11 replies to this topic

[JoyCan]

I want to create a scrapbook for several individual cemeteries in the same town.  In my database, I use the Place field for just cities and towns, county, state, country.  I use Place Details for names of cemeteries (in this case). 

 

The media I want to use are two part: 1) photo of the cemetery sign; 2) grave markers of individuals buried at that location (also tag to the person's Burial fact).

 

When I select the Place and Place Details for the scrapbook, I am getting all photos associated with the town (Place), not just the sub-place I want associated with the Place Details (the cemetery).

 

I sure hope there is a way to do this.  Any ideas?  I keep going in circles.

[TomH]

Having introduced the Place Details feature versions ago, it is still not fully implemented and this inability to print a scrapbook for just a Place Detail is an ongoing shortcoming. So, there is no way to get your Cemetery photos printed without getting all the scrapbook images for the Place and all its other Place Details. So, with this limitation, you want your Cemetery to be a Place, not a Place Detail. However, while RootsMagic has a feature to split a Place into a Place Detail and Place, it has no capability to reverse that process. So I developed a SQLite script to combine the two into a Place. It is available at http://sqlitetoolsfo...tails to Places

[JoyCan]

Any thoughts about using tags?  I have not fully investigated that capability.

[TomH]

Good question. A workaround would be to create a dummy person for each cemetery using, say, surname = Place, given = cemetery, prefix or suffix = scrapbook. Then tag to that person all the media items that are already tagged to the cemetery place detail. Print the scrapbook for this cemetery person.

[Renee Zamora]

Confirming a Place Detail only Scrapbook has been added as an enhancement request in our tracking system.

[JoyCan]

That is fantastic, Renee.  Thanks.  Before I realized my plan would not work as envisioned, I made important notes on the Place Detail too.  For example, one cemetery is a private family cemetery whose location is rather difficult to find.  On the Place Detail Notes, I included some helpful hints on how to find it, utilizing the gps coordinates too. My thought was to include the scrapbook as part of my book compiled from my Roots Magic database (which I dearly love, by the way).  My family member could then go on a personal history tour of our family to collect more information, or simply enjoy the connection with our past.

 

I have yet to explore the Family Reunion Planner, but I believe my ideas for a comprehensive Place Detail would be a great companion to that function.  Perhaps Roots Magic would like to explore the Place Detail capabilities even further.  Oh boy, I say this at risk of "pushing my luck'!  

 

Still, I am grateful for the request as is.  How will I know when the request is approved?  Thanks again.

[Vyger]

Still, I am grateful for the request as is.  How will I know when the request is approved?  Thanks again.

 

JoyCan, this, or similar, has been wished for and added to the tracking several years ago, see link below. I also embrace Place Details building quality entries in terms of Media, Geocoding and explanation Notes. The ongoing lack of ability to make use of this information is very disappointing but I still hold hope.

 

http://forums.rootsm...or-media-notes/

[Jerry Bryan]

Still, I am grateful for the request as is.  How will I know when the request is approved?  Thanks again.

 

The RM tracking system is just that - a list to track user wishes. It is not any kind of commitment to include a feature in a future version of RM. A very small percentage of wish list items ever seem to make it into RM. The percentage is not zero, but it is very small. Most new RM features seem to originate with the developers rather than with the users. New features are almost never pre-announced. The users know about new features when they come out in a new version and not before. The recent announcements about synchronization between RM and trees at ancestry.com and about Webhints for an additional site seem to be exceptions to this general rule of new features not being pre-announced.

 

Jerry

[JoyCan]

Well, clearly I am new to this rodeo; I optimistically thought a change would be forthcoming in the not-too-distant future.  Thanks to all who made candid replies so I now understand I must proceed with a work-around.  

 

I have experimented with a fictitious "person" to serve as my cemetery, and so far, I am pleased (enough) with the results.  Unfortunately, one must add photos in the desired order because there is not way to reorganize.  I deleted my first effort, and I now have one fairly decent cemetery scrapbook. 

 

However disappointed I am about the unlikelihood of a change forthcoming, I am pleased to know the forum is an active one.  I know how I must proceed in short order.  Thanks.  Cheers, Joy

[Vyger]

Well, clearly I am new to this rodeo; I optimistically thought a change would be forthcoming in the not-too-distant future.  Thanks to all who made candid replies so I now understand I must proceed with a work-around.  

 

I have experimented with a fictitious "person" to serve as my cemetery, and so far, I am pleased (enough) with the results.  Unfortunately, one must add photos in the desired order because there is not way to reorganize.  I deleted my first effort, and I now have one fairly decent cemetery scrapbook. 

 

However disappointed I am about the unlikelihood of a change forthcoming, I am pleased to know the forum is an active one.  I know how I must proceed in short order.  Thanks.  Cheers, Joy

 

JoyCan, I can understand your disappointment and I share it. Rootsmagic of old (and Family Origins) had a very good reputation for responding to user wishes in a much more timely manner. I believe the company has grown from that success and it is good to see but with the extra management demands that brings the pace of development on smallish issues of the past has slowed to a snail pace. For your information Bruce Buzbee still remains the main programmer of Rootsmagic with perhaps some help from Michael Booth, this has never been made completely clear but no one believes there is a team of progammers behind the scenes. With the company apparently growing and gaining new opportunities from the demise of other desktop programs and the additional demands on the existing programmer(s) then maybe it is time to invest in new programming talent.  

 

The ongoing controversy with many Rootsmagic features is whether something comes under the category of an enhancement request or whether it is a bug/issue. An issue would be a feature not completely thought through and requiring some finishing touches to bring it up to user expectations, those things get highlighted here shortly after a version release.

My personal opinion is that a database application should facilitate the retrieval and reporting of any and all information entered into it. Again in my opinion Rootsmagic sadly falls short of this basic expectation and has done for several years.

I believe Place Details has been left unfinished and those users who were attracted by the sales pitch for this feature almost 7 years ago deserve better. Sadly once that snake oil was sold Roootsmagic moved on to a new version of snake oil leaving users no option other than to modify how they enter their data (work arounds) or drop Place Details all together, as already done by many.

Again, sadly, this opinion can be applied to many recent "new features" and I believe this would be a more forward thinking and constructive forum if past shortcomings were eradicated in a much more timely manner before moving onto pastures new. Then we could discuss more important issues and ideas for the present and future rather than constantly having to constantly regurgitate long standing issues of the past and contemplate modifying our data input to overcome them.

[JoyCan]

Vyger,  

I agree. Your post back in 2012 proves the backlog is not thinning for "unfinished" existing features; that post was quite some time ago.  I am new to RM, so I have no idea the extent of the problem.  At this point, my first thought is that I am at fault for not figuring it out.

 

For the most part, I do like RM.  While new to it, I am not new to databases so I tend to poke around confidently.  As I continue to learn and find issues, I intend to return to this forum.  I will either learn from others to solve my problems, or at least add my voice to user concerns.

[Vyger]

Vyger,  

I agree. Your post back in 2012 proves the backlog is not thinning for "unfinished" existing features; that post was quite some time ago.  I am new to RM, so I have no idea the extent of the problem.  At this point, my first thought is that I am at fault for not figuring it out.

 

For the most part, I do like RM.  While new to it, I am not new to databases so I tend to poke around confidently.  As I continue to learn and find issues, I intend to return to this forum.  I will either learn from others to solve my problems, or at least add my voice to user concerns.

 

JoyCan, don't get me wrong, and I don;t think you have, as I still think RM is a great program, one of the best and my prime choice. It's just very disappointing to me that a few days work is not directed to overcoming these issues before moving on, that would also overcome negativity and make RM even better.

 

I continue to build quality Place Details with histories of Churches, Cemeteries and specific locations of more obscure ones in the hope that someday the option of the appendix I wished for will explain those to the reader of reports. So no workarounds on my side needing to be corrected later, just a hope that the reporting becomes what it should in the not too distant future.

 

I do hope you continue to contribute your views to the forum, I always find the perspectives on new users so refreshing.