Venting

[jcherepy]

I've been looking at four different programs on my Mac and each has it's strengths and weakness for my own particular needs. So far, I like Reunion the best, but the lack of the ability to publish a book report is the one strike against it. I have seen where folks say the Ahnentalfel is just as good. Not for me. Other folks say just print Family Group Sheets. Printing and compiling 17 generations of Group Sheets is just too much work. I have 3200+ families in my file, so printing All is not an option.

So, is there a program for the Mac out there that will take a gedcom and create a book? I did find one for Windoze.

Bill

[donworth]

Re: Venting

Bill,

I usually use the Register Report in Reunion to do my books (or the Ahnentafel if I don't know as much about a family line). But, honestly, if you did a book from a GEDCOM I would think it would be pretty boring without a lot of illustrations and narrative biographies - and to do those right, you really need to paste them around the register report text in a page layout program like Pages or InDesign.

Here's a link to my most recent book - done with Reunion, PhotoShop and InDesign. Click on the Preview link under the picture of the book. (give it a few seconds to load that - the preview function is a little slow)

http://www.lulu.com/shop/carley-don-worth/leemendenhall-family-history/hardcover/product-18186099.html

Don

[Donald W. Moore]

Re: Venting

So, is there a program for the Mac out there that will take a gedcom and create a book? I did find one for Windoze.

There are some programs with book formats. A Google search on "GEDCOM program mac" should find them for you.

[Bob White]

Re: Venting

I have several really old family histories that were published mainly in the 1900-1950 era -- long before we had the luxury of researching data halfway around the world and discussing same. The one thing that these books have in common is that they are in very much the same format as produced by the register report. Just two pennies for your consideration.

[jcherepy]

Re: Venting

Thanks for all who replied.

I guess I should have specified I want to do ancestry book(s) and unless I'm missing something, the Register report only does descendants.

[Charles Bourland]

Re: Venting

Yes, the Register only does descendants. But the Ahnentafel does do ancestry. But with that there is both a warning and a suggestion. The warning is that an Ahnentafel mixes many families under the same heading, such as "Great Great Great Grandparents", but most would find therein several country backgrounds and a diverse group of rich/poor/whoknowswhat and to read it would be very confusing.

Unlike the above warning, the suggestion is that multiple Registers can make a terrific book. In my case, I took the wives of all in my surname and the Register reports for her and her ancestors become the so called "Allied Families". Some of the books included only one family, that was my own surname; others had 7 families or 5 families and in one case 25 Allied Families. One can add a forward or other chapter to tie them all together as appropriate. See more at www.genealogyhowto.com.

[jcherepy]

Re: Venting

Yes, the Register only does descendants. But the Ahnentafel does do ancestry. But with that there is both a warning and a suggestion. The warning is that an Ahnentafel mixes many families under the same heading, such as "Great Great Great Grandparents", but most would find therein several country backgrounds and a diverse group of rich/poor/whoknowswhat and to read it would be very confusing.

Unlike the above warning, the suggestion is that multiple Registers can make a terrific book. In my case, I took the wives of all in my surname and the Register reports for her and her ancestors become the so called "Allied Families". Some of the books included only one family, that was my own surname; others had 7 families or 5 families and in one case 25 Allied Families. One can add a forward or other chapter to tie them all together as appropriate. See more at www.genealogyhowto.com.

Thanks, but unfortunately, the Register report is "barebones." There are facts I would like known, but I have yet to find a report in Reunion that will print them. And I find the Ahnentafel completely useless.

[donworth]

Re: Venting

I didn't find any data left out of the Register Report. In fact, you can customize it to include any field in Reunion. I include all my "free form" information in the NOTES field. In fact, I use the NOTES to write a short biography of each person of significance to me so I get something of the form (NOTES field is second paragraph):

---------

1. Charles Lundy Bishir. Born on 20 Dec 1887 in Lynchburg, Ohio. Charles Lundy died in Ridgefield, Clark Co., Washington, on 12 Jan 1974; he was 86. Buried on 17 Jan 1974 in Ridgefield Cemetery, Ridgefield, WA. Alias/AKA: /Slim/.

Lundy was a cooper as a young man (in Cynthiana, Kentucky). He came to California prior to WW I and washed windows in Los Angeles. Because he was married when WW I broke out, he never served. Later he went to work for Portland (OR) Cordage (Rope) Co. He developed the weave for nylon cords for venetian blinds. He was transferred about 1932 to San Francisco. He bought a ranch in Ridgefield in the South East corner of Washington state about 1938. Mary moved there and ran the ranch and worked in the Vancouver shipyards during WW II.

On 19 Jan 1913 Charles Lundy married Maria Kristina Ericksson, daughter of Emanuel Ericksson & Susan Quick, in Portland, Oregon. Born on 2 Feb 1893 in Portland, Oregon. Maria Kristina died in Ridgefield, Washington, on 11 Mar 1984; she was 91.

They had the following children:
2 i. Catherine Lois (1916-1993)
3 ii. Laverna (Laverne) M. (1919-1996)

-------------

That's all with the standard Register Report. I, too, prefer to do multiple register reports as chapters, even if I have only the direct lineage for a family, because I usually have the children of each direct ancestor documented at least, and they don't get included (if I remember correctly) in the Ahnentafel. This format also keeps husbands and wives together and one bio can serve both.

Don

[jcherepy]

Re: Venting

OK, I must be doing something wrong. I just ran a Register report on my father and not all of the Events show up in the report. Apparently the Register only reports "standard" facts and not those I create, which defeats my purpose.

Again, I thank you for the input.

[donworth]

Re: Venting

OK, I must be doing something wrong. I just ran a Register report on my father and not all of the Events show up in the report. Apparently the Register only reports "standard" facts and not those I create, which defeats my purpose.

Again, I thank you for the input.

You can add your custom fields to the report - and specify the sentence you want generated from them.

Use Reunion Preferences -> Fields like this to build the sentence.

Then use the Register Report edit layout option to turn on that field for reporting.

[Susan Freas Rogers]

Re: Venting

Don mentioned the books he created using Reunion, Photoshop and InDesign. They are beautiful.

For what it's worth, Photoshop Elements makes a perfectly good substitute for Photoshop nowadays (the very early version were awful, but not now), so for those who find the idea of learning the full-on Photoshop formidable, I can recommend you try Photoshop Elements. You'll still need to learn the basics of it, but books and (I assume) on-line tutorials abound. I have not opened regular Photoshop once since getting Elements.

InDesign is a wonderful high-end design program. I learned it years ago at the local community college, but for book layout purposes for the novice, it would be like learning to use a sledgehammer to swat a fly. It's also very expensive.

I can highly recommend Swift Publisher 3 from BeLight software (www.belightsoft.com), available on the Mac App store for $29.95 (which I think is regular price, unless it's the holiday sale price good until Jan. 5, the page wasn't clear). It's easy to learn (tutorials provided within the application), intuitive and relatively flexible. It automatically gives you a foreground layer for text and a background layer for graphics, plus you can add extra layers if needed. Kerning type (squishing letters closer together or further apart) is easy, text boxes link easily, and wrapping text around objects (such as photos) is easy. I think the Font and Color windows are somewhat clunky, but that's minor compared to the ease and fun of using this little program. Templates are provided if you need a starting point -- I just used one of their templates for creating, from scratch, an 8-page newsletter for our local genealogical society.

Cheers,
Susan

[kmgenealogy]

Re: Venting

Don mentioned the books he created using Reunion, Photoshop and InDesign. They are beautiful.
<snip>
I can highly recommend Swift Publisher 3 from BeLight software (www.belightsoft.com), available on the Mac App store for $29.95 (which I think is regular price, unless it's the holiday sale price good until Jan. 5, the page wasn't clear). It's easy to learn (tutorials provided within the application), intuitive and relatively flexible. It automatically gives you a foreground layer for text and a background layer for graphics, plus you can add extra layers if needed. Kerning type (squishing letters closer together or further apart) is easy, text boxes link easily, and wrapping text around objects (such as photos) is easy. I think the Font and Color windows are somewhat clunky, but that's minor compared to the ease and fun of using this little program. Templates are provided if you need a starting point -- I just used one of their templates for creating, from scratch, an 8-page newsletter for our local genealogical society.

Cheers,
Susan

Thanks, Susan, for the reminder about Swift Publisher. I do have it but haven't used it for awhile. Nice, easy application. Have video tutorials on the web site.

Right now it's $19.99 (limited time offer) on the Mac App Store. Regular price is $29.99 & up. Costs extra for the picture & font packages. Take a look at their website http://www.belightsoft.com for more info. Doesn't look like they have the sale price on the web site, just on the Mac App Store.

[jcherepy]

Re: Venting

You can add your custom fields to the report - and specify the sentence you want generated from them.

Use Reunion Preferences -> Fields like this to build the sentence.

Then use the Register Report edit layout option to turn on that field for reporting.

You must be using a different version of Reunion or as I said before, Reunion will only display the "stock" events, etc. I created my own events and they do not show up in Preferences. I'm beginning to think I made the wrong choice in using Reunion. I also have Heredis and I'm going to have to take a second look at it.

Thanks again.

[feelsrgreen]

Re: Venting

Don mentioned the books he created using Reunion, Photoshop and InDesign. They are beautiful.

For what it's worth, Photoshop Elements makes a perfectly good substitute for Photoshop nowadays (the very early version were awful, but not now), so for those who find the idea of learning the full-on Photoshop formidable, I can recommend you try Photoshop Elements. You'll still need to learn the basics of it, but books and (I assume) on-line tutorials abound. I have not opened regular Photoshop once since getting Elements.

InDesign is a wonderful high-end design program. I learned it years ago at the local community college, but for book layout purposes for the novice, it would be like learning to use a sledgehammer to swat a fly. It's also very expensive.

I can highly recommend Swift Publisher 3 from BeLight software (www.belightsoft.com), available on the Mac App store for $29.95 (which I think is regular price, unless it's the holiday sale price good until Jan. 5, the page wasn't clear). It's easy to learn (tutorials provided within the application), intuitive and relatively flexible. It automatically gives you a foreground layer for text and a background layer for graphics, plus you can add extra layers if needed. Kerning type (squishing letters closer together or further apart) is easy, text boxes link easily, and wrapping text around objects (such as photos) is easy. I think the Font and Color windows are somewhat clunky, but that's minor compared to the ease and fun of using this little program. Templates are provided if you need a starting point -- I just used one of their templates for creating, from scratch, an 8-page newsletter for our local genealogical society.

Cheers,
Susan

Hello Susan
Taking into account of all replies here and your own, with my experience so far I am no better advanced.
To be fair I feel my contribution should be on a separate topic so will start one here and entitle it " Are my trees ready for publishing? "

[Dennis J. Cunniff]

Re: Venting

You must be using a different version of Reunion or as I said before, Reunion will only display the "stock" events, etc. I created my own events and they do not show up in Preferences.

I suspect you're just not looking in the right place.

Look in the "Reunion" menu and choose "Preferences...". In the window that opens, click on "Fields". Click on "Events": The new events you've created will be in the list. If you click on "Facts", the new facts you've created will be in the list. If you click on "Notes" the new note types you've created will be on the list. If you click on "Flags", any new flags you've created will be on the list.

But creating them doesn't automatically put them on the report. To add fields to a Register report, you have to change the layout. The ***default*** layout doesn't include newly created fields, you have to add them to the layout yourself.

This is done on the page right before you generate the report: select the "Layout" pull-down menu, select "Define Layouts..." and you will see the panel you can use check-boxes to determine which fields you want printed in that particular layout.

If you search the manual for "Defining Your Own Report Layouts" you will find further information that should help.