TNG Data Entry
TNG is not just for displaying data on the Web; it has comprehensive data entry and editing screens that are used on many TNG sites to enter and manage their genealogical data. But no "guides" have been written to cover TNG data entry in general. The table below lists a number of data entry screens in TNG, and links to working demonstration pages.
TNG can also import data using the industry standard Gedcom format. Many TNG sites use PC-based genealogy packages for primary data entry, and then import data to TNG from GEDCOM extracts. See Import Data for more information about that process. But even where the core genealogical data is imported, TNG administrators must use data-entry screens to manage the other TNG objects listed below.
The links below take you to specific pages in a partially-functioning TNG demonstration site. The first Demo page you visit may require you to login, using the Username demo and the Password demo. When they are invoked from the Administrative menus, these pages normally have navigation frames above and to the left of the data entry form. But the navigation frames are not displayed with the forms that are displayed through the links below. But they will have tabs that link to other functions (Search, Add New, etc.) and help page links.
Or, you can go [Directly to the Demo Administration page.
Note that several of these forms have numerous pop-up subforms, and/or directly invoke other forms. For instance, when editing a person, you can enter events or citations through pop-up forms, and if you want to enter a spouse you are taken to the Family editor to enter marriage information, where you can also enter (or edit) the spouse using the Person editor again.
All of these forms have help links, so be sure to visit those help pages for more information.
Typically, these forms may be reached
- Though an Edit link on a page that displays the object (a person, a family, a media object, a source, etc.), or
- Though the administrative menus, where the user selects a type of object, lists object that match a search key, and then selects a specific object
Fundamental GEDCOM objects
If you import your data from GEDCOM files, then edits you make with these TNG screens may be overwritten by your next GEDCOM import. Each object name below is a link to the TNG Demo, from where you can play with the screen and display its help file.
- Person - See also Add Person, Edit Person, People - Merge, and Arranging Family Order
- Family - See also Add Family and Remove Child
- Media Object - See also Media - Add New, and Setup - Media
- Source - See also Sources
- Repository See also Repositories
- Notes can be edited only in the context of the object to which they are attached, whether that's a person, family, event, source, or repository.
Other Gedcom objects
- Places
- TNG does not use any kind of external database of placenames (as some genealogy programs do); its Places table consists of places that have been entered into your database. When you are The placename field does not look up placenames in a global database of places, nor does it validate against existing placenames, as is true some other genealogy programs. (When you are entering place information about an event, you can look up existing place names, but you don't have to.) The user may thus enter "Houston,Texas", "Houston, Texas", and "Houston, TX", "Houston, Texas, USA", "Houston, Texas, United States" as five separate place names, and even enter "Houston, Harris, TX", "Harris, TX", and "Houston, Harris County, TX" as three more. It is up to a site's administrator to establish naming conventions, which would likely be country specific.
- The Person, Family, and Media Object data stays fairly clean in the demonstration site, but Place data is pretty badly messed up. So don't be surprised to see many redundant and bogus place names if you search for place names.
- Events can be edited only within the Person and Family editors. So you'll need to see those data entry screens above.
- Citations can also be edited only within events. See also Citations
Other TNG objects
These objects have no relationship to the Gedcom model. The first line at each bullet point goes to the object's search and selection screen in the TNG demo, where you can edit an existing object, read the TNG help file for that object, and (in most cases) create a new one.
- Essential objects
- Users — See Users and Guests, and the TNG Mod Admin Users-More enhances this search and selection screen.
- Trees — See Setup - Tree
- Objects that are almost essential
- Reports — See Reports, Reports - Learning How To Create, the Admin Reports List mod, which enhances the Reports search and selection screen, and the Floating Report Editor mod, which enhances the Report edit screen.
- Languages — See Setup - Language
- Objects that you may find useful, but that the application doesn't depend on
- Cemeteries — See Cemeteries, Setup - Cemeteries, Cemeteries - Add / Edit, and the TNG mod Cemeteries_Admin_List, which enhances the search and select screen and the edit screen.
- Branches — See Branches
- Albums — See Albums.
- Most Wanted — See Most Wanted