
#1
Posted 25 November 2012 - 08:12 AM
Should just the name be used - last name first, or the number assigned by RM ? Just getting ready to begin and have hundreds of photos, so would like to do it right the first time.
I understand RM will probably work with either, but is there a best way for me ?
#2
Posted 25 November 2012 - 09:27 AM
In the description of the photos I include additional information: source of photo, location, year taken, and anything else I know about it.
#3
Posted 25 November 2012 - 11:32 AM
doe-john,1901-jan-12-(b) simple birth copy
doe-john,1901-jan-12-(d) same but death copy
doe-john,smith-maggie,1901-mar-31-dunnyvannen-ballymena-antrim-(cens) think you should have the idea now.
Just agree a format that suits you and stick to it, if all else fails and the image is not linked to RM I can easily find it in Windows.
Keeping ones customers and their important views at a distance is never a good approach
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#4
Posted 25 November 2012 - 12:11 PM
- Keep in mind that you are likely to have more than one image per person, so a person's name and birthdate is probably not sufficient to create a unique media file name.
- Keep in mind that some of the image files will be photos, but that some if them will also probably be documents - birth certificates, death certificates, wills, tax records, census records, family bibles, and the like. Your media file names need to accomodate this variety.
- Keep in mind that one media file (whether a photo or a document) may include more than one person.
- The files are not really in RM but are in Windows instead (and this is a really good thing), so think more about how the media file names are organized in Windows than RM. If they are well organized and make sense and are easy to find in Windows, then that will carry over just fine into RM.
- Keep in mind that RM defines a file uniquely by its file name without regard to its folder path, so don't have two media file names the same in Windows, even if they are in different folders in Windows.
- Beg, borrow, and steal good ideas from other, but in the end be sure that what you use is something that you yourself are happy with and understand.
#5
Posted 25 November 2012 - 12:42 PM
Gravestone: George Riegle
1850 U.S. Census: Joseph Steigerwalt Family
Hope that helps.
#6
Posted 25 November 2012 - 12:55 PM
I use B for birth, BA for baptism, M for marriage and D for death, B for burial.
For census I use the year, country and persons name. So 1881 Canada Census John Doe.
For personal photos I just use the persons name and a number after it. So if I have 3 photos for John Doe the next photo would be John Doe 4.
I keep photos sorted into folders by family.
#7
Posted 26 November 2012 - 11:17 AM
Not in Windows. Colons are disallowed in file names. Do you mean Description or Caption in RM?I use the name of the document or item, followed by a colon and then the name of the person of family it belongs to. For example:
Gravestone: George Riegle
1850 U.S. Census: Joseph Steigerwalt Family
Hope that helps.
Tom user of RM7630 FTM2017 Ancestry.ca FamilySearch.org FindMyPast.com wiki, exploiting the database in special ways >>>
app, a bundle of RootsMagic utilities.
#8
Posted 26 November 2012 - 02:24 PM
Not in Windows. Colons are disallowed in file names. Do you mean Description or Caption in RM?
It works just fine in Windows. As the OP stated, "Wondering if there is a preferred method to identify attached photos" she was not referring to file names but the label attached to them in RM..
#9
Posted 26 November 2012 - 03:11 PM
What "works fine in Windows"? Definitely not colons in file names. You inferred she was not referring to file names but the majority of respondents inferred otherwise, as did I, which is why I sought clarification of your message.It works just fine in Windows. As the OP stated, "Wondering if there is a preferred method to identify attached photos" she was not referring to file names but the label attached to them in RM..
What do you mean by the "label attached to them in RM"? That's not a RM term - there are file names, Captions and Descriptions. Under the thumbnail, either the file name or the caption is displayed; nowhere in RM parlance is that called a "label". Even if it were, then its duality should be recognised.
Most of the respondents answered that they use a structured format. I would suggest that structuring is vital to file naming but optional for Captions. I use captions as creatively as I can for presentation in Scrapbooks, the new website, and, hopefully, in narrative reports, relying on the file name to convey to me the basic facts about the item for management. RM keeps track of where I have tagged the photo; the Sorted:filename view of the Media Gallery, whether by thumbnail or list, reflects the structure I have imposed on file paths and file names (which would be much improved with a directory style hierarchical listing); Windows Explorer best presents the structure. So I have no need to structure captions and would not have expected anyone else to, either.
Tom user of RM7630 FTM2017 Ancestry.ca FamilySearch.org FindMyPast.com wiki, exploiting the database in special ways >>>
app, a bundle of RootsMagic utilities.
#10
Posted 26 November 2012 - 05:00 PM
I named most of them back in the DOS days when we were limited to the eight point three character names.
Now I have forgotten what those names mean. I can usually figure them out by the person to whom they are linked.
Now, from experimenting just now I think you can use 243 characters before the dot in the filename.
That can be pretty descriptive, although there won't be room to show it all in a lot of places.
For instance, the filename of my signature photo is: "AL_Olds.JPG"
It could now be something like: " Alfred @4yrs by father's Olds at Eller Homstead.jpg"
BUT, it is a lot of work to change them all.
#11
Posted 26 November 2012 - 05:07 PM
What "works fine in Windows"? Definitely not colons in file names. You inferred she was not referring to file names but the majority of respondents inferred otherwise, as did I, which is why I sought clarification of your message
She never asked about file naming conventions, she asked about how to label attached photos. Furthermore, I never mentioned naming files either and clarified that in my response. Too bad you didn't read the question.
#12
Posted 26 November 2012 - 05:11 PM
Not in Windows. Colons are disallowed in file names. Do you mean Description or Caption in RM?
Too bad you didn't read what I very clearly stated, again,
". . . she was not referring to file names but the label attached to them in RM."
In other words, the caption. However, the OP also did not mention descriptions either and, as she was discussing photos and not documents, which would comprise the bulk of most documentary evidence, it's too bad you didn't ask the OP what he/she means.
#13
Posted 26 November 2012 - 05:30 PM
For websites, I forget what the old Create HTML pages does with images but the new one does include captions that overwrite the image from the bottom, suggesting some constraint on the length of the caption. The website design may evolve quickly but currently, a Person's collection of personal and personal event photos can be outputted, maybe more - I haven't explored all of what it does.
I choose to output Caption only, thus allowing Description to be as long as I need. Still working out some concepts, such as storing the transcript of a census image in the metadata of the image in the image file as well as the RM Description. I had previously explored copying between RM and image metadata: Media Metadata, Read, Write, Compare ...
Tom user of RM7630 FTM2017 Ancestry.ca FamilySearch.org FindMyPast.com wiki, exploiting the database in special ways >>>
app, a bundle of RootsMagic utilities.
#14
Posted 26 November 2012 - 05:33 PM
Now that I read this, I suppose the hyphenating of the name for the married woman, with married name first then maiden name, could get confusing to others. It might be more meaningful to have the maiden name in parentheses. I will have to think about that.
(And I am referring to naming photo or document files for Windows.)
#15
Posted 26 November 2012 - 09:33 PM
Alfred, if you have captioned your photos and would like to use the caption as the filename, I could come up with a way to change your database to the new filenames and provide you with a batch file to rename them or copy them to new filenames.Nearly anything is better than the way I have my photo files names.
I named most of them back in the DOS days when we were limited to the eight point three character names.
Now I have forgotten what those names mean. I can usually figure them out by the person to whom they are linked.
Now, from experimenting just now I think you can use 243 characters before the dot in the filename.
That can be pretty descriptive, although there won't be room to show it all in a lot of places.
For instance, the filename of my signature photo is: "AL_Olds.JPG"
It could now be something like: " Alfred @4yrs by father's Olds at Eller Homstead.jpg"
BUT, it is a lot of work to change them all.
Tom user of RM7630 FTM2017 Ancestry.ca FamilySearch.org FindMyPast.com wiki, exploiting the database in special ways >>>
app, a bundle of RootsMagic utilities.
#16
Posted 26 November 2012 - 09:58 PM
I think I am the only one in my family that has any interest in this so I only play around with it to help those people online.
I do keep the media files in personal folders in a pedigree tree type of arrangement.
I thought everyone on this thread was talking about file names until APerson decided to add a colon.
I still think they were. Oh well, it isn't my first mistake.
#17
Posted 27 November 2012 - 12:29 AM
first I have a folder for each of my family groups, one for my dad, one for each of my grandparents, one for my wife's dad, and one for each of her grandparents, etc.
I then take my lead from the D'Abovlle numbering system.
In my dads folder he would have the number 1.0 (also my mom, and there family photos)
there first child would have the # 1.1
there first child's # would be 1.1.1
Etc
after the # I put the persons name (the one they were using when the picture was taken), the date the picture was taken (I estimate the date if unknown) using the format YYYY-MM-DD, I then enter any other info I have for the photo.
It looks something like this
1.0 Dad Peacock 1905-05-12
1.0 Dad Peacock 1944 Abt
1.0 Dad Peacock Family 1935-10-12 Dad and Mom Wedding Day
1.0 Dad Peacock Family 1938-05-06 Son, daughter, son2, son3 at family reunion
1.0 Mom Eastwood 1910
1.0 Mom Peacock 1939
1.1 Son Peacock 1937-10-25
1.1 wife Brown 1944 abt
1.1.1 grandsoon1 1960
1.1.2 grandson2 1963
1.1.3 grandson3 1964-05-06
1.1.2 daughter Peacock 1940
1.1.2 daughter Jones family 1966 daughter, husband in new car
Etc
using this system the photos sort in family order and then by the date the picture was taken so it shows how they changed over the years.
its also easy to add the photos to RM as the information for the caption, description and date fields are in the file name.
Bill
Also tagged with one or more of these keywords: photos
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