Jerry Bryan

A RootsMagic GEDCOM does not include .....sentences from the Alternate name tag. I hope that this can be remedied in Version Eight.

Actually, I hope that there is a rather more substantial improvement for RM in this area. RM's back end database supports sources, media, and a note for Alternate Names and also for the "main" name. The back end data structure is no different for the two kinds of names. The RM front end user interface supports sources, media, and a note for Alternate Names but not for the "main" name. A much better approach would simply be to support multiple names, all of which support sources, media, and a note, and one of which would be marked as primary for reporting purposes. It should be easy to change which name is marked as primary. Then, all of this name data should be included in GEDCOM export. And then, RM's direct import for FTM and RM's ancestry interface via TreeShare could include all this name data. It would be a win-win-win-win type of situation for RM users, GedSite users, FTM users who wish to convert to RM, and TreeShare users.

Jerry

I think this may already be on the list, but RM also does not include witness notes in GEDCOM output.

Jerry

A agree that from the point of view of pure logic, media files that are linked to "sources" should be linked to RM's Source Details and not to RM's Master Sources. But I am an extreme source splitter. I didn't start out as a source splitter, and I came to be an extreme source splitter only reluctantly and only because of a peccadillo of RM. Namely, it is common in RM to memorize and paste a citation many different places - for example, with an obituary which mentions many different people or with a census page where many of the families on the page are in your database. If you need to make any additions or corrections to a citation that you have memorized and pasted, you then have to make the same addition or correction at every place you have memorized and pasted the citation. This is a major pain. And an addition or correction can include a media file that has to be added.

My solution to this design weakness of RM was to become an extreme source splitter, which includes linking media files to RM's Master Sources. But RM deals with linking media files to Master Sources vs. linking media files to Source Details in a very confusing and non-intuitive manner. Indeed, there is no way in RM's user interface for sources to link a media file directly to a Master Source. You first have to link the media file to a Source Details, and then you can use RM's tagging procedure to link the same media file to the Master Source. If you start out with the tagging interface, you can actually link a media file directly to a Master Source from the get go. But when I'm working on sources, that is not a very natural way to work.

Jerry

You don't actually "contribute to ancestry" in the same way you "contribute to FamilySearch". Your tree on ancestry is your tree, but you are contributing to a single community tree at FamilySearch that is both updated and seen by all FamilySearch users.

Well, you can "contribute to ancestry" by making your private tree to be public, but you don't have to do so. And even if you make it public, it's still your tree. It can be seen by others but not modified by others. And if you don't want a tree at ancestry to be seen by others, just leave it private.

Jerry

I think there is a substantial trap in the RM user interface when adding media to "sources writ large". There are a couple of drill downs from the Edit Person screen to get to the problem area. For example, highlight a Birth fact and click on the Sources box (or you can double click the green check mark for Sources for the birth fact). You get a list of "Sources" which I think are really citations, but we will let that pass. So highlight one of the sources and click the Edit tab (or double click one of the sources). You will be in the Edit Source screen with the Citation tab highlighted. This is the familiar RM yellow/green screen with the Master Source information in yellow and the Source Detail information in green. There are tabs called Master Text and Detail Text, each of which allows you to enter two different notes. I think the entry of these notes needs to be visible and available for entry from the Citation tab itself, but let's also let that pass. The real issue here is the Media tab.

The Media tab conflates media that is tagged to the Master Source vs. media that is tagged to the Source Detail in a very confusing way. There is a drop down which can be set to Source and Detail, Source Only, or Detail which helps a little but not very much. Again, I think the information about media also should be shown back on the Citation tab and again we will let that pass. For displaying media, the Source and Detail, Source Only, or Detail drop down does work - very awkwardly in my opinion, but it does work. But the real killer is that if from this screen you add media it is added only to the Detail, even if you wanted to add it to the Source and even if you set the drop down to Source Only before adding the media. It's a terrible trap.

Given the given design of the whole media and sources user interface, it's hard to see how best to fix the situation. I think this particular part of the RM user interface needs to be thrown out, bath water and baby and all, and redesigned from scratch. My biggest complaint is really just the highly excessive level of drill down where you can't see easily what media files are linked to which Sources and which Detail. But the fact that you can only add media to the Detail, even when you think you have added it to the Source, really needs to be fixed. It will be interesting to see how it looks in RM8.

Jerry