Witness Hints for TMG

As the TMG Reference Manual states:

"Witnesses
[W] Current witness
[WO] Other witnesses separated by commas. Excludes principals and (in witness sentence
structures) the current witness. This variable is never included in default sentences
because the sentence construction depends on the user's implementation of the witness
feature.
Examples: [P] married [PO] <and the ceremony was witnessed by [WO]>.
[W] performed the ceremony <and [WO] were also present>."

End quote.

TAG ENTRY SCREEEN :
TMG does not allow [W] to be entered in the default sentence (which is for Principals) on the TAG ENTRY SCREEEN because TMG has no way to determine which one witness you are referring to among multiple possible witnesses. Therefore TMG will change any attempt you make to place a [W] with a [P].

However [WO] is allowed because it includes all witnesses and thus there is no chance for confusion.
WITNESS ENTRY SCREEN:
TMG will allow [W] to be entered in the default sentence (which is for Witnesses) on the WITNESS ENTRY SCREEN. However caution should be used here because if there are multiple witnesses the [W] will change depending on who has the focus at the time.

        From the second example above and assume John ,Jane and Jim are 3 witnesses.

        On John's person view or in his narrative report you would get:
            John performed the ceremony and Jane and Jim were also present.

        On Jane's person view or in her narrative report you would get:
            Jane performed the ceremony and John and Jim were also present.

As you can see this can cause unexpected results. It is better to create ROLES if the interchange of [W] would cause confusion.

Tag Type Definition Screen.
Another possible source of confusion is on the Tag Type Definition Screen. Where TMG allows you to place [W] in a Principal's default sentence but when it is printed [W] becomes [P] for the same reasons as above. But since TMG does not (I think this is a buglet) change the sentence appearance from [W] to [P] this can be confusing.

        For example: you can create a Principal default sentence that reads:
        [P] married [PO] and [W] performed the ceremony <and [WO] were also present>.

        Assuming George and Gina as [P] and [PO] and John, Jane and Jim as witnesses.

        Then the narrative report would read:
        George and Gina and George performed the ceremony and John, Jane and Jim were also present.

In summary just remember that you can not use [W] in default Principal sentences whether or not it is apparent. Also remember that in Witness sentences with multiple witnesses if [W] is not interchangeable it is better to use ROLES.

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