A computer consultant with more than 20 years in
genealogy who has used TMG for over five years.

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TMG actually saves the last fifteen data entries in buffer area. So if the entry you want is not the last, but the next to last, then all you have to do is hit the F3 Repeat key twice. Continued pressing of the F3 Repeat key will copy the next previous entry back through fifteen different entries. A sixteenth pressing of the F3 Repeat key starts the process all over again.

Of course, you often don't recall where the desired entry is located in the buffer. Therefore, TMG provides access to the entire repeat buffer for that field. Just hold down the Control key and press the F3 Repeat key and the last fifteen entries will display. Now you can select the desired entry by entering the number of the desired entry or moving the cursor to highlight the desired entry and hit Enter to copy the data into the field. You may also key in the selection entry number and press Enter, thus you can enter a new record with minimum keystrokes. Not only that, but there will be less chance of making errors.

DATES: TMG is designed to show the events in a person's life in the chronological order that they occur. Thus all the tags shown on an individual's Person View for which a date is known appear in the proper sequence. Undated event tags either appear at the beginning or the end of the tag list depending on the user's configuration setting. How often have you wanted to put those undated tags in the right order (or at least what you think is the right order? Assigning a date (even an very close estimate) is abhorrent to some people. With TMG, you have the best of both as you can enter a Sort Date in the event tag while leaving the normal date field blank. This will sequence the tag properly both in the Person View as well as in the various narrative reports, but will not print a date of any kind. Then when you find the correct date, you can enter it and TMG will ask if you want to also update the Sort Date. Thus you can have the ordered events without a Date field entry.

PRIMARY ONLY DISPLAY:  Have you ever wanted to look at the Person View of an individual for which many tags have been entered and tire of scrolling down through the Tag Box to reach the one you want to review? If the tag is a Primary tag, you can shorten (or even eliminate) the scrolling by going to a "Primary Only" display of the Person View. In the icons to the left of the Tag Box is a magnifying glass with an asterisk. Clicking on this icon and the non-primary tags will be hidden from view. A reminder that there are hidden tags is displayed in red below the Subject button above the Tag Box. To return to the normal view, just click on the icon a second time.

TIMELINES AND RESEARCH TASKS:  Timelines are a very useful feature of TMG.  I have a half-dozen different timelines that I use constantly. One shows the enumeration dates of all the U.S. Censuses from 1790 to 1920. When I enter a new person, I can look at the Person View for that individual and see which Censuses I should expect to find them enumerated. Then I just create a task in the Research Log for each Census. Preparation for a research trip to view Census films includes printing a List of Tasks having to do with the Census.

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