Re: [LegacyUG] Most used narrative reports
To get back to the original point (at least I hope I'm right that these comments may be helpful), I find that the only way to include all the sometimes rather distant descendants of interesting ancestors is to use the 'multiple lines of descent' report. To help with creating this, I title the 'head' of each interesting line 'Old Father XX'. Then I can click in the name list in the given names, and all the 'Old Father's come up together, from which I can note the RINs, for use in the order I choose in the report. The only snag is that although one may check the 'don't repeat duplicate lines' box, this is unreliable. Any help with what triggers the 'duplicate line' would be much appreciated. Alastair Legacy User Group guidelines: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Etiquette.asp Archived messages: http://www.mail-archive.com/legacyusergroup@legacyfamilytree.com/ Online technical support: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Help.asp To unsubscribe: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/LegacyLists.asp
[LegacyUG] Most used narrative reports
I am curious as to which Legacy narrative/book reports are most used as generated by Legacy or found to be most useable by experienced Legacy users. Do any users print these narratives as created, or are these raw reports usually transferred to a word processor where they are extensively re-edited or even re-written. I ask because many of the legacy created sentences read so awkwardly (no fault of Legacy, a computer generated text can only do so much) that I wonder if it is really useful to take the time to create alternative sentences in Legacy or just send the material to Word where the reports can be re-written in good English. Jeff Legacy User Group guidelines: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Etiquette.asp Archived messages: http://www.mail-archive.com/legacyusergroup@legacyfamilytree.com/ Online technical support: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Help.asp To unsubscribe: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/LegacyLists.asp
Re: [LegacyUG] Most used narrative reports
On Fri, 15 Aug 2008 08:37:53 -0400, [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I ask because many of the legacy created sentences read so awkwardly (no fault of Legacy, a computer generated text can only do so much) that I wonder if it is really useful to take the time to create alternative sentences in Legacy or just send the material to Word where the reports can be re-written in good English. Another option would be to create a Narrative event for every person and write that yourself (or one could use General Notes). Then make all the other events private. Unfortunately the citations for this Narrative event would all get lumped together (you couldn't source individual facts in the narrative ... at least not easily). Another weak point is AKA wording. But I happen to think Legacy's handling of AKAs in general needs a lot of work. -- Dennis Kowallek [EMAIL PROTECTED] P.S. Emails not of Content-Type: text/plain are deleted before ever reaching my inbox. *** Legacy User Group guidelines: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Etiquette.asp Archived messages: http://www.mail-archive.com/legacyusergroup@legacyfamilytree.com/ Online technical support: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Help.asp To unsubscribe: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/LegacyLists.asp
RE: [LegacyUG] Most used narrative reports
I create ancestor Descendant reports frequently for various cousins, and use the PDF's as is from Legacy (including doing any necessary editing in Legacy) for two reasons. First, the RTF comes out not looking nicely formatted like the PDF, and it's a lot of work to resize pictures for consistency, and reformat all the paragraphs etc. Second, if it is fixed to look nice in Legacy, it will already be nice for the next report. For my dad's cousin (turning 100 this month) I did a Descendants report from her grandfather as a birthday present. This was an as is PDF out of Legacy, printed in color bound. It was MUCH nicer than a chart, more readable, includes events and makes a very nice present. To encourage all the cousins to send info pictures, I sent an Ancestors of present for each kid whose info picture I got, which helped make the book complete and cost me nothing as I e-mailed PDF files and let them do the printing. Preview a few generations of various reports and you'll see. My main use for other reports is for help in research, so the as is PDF is always fine. Cary [EMAIL PROTECTED] -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, August 15, 2008 7:38 AM To: LegacyUserGroup Subject: [LegacyUG] Most used narrative reports I am curious as to which Legacy narrative/book reports are most used as generated by Legacy or found to be most useable by experienced Legacy users. Do any users print these narratives as created, or are these raw reports usually transferred to a word processor where they are extensively re-edited or even re-written. I ask because many of the legacy created sentences read so awkwardly (no fault of Legacy, a computer generated text can only do so much) that I wonder if it is really useful to take the time to create alternative sentences in Legacy or just send the material to Word where the reports can be re-written in good English. Jeff Legacy User Group guidelines: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Etiquette.asp Archived messages: http://www.mail-archive.com/legacyusergroup@legacyfamilytree.com/ Online technical support: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Help.asp To unsubscribe: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/LegacyLists.asp Legacy User Group guidelines: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Etiquette.asp Archived messages: http://www.mail-archive.com/legacyusergroup@legacyfamilytree.com/ Online technical support: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Help.asp To unsubscribe: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/LegacyLists.asp
Re: [LegacyUG] Most used narrative reports
Jeff, I was primarily using the Narrative Book Report but have switched to the Register Book Report for now, due to formatting issues when including photos in my reports. I'm in the process of moving material previously entered into notes into an event I also call notes. If it is a long narrative, for instance, I can break it up to smaller sections of the narrative, so I can add photos and assign sources to each segment, if desired. I like to use a lot of photos in my reports so sending the report to a word processor is not my personal choice. I think you just have to goof around with a couple of generations of a family member, try different things and see how you like the results. Just print to the screen and look it over. If you see something not to your liking, try something different until you achieve the formatting style or look that you want. NO genealogy program I'm aware of is going to produce the report that meets everyone's needs, but with a little trial and error, Legacy handles this better for me than any other program I've used (and I own and have worked with most of them). I have to admit my preference for using a lot of photos is what settled me on Legacy. And my greatest hope is they will beef up this feature some day. In my opinion, photos add so much interest to reports and engages the reader in a way that text alone cannot. To be able to add different sized photos in the reports is my greatest wish for Legacy. To further answer your question, I use very few canned sentences. I have changed almost all of them to [notes][sources] and I write what I want for each event. In my opinion, it's far easier to format my notes once, than to have to redo them each time in a word processor. Some exceptions are the obituary event, where I have it set up to read; He/She was remembered in an obituary on [date], in [place]. Then I place the text of the obituary in the notes section of the obituary event and source it. Most of my family likes to have a printed record of the obituary for those who have passed, so this is how I handle this often used event in my narrative reports. It provides the reader, at a glance, when and where the obituary was published and the obit content. The He/She could be changed to insert the given name, if so desired, to personalize it a bit. This is a good question, Jeff, and I hope other Legacy users will chime in with their suggestions on how they format their family reports. Reading the various suggestions is how we all learn to better utilize Legacy. Mary From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ... Jeff wrote: I am curious as to which Legacy narrative/book reports are most used as generated by Legacy or found to be most useable by experienced Legacy users. Do any users print these narratives as created, or are these raw reports usually transferred to a word processor where they are extensively re-edited or even re-written. I ask because many of the legacy created sentences read so awkwardly (no fault of Legacy, a computer generated text can only do so much) that I wonder if it is really useful to take the time to create alternative sentences in Legacy or just send the material to Word where the reports can be re-written in good English. Jeff Legacy User Group guidelines: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Etiquette.asp Archived messages: http://www.mail-archive.com/legacyusergroup@legacyfamilytree.com/ Online technical support: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Help.asp To unsubscribe: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/LegacyLists.asp
Re: [LegacyUG] Most used narrative reports
On 8/15/08 8:37 AM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I am curious as to which Legacy narrative/book reports are most used as generated by Legacy or found to be most useable by experienced Legacy users. Do any users print these narratives as created, or are these raw reports usually transferred to a word processor where they are extensively re-edited or even re-written. Jeff, I use the chronology and ancestor reports quite a lot, with full sourcing. What I generally do, is output the report to pdf, and with the pdf as a reference, go through fixing sentences. It is time-consuming, but I think it is worth it, for quick output of reasonable quality. I don't try to work my way through the whole database - just do it for the reports that I need, as I need them. Having said that, I write my own narratives for publication, and just use charts, reports, etc, as exhibits. I'm sure others do a variety of things. Janis Walker Gilmore I ask because many of the legacy created sentences read so awkwardly (no fault of Legacy, a computer generated text can only do so much) that I wonder if it is really useful to take the time to create alternative sentences in Legacy or just send the material to Word where the reports can be re-written in good English. Jeff Legacy User Group guidelines: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Etiquette.asp Archived messages: http://www.mail-archive.com/legacyusergroup@legacyfamilytree.com/ Online technical support: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Help.asp To unsubscribe: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/LegacyLists.asp
RE: [LegacyUG] Most used narrative reports
Jeff: I agree that in any narrative report (from any genealogy software program) the language is going to be stilted, repetitive, and fairly boring. Professional genealogists and history writers use software for recording facts and then convert those to narratives written from scratch. I do use the Descendant Book Report extensively, but only to exchange data with other researchers. When studying a family group, I use events to build a timeline but don't bother with tweaking the language. Kirsten -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, August 15, 2008 5:38 AM To: LegacyUserGroup Subject: [LegacyUG] Most used narrative reports I am curious as to which Legacy narrative/book reports are most used as generated by Legacy or found to be most useable by experienced Legacy users. Do any users print these narratives as created, or are these raw reports usually transferred to a word processor where they are extensively re-edited or even re-written. I ask because many of the legacy created sentences read so awkwardly (no fault of Legacy, a computer generated text can only do so much) that I wonder if it is really useful to take the time to create alternative sentences in Legacy or just send the material to Word where the reports can be re-written in good English. Jeff Legacy User Group guidelines: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Etiquette.asp Archived messages: http://www.mail-archive.com/legacyusergroup@legacyfamilytree.com/ Online technical support: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Help.asp To unsubscribe: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/LegacyLists.asp
Re: [LegacyUG] Most used narrative reports
I haven't learned how to do sentences in Legacy which would probably help the readability of book reports. It's pretty dry and choppy otherwise. In any case, I'm doing somewhat similar to this person in writing my own narratives for publication but using a wiki, and only using charts for additional information. It's a more contemplative way of 'publishing' genealogy as it requires getting to know your people rather than whatever comes from how a database can arrange the facts. The advantage is that it can be added to, subtracted from and rearranged, at any time. Photos are done separately. This idea of editing reports after they've been put out by Legacy sounds like a very long way of going about things, as they would need to be redone every time on every report if I'm understanding that process. JL JLiki - creating your own genealogy wiki http://www3.telus.net/Jgen/jliki.html Janis L Gilmore wrote: On 8/15/08 8:37 AM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I am curious as to which Legacy narrative/book reports are most used as generated by Legacy or found to be most useable by experienced Legacy users. Do any users print these narratives as created, or are these raw reports usually transferred to a word processor where they are extensively re-edited or even re-written. Jeff, I use the chronology and ancestor reports quite a lot, with full sourcing. What I generally do, is output the report to pdf, and with the pdf as a reference, go through fixing sentences. It is time-consuming, but I think it is worth it, for quick output of reasonable quality. I don't try to work my way through the whole database - just do it for the reports that I need, as I need them. Having said that, I write my own narratives for publication, and just use charts, reports, etc, as exhibits. I'm sure others do a variety of things. Janis Walker Gilmore I ask because many of the legacy created sentences read so awkwardly (no fault of Legacy, a computer generated text can only do so much) that I wonder if it is really useful to take the time to create alternative sentences in Legacy or just send the material to Word where the reports can be re-written in good English. Jeff Legacy User Group guidelines: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Etiquette.asp Archived messages: http://www.mail-archive.com/legacyusergroup@legacyfamilytree.com/ Online technical support: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Help.asp To unsubscribe: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/LegacyLists.asp Legacy User Group guidelines: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Etiquette.asp Archived messages: http://www.mail-archive.com/legacyusergroup@legacyfamilytree.com/ Online technical support: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Help.asp To unsubscribe: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/LegacyLists.asp
Re: [LegacyUG] Most used narrative reports
Thank you Kristen. I am coming to the same conclusion. When thinking of future descendents - isn't that why some of us do this? - I cannot imagine them going through Legacy to find information or reading through a Legacy prepared book. Of course printed trees are always crowd favorites and good guides to the generations but I too have decided to use Legacy primarily as a database and write the narratives separately based on the data. The book reports are tantalizing but not really adequate as an end product, though they might supplement some of the hand composed narratives and perhaps provide a more complete list of known facts. Thank you all for sharing your thoughts. Jeff Kirsten Bowman wrote: Jeff: I agree that in any narrative report (from any genealogy software program) the language is going to be stilted, repetitive, and fairly boring. Professional genealogists and history writers use software for recording facts and then convert those to narratives written from scratch. I do use the Descendant Book Report extensively, but only to exchange data with other researchers. When studying a family group, I use events to build a timeline but don't bother with tweaking the language. Kirsten -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, August 15, 2008 5:38 AM To: LegacyUserGroup Subject: [LegacyUG] Most used narrative reports I am curious as to which Legacy narrative/book reports are most used as generated by Legacy or found to be most useable by experienced Legacy users. Do any users print these narratives as created, or are these raw reports usually transferred to a word processor where they are extensively re-edited or even re-written. I ask because many of the legacy created sentences read so awkwardly (no fault of Legacy, a computer generated text can only do so much) that I wonder if it is really useful to take the time to create alternative sentences in Legacy or just send the material to Word where the reports can be re-written in good English. Jeff Legacy User Group guidelines: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Etiquette.asp Archived messages: http://www.mail-archive.com/legacyusergroup@legacyfamilytree.com/ Online technical support: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Help.asp To unsubscribe: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/LegacyLists.asp Legacy User Group guidelines: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Etiquette.asp Archived messages: http://www.mail-archive.com/legacyusergroup@legacyfamilytree.com/ Online technical support: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Help.asp To unsubscribe: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/LegacyLists.asp
Re: [LegacyUG] Most used narrative reports
Jeff, Whenever I email copies of my research to relatives, I send them a Descendant Modified Register Report because it is easy for them to read. About two years ago at a family reunion, I put together a booklet containing a Descendant Modified Register Report, a Pedigree Chart, and a Family Picture Tree. When these three reports are printed and put together into a binder, they make a nice presentation booklet which is easy to read. At the reunion, I also gave out envelopes and asked anyone interested in receiving a CD with all three reports to include $5.00 in the envelope and place their mailing address on the envelope. Then after the reunion, I personalized the reports for each person and mailed the CDs out. The $5 covered the expenses of purchasing the CDs, mailing envelopes and postage. My elder cousin had been working on the family ancestry for a number of years but had never put it all together into a genealogical database program. So, I began to add to the research and entered all of my cousin's data into Legacy, including old family photos.which were scanned and added. And sending out the CD allowed everyone in the family to have access to a personalized copy of the entire book,. To personalize the reports on each CD, the Pedigree Chart and the Family Picture Tree started with someone in their immediate family.. Cathy At 08:37 AM 8/15/2008, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I am curious as to which Legacy narrative/book reports are most used as generated by Legacy or found to be most useable by experienced Legacy users. Do any users print these narratives as created, or are these raw reports usually transferred to a word processor where they are extensively re-edited or even re-written. I ask because many of the legacy created sentences read so awkwardly (no fault of Legacy, a computer generated text can only do so much) that I wonder if it is really useful to take the time to create alternative sentences in Legacy or just send the material to Word where the reports can be re-written in good English. Jeff Legacy User Group guidelines: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Etiquette.asp Archived messages: http://www.mail-archive.com/legacyusergroup@legacyfamilytree.com/ Online technical support: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Help.asp To unsubscribe: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/LegacyLists.asp Legacy User Group guidelines:http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Etiquette.aspArchived messages:http://www.mail-archive.com/legacyusergroup@legacyfamilytree.com/Online technical support: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Help.aspTo unsubscribe: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/LegacyLists.asp
Re: [LegacyUG] Most used narrative reports
I do think that reports make nice addendum to hand-crafted narratives. More or less as a reference that enables the reader to quickly look up a birth or death date, etc. Janis Walker Gilmore On 8/15/08 2:36 PM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: product, though they might supplement some of the hand composed narratives Legacy User Group guidelines: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Etiquette.asp Archived messages: http://www.mail-archive.com/legacyusergroup@legacyfamilytree.com/ Online technical support: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Help.asp To unsubscribe: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/LegacyLists.asp
Re: [LegacyUG] Most used narrative reports
Excellent ideas. Thank you. Jeff - Original Message - From: Cathy To: LegacyUserGroup@legacyfamilytree.com Sent: Friday, August 15, 2008 1:36 PM Subject: Re: [LegacyUG] Most used narrative reports Jeff, Whenever I email copies of my research to relatives, I send them a Descendant Modified Register Report because it is easy for them to read. About two years ago at a family reunion, I put together a booklet containing a Descendant Modified Register Report, a Pedigree Chart, and a Family Picture Tree. When these three reports are printed and put together into a binder, they make a nice presentation booklet which is easy to read. At the reunion, I also gave out envelopes and asked anyone interested in receiving a CD with all three reports to include $5.00 in the envelope and place their mailing address on the envelope. Then after the reunion, I personalized the reports for each person and mailed the CDs out. The $5 covered the expenses of purchasing the CDs, mailing envelopes and postage. My elder cousin had been working on the family ancestry for a number of years but had never put it all together into a genealogical database program. So, I began to add to the research and entered all of my cousin's data into Legacy, including old family photos.which were scanned and added. And sending out the CD allowed everyone in the family to have access to a personalized copy of the entire book,. To personalize the reports on each CD, the Pedigree Chart and the Family Picture Tree started with someone in their immediate family.. Cathy At 08:37 AM 8/15/2008, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I am curious as to which Legacy narrative/book reports are most used as generated by Legacy or found to be most useable by experienced Legacy users. Do any users print these narratives as created, or are these raw reports usually transferred to a word processor where they are extensively re-edited or even re-written. I ask because many of the legacy created sentences read so awkwardly (no fault of Legacy, a computer generated text can only do so much) that I wonder if it is really useful to take the time to create alternative sentences in Legacy or just send the material to Word where the reports can be re-written in good English. Jeff Legacy User Group guidelines: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Etiquette.asp Archived messages: http://www.mail-archive.com/legacyusergroup@legacyfamilytree.com/ Online technical support: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Help.asp To unsubscribe: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/LegacyLists.asp Legacy User Group guidelines: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Etiquette.asp Archived messages: http://www.mail-archive.com/legacyusergroup@legacyfamilytree.com/ Online technical support: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Help.asp To unsubscribe: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/LegacyLists.asp Legacy User Group guidelines: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Etiquette.asp Archived messages: http://www.mail-archive.com/legacyusergroup@legacyfamilytree.com/ Online technical support: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Help.asp To unsubscribe: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/LegacyLists.asp
Re: [LegacyUG] Most used narrative reports
You are correct. I was overwhelmed by the multitude of different reports available and focussed on the sentence structure problems. But looking further into the reports they are actually quite nice. Thank you all for your thoughts. Jeff Janis L Gilmore wrote: I do think that reports make nice addendum to hand-crafted narratives. More or less as a reference that enables the reader to quickly look up a birth or death date, etc. Janis Walker Gilmore On 8/15/08 2:36 PM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: product, though they might supplement some of the hand composed narratives Legacy User Group guidelines: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Etiquette.asp Archived messages: http://www.mail-archive.com/legacyusergroup@legacyfamilytree.com/ Online technical support: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Help.asp To unsubscribe: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/LegacyLists.asp Legacy User Group guidelines: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Etiquette.asp Archived messages: http://www.mail-archive.com/legacyusergroup@legacyfamilytree.com/ Online technical support: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Help.asp To unsubscribe: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/LegacyLists.asp
