TMG users are likely to want to compare their data in Family Historian, after import, with the data as held in TMG. Much of the information relating to that is covered in Importing from The Master Genealogist. This page provides some additional usage and configuration tips that are not covered in that page.
List Ordering
Records may be listed in Family Historian in a different order to the way they are listed in TMG. If you want to compare the lists, you may need to sort the list to match the TMG order of listing. You can sort on any column in a Family Historian record listing by clicking on the column heading (or press the Alt key while clicking to reverse the sort order).
Finding the ‘Abbreviation’ Field for Source Records
In TMG, sources are displayed in the Master Source List. Each source is displayed and viewed in the Source Definition dialog box. Right at the top of this window is the ‘Abbreviation’ field which is a standard field that all sources have. The equivalent standard field in Family Historian is called ‘Short Title’. Unfortunately, some TMG source types also have a template field called ‘Short Title’. The latter will be imported as a template field (it will have a bullet in front of it when listed in Family Historian). Do not to confuse this field with the standard ‘Short Title’ field (without the bullet), which the TMG Abbreviation field value will be imported into if you use the direct import from TMG.
Family Historian’s standard ‘Short Title’ field does not display, by default, when you are viewing a Source record that is based on a source template. However, you can customize the Property Box and Citation Window, to force it to be displayed. To do that, open the Property Box and click on the cog button on the Property Box toolbar. A dropdown menu appears. Take the option ‘Customize Property Box’. The Customize Property Box is displayed. Set ‘Record Type’ to ‘Source’, and set ‘Tab’ to ‘Main (template)’. Select ‘Short Title’ in the list on the left, and click the ‘>’ button in the middle of the window, to add this field to the list on the right. You may want to use the arrow keys below the list to move this field up (perhaps to the position just below the ‘Title’ field). This configuration is shared with the Citation Window, so the change will affect both.
Source records can be viewed in the Citation Window (when viewing a source citation). To view a list of Source records, click on the ‘View’ menu, and then ‘Other Record Lists’ and ‘Sources’. Double-click on any Source record to view it in the Property Box.
Make Source Record Listings Consistent with TMG
By default, Family Historian will use the ‘Short Title’ value for Source records in lists, unless it is empty, in which case the value in the ‘Title’ field will be used. This is different from TMG which always displays the value of the Source record ‘Title’ field in listings. To make the lists consistent with one another, untick the option ‘Use Short Title for Source record names if available’ in the ‘Records Window’ tab of Preferences (accessible from the Tools menu).
Removing Surname Capitalisation
Family Historian capitalizes surnames of people more than TMG. To prevent it doing so, untick the option ‘ Display surnames in upper case ‘ in the ‘General’ tab of Preferences (accessible from the Tools menu).
Understand Floating Windows
Both TMG and Family Historian make use of floating windows. That is, windows which can be left open (you don’t have to close them before you can do other things). See Floating Windows to learn more (including how to recognise them).