Before my airplane takes off, let me share a few thoughts.... First, to respond to how to record a census. I do add census information to an event, although a census is more of a source. However, because that census event has been entered, it will appear on the chronology showing me a date and a place where a person lived. If I called the event "Residence" instead, that would probably work okay too, but, because it has the term of "census", I can easily see in the person's chronology if I have identified him in the census or not. Not true with the residence event.
I also personally enter the transcription of the census in more than one place: in the census event's notes and in the detail text of the source. While this may seem like I'm duplicating my efforts, the value of this comes when, in the future, I want to print a report that includes transcriptions as part of the source detail. If I had only entered this information in the event's notes, I would have to reenter it into the source. And vice-versa. So by copying/pasting the information in more than one place, I have the flexibility I need in the future. The video on sources, the data in the sample file, and the source examples at the tips site provide information to 1) help you standardize the data entry of sources and 2) provide ideas for flexibility. Yes, we are actively engaged in improving the ease of working with sources. As a professional researcher myself, I need to be able to enter information quickly but also have flexibility and standardization. We (Millennia) are committed to achieving this. The purpose for which I published the templates at http://www.legacyfamilytree.com/tipsSourceSamples.asp was to help us attain consistency. I've seen the same source entered as: - 1850 Pennsylvania census - Census - Pennsylvania 1850 - Pennsylvania 1850 census - ... and so on Thanks, Geoff Rasmussen Millennia Corporation [EMAIL PROTECTED] www.LegacyFamilyTree.com -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of malkajef Sent: Thursday, October 12, 2006 12:04 PM To: LegacyUserGroup@legacyfamilytree.com Subject: [LegacyUG] Entering source details I personally (maybe it is me) find entering source details confusing and prone to error and inconsistency. For instance in entering census data for an individual there seems to be 2 places where one might inadvertently enter the details of what is on the census sheet. a) in the event notes b) in the detail text of the assigned source. Obviously the latter would be preferred (I think). The confusion (for me) arises because, before applying a source, one needs to enter an event to assign that source to and only then does the source detail field become available. While entering the event, it is therefore tempting to enter the details in the Notes section, especially if the event is labeled "Census". Because of this I've sometimes entered the census text details in one and sometimes in the other - which will obviously create problems with the reports. It might be useful (SUGGESTION) for Legacy to somehow 'remind' the user by either better guiding the user through the available field labels (and better flow of data entry). Actually as has been mentioned in an earlier thread, the entire sources module in Legacy badly needs to be reworked to "guide" the user better as many other software programs do. At present, the user has to work within a book source data fields and the entire system is awkward and prone top inconsistency. Now, I have to find the census details I entered in (a) and those I entered in (b) so I can make them consistent and that is going to be a problem! Any advice appreciated. Jeff P.S. If Legacy permitted the user to modify the titles of some of the fields, the user could add his/her own reminders to avoid such problems till Legacy changes things. Legacy User Group guidelines can be found at: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Etiquette.asp To find past messages, please go to our searchable archives at: http://www.mail-archive.com/legacyusergroup@legacyfamilytree.com/ For online technical support, please visit http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Help.asp To unsubscribe please visit: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/LegacyLists.asp
