Terry's TMG Tips

Data Entry Issues with Languages

This page created 5 May 2006

Version note: Applies to TMG 6 & 7

This article discusses data entry issues that arise when using a language other than English.

Other articles, found on the main Languages page, or linked in appropriate places below, provide more detail on related features.

While TMG has significant capabilities to operate in various languages, there are still some aspects of the program that reveal it's English-language basis. This article discusses some of them, and offers some suggestions for dealing with them.

Inputting Dates

Dates may be entered in TMG in a variety of formats and still be recognized as "regular" dates. Regular dates mean that TMG understands the date entered and can use it for sorting, computing ages, and other functions. Regular dates can be displayed in screens and reports in a variety of formats as set by the user in Preferences and report Options. If the display format includes months in text, that text is in the user's selected language.

Among the formats in which dates can be entered and recognized are:

Note that both all-numeric formats and formats with the months in text are recognized, with a variety of punctuation and separators.

The Issue: There is a restriction on the use of months entered as text – only English spellings and abbreviations are recognized.

Suggested solutions:

1. Enter dates in an all-numeric format.

2. If you are comfortable with English month names, enter the months in English.

Name and Place Elements Labels

TMG provides ten separate fields to enter the various elements of place names, for example, City, County, and State. See my Data Entry Tutorial for more detail. The advantage of entering places in these fields is it allows control of how or if each element is displayed in various reports and charts, and various searching and filtering functions.

Similarly, TMG provides nine separate fields to enter the various elements of people's names, for example, Title, Given Name, and Surname. See my Data Entry Tutorial for more detail. The advantage of entering name in these fields is it allows control of how names are displayed in various reports and charts, and various sorting, searching and filtering functions.

The Issue: By default, the labels on the Name and Place elements are in English, regardless of the language the user has set.

Suggested solution:

Create a custom Name Style and a custom Place Style, and create custom element labels in your preferred language. When you apply those Styles, your labels will replace the standard English ones. Use of Styles in this way is described in my article on Using Styles to Translate Name and Place Elements.

Source Citations

TMG provides a large number of Source templates to record various types of sources. These templates arrange various elements the user enters, such as Title, Author, Date, etc., into source notes arranged according to recognized style guides. They control the order of elements, special formatting such as Italics, punctuation, and in some cases provide text such as "editor" or "compiler."

Issue 1: The names of the Source Types is in English, not the language set by the user.

Suggested solution:

Rename commonly used Source Types, using names in your preferred language. The procedure to do this:

1. Open the Master Source List (Tools menu), and select the Source Type you wish to rename.

2. Click the Edit button - in the screen that opens, edit the "Custom Source Type" field at the top of the screen so that it reads as you prefer.

3. Repeat for each additional Source Type you wish to rename.

Issue 2: Any phrases included in the templates are in English, not the language set by the user, and punctuation follows American English rules, which sometimes differs from those of other languages.

Suggested solution:

Edit Source Types you commonly use to comply with usage in your preferred language. My article on Working with Source Templates explains how to edit the templates.

Issue 3: The names of the Source Elements are in English, not the language set by the user. Since those names are the labels for each field, the user sees English labels on the data input fields in the Source Definition screen.

Suggested solution:

Rename commonly used Source Elements, using names in your preferred language. The procedure to do this:

1. Open the Source Elements list (Tools menu), and select the Source Element you wish to rename.

2. Click the Edit button - in the screen that opens, edit the name field at the top of the screen so that it reads as you prefer. Click the OK button, and click Yes on the warning prompt that appears. Every appearance of the Element you edited, including the field labels on the Source Definition screen and the Output Templates, is changed to your preferred name.

3. Repeat for each additional Element you wish to rename.

A list of all the standard Source Elements may be helpful, and can be found here.

Standard Role Names

All events associated with people in TMG are recorded in Tags. People entered in those Tags are assigned Roles indicating their role in the event. By default, the one or two principal participants are assigned the Role of "Principal" and all other participants are assigned the Role of "Witness." Some Tag Types have additional standard Roles which may optionally be used; for example a Marriage Tag has Roles of "Bride" and "Groom." Users can create any number of custom Roles as well.

The Issue: The names of the standard Roles are always in English, regardless of the language the user has set.

Suggested solution:

Create custom Roles to replace the standard ones for commonly used Tag Types in your preferred language. Sort your custom Role to the top of the list of Roles, and it will be applied by default in new Tags in place of the standard "Principal" and "Witness" Roles. The procedure to do this:

1. Open the Master Tag Type List (Tools menu), and select the Tag Type you wish to modify.

2. Click the Edit button, then in the screen that opens choose the "Roles and Sentences" tab.

3. Select the standard Role you want to replace, then click the New button under the list of Roles (this applies the Sentence of the standard Role to your custom Role).

4. Give your new Role a name in your preferred language, and click the OK button.

5. Select your new Role, and using the small up and down arrow buttons sort it above the standard Roles. Place the one that is to replace "Principal" at the top of the list.

6. Create any additional Roles you may want to use by repeating steps 3, 4, and 5, then close the screens.

7. Repeat this process for each Tag Type you wish to modify.

Now when you create a new Tag of the Type you just modified, the custom Role you placed at the top of list of Roles will be the default Role.

Standard Flag Names

TMG provides for Flags to record simple information about people, for example whether the person is living or not. There are seven standard Flags, and the user can create any number of custom Flags. Of the standard ones, three are of importance in the operation of the program:

The Issue: The names of the standard Flags are always in English, regardless of the language the user has set. In addition, the values for these Flags include the following M (male), F (female), Y (yes) and N (no) in addition to numbers and the question mark. These values cannot be changed.

Suggested solution:

I know of no solution to these Flag issues save making a note of the meaning of the English terms.

Items Not to be Translated

Some items are not to be translated, no matter what the language used within TMG. They include:

• GEDCOM Tag Names – the GEDCOM tag name associated with each Tag Type (defined on the Other tab of the Tag Type Definition screen) is never translated. Those names are used to identify each tag when a GEDCOM file is exported. The tag names are defined by the GEDCOM specifications, published by the Church of Jesus Christ of Later Day Saints (LDS, or Mormons). There is a single language-independent set of names for those tags. While they appear to be shortened versions of English words, the same names are used regardless of language. They cannot be translated or the program receiving a GEDCOM file will be unable to interpret the data it contains.

• Sentence Variables – the variables used in Sentence Structures generally seem to be the first letter of an English word descriptive of the variable's application. Those variables do not change when TMG is operated in a different language.

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