This page updated 28 Dec 2007
Version note: Applies to TMG 6 & 7
TMG offers a long list of features which enable the user to customize the workspace to best fit each user's preferences, expedience level, computer equipment, and the specific activities being undertaken. In this article I will discuss a number of these features, and suggest when they might be useful. If you have not explored all the options available, scanning this may uncover some that would be useful to you. The subjects covered include:
| - selecting and arranging the visible screens | |
| - setting font sizes, screen colors, and sorting | |
| - color coding people for any purpose | |
| - the features you want at the touch of a button | |
| - keep it simple or see it all | |
| - include flags, more tags, or make it simpler | |
| - tabs or all on one screen | |
| - keep data entry simple or see more options | |
| - opening multiple copies of TMG |
When you open TMG, you probably don't see this:
The screenshot above is similar to the way my copy of TMG generally appears. Why does your screen look different? Because I have customized my basic layout to fit my preferences, work habits, and screen size; added a custom toolbar so my most oft-used features are a single click away; and applied accents to color-code my ancestors, cousins, and more. I'm not suggesting you would want to see the same screen I do, but hopefully the sections below will suggest some ways you can make your copy of TMG work best for you.
You can adjust the size of the main program window on your screen (you may not want it to fill the whole screen). You can select which individual windows that will display within the main window, and set the size and position of each of them. You can adjust the widths of columns in many screens. You can select which toolbars will be visible, and their position on the screen. Each such arrangement created this way is called a "Layout." You can save your Layout so it will appear when you open TMG next time. You can even save a number of different Layouts for different types of work you do and recall them when needed. For details, see my article on Working with Layouts.
You can adjust the font type and sizes used in many of the individual screens, as well as screen colors, and in some cases the order items are listed:
List Fonts - many of the screens are "Lists" - the Person View in the Details screen, the Children and Siblings screens, the Picklist, and many other screens such as Master Source List, list of citations, etc. You can set the font type used for these lists and the size of that font, in Preferences > Program Options > Lists. Enter the desired size in the "Minimum font size" field. (You can set a minimum/maximum range for the font size if you choose the "TMG 5/6 method of window resizing" at Preferences > Program Options > Other, or if using TMG 6.)
Tree and Person View Fonts - can also be set, but work a bit differently. They always adjust according to the size of the screen, but you can adjust their starting point in Preferences > Program Options > Other. You may need to experiment with this setting a bit to get the size you like.
Prompt/Warning Font size - you can set the size of the font used in the prompt and warning screen in Preferences > Program Options > Other.
Screen Colors - you can set the colors for many windows and lists, under Preferences > Program Options > Color. By default the colors from your Windows system settings are used, but you can choose custom colors, or even have each screen a different color.
Flags - you can control which flags appear in the Flags Window, and in what order. To do that, right-click on the Flags window to open Flag Manager, where you can move individual Flags up or down in the list, as well as disable any you would rather not see.
Other Info Box - the little box next to the names at the top of the Person View is called the "Other Info" box. It displays a long list of information about the current focus person, but only the first three items are visible without scrolling. You can control the order of the items in that list, and thus which appear at the top. Right-click in that box and choose "Customize 'Other Info' Box..." to set them as you prefer.
The term "Accent" refers to color-coding the names of people when they appear in the various screens, and in the expanded Picklist. See the screenshot above for some examples of Accents used in the main screens, and the section below on Picklists for examples of their use in that screen. Accents are a great help in seeing at a glance such things as how people are related, who has not yet been reviewed after an import or in a cleanup effort, who was born in a specific place, or most any other characteristic you might find helpful.
Accent schemes can be named and saved, and later recalled, making it easy to keep several different sets of Accents for different purposes. For example, I have one that accents my wife's ancestors according to how close they are to her direct line, and a similar one for my ancestors. Switching between them is simple, and can be made even easier by adding buttons to the custom toolbar.
See my article on Accents for details on how to set up this very useful feature.
TMG comes supplied with eight handy toolbars to allow specific operations with just the click of a button. Only three of them, "Standard," "Layout," and "Tag Editing" are displayed in the standard Layout. You can see the others listed, and turn them on or off, by either right-clicking on any toolbar, or using the View > Toolbars menu.
The buttons come in three sizes - Large with text (the default), Large, and Small. You can choose the size you prefer by right-clicking on any toolbar, or using the View > Toolbars menu.
Toolbars can be placed at the top or sides of the main screen, or allowed to "float" anywhere in the screen. To move a toolbar, click and drag it by the "handle" - the small bar at the left of the screenshot below:
If you drag it near the top or a side, it automatically "docks" - that is attaches itself to that edge. If you leave in elsewhere in the screen it's appearance becomes more like a normal screen, with a small title bar at the top.
All these toolbar settings are part of the Layout, so if you want your changes to be used next time you open TMG, save the Layout as described above before closing the program.
In addition to the eight standard toolbars, you can create your own custom toolbars, with any buttons you find useful. In the screenshot at the top of this page, note the custom toolbar (upper one on the left of the screen). It contains several buttons found on various standard toolbars, but I've added only the ones I use so I don't need the others taking up space on my screen. I've also included some buttons not available on the standard toolbar, such as those to switch accents between the ones for my ancestors and for my wife's, and some for commonly used reports.
Each Layout can include only one custom toolbar, but you can create and save different toolbars for each Layout. Instructions for adding buttons to the custom toolbar are at the bottom of my article on Accents.
The Tag editing buttons on the Person View can be turned off and you can use the Toolbars or keyboard shortcuts save space. See my article on New Features in TMG Version 7 for details. (Does not apply to TMG 6.)
The Picklist is one of TMG's hander tools. It can be used to navigate from
person to person, and to pick people to be added as Principals, Witnesses, and
about anywhere else you might select a person. You open it with the F2 key,
or by clicking the "search" button: 
You can use F2, or the button on the Standard toolbar when viewing the main screens to navigate to a different person. In just about any screen where a person is to be selected, you can place the cursor in the field where the ID# is to be entered, and press F2 or click the search button that appears next to the field.
The Picklist is one of the more resource intensive features – depending on the size of your Project and the capabilities of your computer system, opening and navigating it may be slower than you like. TMG addresses this by providing a choice of two styles of Picklist: Simple and Expanded. You chose between them in Preferences under Program Options > Lists. The simple version is used by default.
The Simple Picklist emphasizes speed of operation. In exchange, you give up some features:
Accents are not shown, and you cannot specify which information will be displayed for each person (but you can adjust column widths, even to zero, effectively hiding a column).
The Expanded Picklist emphasizes flexibility and information, in exchange for some speed of operation:
If Accents are enabled, they will appear in the Picklist. The default Event List mode, which shows a list of events for the selected person (sort of a miniature version of the Person View), is shown above. Clicking the "Column mode" button switches to the version below:
In this mode brief information about each the persons, including parents and last viewed spouse, is listed. You can select which columns appear by clicking on the Options button.
I find the column mode of the expanded Picklist to be far more useful than the default simple Picklist, and suggest trying it unless the size of your Project and your available hardware make it too sluggish for comfortable use.
The Add Person screen is used to add new people to the Data Set. As discussed in my Data Entry Tutorial, it not only creates the new person, but also creates for that person a name tag, usually either parent/child relationship tags or a marriage tag, and optionally birth and death tags. You can customize the Add Person screen to better suit your working style, and even change those customizations from time to fit a particular task at hand. Available customizations include:
To access these settings open the Add Person screen (click the Add Person button and select a relationship). Then, on the Add Person screen, click on the Setup button. You then see the Add Person Template:
You customize the Tag settings on the Tag Types tab of that screen, as shown above. Those Tag Types that will appear on the Add Person Screen are listed on the left side (the Marriage tag only appears if the person being added was identified as the spouse of the current focus person.) In this screenshot you can see that I have:
To specify a name or place style, select the tag type to which you want the style applied, and click the Style button.
Flags are added to the Add Person screen by clicking the Flags tab, and choosing and sorting them in the same way as Tag Types are selected.
There are two versions of the Tag Entry screens. The default version has everything on a single screen, so it's easier to see all the fields at once. The other, called the "tabbed version," has Citations and Witnesses (if you use the advanced mode, below) on separate tabs. The tabbed version is intended primarily for those using low screen resolutions. But it has more space for each section and some users prefer it for that reason.
You can change between the two versions in Preferences > Program Options > Data Entry.
TMG allows data entry in two modes, "Beginner" and "Advanced." The Beginner mode hides several features that beginners generally don't use, producing a simpler, less cluttered interface for new users. The Advanced mode provides access to all the fields.
You are offered a choice of Beginner or Advanced Mode the first time you try to edit data in the new program. You can change this setting at any time in Preferences > Program Options > Data Entry.
Some advanced users prefer the cleaner interface of the Beginner mode when they don't need access the additional features. No data accessible under the Advanced Mode is lost while in Beginner Mode, but you will just be unable to access the additional fields to add or edit the data associated with them.
For more details, including screenshots showing the fields made visible in Advanced mode, see my discussion of this subject in my Data Entry Tutorial.
TMG allows you to open multiple copies of the program at the same time (computer types call each copy an "instance"). This capability allows you to:
Each copy of the program appears in its own window on your computer desktop. Depending on your monitor size and resolution setting, you may be able to position the copies so all are visible at once. Or, you may want to position them so they partially overlap, and then click on one or the other to bring it into full view. You will probably need to adjust the size of the main program window, and perhaps change which screens are open, to get a satisfactory arrangement on your monitor. If you use this capability often, you might want to save special Layouts for the purpose – see Layouts, above.
The easiest way to open a second copy is to select the Project you want to see in the second instance from the list of recently open projects at the bottom of the File menu. Or, use the File > Open Project command to find the Project you want to examine. When asked "Would you like to close the current project?" answer No. Then, the new project (or second copy of the current project) will open in a new instance, while the existing instance will remain open.
The only restriction is that you can't open exactly the same record - for example the same tag for the same person - for editing in both copies. You don't even have to worry about that because TMG will manage that issue for you. If you try to open a second copy of the same record, TMG will refuse and offer to allow you to open the second copy as "read-only," that is, non-editable.
My new book, A Primer for The Master Genealogist, is now available.
Details are available here.
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