Media - Highlighting Text

[gathompson56]

Like many others one of the prime resources that I use are census records.

But going back to census records and searching for the lines that you want to review again can be rather tedious. Then I discovered that Preview will allow you to add coloured boxes as long as you are working in a pdf. In testing Preview I drew a red box around the census records in question then saved the pdf. Opening the pdf in Adobe Acrobat the red box was still there.

But when I add the pdf of the census record to Reunion12 I found that the red box had been removed.

Has anyone found a technique for highlighting text that will appear in both Reunion12 and ReunionTouch?

Thanks, Grant

[Frank]

Re: Media - Highlighting Text

Annotations made in the Preview app will appear in the PDF file when opened in some apps, but not in other apps.

To make a long story short, the annotations are saved separately (within the same file). As you may have seen, you can add an annotation in Preview to a PDF file and then, later, open the same PDF file and remove the annotation.

One workaround is to open the PDF file in Preview, make the annotation (such as a highlight on some text) and then choose File > Export as PDF. The downside of this approach is that the annotation then becomes part of the PDF file and can't be removed or changed. However, when annotations are made in this manner, and the file is subsequently linked to a record in Reunion, then the annotation will appear in Reunion.

[gathompson56]

Re: Media - Highlighting Text

Thanks Frank.

That works, although the number of steps required is a bit clunky.

I think I will add a request into the wish list for a few more editing tools in future versions of Reunion.

[Lawrence E Moore]

Re: Media - Highlighting Text

Thanks Frank.

That works, although the number of steps required is a bit clunky.

I think I will add a request into the wish list for a few more editing tools in future versions of Reunion.

I too find the steps to be clunky to make Preview annotations show up in multimedia in Reunion. It would be great if Reunion displayed annotations of pdf-, jpeg-, & png-files without making them uneditable. Add fix to wish list, please.

[Frank]

Re: Media - Highlighting Text

...It would be great if Reunion displayed annotations of pdf-, jpeg-, & png-files without making them uneditable...

Annotations to JPG and PNG files do appear in Reunion.

That's because annotations made in Preview to JPG and PNG files are handled differently by the Preview app (compared to annotations made in PDF files).

The exception is when you annotate JPG or PNG files after linking them in Reunion. If that's your workflow, then use Reunion's Rebuild Thumbnails button (in Multimedia prefs). Rebuilding the thumbnails will create updated thumbnail images for the family file, reflecting the changes you've made to the original images in the Preview app.

[Susan Freas Rogers]

Re: Media - Highlighting Text

Then I discovered that Preview will allow you to add coloured boxes as long as you are working in a pdf.

Another solution is to use Snagit software for your annotations. It is a great companion app to Reunion, and I couldn't do my genealogy work without it. Since the census file is generally in a JPG format in the first place (you said you are trying to annotate a PDF, so you probably saved/printed the image file to PDF), you would open the JPEG file in Snagit, do any one of a number of things to highlight the census lines of interest (arrow pointing from margin, text balloon with arrow, yellow highlighter, red box, etc. -- and all colors are variable), "Save" the JPEG and voila, it becomes part of the file and shows up in Reunion. If you are reluctant to have your markings or comments cover any part of the original image, you simply drag out extra canvas from any edge and put your arrows (or text+arrow boxes) there.

Two examples are attached. The first shows a red arrow pointing out the ancestor, and I added a small text box at the top to give the source. (You can also choose text "balloons" or boxes that have one or two arrows, to both point to the items of interest AND add your comments about them all in one go).

Second example is a composite: the title page of the book (captured from screen); publishing data from the reverse of the title page, which I captured separately and then dragged onto the title page; screen capture of the page within that book, with small red arrow at the right pointing to ancestor's name; and then a text box across the top describing where/why I got the record. (Ignore blurriness which is not Snagit's fault. I somehow lost the image file after attaching it here, and had to re-create it from a screen shot of the forum attachment.)

Making this composite took less than 2 minutes. I attach this sort of record to both the Person and to the Source (multimedia section) in Reunion.

Susan

[Kim]

Re: Media - Highlighting Text

Another solution is to use Snagit software for your annotations. It is a great companion app to Reunion, and I couldn't do my genealogy work without it.

This sounds interesting. Do you have a link?

[Michael Talibard]

Re: Media - Highlighting Text

All my images of people and of documents reach Reunion via Pixelmator, where they are (as may be necessary) cropped, straightened, adjusted for contrast etc, annotated and so on. I very much recommend Pixelmator.

[Bob White]

Re: Media - Highlighting Text

There is one downside to doing the markup with Snagit. Because Snagit, by default, stores a copy of the item in its own file structure, one ends up with three copies of the image.

1. The original.
2. The marked up copy stored wherever one stores images for Reunion.
3. The Snagit file copy in Snagit.

My point is that this could be a problem if one has limited storage resources.

(Note: I love Snagit and have used it for many years. This was just FYI.)

[Susan Freas Rogers]

Re: Media - Highlighting Text

Snagit is from Techsmith, at www.techsmith.com.

I don't have the same issue as Bob regarding three copies of the image. I do not keep an original, unmarked-up image separate from the annotated image -- I keep only the annotated image (usually putting any arrows, text balloons, etc. outside the actual image area, on added canvas, so as not to obscure any part of the original).

Regarding the Snagit file copy (which gets the default extension ".snagproj" at the time of capture): Techsmith has made it much easier, in its most recent Version 4 for Mac, to NOT have these hanging around after you've saved your annotated (and original, if you're Bob) image file(s). The snagproj files appear in the app tray as soon as you capture them. When you "Save As" to save a file as a jpeg, tiff, png or gif, to whatever folder you want it in, the saved file also appears in the tray, right next to the snagproj version (this is new with v4). Right-click on your saved image file and choose Close. It disappears from the tray and you can find it in the folder where you saved it. Then, right-click the snagproj file and choose "Move to Trash."

Voila, you have only one image file now from your screen capture (unless, like Bob, you wanted to keep an annotated version separate from the original capture).

What you need to know is that Snagit installs a sub-folder called "Snagit" in your Documents folder as part of the installation process. Under that is a subfolder called Autosaved Captures. THAT is where all your captures live (and hide, until and unless you go looking for them) unless you've moved them to the Trash right away as described above.

And, since the tray in Snagit only holds so many images (to keep it manageable), it's very possible for genealogists to end up with screen captures in the Autosaved Captures folder that you completely forget about until you stumble upon them months later (at which point you can Select a bunch, right-click and open in Snagit to identify and file in whatever way you file them for genealogy purposes). After some down-the-rabbit-hole, up-past-midnight sessions of capturing many files online, this has happened to me. But I consider it a small price to pay for all the benefits of having Snagit.