TMG Reports: Introduction

TMG's Custom Report Writer

Using the Individual Narrative Report

The idea of a "Sentence Preview" feature appeared frequently on the TMG-L "wish list." ~~This is not available now, and~~ the program in its current version may give rise to very amusing narrative output results. To check your data base editing, it is very helpful to set up a custom Individual Narrative Report, Endnote Report, and Bibliography Report which can be viewed on screen. This allows the user to view faulty grammar, typing errors and limping English immediately so they can be corrected while the editing is fresh in the user's mind.

Take a close look at your TMG toolbar. On the right side you will see seven colorful icons. Each one prints a ready-made report. Pointing at each icon with your mouse will bring up a "tool tip" that identifies each icon's function. The first icon generates an Individual Narrative Preview that's handy for checking your narration. The second generates an Individual Narrative Preview with Sources in parentheses that's useful for checking your citations. The third generates a List of Sources used for the individual, i.e. a bibliography. Click on the appropriate icon and your report will appear on screen. Try each one. If you like them, you might want to skip the rest of this page. If you itch to adjust these reports, access them from the Report Menu and edit them to meet your standards. The following illustrates the process.

Report Definition Screen		Since I use my Individual Narrative report for editing my data base, I want to Alt-Tab between TMG and the report. The easy way with TMG 4.x was to create an HTML report. With TMG 5.x, it's just as easy to send the report to the screen. This is a step-by-step procedure for creating and running this report. Report Definition Screen: Click on Reports; then Individual Narrative. To be safe, add a new Configuration name first. Click on Add and write in a descriptive file name. Click on Save and feel free to save with the existing values. We'll be changing them anyway. Determine the subject of the report. For this Individual Narrative, it's the person being edited: the Current Focus Person. Determine where you want the report to appear. For temporary reports, the Screen is usually the best option. Now click on the Options button.
Report Options: General Tab		Report Options Screen: General Tab Take heart. It's not as confusing as you think. Not all tabs here are relevant for a screen report. The ones I change are: General, Sources, Memos, Tags, Places, and Miscellaneous. Make sure that the "Include blank surety" option is checked, especially if you don't use TMG's surety feature. Unless I want to see a report derived only from direct evidence from original documents (my surety=3), I make sure Threshold 0 is marked. Check the "Bypass the Report Definition Screen . . ." if you want to print this report with one click of a toolbar button.
Report Options: Sources		Report Options Screen: Sources I like my sources as Endnotes and I like to see how they read when combined. The Memo Screen is similar with similar choices.
Report Options: Tags		Report Options Screen: Tags For this editing report, you want to see everything. Check All Tags and All Events including witnessed events.
Report Options Screen: Places		Report Options Screen: Places Look at the Preposition choices. I always choose blank. I include prepositions in my sentence structures so I'm not limited to "At" or "In". Note the new TMG ver. 5.x ability to abbreviate states and provinces in reports. This means that, if you choose, you can write out the state names in your data base, but have them abbreviated in chart reports.
Report Options Screen: Miscellaneous		Report Options Screen: Miscellaneous I exclude a lot of my sentences, so I always have to visit the Miscellaneous tab. To check everything, I need to mark "Show excluded data". Although it's irrelevant in this report, here you can suppress details for living people. Look at all the Options Tabs and make your choices. When finished, click OK. You will be returned to the Report Definition Screen. Click Print & Save. You may be given an option to delete any endnotes in the cumulative list. Unless you have a book in progress, choose Yes. Your report will be run and TMG will then open the finished report. Alt-Tab between the report and TMG to make any necessary changes in your database. Rerun the report any time you wish. You will be able to easily view your Endnotes by simply clicking on any of the superscripts in the Individual Narrative report. To view your Bibliography, select the HTML bibliography file you have created and open it in your browser. (My file is called "test000b.htm." The 'b' refers to 'Bibliography' of course.)

TMG allows you to customize the Toolbar; you can add a button to the Toolbar to access this report very easily.

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