Going by the early feedback on the public access to the images, there are five main gripes; 1) Problems with XP and tiff files 2) Some people have no tiff viewer 3) People want to resize etc images 4) Filename when saving 5) "?" in dropdowns 1 and 2 are major issues, whilst 3 and 4 are more a case of "does sir want the moon on a stick", but hey-ho, if the masses don't get what they want, they write in with endless suggestions as to how it could be done differently, and we get no peace. Point 5 is a poor bit of HCI. I got some way down the track with doing on the fly tiff>jpg conversions to resolve 1 and 2 and added the code to fix 4 and 5. Unfortunately, it seems that all TIFF files are not equal, and some of ours are not standards compliant :-( They cause no problems until you try to convert them to jpgs, where they upset our conversion routines. So, a re-think was in order, and I'd like people to take a look at the prototype of a revised version, which converts all files on the public interface (but not the transcriber interface) to pdf files. This resolves file format problems, and provides a viewer that allows re- sizing, so might even keep the punters happy. It allso allows us to embed a "provided by FreeBMD" into the file, to catch naughty people trying to sell the images. Other enhancements; "?" replaced by "A-Z" in menus better handling of letter ranges in menus file name embedded in output user presented with open/save option box Can people have a play! http://images2.freebmd.org.uk/cgi/choose4.pl And the New Initiative.... Is something that I can claim absolutely no credit whatsoever for. Bob Phillips has set up a mini project to deal with the very worst scans, in particular those scans which are so poor on the film that a conventional re- scan won't help. Bob's project is described at http://homepage.ntlworld.com/robert.phillips40/rescans.htm Basically we get volunteers with digital cameras to go to the FRC and photograph the particularly bad pages from the books. It's an idea which is breathtakingly simple, but it needed someone to think it and to drive it forward, and a big round of applause to Bob for that. I know that Bob would like to take the project further, so if you live in London, have a digital camera, and fancy having a go, please get in touch with Bod. -- Dave Mayall ---------------------------------------------- This mail sent through http://www.ukonline.net

Dave: I just ran some tests using Mac OS 10 on several files and all works perfectly. Congratulations. What would it take to develop a conversion table to determine the alphabetic correspondence to the numerical GUS listings? Between us all we have a tremendous resource of data information. I would be very pleased to be involved in collection and collation of the info, assuming there is sufficient interest in doing so. Peter Adams On Thu, 1 Jul 2004, Dave Mayall wrote: > Going by the early feedback on the public access to the images, there are five > main gripes; > > 1) Problems with XP and tiff files > 2) Some people have no tiff viewer > 3) People want to resize etc images > 4) Filename when saving > 5) "?" in dropdowns > > 1 and 2 are major issues, whilst 3 and 4 are more a case of "does sir want the > moon on a stick", but hey-ho, if the masses don't get what they want, they > write in with endless suggestions as to how it could be done differently, and > we get no peace. Point 5 is a poor bit of HCI. > > I got some way down the track with doing on the fly tiff>jpg conversions to > resolve 1 and 2 and added the code to fix 4 and 5. > > Unfortunately, it seems that all TIFF files are not equal, and some of ours > are not standards compliant :-( They cause no problems until you try to > convert them to jpgs, where they upset our conversion routines. > > So, a re-think was in order, and I'd like people to take a look at the > prototype of a revised version, which converts all files on the public > interface (but not the transcriber interface) to pdf files. > > This resolves file format problems, and provides a viewer that allows re- > sizing, so might even keep the punters happy. It allso allows us to embed > a "provided by FreeBMD" into the file, to catch naughty people trying to sell > the images. > > Other enhancements; > "?" replaced by "A-Z" in menus > better handling of letter ranges in menus > file name embedded in output > user presented with open/save option box > > Can people have a play! > > http://images2.freebmd.org.uk/cgi/choose4.pl > > And the New Initiative.... > > Is something that I can claim absolutely no credit whatsoever for. > > Bob Phillips has set up a mini project to deal with the very worst scans, in > particular those scans which are so poor on the film that a conventional re- > scan won't help. > > Bob's project is described at > http://homepage.ntlworld.com/robert.phillips40/rescans.htm > > Basically we get volunteers with digital cameras to go to the FRC and > photograph the particularly bad pages from the books. > > It's an idea which is breathtakingly simple, but it needed someone to think it > and to drive it forward, and a big round of applause to Bob for that. > > I know that Bob would like to take the project further, so if you live in > London, have a digital camera, and fancy having a go, please get in touch with > Bod. > > -- > Dave Mayall > > ---------------------------------------------- > This mail sent through http://www.ukonline.net > > > ==== FREEBMD-SYNDICATES Mailing List ==== > Want to help FreeBMD? > Go to http://freebmd.rootsweb.com/Signup.html to find out how. > > ============================== > Gain access to over two billion names including the new Immigration > Collection with an Ancestry.com free trial. Click to learn more. > http://www.ancestry.com/rd/redir.asp?targetid=4930&sourceid=1237 > >

In message <[email protected]>, Dave Mayall <[email protected]> writes >Going by the early feedback on the public access to the images, there are five >main gripes; [snip] >Can people have a play! > >http://images2.freebmd.org.uk/cgi/choose4.pl Works just fine here with a "virgin" install of XP Pro. Would people need reminding that they need a reader for it and should a link be provided? -- Philip Powell Looking north across the Derwent Valley and Northumberland to The Cheviot