Returning to Reports

Many years ago, when TMG was just a baby genealogy program, our Maryland TMG Users Group decided that if you really wanted to understand TMG, you had to become proficient with its powerful reports. Of course, this is almost a chicken and egg situation. Becoming proficient with TMG reports requires knowledgeable data entry practices and vice versa. The Tri-Valley TMG Users Group frequently returns to report writing, and that's where most of the members' questions have focused for the past few months. Studying TMG reports is not as easy as it seems. We all have different research problems and different ways to approach and solve those problems. Research methodology classes require teachers who can generalize from the specifics - and students who can apply these generalizations to their specific problems. Becoming proficient with TMG reports requires that same process. Let's see if we can generalize some TMG reports specifics.

Like many genealogy programs, TMG offers a long list of report types; in TMG's case, this list includes ten different "List of..." reports and twenty other report types. "Which report should I choose? There's so many options!"

Rather than make a choice based on this long list, select a report based on your purpose for that report. For me, TMG reports fall into five classes.

• Publication reports. As far as my research is concerned, these are the TMG Journal reports. I'm not interested in using any other reports for publication purposes.
• Charts. If I want a chart, I usually opt for the graphic and beautiful Box Charts, the Family Group Sheet, or the Pedigree Chart.
• Research analysis reports. These are the report types I choose most often, and they are usually one of the List of... reports. I usually export these to Excel, so I can filter, sort, and query with them.
• Research preparation reports. Are you good at preparing for your research trips, whether real or virtual ones? If so, you probably already have a good selection of reports you routinely use in these preparations. For me, the most frequently used reports for research prep are the List of Tasks, the List of People, and the Family Group Sheet reports. I also write an accompanying research plan, but that's a Word report, not a TMG report. I do have a special Individual Narrative report that details all research and proof arguments for a given individual that is often included in this research preparation.
• Database cleanup reports. Most of our users like filtering TMG's Project Explorer for these reports. This way, you can simply progress down the Project Explorer, editing the relevant individuals as you go. Is this the way you like to work? If so, you should become very familiar with the List of People report. Those are the reports that allow one to filter the Project Explorer.

That leaves a lot of unused report types! A few of these I never use, for example, the Statistical report and the Project Information report. I do run the Audit report occasionally, maybe once a year. I almost never run Ahnentafel reports, Compressed Pedigree reports, or Distribution of People reports, and Kinship reports and Relationship charts are for-fun-only reports, from my point of view. Of course, my point of view isn't necessarily yours, and that's what makes writing how-to articles about TMG a little difficult. But let's try, shall we?

The most frequent report request I receive is this. "I want to make a list of people for whom I don't have 1850 census information, so I can go through the database and update those records. How do I create that list?" Let's investigate the process in the next post (or two).