Well, I'm not demanding anything, but.........

I was not aware you could drag and drop media to RM7. Been doing this a long time.....

I know this is a little off topic but, I'd appreciate a quick description of how you do that.

Thanks,

Rick 

 

Rick, it's very easy, see my video linked below.

 

https://www.youtube....h?v=25gkgOAgv3k

 

and don't forget to Subscribe if you want notifications of future honest videos.

Vyger,

Thanks, the video was very helpful.

Rick

If this feature works like FTM on the mac it lets you add several media items (ie census, marriage, etc pdfs) at once to a person. Then you can just drag each media item to the fact it supports and source it. A common drag..drop feature on macs which is very efficient. 

It's been a while since I've done it and I don't remember the details. But the basic idea is that you have two windows open side by side. One window is Windows File Explorer, opened to the folder containing the files you wish to link into RM. The other window is RM open to the RM Media Gallery. You may have to resize the windows to make them both fit on the screen at the same time. Then just drag and drop the files from Windows File Explorer to the RM Media Gallery.

 

Some RM users love this facility. I confess I have never quite seen the benefit. The reason is that getting the files linked into RM's Media Gallery doesn't seem to me to accomplish very much. You still have to tag the files to specific objects in RM such as People, Names, Sources, Citations, Events, and Places. And it's the latter task that's more time consuming. So I usually just use RM's Add process to the files directly to People, Names, Sources, Citations, Events, and Places. The Add process serves the dual process linking the files into the RM Media Gallery and tagging the files to the appropriate People, Names, etc. in RM. It's one file at a  time. But after a bulk drag and drop of files into RM's Media Gallery, each file still has to be tagged to the appropriate places in RM, one file at a time.

 

Jerry

Thanks Jerry,

I agree. It seems to me that just using the RM7 media functions, and my own media naming conventions , actually work just as well. My biggest problem comes from using Ancestry Tree Share, which saves media to my media directory with Ancestry's file name. I have to then find the file, modify the name, and then use properties in the RM record to change the media link to match my changes. This all works ok but is tedious and time consuming. I guess I was hoping for some new functionalty that would help automate this process.

Rick 

I've been an RM user for several years now and I have used the forum with good success. I'd hate to see it go away. It has helped solve numerous issues for me. As someone else stated, I have no intension of using Facebook. For other, unrelated, reasons, I do not use that platform. I also hope this forum never goes away since user support will suffer greatly.

Rick

I've been following the comments on this topic as well. I support the idea of keeping this forum going. I have received so much good information and tips from this forum that I'd hate to think what my RM experience would have been like without it. For many reasons, mostly not related to genealogy, I have no intention of using facebook. Hope we keep this site going.

Rick

Rick, you will need separate family group sheets, one for each family he made with different spouses. 

Thanks Renee,

That's what my testing showed. For my purposes, when using Publisher, I have started using an Individual Summary instead of a Family Group sheet. It provides enough detail for most of my family member readers.  Example, male ancestor was married three times. By selecting IS it shows all three marriages, all children, and details for the ancestor. If I had used FGS the husbands data would have been repeated three times.

Rick

At the risk of seeming to crash in on this  thread.....

I have a question regarding multiple marriages and family group sheets as it applies to the Publisher function. I too have numerous multiple marriages in my tree (example - same husband, different wives). I have found that I have to use more than one family group sheet in publisher. One for each marriage. Technically this works, but it results in duplication of the husbands information, and adds to the page length of the report. Is this correct, or am I doing something wrong?

It does appear that a better choice may be to use the Individual Summary for the husband. Information about all spouses and children is included in that report. 

Rick

I included it in my procedure for renaming citation media from Ancestry for two reasons:

1. Debugging
2. Identifying subsequent duplicates via a match of the name of a new download to that substring of a renamed file.

The most basic link to an Ancestry media item looks like this:

https://www.ancestry.ca/interactive/8946/ONMS935_93-0459 

Maybe there is a shorter more direct path but I haven't found it. The downloaded file is named by default:

ONMS935_93-0459.jpg 

So you can reconstruct part of the link to the file on the Ancestry server from the filename but we're missing the intermediate level "/8496/". I don't know where you'd get that from.

Thanks Tom,

Actually Idon't think I care about the source ID, but I had been including it in my naming of the file in case there was a reason/need to get back to it. I never have.

Rick

I included it in my procedure for renaming citation media from Ancestry for two three reasons:

1. Debugging
2. Identifying subsequent duplicates via a match of the name of a new download to that substring of a renamed file.
3. Assured uniqueness of filename (thanks for reminding me, zhangrau)

The most basic link to an Ancestry media item looks like this:

https://www.ancestry.ca/interactive/8946/ONMS935_93-0459 

Maybe there is a shorter more direct path but I haven't found it. The downloaded file is named by default:

ONMS935_93-0459.jpg 

So you can reconstruct part of the link to the file on the Ancestry server from the filename but we're missing the intermediate level "/8496/". I don't know where you'd get that from.

Tom,

When I asked this question before, I thought I understood the answer, but apparently not. I've tried several times to access media on Ancestry by using the ANC.com media ID.  I've never been able to do it. Actually, I agree that the only apparent benefit of including the Ancestry media ID in my RM media file name is to help identify and correct duplications of files. For example, the same file may be attached to two or more persons in ANC, so if I download those people via Tree Share I'll end up with duplicate media in my media directory. I find this occasionally during my research. Since I can usually get back to the ANC media file by viewing the person's profile in my Ancestry tree, I'm just wondering, am I thinking about this correctly? 

Rick

This is a very timely topic for me. I have been working to accomplish the same thing. I developed a naming convention set, with the help of some posts in this forum, and started naming new media in accordance with it. However, I still have many old files that have not been converted yet. I basically use "Surname-Given Name-Title (such as CEN or GM)-Source (such as FS, ANC, Etc)". I then use the windows directory search tools to find a file as needed. I do not save my files in sub-directories.

I do have one question. Is it necessary, or advisable, to include the Ancestory media ID (if that was the source)? I've never found a practical use for that information in RM, and I don't think you can search for the ID in Ancestry??

Rick

KFN,  I know, I was only kidding. I take it very seriously and want to do the best that I can given the limitations of the current software. I guess I will continue to use the "sharing" method, with appropriate notes added to point readers to the census record that does transfer. Hopefully some additional functionality will come out of RM8.

Rick

Well, I see everybody's point. However, I'm no spring chicken ,so I'd like to finish my research and pass it on to family in this life time. If there is a shortcut, I'd like to know about it. 

Thanks

Rick

I would like my Ancestry tree to be in synch with my tree in RootsMagic at all times without having to manually add new people to the Ancestry tree or manually allow changes to go from RootsMagic to the corresponding Ancestry record.  It doesn't look to me as if TreeShare will do this.  Am I missing something?

 

If it were automatic then the two trees (RM and Ancestry) would always be in synch.  The way it is now I forget to use the TreeShare button to synch it up, and they get so far out of synch that I end up deleting the tree on the Ancestry side and replacing it with a new copy from RM.  There are two problems with this.  As the Ancestry tree gets behind, common ancestor information and ThruLines in the DNA tab isn't up to date, so I miss the benefit of Ancestry's ability to compare my tree with trees of people whose DNA I match, and when I finally get around to replacing the tree, all of this information in the DNA tab in Ancestry must be re-created.

 

 

Tcloster,

From my own sad experience, I would add an additional problem. If you replace your tree on Ancestry, with your latest RM tree, all of your hints will be recreated in Ancestry. This requires a 100% review to accept or decline in RM. That is if you use hints...

Rick

zhangrau,

This type of information/suggestion is exactly why I feel this forum should be kept alive. The ability to go back to previous postings, and bring those forward to update for a new or similar situation, is great!!

I have wondered how to handle these "biography" type sources, especially "word of mouth" type oral histories, and this is an excellent approach.

Thanks for the info.

Rick 

Not meaning to "horn" in on this post, but I also have a similar question. I do use the nickname field. Example: Frank Grover Jeffers nickname "Dick". But quite often I need a second nickname field, or a way of separating multiple nicknames. Example: Frank Grover Jeffers nickname #1 "Dick", #2 "Pampa", grandchildren's nickname for their grandfather. Is there a standard way of distinguishing these? What I have done is: Given: Frank, Middle: Grover, Surname: Jeffers, Nickname: "Dick/Pampa". Just curious. 

Thanks

Rick

Oops, sorry - found it in the RM help

"To view the hints for a specific provider, just click the name of the provider in the WebHints list.  Clicking WebHints for FamilySearch, MyHeritage, or FindMyPast will take you to the provider's website to view, confirm, or reject the hint."

Thanks

Rick

Jerry,

With the additional understanding that you provided, I've had good luck closing out the FS "web hints". Thanks again.

Rick

Question?

How do you (or can you) Accept or Reject a Web Hint from FamilySearch in Roots Magic 7?

I have been reviewing member data for my RM tree and I have Ancestry and FamilySearch web hints turned on. I haven't been able find how to reject a hint that is a non-match. As a result, the light bulb stays lit unless I turn off web hints for FamilySearch.

Thanks

Rick

Do be aware that in a certain sense, there is no such thing in RM as Webhints for FamilySearch. What actually exists is Record Hints in FamilySearch for individuals in Family Tree. Those Record Hints in Family Search for individuals in Family Tree are being used to create a useful illusion of WebHints for FamilySearch in RM.

 

 

Jerry

 

Jerry,

Thanks, that makes sense. As usual you have done a great job of explaining it. I probably did not express my problem very well, but I am currently performing a 100% review of persons in my RM tree. I was trying to check each person to see if a new, or previously missed, web hint had presented itself. I had both Ancestry and Family Search web hints turned on. If a hint was present in Ancestry, and I already had the data loaded to my tree, then I would just accept the hint. This cleared the light for further review. However, if an FS hint was present, and I already had the data loaded, I could not find a way to clear the light. I would not want to reject it because it was valid. So, if I understand this correctly now, I would need to "accept" it in FS and that would clear the light in RM. I'll approach it that way and see if it fixes my issue.

Thanks again

Rick

The whole question of multi-page documents is an interesting challenge. One of the virtues of the PDF format is that can act as sort of a container literally to "contain" multiple pages. This can be a delightful convenience because it is generally speaking easy to manipulate the multiple pages in the single PDF file because the single PDF file is - well it is single file from the point of view of your computer's file system. Having multiple pages in a single PDF file can be delightful until and unless the PDF file contains hundreds of pages each containing lots of images, at which point the single PDF file becomes so large as to be totally unwieldy and you might begin to wish that the images were not in a single large container.

It's not quite the same concept, but TIF files also have this ability to be a container to "contain" multiple images. We usually speak of multi-image TIF files instead of speaking as if a TIF file were a single container for multiple images. But it's the same concept with a different name.

 

For a long time, I was so enamored of this concept that I used multi-image TIF files a great deal with RM. A typical example would be for modern court house marriage records, where one "marriage record" might consist of three images - the marriage application, the marriage license, and the marriage return. So I would put all three images into a single TIF file, effectively containerizing the three images which collectively constituted one marriage record. I would link the TIF file into RM and be done. Happy, happy, happy.

Except that I eventually realized that there were two major problems with my plan. One problem is that Web browsers would not support TIF files and I wanted to start placing some of my data in the Web, including images. The other problem is that I came to realize that most software that supports a lot of different image formats including TIF will only show you the first of the multiple images. Such software will not even give you a warning that there are other images in the file that you are not seeing. So I decided to abandon the TIF format. Doing so has been a huge amount of work. You can't just replace one TIF file with one JPG file or with one PNG file. Doing that wouldn't be so bad. Instead you have to replace one TIF file with three JPG files or three JPG files and get them all linked into RM properly. Doing so is very labor intensive, and I rue the day I decided that TIF files were a great idea.

But the moral of the story is that I do understand the attraction of PDF files as containers for multiple images. As long as the number of images in the PDF container is relatively modest, it's a great tool. Except when it isn't, as when RM doesn't support it for Publisher. For Publisher, I think Renee's suggestion for inserting a blank page in the Publisher book and then adding the PDF images after the fact is probably a good idea. For the Web, I still don't think PDF is a good idea. I used to say (correctly, I think) that most Web browsers didn't support PDF files. I think most or maybe all Web browsers do now support PDF files in some manner.  But the way browsers support PDF files still doesn't quite meet my needs. For example, with JPG and PNG files, I can publish my data online with Gedsite and the image files work really well. There is a medium size thumbnail that the user of my page can click on to see a full size of the image. But with PDF files, there is no media size thumbnail nor any size thumbnail for PDF files. All that appears on my Web page is a link without much clue as to what the link is. So I'm still trying to stay away from PDF's as much as possible.

 

Jerry

Jerry,

The "container concept" is exactly what I was after by loading PDF's instead of individual image files. However, as I said, I did not anticipate the issues with Publisher and scrap books that I'm now in the middle of. I have yet to try and publish on a website, so I am pretty uninformed regarding the issues and pitfalls that might be waiting on me there. Anyway, adding PDF's to my "publisher" books using Rene's suggestion seems to be the best solution for me now. My method of distributing books to family members will be as a PDF saved on a USB drive.

Thanks for the input

Rick

You can add blank pages to the Publisher, and after generating the book edit it to insert the PDF pages.

Thanks Renee,

I have tested your suggestion, as well as Zhangrau's comments, and  I have found it does work for what I was trying to accomplish. One drawback that I did find is that any edits to the Text page in the completed book will disappear if you need to update and re-save the book. The changes would have to be recreated each time the book is updated. However, given that no tools currently exist in RM7 Publisher to handle PDF files, handling PDF images with after the fact changes to the book seems to be much better than converting the PDF to say a Jpeg in the RM7 data base. Depending on the size of the PDF (number of pages etc.) that approach can really take a lot of time.

Thanks again for your help.

Rick

As far as I can tell, you can not include a PDF in a publisher book. You also can not include them in scrap books. I have many attachments in my tree as PDF files. Is there a way to bring these into a Publisher book? Add them to a scrap book?

I know you can convert the PDF to a JPEG, and then replace the file in RM7 with the JPEG, but I'm hoping there is a less tedious solution.

Thanks

Rick