Maximizing Use of TMG Lessons Learned (Discussion by Meeting Participants) After a program from Suzanne LeBlanc Ottawa TMG Sept 2013 John Frank moderator December 2014

If you had to go back, what would you do differently in TMG? Enter sources immediately Negative source information Join RUG sooner Enter sort dates Enter simplified sources that export better to other programs Decide naming conventions

If you had to go back, what would you do differently in TMG? Style sheets for entering data(such as punctuation, abbrev. etc) Get Second Site earlier Create custom template for consistent source data entry Include captions on your exhibits

With your experience now, what do you consider important from the start? Avoid split CD’s (Citation Detail can be split into 9 segments using ||, like Memo) and embedded citations to give easier export Verify imported data from the previous program Plan to export your data (publish) from the start, both hard copy and the Web Tap into the experience of more experienced users

If you started out using TMG by migrating your data from another program, what tasks would you do first? Clean up Place data because that is the basis for everything When migrating data, know what source standard was used in the original program Clean up data before importing into TMG Import a small database with different setting to obtain the desired result

What have you had to go back and redo? Should this have been set up carefully at the beginning? Practically everything Memo size was a problem when importing You need a good understanding of sentences in TMG when you start to publish External vs internal exhibits

If you are using Second Site, what would you do differently in TMG to improve SS? Make sure that you put captions on your exhibits Pay attention to your sentence structure

What recommendations would you make on handling images? Make external images in TMG Use “save for web” if that option is available Use additional tool to manipulate image for the desired result Label image with TMG ID if it is an individual

What recommendations would you make on handling sources? Be consistent Be diligent Use Evidence Explained Make sure you can find it again Not too many advanced features so that it exports more completely Use the citation memo to show what data was found in a particular source

Is it necessary to consider how data is structured in TMG so that data can be exported (into another program, etc?)? No, make use of the features of TMG. Any other program should be able to accept the data Use fields of TMG as intended