With TMG Version 8, the user has the ability to add more than one person at a time by importing a text file containing the information to be imported.  This is done through the Add New Person menu option function.  There are basically two ways in which this may be done:

Add a Family

One family may be imported at a time.  In this case, a family will consist of a Father, a Mother, one or more Sons, and one or more Daughters.  In addition, one or more Children (of unknown gender [Sex Flag will be set to “?”]), and/or one or more Other/Unknown persons may be included in the file.  These last will not be added as children to the Father and Mother.  It will be up to the user to construct the familial relationships for these persons.  This provision is made for those entered a household from a census where the added children and others might be adopted children, siblings or parents of the Father or Mother, boarders, servants, etc. 

To add a family, select to Add=>Add Person from the Main Menu (or click on the Add New Person icon on the Toolbar.  On the Add Person Type dialog window, click on the [New Family] button at the lower left to display the Add New Family window.

You may, of course, add the new family members one line (person) at a time if you have not already created a file of the persons to be added.  We will assume that you have already created this file (how to create this file will be discussed below).  In any case, you may wish to check that the fields to be entered and/or the Flags to be set for each person are included in the entry template.  You will do this by clicking on the [Setup] button. 

Once you are ready to import the data file, click on the [Import] button, navigate to/select the filed to be imported, and click the [Open] button.  This will display the Import window where you will match the Template columns with your data file columns.  Note that this file is a Comma Separated Value (CSV) and it MAY include a row with header information (column labels).  If it does have a header row, check the option so that TMG will know to ignore that row.

To match up fields, start with the left list (the Template)  and highlight the first entry in the list and find the corresponding entry in the right list (your data file) and click on the [< Assign] button.  If there is no match in you data file for the Template field, go to the next Template entry and match it.  Keep matching through the entire list.

If there are fields in the data file that do not have a corresponding match in the Template, you might consider clicking on [Cancel] and revisit the [Setup] function again.  Otherwise, just ignore the unmatched data file fields.

After all field matching is done, click on the [OK] button to import the information from the data file into the Add New Family window.  You may wish to check this to insure that the data went into the proper fields.  This also gives you the opportunity to double-check the data for typing errors and/or add other data that was not in the data file.

Note that the ID Template field will contain the ID# to be assigned to the person.  This may be changed to any unused ID# desired just as you may change the ID# of any person being added.  Click on any ID entry field and press [F2] to search for unused ID#s. 

One last entry should be your Source Citation(s) in the usual way.

When you are satisfied that the data is complete and correct, then click on the [OK] button to add the persons in the Template to your data set.  You will be asked if a Marriage Tag should be added to the parents.  If you answer Yes then a Marriage Tag Entry Screen will display in the usual manner for entering pertinent marriage data.  After the Marriage Tag is added (or not), the process is complete and the Focus Person of TMG will be changed to one of the Parents.

Add Multiple People

When you begin the process to Add Person Type (of relationships such as Son, Daughter, Children or Unrelated) you may choose the option to Add multiple people of this type at once.  After you select this option and then select the type of relationship to be added, the Add Multiple People window will display.  This window is very similar to the Add New Family window in that you can enter data for the persons to be added in lines provided.  The Add Multiple People window also has the [Setup],[Import], and other buttons that function in a similar way to those on the Add New Family window.

The main difference is that the data entry fields are slightly changed.  A line in this Add Multiple People Template begins with the ID, Ref, Sex, and Title fields as compared to the Add New Family Template which begins with the ID, Ref, Relation, and Title fields. Thus the only difference between the two is the Relation and the Sex fields.  The Sex field is not needed for family persons as the Relation field defines the sex of the person.  But persons added via the Add Multiple People may or may not be defined by the type of relationship being entered/imported. 

If multiple Sons or Daughters are being entered then the Sex field will be automatically entered as you manually enter the data.  For Children or Unrelated Persons, TMG will automatically enter the Sex as “?”.  In all of these cases, the Sex may be changed as needed.  Note that when adding multiple sons, if the Sex is changed to F then TMG will accept your change and add that person as a daughter and will not complain.  The same applies to adding daughters and change the Sex to M. 

So, you should select to Add Multiple People of the type of which you have most.  For example, if you are entering ten children to a mother and/or father, and seven are boys, you should add multiple persons of the Son type.  Then add the daughters as well by changing the Sex for the three girls.

If you click on the Son, Daughter, or Children type, TMG will prepare to add the new people to the current Focus Person as one parent and will ask you to designate the other parent. 

As with the Add New Family window, the process for the Add Multiple People window is the same.  You enter people manually or you may import then from a textual data file in the appropriate format.  As with Add New Family, the Template is controlled by the [Setup] button.  When you click on the [Import] button of the Add Multiple People window, you will see the Import window in which you may match fields from your data file to the corresponding field of the Add Multiple People template.  As before, select if the data file has a header row.  When all fields are matched, click on the [OK] button and the people will be imported to the Add Multiple People Template. 

Again, you may now review the data for correctness including correct field placement and any other changes additions that you wish to make.  Again add your Source Citation(s), and then click on the [OK] button to add the multiple people to your data set.

Creating Family and Multiple People Data Files

The easiest way to create a data file of a family or of multiple people of a type is to use a spreadsheet.  You may download the Add People file as an example of such a spreadsheet.  The Add People.XLS file is an example of a household (a family) that might be found in a census.  It could also be used as an example of Add Multiple People of a type.  The spreadsheet has both a Relation column and a Sex column.  You would match Relation to the Add Family Import window field or match Sex to the Add Multiple People Import windows during the actual import process.

Keep in mind that you could have many more columns in your spreadsheet than are available in the import window for Add Family or Add Multiple People.  Similarly, you can (using [Setup]) add Tags, Flags, and/or Tag fields to the import window.  For example, the default is the Primary Name (a Name-Var(iation) Tag, a Birth Tag, and a Death Tag.  You might want to add the Burial Tag, a Census Tag, an Occupation Tag, and/or some other Tag.  For each Tag Type, you may choose the default fields that may be imported. The next section lists the fields for Name and event Tag Types.

The Add People spreadsheet has a header containing most field in which data might be entered and matched to the import Template.  However, there may be other fields (including Flags) that the user may wish to include.  These may be added to the Template through the [Setup] button for TMG.  And the user may add appropriate columns in the spreadsheet as needed.

Note that while the Add People spreadsheet follows the Templates in TMG in the order of manual entry of data, that is not required since you will match columns of one to the other in the Import window.  So, if you find that it is easier to enter data in the spreadsheet in a different sequence then that is fine. 

When the data has been entered in the spreadsheet, I would suggest saving the data in your program’s native format (XLS for Excel).  This allows easier re-opening if you need to make changes, add more data, wait until later, or whatever. 

When you are ready to import the data into TMG, you must save the data in Comma Separated Value (CSV) format.  A CSV file is really nothing more than a plain text file with columnar data being separated by commas.  If a field for a column is blank, the comma that would normally separate data for that field from the next would still be entered.  Thus, two commas together would indicate a blank field.  If there are commas within the data of a field, then the data is output to the CSV file within quotation marks in order to retain field separation.  Note the Memo data for the birth of the one child. 

Also note that the doctor delivering the child and performing the C-section is included in the data.  Again, the data could be for unrelated people and that he is included with the intention of making him a Witness to the child’s Birth Tag.  Or, he could be living in the household for the census purposes and happened to deliver the baby. 

Much can be entered in data files and the appropriate method of import will depend on the Source(s) giving the data.  Keep in mind that when a Source Citation is added to an import process, that source applies to ALL persons and each data field.  Thus the notation of C-section would not be found in a census record.  Thus that information would not normally be included in the data file, but would be added later to the Tag with its own Source Citation.

Entering data in a spreadsheet is really not much different than entering the same data in the Add Family or Add Multiple People windows.  The advantage of entering data by importing a file into TMG is that you may have access to a text file of some kind.  In that case, the Import process can save entering data through the keyboard.

The disadvantage of importing people via data files is that while Source Citation(s) may be included, Surety Vales are NOT entered.  So, if you use Surety Values, you would want to go to each person imported and edit each Tag to add the appropriate Surety Values.  You may need to be editing many of the Tags anyway. 

Now this disadvantage can be alleviated by the use of John Cardinal's TMG Utility.  Be aware that that the TMG Utility will only assign a single Surety Value for a Source.  So if you wish different values for different data then you may want to consider just manually assigning the Surety Values.  Also, if the Source has been used previously, the TMG Utility usage may not be desired if the Value assigned or not assigned before is different.  The Utility does have a 'blank surety only' option that may help in this regard.  Finally, you may prefer that a large majority of Surety Values be one value and a few a different value.  In this case, it may be worthwhile letting the Utility set all to the greatest usage and then individually going back and changing the few.

Available and Default Tag Fields

Name Tags – The available fields for a Name Tag are the same as those in a Name Tag Entry Screen.  Certain of these fields are used a lot while some are very seldom used.  So, the most used fields are marked as default fields and others are not so marked.  Thus when you see the entry template for a new person screen then only the default fields can be entered.  If you want to enter data in a field that is not shown then you need to go to the Setup process and mark that field as default.

The available Name Tag fields (with the standard defaults marked with *) are:

The Date field is a default; however, Primary name records do not use the field (usually left blank).  But non-Primary name Tags may have a Date indicating when it was in use (on a certain date or during a date range).

Event Tags – Similar to Name Tags, available fields for event Tags are the same as in a Tag Entry Screen.  Again, many of the available fields are not marked as default because they are not used much. 

The available event Tag Fields (with the standard defaults marked with *) are:

The Addressee, Detail, City, County, State, Country, Postal, Phone, LatLong, and Temple fields are the standard place fields of a Tag Entry Screen.   So data for those fields should be entered with this in mind.  That is, a Birth Tag Detail field might be used to enter a hospital name rather than some remark about the birth.  A remark about an event would be entered in the Memo field.

As the Role field implies, if no Role is specified then the Principal Role will be used.  If the Role is marked for use, the import will expect an entry of a valid (for that Tag) Role name.  A drop-down list is available in the Import window for the Role field showing the valid Roles if you wish to check the correctness of the assignment for that Tag and person.

Sort Dates are not normally entered, but may be and thus are available although not by default.  If you may much data that does not have a Date but that you want properly sequenced chronologically, you may want to consider using the Sort Date as a default field.