Your ancestor had eight children; you wish to distinguish descendants of one child from the others. First, create a flag called Family.

• Select File --> Flag Manager. This will open a screen listing all flags and allowing you to add new flags, edit, delete or disable existing flags, and change flag order.
• Click on Add. This opens the Add New Flag screen. Our new flag will be labeled as "Family." The Values are one character only. Enter the default value first. This is usually either ? or N. In this case, choose ?. Add values for each of the progenitor’s children. These may be given name initials, numerals, or symbols you choose.
• In the Description field, define each of the values you have chosen. For example:
  • ? = default
  • A = Aaron Case descendants
  • S = Samuel Case descendants, etc.
• Click on OK when finished. You have created your new flag.

Now, you must run a report selecting the descendants of each of your progenitor’s children and changing the Family Flag from the default value to the correct value.

The report we want is obviously a List of People report.
• Add a new report and give it a name. I used the creative title "List of People_Family Flag".
• Select Filtered Group and add a new filter.
• The filter I use selects a person by ID number (Line one) and then adds all the descendants of that person, again by his or her ID number (Line 2). The use of [?] in the Value column allows reuse of this report without redefining it for each of the progenitors. (You can vary this filter if you choose: Line one equals person by ID number. Check "Add Descendants" and specify the number of generations.)

A printed output is unnecessary in this report. Its purpose is to change a flag value.

• Ignore all tabs under the Report Options except the Secondary Output tab.
• Check "Change Flag"
• Select your "Family" flag and then select the appropriate flag value.
• This tab gives you the option to "Suppress output to screen, file, and printer". Checking this option saves time; but if you're defining a new report, leave it unchecked and send the report to the screen as well. Sometimes a filter result can surprise you!

Now run your report.
• You will be given a screen to choose the ID Number of your progenitor. (Click F2 to bring up the Picklist and select the correct person if you don’t know the ID number.)
• Before TMG changes the Family Flag value, the program will tell you how many individuals qualify and ask if you want to change the Family Flag value to that selected. (This gives you a chance to correct any mistakes, such as not changing the selected value each time you run the report.)
• Rerun this report for each family progenitor. All you need to do each time is change the selected Flag value and enter the correct ID number for the progenitor.

Now you can change the accent colors for each family.
• Under File, select Accent (or Ctl-A from the Person Screen). This opens the Accent Definition screen.
• Select Add and define an Accent Condition by first selecting a flag from the drop-down menu, then selecting the flag value.
• Select a Background Color and a Text Color.
• TMG lets you choose from 48 predefined colors and gives you the option to define up to sixteen custom colors through the "Color Screen".
• Repeat until you've defined all your accent colors for all desired flags and their values.
• If your Accent Conditions include more than one flag, note that you can choose a Conflict Color for those people who meet more than one condition or choose to accent the names by the first matching condition.
• Choose Save As and give your accent scheme a name.
• Select Apply and close the Accent Definition screen.
• You can define any combination of flags and accent colors. If you want to investigate a different pattern, load a different set of accent conditions.

When you return to the Person View, you will see that the names of these selected family members will appear in the accent colors on the Picklist, and any Person View, Family View, or Tree View. The differing colors make it much easier to tell one "John Doe" from another.

Two views of the accented picklist are seen to the left. The first shows the picklist accented according to Family Flag values. The second shows the same picklist region accented according to the Military Flag values.