Tuesday, June 5, 2012

Do the Research Notes Transfer via GEDCOM to Legacy Family Tree 7.5?

In Creating Research Notes in RootsMagic 5 - Post 1 and Post 2 last week, I demonstrated how to create a set of Research Notes in RootsMagic 5 (using the "Detail Text" field in the Source citation menu), and how to create a "Research Notes Report" that puts all of the Research notes, with their sources, in chronological order. 

That's great for users of RootsMagic, but the next question for me is: 

Does that information transfer, via GEDCOM, to other genealogy software programs?  And can it be put into a report format in the other program?  I posted  Do the Research Notes Transfer via GEDCOM to Family Tree Maker 2012? yesterday, and this post concerns Legacy Family Tree 7.5.

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I created a small GEDCOM file of Alpheus B. Smith and his family in RootsMagic 5, and exported it to a file.  Then I opened Legacy Family Tree 7.5 and imported the GEDCOM file just created. 

The Family View and Individual's Information window for Alpheus B. Smith looks like this:




I wanted to look at the text associated with the Source Citation for each Event/Fact on the list, so I clicked on the "Source Citations" icon (the "three books") to the right of the surname in the window above.

The "Assigned Sources for Alpheus B. Smith" window opened, and I clicked on the 1826 Deed entry:


In order to see the Source Citation text, I clicked on the "Edit Detail" button in the window above.  The "Source Detail" window opened and there were four tabs of information - "Detail Information," "Text/Comments," "Multimedia" and "Overrides").  I clicked on the "Text/Comments" tab and saw:


For this Event/Fact, and its' Source Citation, the "Source Text" information (which was in RootsMagic as "Detail Text") was included.  I checked the other Facts with Source citations, and the "Source Text" information was included on all of them.

That's GOOD NEWS - the "Source Text" came across in the GEDCOM transfer.

Does the "Source Text" information get printed in any Individual, Ancestor, Descendant, Source Citation, or Timeline Report by Legacy Family Tree 7.5?

The only one that I found that printed the information was the "Source Citation Report."  From the "Reports" window, I selected the "Source Citation Report:"


The "Source Citation Report" window opened.  There are two tabs of input data here - Include and Options.  On the "Include" tab, I checked all of the boxes in the "What to Print"" section for "Master Sources and all Citations for each one" which included a check box for "Include citation text" and "Include citation comments."


I checked all of the boxes on the "Options" tab also, which included a check box for "Include Source Text" and "Include Source Comments."

The first page of the "Source Citation Report" looked like this:


For each Source citation, the report included:

*  The Source (master and source comment).
*  The names of the person(s), with the "Event," the "Citation Detail," and the "Source Text."


The seventh page of the report provides the information for the 1826 Deed noted at the beginning of this post.

I noted that the "Source Citation Report" was created for ALL f the Sources utilized in the database, not just the Sources used for one individual, and that they were listed n this report alphabetically by Source title.

I could not figure out a way to make a source citation report for ONLY one person or one family.  I could not figure out a way to make an Individual Report with the "Source Text" information included.

A similar report to the "Research Notes Report" referred to in the RootsMagic 5 posts could be created in Legacy Family Tree if:

*  One individual or a set of individuals could be selected for the report.
*  The Report was ordered chronologically by the Event rather than by an alphabetical Source list.

To sum up, Legacy Family Tree 7.5 can read the Source Citation detail text through the GEDCOM import feature, the detail text shows in the "Source Text" box on the "Text/Comments" tab in the "Edit Detail" window, and can create a list of the "Source Text" in the "Source Citation Report."  However, it apparently cannot create a report for one individual or a set of individuals, and cannot order the report chronologically.

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2012/06/do-research-notes-transfer-via-gedcom_05.html

Copyright (c) 2012, Randall J. Seaver


3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Randy,

I really enjoy your blog and read it daily!

There may be other ways to do what you are looking for as Legacy is a powerful program if you learn all the ins and outs - which I have not yet.

One way I saw to accomplish what you are looking for is -
1. Reports
2. Individual tab
3. Click to take out chronology pages or leave checked if you want them.
4. Look under report options button for what you might want your setup to be.
5. At the very bottom the record selection button will let you choose which individuals you want to include.

Even though you get the individual report first - it does print second (or third if chronology is checked) the source citations with everything I have under them including the texts/comments.

There may be a better way to do this, but I hope that helps.

Connie Sheets said...

Randy,

I wrote about how to create a report in Legacy that is similar to RM's Research Notes report back in 2010:

http://trailcreekroots.blogspot.com/2010/10/using-legacy-to-create-research-notes_3297.html

Unfortunately, my workaround requires putting transcriptions and comments in the Event Notes field, not in the Source Text and Comments fields. While it is not difficult, it is a clunky.

I would think it would be easy enough for Legacy to develop a report similar to RM's Research Notes with a few tweaks to their chronology report: 90% of what is needed (i.e. Source Detail Text and Comments fields, and the ability to sort events in chronological order) is already programmed into Legacy. But after waiting more than a year and having my repeated requests fall upon what seemed to be deaf ears, I gave up (quite reluctantly, as there are many features of Legacy that I prefer to RootsMagic) and switched to RootsMagic as my primary program.

I believe the Research Notes report is an essential tool for serious genealogists. I hope your posts will help others realize the value of this hidden gem in RM, and prompt Legacy and other programs to develop similar reports.

Connie Sheets said...

The problem with Anonymous' suggestion is that the text/comments are buried in footnotes or endnotes. They are not part of the timeline itself.

In my opinion, that format totally misses the whole point of the RM Research Notes report.