This article appeared in the May/June 2000 issue of Everton's Genealogical Helper.


The Master Genealogist Tips

By Lee H. Hoffman

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ToolBar Modifications.  One of the ways that more experienced users ensure that their data entry will appear the way they want in various reports is to generate a quick copy of that report to the screen. The quickest way to generate a report like this is to add a button to the Toolbar for the desired report.  To do this you must have created the desired report definition first.  Then it must be designated as a Primary report.

 Any report definition may be marked for inclusion on the Reports menu at the top of the screen.  You may make this designation in the Custom Report Writer (CRW) Log (Reports=>Custom Report Writer... from the top menu) by highlighting the desired Report Definition and clicking on the Toggle Menu button. An M will appear to the right of the Report Definition name to indicate that it will appear on the Reports menu. 

 Report Definitions are also marked as Primary via the CRW Log, but first you must temporarily remove the itemization of reports on the Reports menu by deselecting this feature in the System Configuration Screen (General tab).  Click on Tools=>Options in the top menu, turn off or deselect the Itemize custom reports on Reports menu option and click on the OK button to save the change.  Now go into the CRW Log (Reports=>Custom Report Writer... from the top menu).  This time you should see that, instead of an M indicator beside the names of some of the Report Definition names, there is an asterisk(*) for some of the entries.  There may be only one Primary Report Definition for each report type.  Thus if you have two (or more) reports of the same type (i.e., Genealogy or Journal narrative report), then only one may have an asterisk beside it.  Now highlight the Report Definition that you wish to execute from the Toolbar and click on the Primary button (formerly the Toggle Menu button) to place an asterisk (*) by the name.  If there are other Report Types that you wish to mark as Primary, do that now.  Then click on the Exit button. Now you will want to restore the Report menu itemization.  Enter the System Configuration Screen, select or turn on the Itemize custom reports on Reports menu option, and then exit the System Configuration Screen.

 Now to add the item(s) to the Toolbar, select the Toolbar tab of the System Configuration screen.  Click on any entry in the Unused buttons box and scroll down the list until you find the report type of the Report Definition that you just marked as Primary.  Click on the <<Add button to move that option over to the Toolbars buttons box on the left.  Scroll down that list and you will see it as the last entry.  You may adjust that up (and down) on the Toolbar buttons list as you desire.  Just click on the Move Up (or Move Down) buttons until the entry is placed where you want it.

 You may customize the button for a Toolbar item by highlighting that item and clicking on the Properties button.  If you have an bitmap (BMP) file or an icon (ICO) file that you wish to use as to help you recognize the button on the Toolbar, then the Edit Toolbar Button screen is where you will enter this.  If there is no image, you may use text  for the button.  It is suggested that you only use one or two text characters in order to allow more Toolbar buttons if you desire them.

Special Characters. Users often want or need to enter data using other than standard English characters. This particularly pertains to entry of names of persons and places. For example, the characters À, æ, ø, ñ, ç, and/or others might be desired.  There are a couple of ways to enter these characters.

One method is to use the Windows Character Map function which may be accessed from the TMG top menu (click on Tools=>Character Map).  Highlight the desired character(s) and click on the Select button to place the character(s) in the Characters to copy field.  When all desired characters are selected, click on the Copy button to place those characters on the Windows Clipboard. Place the cursor where you want to character(s) inserted, and select Edit=>Paste to copy the character(s) from the Clipboard.

The other method is to enter each character using the (decimal) key code from the numeric keypad (turn on <Num Lock>).   Many of the desired special characters and their key code equivalents are shown in the TMG online Help.  Just look for the keyword ‘special’  and you will find the topic easily.

For either method, the character being inserted should be in the Arial font in order for it to be reflected correctly in your dataset. Most fonts translate the characters correctly, but some are somewhat different.  For example, the Symbol font has the “™“ trademark character which corresponds to the “ä” character in the Arial font.  So if you select a character from another font which differs from the Arial font, you will not get the character that you want but the corresponding character in the Arial font

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Further information about The Master Genealogist can be obtained from Wholly Genes, Inc., 5144 Flowertuft Ct, Columbia, MD 21075, 
on the TMG website <http://www.whollygenes.com> or tollfree at 1-877-TMG-FAMILY. TMG Tech Support is available at 1-410-715-2260 
or by e-mail at <tmg@whollygenes.com>.


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