not sure how you'd sort them,

I just use sort dates. I picked something like Jan. 1300 for my first tag
starting with "A" and then the next one was Feb. 1300, etc. - figured if I
added more "A" tags later I could always use 1 Jan, 5 Jan etc.

It's easy once you get past the mental stumbling block that it isn't a
"real" person. I now view TMG "people" simply as "name holders". I added a
custom flag that is set to D for all my dummy people; that makes it easy to
identify them (and also allows me to accent them). Also none of my dp are
attached to real people (or other dp) by relationship tags so there is no
danger that great, great aunt Susy might suddenly appear in a report with a
son named Data Design.

Diana Powell

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