This page created 21 May 2002
Version note: Applies to TMG 5 & 6
TMG versions 4 and earlier allowed the user to save different versions of GEDCOM export definitions. Some users saved several different definitions, including various combinations of filters to collect the individuals to be exported and specifications of tags to included in the export. One version might be used for GEDCOMs sent to cousins, another for files to be posted to RootsWeb or other website, and perhaps another for exporting to a handheld device or a favorite charting program.
The redesigned Export feature works in a much different way, and will will require users used to working with several saved definitions to change their practices significantly. The major points to be considered are described below.
The new Export feature is in the form of a "Wizard." It uses the familiar step-by-step Wizard format to collect all the needed information before beginning the actual export process. By default, the Export Wizard does not save any setting between uses. Every time you open the Wizard, it will be set to the system default values for each option (except for Step 2, where it does remember the type of export file and file name you used last time).
If you want TMG 5 or later to "remember" your other settings you need to save a "Configuration" at Step 3 in the Wizard. If you do that, most of your settings will be saved for reuse. I suggest that users save at least one configuration and always use it for miscellaneous exports. This way, if you make an export and then discover that you have some option set other than as you would like it, you can go back and just change that one option, rather than having to reset them all, and possibly forgetting one.
In addition to creating one general-purpose configuration, as suggested above, users who have saved several export definitions in TMG 4 may want to save corresponding configurations of the Export Wizard in TMG 5 or 6. In doing so, you need to take into account the following differences between the process for TMG 4 and the new one:
File Name — In TMG 4 the file name is saved as part of the export definition. In TMG 5 and 6 the file name is set in Step 2, before the Configuration is selected in Step 3. So the file name is not saved as part of the Configuration. Instead, the last used file name appears by default. Users of saved Configurations must remember to check, and change if necessary, the file name offered in Step 2
Specified Group — In TMG 4 the filter definition is saved as part of the export definition. One could create a filter based on a setting of a specific flag, or any of the other myriad of possible conditions which can written as a filter. The specification of the group to be exported works much differently in TMG 5 and 6. You have a choice of:
- The current focus person
- All people in a single dataset
- People selected in the Project Explorer who are in a single dataset
- People in the Focus Group, who are also in a single dataset
So, if you in TMG 4 saved a filtered group, say based on the setting of a specific flag, you must now use either the Project Explorer or the Focus Group to create the desired group. In either case, that group must be created before you start the Export Wizard, and the group specifications will not be saved as part of the saved Export Configuration.
The most powerful approach is to use the Project Explorer. It has very capable filtering features, and it's filter settings can be saved for reuse. The Focus Group does not have the same filter options, but Focus Groups (the actual list of people, rather than a filter specification) can be saved. Depending on your application, one or the other should be able to create the group you want to export.
All the other options from the export definition in TMG 4 can be saved as an export configuration in TMG 5 and later. The TMG 4 definitions cannot be imported into later versions of TMG, but it's a pretty easy matter to open the two versions side by side on screen and set the options to match, then save the resulting configuration.
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