> > I'm interested in what people do on this one. > > > > Suppose you output a report from your favourite genealogical program > > in say DOC or RTF format because you want to put it through some > > manual editing in a word processing program. > > > > What is it you want to do? Is it to tweak the content (sounds a bit > > dubious - why wasn't it right in the first place)? Or perhaps you > > want to massage the appearance in some way. > > > > Any comments on your experiences would be appreciated. > > > > Peter J Seymour > > Many of us don't write full sentences in our NOTES files -- mostly > that's those of us old enough to have started this before > 5-and-a-quarter-inch floppies when space *mattered* who haven't > cared to spend valuable research time tidying up the file. But, > there do seem to be a lot of us. (g) > > So, however good the "make me a book" report IS, it can't fix > sentence fragments so the grammar-hammer finds those and complains. > "Was an insurance underwriter." has to turn into "He was an > insurance underwriter." > > Additionally, the occasional typo creeps into NOTES and isn't > spotted until it's in a book. > > Sometimes, a remark that makes PERFECT sense when it's in the NOTES > becomes ambiguous in a book setting...either the antecedent of "he" > becomes muddy or the thing just reads wrong or tacky ... "He was a > traveller" for instance has various interpretations, only one of > which applies to this individual, and might be nice if that were > clear? Or "was dumb." When one knows the lady, one knows she was > unable to speak, not unintelligent, but again, future generations > won't know her, so let's make that clear. > > Then, there are the potentially embarrassing comments -- perfectly > TRUE, but nonetheless rude and needlessly hurtful to persons more > closely connected. Still, I can't be certain I've found all those > until I look at the output. > > SOME people "tag" certain facts (OCCUP: farmer or MIL: Vietnam) > using truncated words which need expanding, because OCCUP: farmer > isn't a real sentence, even if you know what OCCUP means -- and MIL: > Vietnam is either Military service in Vietnam /or/ Mother-in-law in > Vietnam and clarity on that would be a good thing. ;) > > And of course -- the book generator in PAF and in Legacy throws in > an enormous amount of white-space. Looks pretty, is useful for > adding comments or new info, but uses more paper than it needs to. > So I remove a lot of blank lines. I can sometimes reduce by half the > number of pages to be printed. > > Now, whether tweaking the output each time I do output takes less > time than fixing the input could be debatable. IMO, it is at least > more fun to do the tweaks on output. > > Cheryl Singhals <singhals@erols.com> I understand where you are coming from, but I always work on the assumption that I am doing none of this for me, but for my children and grandchildren. If my notes are not clear, then my data will not be adequate for the purpose for which it is intended. Many times when there is to much white space in a report, it means that I did not do a good job of entering the data. I then go to the offending part and re edit the data to remove the the extra white space. This brings up a point that I have been considering what are you doing for estate planning as far as your genealogical records and databases? Keith Nuttle <keith_nuttle@sbcglobal.net>

Keith Nuttle wrote: > > > I'm interested in what people do on this one. > > > > > > Suppose you output a report from your favourite genealogical program > > > in say DOC or RTF format because you want to put it through some > > > manual editing in a word processing program. > > > > > > What is it you want to do? Is it to tweak the content (sounds a bit > > > dubious - why wasn't it right in the first place)? Or perhaps you > > > want to massage the appearance in some way. > > > > > > Any comments on your experiences would be appreciated. > > > > > > Peter J Seymour > > > > Many of us don't write full sentences in our NOTES files -- mostly > > that's those of us old enough to have started this before > > 5-and-a-quarter-inch floppies when space *mattered* who haven't > > cared to spend valuable research time tidying up the file. But, > > there do seem to be a lot of us. (g) > > > > So, however good the "make me a book" report IS, it can't fix > > sentence fragments so the grammar-hammer finds those and complains. > > "Was an insurance underwriter." has to turn into "He was an > > insurance underwriter." > > > > Additionally, the occasional typo creeps into NOTES and isn't > > spotted until it's in a book. > > > > Sometimes, a remark that makes PERFECT sense when it's in the NOTES > > becomes ambiguous in a book setting...either the antecedent of "he" > > becomes muddy or the thing just reads wrong or tacky ... "He was a > > traveller" for instance has various interpretations, only one of > > which applies to this individual, and might be nice if that were > > clear? Or "was dumb." When one knows the lady, one knows she was > > unable to speak, not unintelligent, but again, future generations > > won't know her, so let's make that clear. > > > > Then, there are the potentially embarrassing comments -- perfectly > > TRUE, but nonetheless rude and needlessly hurtful to persons more > > closely connected. Still, I can't be certain I've found all those > > until I look at the output. > > > > SOME people "tag" certain facts (OCCUP: farmer or MIL: Vietnam) > > using truncated words which need expanding, because OCCUP: farmer > > isn't a real sentence, even if you know what OCCUP means -- and MIL: > > Vietnam is either Military service in Vietnam /or/ Mother-in-law in > > Vietnam and clarity on that would be a good thing. ;) > > > > And of course -- the book generator in PAF and in Legacy throws in > > an enormous amount of white-space. Looks pretty, is useful for > > adding comments or new info, but uses more paper than it needs to. > > So I remove a lot of blank lines. I can sometimes reduce by half the > > number of pages to be printed. > > > > Now, whether tweaking the output each time I do output takes less > > time than fixing the input could be debatable. IMO, it is at least > > more fun to do the tweaks on output. > > > > Cheryl Singhals <singhals@erols.com> > > I understand where you are coming from, but I always work on the > assumption that I am doing none of this for me, but for my children > and grandchildren. If my notes are not clear, then my data will not > be adequate for the purpose for which it is intended. When I began this, I wasn't even pregnant, I was just bored. So, everything was for my own private and personal benefit. By the time I had a child, my process was set and I had far too many entries to go back and start "fixing" things to the then-current standard; since that time, there have been at least 4 changes in what constitutes "best practice" for documentation, for citation, etc etc. > Many times when there is to much white space in a report, it means > that I did not do a good job of entering the data. I then go to the > offending part and re edit the data to remove the the extra white > space. I guess I wasn't clear. The white-space to which I object is the extra blank line after each child in a list, after each paragraph, and so on. As in: Jeremiah Christian Jingleheimer was baptised on 18 Oct 1756 in the parish of St. John, Arrenkamp, Westfalia (Germany). Registration was made at 10:30 am. German law at the time required the baptism and registration to be within 5 days of the birth, so he was born between 13 and 17 Oct. Jeremiah was a tailor who worked in Dielingen and Bremen. On 26 August 1778, Jeremiah married Ilsabe Dorothea Schneider. Ilsabe was born 27 December 1758, according to the civil registers for Dielingen, but no baptismal record has been found. She was the daughter of Johann Heinrich Schneider and Maria Elisabeth Butcher. Ilsabe apparently died in New York City in March of 1846. 5. M i John Jacob Jingleheimer born 1781. 6. F ii Jemima Jingleheimer born 1784. 7. U iii Infant child Jingleheimer born and died 1786 When I've got 15 generations, it saves a lot of trees and ink to omit those blank lines and use paragraph indents instead on the narrative. > This brings up a point that I have been considering what are you > doing for estate planning as far as your genealogical records and > databases? My Will gives the children dibs, followed by my sibs or their children; if none of them are interested, it (and a suitable lump sum) go to my home-county library. In all events, LDS is to be asked to microfilm it first. Cheryl singhals <singhals@erols.com>