* Entering Biographies

Questions regarding use of any Version of Family Historian. Please ensure you have set your Version of Family Historian in your Profile. If your question fits in one of these subject-specific sub-forums, please ask it there.
Post Reply
avatar
BobWard
Superstar
Posts: 420
Joined: 18 Nov 2012 01:50
Family Historian: V6.2
Location: Mesa, Arizona, USA

Entering Biographies

Post by BobWard »

New user here.  I am still getting familiar with the program (version 5).

My question is 'What is the best way to enter a person's biography?'  I am inclined to type the bio as a WORD document, then convert to PDF and enter into FH as a multimedia file.  This would appear to be a better option than trying to stick it in the 'Notes'.

Does FH require that Microsoft WORD be loaded on the computer that is using FH in order to view any WORD files that may be entered as a Multimedia file?  I guess the same question would apply to pdf files, i.e., any special software requied to read pdf files that may be in the Multimedia folder.  In other words, does FH have built-in modules that can read WORD and pdf files without requiring the native application being on the computer?

Bob

ID:6596
User avatar
Jane
Site Admin
Posts: 8507
Joined: 01 Nov 2002 15:00
Family Historian: V7
Location: Somerset, England
Contact:

Entering Biographies

Post by Jane »

Does FH have built-in modules that can read WORD and pdf files without requiring the native application being on the computer
No.

Personally I tend to stick to using notes, mostly in combinations with Facts so the Narrative reports can build a cohesive biography. It's also much easier to source smaller notes correctly.

If you really want a portable format for media and text formating etc, then the one pretty well every computer can view is HTML.
User avatar
tatewise
Megastar
Posts: 28333
Joined: 25 May 2010 11:00
Family Historian: V7
Location: Torbay, Devon, UK
Contact:

Entering Biographies

Post by tatewise »

What is the best way to enter a person's biography?
The answer partly depends on what you mean by a biography.

Perhaps you mean a handwritten/typed paper document.
In this case I would scan the document into JPG/PNG image files, one per page.
Then attach these to a Source Record via Multimedia Records.
The Source Record can hold the whole transcript or snippets of the biography in its Text From Source and Notes fields.
All the Facts from the biography would then be entered via the Property Box and each Fact would cite the biography Source Record.

This approach does not need any native applications, and the biography page images can be viewed within FH and reproduced in Reports along with the Source Record transcript.

As Jane says, the FH Narrative Reports automatically produce biographical reports, and include all the Facts, not just the ones derived from your specific biography.
These Narrative Reports can be highly customised, and incorporated into FH Books.

If you would still prefer to use textual rather than image Multimedia File format, then as Jane says, HTML is the most widely supported format.
However, it is a bit more tricky to create with all the desired layout, fonts, embedded images, etc.

Almost as widely supported is PDF, that you mention, because the free Adobe Acrobat Reader and similar applications are almost universally available on all PC.
I would avoid MS Word DOC/DOCX format, which does require a native application on the PC, and as a proprietary format it keeps changing.

Before making a final decision on which route to follow I suggest you perform some experiments.
Use the Family Historian Sample Project rather than risk disrupting your master Project.
See File > Project Window > More Tasks > Samples > Reset Sample Project.
This has the advantage that after the experiments it can be rest to its default state by using the commands above again.
avatar
BobWard
Superstar
Posts: 420
Joined: 18 Nov 2012 01:50
Family Historian: V6.2
Location: Mesa, Arizona, USA

Entering Biographies

Post by BobWard »

Jane & Mike,

Thanks for the helpful responses.

These bios are in some cases 2 to 3 pages long and include not only factual informtion about each person, but also life experiences, etc.  I certainly would want them to be included in any books or reports that I might create with FH.  So if I am interpreting your responses correctly, I will probably have to enter this information as Notes to get it to appear in books, reports, etc.

I will experiment a little with one bio and see what works best and report back.

Bob
User avatar
tatewise
Megastar
Posts: 28333
Joined: 25 May 2010 11:00
Family Historian: V7
Location: Torbay, Devon, UK
Contact:

Entering Biographies

Post by tatewise »

I will probably have to enter this information as Notes to get it to appear in books, reports, etc.
Not necessarily...
If you attach Multimedia Images (.jpg/.png files) of scanned biography pages to Source Records via the Multimedia tab, then these images can appear in Reports as well as Text From Source and Notes text.
These Reports can form the basis of Books.

It is also possible to include Blank (placeholder) Pages in Books and post-edit these to include image files.
avatar
BobWard
Superstar
Posts: 420
Joined: 18 Nov 2012 01:50
Family Historian: V6.2
Location: Mesa, Arizona, USA

Entering Biographies

Post by BobWard »

Thanks for the clarification Mike.  I will experiment with that approach as well.

I did just notice that when I imported my family gedcom file from WikiTree into FH, all the biographies that I had posted in WikiTree were found to be buried in the FH records.

The only way that I was able to see the imported bio info in FH was to select the Record view, then select the individual's name, then expand the box next to the name which then let me see a 'Notes' row.  I then expanded the box on the Notes row which revealed a 'Text' row which had sub-rows labeled 'CONT'.  Next to each CONT row was a column that contained multiple lines of text from the individual's bio.  The entire bio was there, one row (one cell) of text after another, similar to a spreadsheet format.

Oddly though, this bio text was not visible in the Notes window in the Property box for the individual.  Is there an easy explanantion for what is going on here?  Can this text data be reformatted so that it will appear in reports, books, etc.?

Bob
User avatar
Jane
Site Admin
Posts: 8507
Joined: 01 Nov 2002 15:00
Family Historian: V7
Location: Somerset, England
Contact:

Entering Biographies

Post by Jane »

Wiki Tree has obviously exported the data in incorrectly formatted gedcom.

It should be possible to write a one off plugin to fix the data, but I would need to see the what Wiki Tree has done with the formatting.

It sounds as if it's tried to add notes to the Name field which is not allowed.

Send me a copy of the gedcom file, janetaubman at gmail.com I can check that's the case and write a plug in to move the notes to the right place.
User avatar
tatewise
Megastar
Posts: 28333
Joined: 25 May 2010 11:00
Family Historian: V7
Location: Torbay, Devon, UK
Contact:

Entering Biographies

Post by tatewise »

Bob, did it look like the following, or were the headings with UDF 'star' bullets preceded with underscore (_NOTES), or were they Mixed Case (Notes):

Image


The GEDCOM for the above is as follows, with like-for-like substitutions if the alternative headings apply:

Image
avatar
BobWard
Superstar
Posts: 420
Joined: 18 Nov 2012 01:50
Family Historian: V6.2
Location: Mesa, Arizona, USA

Entering Biographies

Post by BobWard »

Yes Mike, that screenshot is exactly what it looked like, except that the word 'Notes' is mixed case as I have written it.

Jane, I found that using the Notes feature in FH works great for adding all my biographies.  Since my WikiTree site is still active, I simply opened WikiTree and copied the text in the Biography section, then opened FH and did a Paste in the Notes section for each individual.  That procedure gave me exactly what I was looking to accomplish.

The only issue remaining is to find some way to control the location of the biograhical Notes in reports, summaries, books, etc.  I created a sample individual summary for my dad and found that the biographical Note was not sequenced (located) where I would have liked it to be.  Is there a way to control where the Notes appear in a selected publication?

Jane, in light of what I have done with the copy/paste procedure, would you still like for me to send you the gedcom file?

Bob
User avatar
Jane
Site Admin
Posts: 8507
Joined: 01 Nov 2002 15:00
Family Historian: V7
Location: Somerset, England
Contact:

Entering Biographies

Post by Jane »

If you have fixed the data then I don't need the file.

You might find it worth downloading and using the UDF plugin to clean up any other invalid fields which have come from WikiTree.

One option to position the notes, is to create a biography fact and attach the notes to than, you can then control it's position using the date field to control the sequence and a custom sentence so it only shows {note}
User avatar
tatewise
Megastar
Posts: 28333
Joined: 25 May 2010 11:00
Family Historian: V7
Location: Torbay, Devon, UK
Contact:

Entering Biographies

Post by tatewise »

the biographical Note was not sequenced (located) where I would have liked
Where would you like it?
You will discover that there are many Note fields.
Almost every item (Record, Fact, Citation, etc) has a Note field, each having a particular location in Reports.
It is a matter of finding the best one for your purposes, but you have little or no control over where a Note appears in Reports/Books.

You could also consider Note Records, which can be linked to the Individual wherever a Note field is allowed.
Then a separate Note Record Report can be inserted into a Book between any other Reports.

As I have said before, experiment with the Family Historian Sample Project rather than risk disrupting your master Project.
See File > Project Window > More Tasks > Samples > Reset Sample Project.
avatar
BobWard
Superstar
Posts: 420
Joined: 18 Nov 2012 01:50
Family Historian: V6.2
Location: Mesa, Arizona, USA

Entering Biographies

Post by BobWard »

Jane,

So, to do what you suggested regarding a 'Fact', I would enter the Property box and select 'Add Fact', then create a new Event/Attribute titled 'Biography', then paste my bio text into that event.

However, your suggestion about manipulating a 'date' field and a 'custom sentence' is above my present location on the FH learning curve.  Is there a good reference somewhere on how to do what you are suggesting?

Bob
avatar
BobWard
Superstar
Posts: 420
Joined: 18 Nov 2012 01:50
Family Historian: V6.2
Location: Mesa, Arizona, USA

Entering Biographies

Post by BobWard »

Mike,

Is there a reference somewhere that would show where each of the various items you noted would be located in a report, book, narrative, etc.?

Bob
User avatar
tatewise
Megastar
Posts: 28333
Joined: 25 May 2010 11:00
Family Historian: V7
Location: Torbay, Devon, UK
Contact:

Entering Biographies

Post by tatewise »

The Date field in every Fact (Event/Attribute) determines its order amongst all other Facts.
Those with no Date come last, and those with Date = 0000 come first.

When creating a New Fact you will be presented with a Fact Definition properties window.
The Sentence Template determines what appears, but only in Narrative Reports, and to include just the Note field should be set to {note}.
See the Help button for details.

I cannot think of a reference for the position of Notes in Reports.
There are a great many Notes and a great many Reports.
That is why I advised experimenting.
avatar
BobWard
Superstar
Posts: 420
Joined: 18 Nov 2012 01:50
Family Historian: V6.2
Location: Mesa, Arizona, USA

Entering Biographies

Post by BobWard »

Thanks Mike. I will start doing some trial & error and see what happens.

Bob
User avatar
PeterR
Megastar
Posts: 1135
Joined: 10 Jul 2006 16:55
Family Historian: V7
Location: Northumberland, UK

Entering Biographies

Post by PeterR »

Jane said:
It sounds as if it's tried to add notes to the Name field which is not allowed.
In fact Notes can be added to the Name field, but the GEDCOM tag for each must be NOTE:

Code: Select all

0 @I38@ INDI
1 NAME Iain /Anderson/
2 NOTE Note linked to Name field.
3 CONT 2nd Line of 1st Note.
2 NOTE 2nd Note linked to Name field.
Image
User avatar
mezentia
Superstar
Posts: 304
Joined: 12 Jan 2007 21:14
Family Historian: V7
Location: Stourbridge

Entering Biographies

Post by mezentia »

When I spotted Bob’s initial question I recognised immediately a common interest. Whilst FH is uncommonly good at helping us record the facts about the people we’re researching, it’s understanding the context within which people lived their lives that help us understand not just what they did, but why they did those things, putting the flesh on the bones, so to speak. This contextual information may be stories or family legend, narrative accounts from other family members or anything else up to and including scholarly studies, and will encompass a variety of forms, including audio-visual material, and other documents which themselves will contain charts, diagrams, tables, etc. It might also be that the description of how the information was gathered and analysed, and how various conclusions were made is an interesting story in its own right. Presenting this information in an attractive and entertaining, clear, concise, and logical form to a subsequent reader is vitally important.

Reading the replies to Bob’s question therefore seemed to me to be a classic case of not seeing the wood for the trees. Although the respondents had demonstrably an intimate know kedge of some of the more esoteric  aspects of the functionality within FH, I feel that the solutions being presented to Bob’s question are well above and beyond what should be expected of an average user, and that in the end they still do not enable him to do what he actually wants.

I have been an FH user for many years, and I suggest that there are two aspects of the program’s operation that fall far, far, short of what one would expect, namely tools for the effective management and presentation of multimedia objects, and the complete lack of proper text formatting within notes, including comprehensive search and replace facilities. Indeed, I would classify these shortcomings as so serious as that I for one will examine carefully any future upgrades and forgo any that do not offer improvement in these areas. I am loathe to switch to a new package as this would waste the investment I have made in getting to know FH over several years, but it may come to that in the end.

I do think, however, that the lack of the features I have mentioned is as a result of the FH authors and designers pinning their product to simple premise, that of 100% GEDCOM compatibility. You only have to look at a raw GEDCOM file to see that it lacks any real facility for managing anything other than plain text as regards notes, unless we step back in time to the formats for storing word-processor files used by programs such as Wordstar – Heaven forfend!

I recall seeing a statement that the LDS had no intention of further developing GEDCOM beyond the current version. Indeed, why should they? It meets their needs in terms of recording blood lines, and they are not interested in the contextual information that means so much to those like us researching our own families. There is, of course, GEDXML, but it seems that this is doomed to the role of understudy, to stay waiting in the wings, as no-one is prepared to take the risk, or make the investment, in moving to it. Yet if Microsoft can move their file formats for Word, etc., to an XML format, then this would seem the ideal way to go forward and provide capabilities for some decent formatting of text notes. I for one will happily forgo 100% GEDCOM compatibility for these features as I rarely, if ever, exchange GEDCOM data. I think we must recognise that time has passed, and that FH users have increased their general computer experience and their expectations of the software’s capabilities to the point that clinging stubbornly to a standard that has not moved with the times threatens the future of FH as people migrate to more modern and appropriately functionally rich alternatives.

Currently, I add the contextual information to my tree using a web site editor, creating custom pages which form a shell around the web-site created by FH. This is a tedious and time consuming approach, and the ability to simply cut and paste a Word document into FH whilst retaining formatting would be much simpler. Furthermore, an integral editor within FH would, hopefully, allow cross-referencing to other individuals, source and multimedia records.

Family history for me is not just a about bloodlines, but about the gathering together all the information I can about the people in my family, and re-telling their stories in such a way that others in the family can understand where we came from and how the experiences and exploits of our ancestors have helped shape our lives. I suggest that Bob and I, and probably every other Family Historian user, need the right tools to help us do just that.
User avatar
tatewise
Megastar
Posts: 28333
Joined: 25 May 2010 11:00
Family Historian: V7
Location: Torbay, Devon, UK
Contact:

Entering Biographies

Post by tatewise »

David said: there are two aspects of the program’s operation that fall far, far, short of what one would expect, namely tools for the effective management and presentation of multimedia objects, and the complete lack of proper text formatting within notes, including comprehensive search and replace facilities
I sympathise with many of the points raised, but do have further comments.

I won't dwell on the lack of text formatting within Notes, as many of us agree this needs resolving. The fact that GEDCOM is plain text does not prevent comprehensive formatting. For example, HTML and XHTML are plain text, but that does not prevent web page formatting.

Have you tried the Search and Replace Plugin, which supports both plain text and pattern expressions? Is it comprehensive enough, or does it lack something?

Specifically what Multimedia management and presentation capabilities need adding, as FH already allows almost any type of file to be linked and opened. See Adding Other Media in the Knowledge Base. Perhaps the ability to incorporate more than just image file types into Reports and into Web Pages?
David said: I rarely, if ever, exchange GEDCOM data.
Maybe, but Bob apparently does, because not only has he imported GEDCOM from WikiTree, but is also concerned about the compatibility of Multimedia file types on different PC.
If WikiTree had correctly exported Bob's biographical Notes as 100% GEDCOM, then they would have imported into FH, and Bob would perhaps not needed to post a question here.
If the malformed Notes had been discovered sooner, then a Plugin could have quickly reformatted the data to 100% GEDCOM and recovered them.
David said: Currently, I add the contextual information to my tree using a web site editor, creating custom pages which form a shell around the web-site created by FH. This is a tedious and time consuming approach, and the ability to simply cut and paste a Word document into FH whilst retaining formatting would be much simpler.
Agreed, but does your web site editor support cut and paste from Word documents? I suspect it is not an easy facility to implement. Anyway, not everyone uses Word as their word-processor.

If FH supported text formatting in Notes, would you need to use Word? That brings us back to where we started!
avatar
BobWard
Superstar
Posts: 420
Joined: 18 Nov 2012 01:50
Family Historian: V6.2
Location: Mesa, Arizona, USA

Entering Biographies

Post by BobWard »

After a lot of experimenting, I have decided to use the following procedure to enter biographical/life stories text.

I created a new Fact attibute and labeled it 'Biography'. I set the 'Template' to {note}, 'Normal Time Frame' to 'None', and 'Under Fields Required', I checked the 'Date' & 'Note' buttons.

In the Property Box, under 'Facts', I select 'Add Fact', select Biography, and then enter the person's name in the Biography box. In the Date box, I put a date that is 1 day later than all my other Facts that are in the list. This insures that the biography will always be the last Fact listed in my reports. I then type the biographical text in the Note box.

Using this approach, I found I was able to turn-off the Biography attribute in the Family Group Sheet and turn it on in the Individual Summary report - which is what I want. Also, it is now always the last individual item that is presented, i.e., after all the birth, marraige, death, etc. attibutes, again, exactly what I was looking to accomplish.

Hopefully, this procedure will not give me unforeseen problems down the line.

Thanks for all the suggestions.
User avatar
tatewise
Megastar
Posts: 28333
Joined: 25 May 2010 11:00
Family Historian: V7
Location: Torbay, Devon, UK
Contact:

Entering Biographies

Post by tatewise »

As an alternative to entering a Date to make the Fact last, you could set the Normal Time Frame to Post-Death.
In my experiments I found that all other Post-Death Facts, providing they had a Date, would by default precede the Biography Fact, and can be adjusted on the All tab if really necessary.
avatar
BobWard
Superstar
Posts: 420
Joined: 18 Nov 2012 01:50
Family Historian: V6.2
Location: Mesa, Arizona, USA

Entering Biographies

Post by BobWard »

Mike,

I did try the 'Post Death' option under 'Normal Time Frame'.

That option did continue to keep the bio output at the end of the Event/Attribute list on reports for both deceased & living individuals.  However, for living people (i.e., no posted  death date), the 'Biography' Fact was no longer listed at the bottom of the Facts tab in the Property Box, i.e., it just seemed to be randomly placed somewhere in the middle of the listed Facts.  Any idea why it is doing that?
User avatar
tatewise
Megastar
Posts: 28333
Joined: 25 May 2010 11:00
Family Historian: V7
Location: Torbay, Devon, UK
Contact:

Entering Biographies

Post by tatewise »

For living people, the only Facts that I see listed after a Post-Death Fact are Birth of son/daughter, which is a bit odd (perhaps a minor bug).
Can you give some more detailed examples.

If it is a significant problem, then just add a Fact Date for those living cases.
avatar
BobWard
Superstar
Posts: 420
Joined: 18 Nov 2012 01:50
Family Historian: V6.2
Location: Mesa, Arizona, USA

Entering Biographies

Post by BobWard »

Mike,

My situation is the same as what you reported, i.e., only the birth of my 2 daughters are listed after my undated biography which was set to 'Normal Time Frame', 'Post Death'.

There is probably a bug there that is causing the 'Post Death' bio to not be at the bottom of the Fact stack for living people. Works fine for deceased people. Maybe it needs to see a 'Death' event in the Fact list before it will work correctly.

I will just go back to adding dates that force the bios to appear at the end of the Fact list. Like I said, it works ok in the report templates, just not in the Property Box window.

Update: Just noticed that if you click the 'Age' tab in the Property Box window, it will put the 'Post Death' bio back at the bottom of the Fact list.
User avatar
tatewise
Megastar
Posts: 28333
Joined: 25 May 2010 11:00
Family Historian: V7
Location: Torbay, Devon, UK
Contact:

Entering Biographies

Post by tatewise »

Clicking on the Age column is only a temporary fix, because when you return to that Property Box later the Facts have returned to their default 'faulty' order.

I am sure it is a bug, but only associated with the grey bullet Birth of child... Facts, since all other un-Dated Facts also precede them regardless of Time Frame, including Divorce, Occupation, Death, Obituary, etc.

The red bullet Family Facts all correctly precede the Post-Death Facts.

Another workaround is to enter any Life Fact, such as Residence or Occupation, with a Date after the Birth of the last Child.
Then the Post-Death Fact(s) are correctly placed after these Life Facts.
Post Reply