Terry's TMG Tips

Using Languages in Reports

This page updated 5 May 2006

Version note: Applies to TMG 6 & 7

This article discusses using languages other than the standard English (U.S.) in reports. The language used in reports is generally independent of the language used for the user interface - what you see in TMG's screens. Interface languages are covered in my article on Selecting and Editing Languages.

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

Topics Included in this Article
Languages and Reports	Understanding how languages work in reports
"Built-in" Terms and Phrases	Controlling the report phrases created by the program
Sentence Structures	Managing Sentence Structures in languages
Copying Global Sentences	Copying Global Sentences between Data Sets or languages
Copying Local Sentences	Copying Local Sentences between languages
Managing Conversions	Managing the change from one language to another
Other Fields	Managing Tag Labels, Past Tense, and Abbreviation fields

Languages and Reports

Using languages other than the default English (U.S.) in reports requires that you specify the desired language in each report configuration you use. You do that on the General tab of report Options. If you change interface languages, new report definitions you create will by default use that language.

Any report definitions previously saved will use the language specified at the time they were saved. If you want them to use the new language, you must change the setting for each report definition, on the General tab of Options for that report.

Success in producing reports in a given language also requires that you properly manage your data entry, as we will address in the following sections.

If you are considering using a language other than the default English (U.S.) in your reports, it is important to understand where the parts of a report come from and how they can be controlled. The actual phrases used by TMG's report writer in constructing the text of any reports you generate come from three sources, and each may need to be managed to successfully apply your chosen language:

1. The Phrases Built Into the Report Writer

Examples: In a Family Group Sheet, the report title - "Family Group Sheet" - is created by the report writer. In a Journal Report, in the sentence "The children of Frank Smith and Mary Jones were:" everything but the names comes from phrases built into the report writer.

Also in this category are the modifiers and other terms TMG applies to the data as reports are produced, such as "circa" or "before" for dates, the names of months or days, and prepositions such as "in" or "at" for places.

Changing the report language, or editing the phrases in the selected language, cause these phrases to change accordingly.

2. Tag Labels and Sentence Structures

Examples: In a Family Group Sheet, event labels like "Birth" and "Death" come from the Tag Type definition of those Tag Types. In narrative reports the sentence "He was born on 11 Jul 1851 in Cincinnati" everything but the date and place comes from the Sentence Structure in the Birth Tag.

The Labels and Sentence Structures for the Tag Type or the local tag Sentence for the language used by the report control how these elements will appear in reports. To change them you edit these fields on the Tag Type Definition screen, or the local Sentence Structure on the Tag Entry screen for the language used in the report.

Take care to use the correct language when editing Sentences - many reports of "my Sentence changes aren't used in reports" are caused by either editing the wrong language, or failing to select that language for the report.

3. The Data Entered in the Various Fields of the Tags

All the data you enter in the name, place, and memo fields appears in reports exactly as you enter it, regardless of the language used for the report.

For example, in a narrative report the sentence "He was a farmer in 1870 in Kern Co., California" the phase "a farmer," the year, and place all come from data fields in the Occupation Tag, and are printed just as they were entered.

Exception: in the date field, if you enter a "regular" date, and if you specify a date format that includes the month in text rather than as a number, the name of the month will appear in the specified language. Similarly, if days of the week are output for regular dates, they appear in the specified language.

We will discuss each of these aspects in more detail in the following sections.

Managing the "Built-in" Terms and Phrases

You change the phrases built into the report writer by specifying the desired language on the Report Definition of the report you are going to create. This is done on the General tab of the report Options, where you choose the "Output Language." If you want to use something other than one of the supplied translations, you will also need to make modifications to the language tables. See the Modifying the Language Tables in my article Selecting and Editing Languages for details on how to do that.

This method controls the following kinds of terms and phrases:

Standard Report Phrases – such as "Generation One," "Children of," and "were as follows:"

Date Names and Modifiers – including the names of months, days of the week, and modifiers like "circa," "say," and "before." But note that this only applies to "regular" dates – those dates recognized by TMG. Irregular dates are included in reports just as they are entered.

Prepositions and Pronouns – prepositions, like "in" or "at" added to dates and places, and the pronouns produced by the name variables.

Caution:

Changing the report language also changes the way Sentence Structures are used. If you have customized any Sentence Structures you must manage the issues described in the section on Managing the Conversion to a New Language below.

Dealing with Sentence Structures and Languages

TMG uses Sentence Structures to assemble the data entered in the various fields into the text of Narrative style reports. Sentence Structures are provided at two levels. "Global" sentence structures exist for each Tag Type (like Birth, Note, and Marriage). When you create an individual Tag of one of those types, the global Sentence Structure applies by default, but you can modify it for that specific tag if you like, creating a "Local" Sentence. See my article on Modifying Tag Sentence Structures for details.

Sentence Structures can be different for each language you use. That way, when you change the language setting for a report, the appropriate Sentence Structure will be applied.

For example, the default Sentence Structure for the Birth Tag is:

[P] was born <[D]> <[L]>

An appropriate sentence structure for another language would change "was born" to a phrase appropriate to that language. It might also rearrange the order of the variables or make other changes if needed for that language.

As this is written, TMG ships with Sentence Structures in the following Languages:

Afrikaans	German
Dutch	Norwegian - Bokmål
English (U.S.)	Norwegian2 - Nynorsk
French

The Sentences in languages other than English (U.S.) were added relatively recently, and only appear in new Projects created since these Sentences were added.

If you are using a language that currently has supplied Sentences but your Project was created before Sentences were available in that language, you can add them. To do so, create a new Project (it doesn't even have to contain any people) and copy the Sentences from it using the procedure described below.

Important: The priority for determining which Sentence is used is as follows:

Local Sentence in the language selected for the report, if it exists.
Global (Tag Type) Sentence in the language selected for the report, if it exists.
Global (Tag Type) Sentence in English (U.S.).

This sequence has some very important implications:

If you have created Local Sentences (in individual Tags) in one language, then create reports in another language, your Local Sentences will be ignored. The Global Sentence in the report language will be used if it exists, otherwise the Global English (U.S.) Sentence will be used. If you want the Local Sentence to be used, you must either manually create it in the report language, or copy Local Sentences as described below.
When there is no Sentence in the report language, the standard English (U.S.) Sentence is used. This may or may not be helpful, depending on your needs.
If your Data Set predates the introduction of standard Sentences in your report language you will see output based on standard English (U.S.) Sentences unless you have created your own Sentences in the report language or copied the Standard ones from a new Data Set as described below.
If no standard Sentences exist for your report language you will see output based on standard English (U.S.) Sentences unless you have created your own Sentences in that language.

Creating Sentence Structures for Languages Manually

The screens for defining Sentence Structures for both Tag Types and individual Tags have a "Language" field, with a drop-down list to select the desired language. By default, the language currently specified for the user interface (using the File > Languages menu) will be selected in that list. But you can select any other language, and the Sentence Structure for that language can then be edited. Obviously, it's simpler to edit the Sentence Structures for a language if you change the interface to that language, since you don't have to select the desired language for each Sentence Structure you edit.

When you customize the Sentence Structures of individual Tags it is possible to edit the structures for two or more languages one after the other during data entry. But a considerable amount of discipline is required to do it consistently, without missing one language or the other in some of the Tags.

Copying Global Sentence Structures between Data Sets or Languages

You may want to copy all the "Global" (Tag Type) Sentences from one Data Set to another or from one language to another. You might do this if you:

Have created Sentences in a custom language and want to copy them to another Data Set.
Have created Sentences in a language for which TMG does not supply them and and want to copy them to another Data Set.
Use a Data Set that predates TMG's standard Sentences in a Language, and want to add them.
Have customized the Sentences in a language and want to copy those to another Data Set.
Are changing from a standard English (U.S.) to a custom language in order to customize phrases in either the user interface or the reports, and want to copy Sentences you have previously customized.

There are two tools for copying Global Sentences, with different capabilities. This table may help in selecting the best one for your purpose:

Translate Function in TMG

John Cardinal's TMG Utility

Copies from the first unlocked Data Set in the "from" Project to all unlocked Data Sets in the "to" Project	Copies from one specified Data Set to another specified Data Set
This is a consideration only if you have more than one Data Set in your Project(s).

Copies from one Project to a different Project	Copies from one Project to the same or different Project
This is a consideration only if you want to copy between two Data Sets in the same Project (but you can effectively copy from the first Data Set in a Project to others with the Translate function by making a copy of the Project, and copying from that).

Copies from each language to the same language	Copies from one language to the same or different language
This is a consideration only if you want to copy from one language to another.

Copies the Label, Past Tense, and Abbreviation fields in addition to the Sentences	Copies only the Sentences
See the section on this subject below for implications

Note:

Both overwrite the existing information in the "to" language. If you have already customized some of that information in the "to" language, consider carefully whether you want to loose those customizations.

The two sections that follow describe how to use each of these tools to copy Sentences.

Using TMG's Translate Feature

Using the Translate function is simpler if it meets your needs, because it doesn't require use of a separate program. To use it:

Open the Project into which you want to copy the language information.
Open the Master Tag Type list (Tools menu)
Click the Translate button, and click OK on the message box that appears.
Select the Project from which the language information will be copied on the "Select translations to import" screen and click the Select button.
In the dialog that appears, click Yes to copy Sentences as well as Label, Past Tense, and Abbreviation fields, or No to not copy the Sentences.
You then see a series of dialogs for each language present. Click Yes for those languages you want copied, and No for those you want to skip.
Click Yes on the final confirmation screen to complete the process.

Using the TMG Utility to Copy Global Sentence Structures

John Cardinal's TMG Utility can be found on his website. The Utility is "Donorware" - if you find the utility useful, John asks that you donate to his favorite charity.

You copy Global Sentences with the Utility by first exporting them, then importing them into a different Data Set and/or language. It is done as follows:

John recommends that you make a backup of your Project before using his Utility to make any changes - "just in case."
Close the Project in TMG, then Open the Utility.
Open the Project which contains the "from" Sentences. If the project contains more than one Data Set, you are asked to specify which one is to be used.
Use the Sentences > Export Sentences function to export the Sentences.
If you are copying the Sentences into a different Project, Open that Project. If it is a different Data Set in the same Project, reopen that Project so you can specify the "to" Data Set.
Use the Sentences > Import Sentences function to copy the Sentences from the saved file into the desired Language and Data Set. You are asked to choose the "from" and "to" language to be used.

Copying Local Sentence Structures between Languages

The previous sections discussed "Global" Sentences – the so-called default Sentences for each Tag Type. This section deals with "Local" Sentences – the Sentences you may choose to modify in individual Tags. This is only an issue for you if you have created Local Sentences in some of your Tags.

You may want to copy all the "Local" Sentences from one language to another, in the same Data Set or between Projects or Data Sets. You might do this if you:

Are changing from a standard English (U.S.) to a custom language in order to customize phrases in either the user interface or the reports
Have used standard English (U.S.) or another language and now want to use instead, or in addition, another language. In this case the copied Sentences will be in the "wrong" language, but may be useful as a guide for individual translation.

You could manually copy the Sentences using Windows copy and paste functions. To do that, select one language from the drop-down list at the top of the Sentence Structures screen, copy the Sentence, select the other language, and paste. This is simple if you are working with a few Tags, but quickly gets tiresome if you have many Tags to work with. You may prefer an automated tool.

You can copy all Local Sentences with John Cardinal's TMG Utility (the Utility is Donorware - if you find the utility useful, John asks that you donate to his favorite charity). You copy Local Sentences with the Copy Custom Sentences feature. It is done as follows:

John recommends that you make a backup of your Project before using his Utility to make any changes - "just in case."
Close TMG, then Open the Utility.
Open the Project which contains the "from" Sentences. If the project contains more than one Data Set, you are asked to specify which one is to be used.
Use the Sentences > Copy Custom Sentences feature.
Select the "from" and "to" languages, and click the Copy Custom Sentences button to complete the operation.

This procedure will copy a customized Sentence Structure from one language to another in a Tag only if there is not already a customized Sentence Structure in the second language. This is the case because the Utility has no way of knowing whether the structure that exists in the second language was simply copied in a previous copy operation, or if you created it manually in the second language because you specifically wanted it used in that language.

Managing the Conversion to a New Language

If you have worked in one language and are changing to another there are several aspects you need to manage. They are all described elsewhere, but for clarity I'll list them together here:

As you create reports, the Report Definition is saved for reuse later. That definition includes the language being used. When you change the interface language (File > Languages menu) to a different language than you have been using, any new report definitions you may create will by default use the new language. But all saved report definitions will continue to use the old language until you change each of them, on the General tab of Options. If you fail to make that change your reports will not reflect your new language.
Any customized "Global" (Tag Type) Sentences created in the old language will not be used in the new language. You either need to copy the Sentences from your old language, as described above, or manually make similar changes in your new language.
If you have customized "Local" Sentences in the old language they will not be used in your new language. You either need to copy the Sentences from your old language, as described above, or manually make similar changes in your new language.

Labels, Past Tense, and Abbreviation Fields

Most of the attention when changing languages involves Sentence Structures. However, there are three other aspects of Tag Types that are language-specific. Each is defined on the Tag Type Definition screen for each Tag Type. Translations for some languages have been provided with more recent versions of TMG, but they do not automatically apply to Projects created with older versions. If there is no translation for your chosen language, the standard English (U.S.) values will be used. The fields are used as follows:

Tag Type Labels – the tag label that appears in the "Type" column of the Person view on the TMG screen, in some filters and other option settings, and also in Family Group Sheets and Individual Detail reports.
Past Tense – the value in the Past Tense field is used in Journal reports to construct the abbreviated statements in lists of a couple's children. This applies only to children who have their own section elsewhere in the report, and only if you choose the "born 1861" option under "BMDB Abbreviation" on the Tags tab of report Options.
Abbreviation – the value in the Abbreviation field is used in Journal reports to construct the abbreviated statements in lists of a couple's children if you choose the "b. 1861" option under "BMDB Abbreviation" on the Tags tab of report Options. It is also used in Box Charts if you choose one of the options containing "Abbr" for box contents on the Data Type tab of report Options.

Creating Specially Formatted Output

Some users have found the ability to create separate sets of Sentence Structures in different languages a handy tool for creating specially formatted output. This application is discussed in my article Using Languages to Create Special Format Reports.

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