Do you make a new Type every time you encounter a new one? Like Sending a letter of congrats after a wedding. It is not a wedding, it is ‘Letter’ or ‘Send Letter’ or even ‘Sender’ which neutral for telegrams as well. But this is probably the only time I have ever come across a letter that I would want to incorporate into my research. And there are other types (like detention and confirmation) that are so rare. So how do you do that?
I would use a more generic “type” and be more specific in the description. (And attach a Media object or transcription Note.)
If the quantity of a custom type increases to a large number, I might break it imto more types
Perhaps communiqué or message as the type?
So long as you are not concerned with translations, feel free to make custom types that best meet your needs. That being said, try using the broadest term possible and use the Description field for clarification.
Maybe Communique as the Type and then “Letter Sent”, “… Received”, “Telegram”, etc as descriptions.
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Yes, thank you. I always add a transcription note (if available)
When breaking into more types after a certain number has been hit, would involve going through existing records that use the type and doing them over again in order to re-Type them. Right? That seems like a lot of work. As if genealogy isn’t that already 
When using custom Types, there is the Types Cleanup tool. It searches the entire database and shows all of your custom types. With it, you can edit, rename, and delete no longer used types.
Changing en masse is when you get the most satisfying benefit from a quick SuperTool script applied to custom filtered set of rows in a view.
I’m aware of the Clean Up and have used it in the past. But I’m failing to see how it would be helpful during diversifying one type into several others when time arises.
I’m totally not into any scripting. After my VisualBasic course eons ago I’m mostly a user of other peoples (much appreciated) work.
I get that. But in this case, the scripting is almost too strong of a statement. (Although you should always make a backup before using any Tool.)
Say that you create a bunch of “Communique” Events that have a “DD Form 214” (also known in the USA as the Certificate of Release or Discharge from Active Duty). Then you decide that these should be another Event Type. (Such as Military Service in the Vocational types of Events.)
So you go to the Events Filter gramplet and set the Description to “Form 214” and the Type to “Communique”, then Find the matches.
Then to use the SuperTool to change the type of those rows of Events, launch the addon SuperTool (Tools → Isotammi tools - SuperTool) and make the “Statements executed for each object” say event.set_type("Military Service")
I’ll check that the right item is being changed in the temporary “proxy” copy by adding type, description to the expressions to display, then select one row, select the Selected objects radio button and click the Execute button. (By default, the Commit changes option is deselected. So changes are applied to the temporary copy, not the real tree.)
If the “Result” list looks good, select the “Commit changes” checkbox and Execute on the real data. Once you confirm the single row change looks good, select the others and apply. (I tend to limit myself to changing one screen-full of selections at a time.)
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