Add new Notes fields...?

[mrstucci]

Hi-I am starting over with a new, clean, unused (so far) family tree and want to do it right from the start. I have a question about Fields.

I was thinking this morning that in the Notes field for a person I would like to name the fields what I think I want. For example instead of Misc. Notes can I rename it Timeline? Still keeping the NOTE gedcom. Can I have more than one Misc. Notes field renamed the way I want? And if each one has the NOTE gedcom will that export/import ok?

Will this work like I see it working in my head?

[kmgenealogy]

Re: Add new Notes fields...?

Hi-I am starting over with a new, clean, unused (so far) family tree and want to do it right from the start. I have a question about Fields.

I was thinking this morning that in the Notes field for a person I would like to name the fields what I think I want. For example instead of Misc. Notes can I rename it Timeline? Still keeping the NOTE gedcom. Can I have more than one Misc. Notes field renamed the way I want? And if each one has the NOTE gedcom will that export/import ok?

Will this work like I see it working in my head?

Hi,

I believe that you can rename the Misc. Notes field. Personally, I would keep the Misc. Notes field and set up new NOTE fields. You have to go to the Notes Preferences-see below. Also, per the manual, you can add up to 200 note fields per person, with each note holding up to 64,000 characters. I recommend you search the manual for NOTES and/or GEDCOM.

If you open the NOTES section, you'll see, at the bottom of the left column, an "Add Note..." button. When clicked, the button shows a "suggested" list and, at the bottom, a "Note Preferences" button. Click on it to get to the NOTES PREFERENCES. Here you can add, rename & delete NOTE fields. The place to add the GEDCOM tag is in the middle.

Although the Misc. Notes field does already have the GEDCOM tag, you will need to add the tag for any other note fields. For a list of GEDCOM tags, go to: http://wiki-en.genealogy.net/GEDCOM-Tags

Hope this is helpful,
Kaye

[donworth]

Re: Add new Notes fields...?

So what happens if you create more than one field that has the NOTE GEDCOM tag? (or does Reunion prevent that?) Do they get concatenated together or included as separate NOTE fields to the superior value? If the latter, I wonder what a GEDCOM import would do with more than one NOTE field.

[kmgenealogy]

Re: Add new Notes fields...?

So what happens if you create more than one field that has the NOTE GEDCOM tag? (or does Reunion prevent that?) Do they get concatenated together or included as separate NOTE fields to the superior value? If the latter, I wonder what a GEDCOM import would do with more than one NOTE field.

Hi Don,

I was wondering the same thing but forgot to include the question in my post. Thanks for bringing it up. Perhaps one of our GEDCOM gurus can answer.😀

[mrstucci]

Re: Add new Notes fields...?

Hi,

I believe that you can rename the Misc. Notes field. Personally, I would keep the Misc. Notes field and set up new NOTE fields. You have to go to the Notes Preferences-see below. Also, per the manual, you can add up to 200 note fields per person, with each note holding up to 64,000 characters. I recommend you search the manual for NOTES and/or GEDCOM.

If you open the NOTES section, you'll see, at the bottom of the left column, an "Add Note..." button. When clicked, the button shows a "suggested" list and, at the bottom, a "Note Preferences" button. Click on it to get to the NOTES PREFERENCES. Here you can add, rename & delete NOTE fields. The place to add the GEDCOM tag is in the middle.

Although the Misc. Notes field does already have the GEDCOM tag, you will need to add the tag for any other note fields. For a list of GEDCOM tags, go to: http://wiki-en.genealogy.net/GEDCOM-Tags

Hope this is helpful,
Kaye

Thank you so much, Kaye!! I will check it out. I did read some of the manual... ;-)

[mrstucci]

Re: Add new Notes fields...?

So what happens if you create more than one field that has the NOTE GEDCOM tag? (or does Reunion prevent that?) Do they get concatenated together or included as separate NOTE fields to the superior value? If the latter, I wonder what a GEDCOM import would do with more than one NOTE field.

Yes, I am wondering the same thing. I may do a 'dry run' with a gedcom after I create the new note fields...

[donworth]

Re: Add new Notes fields...?

I suppose the issue will be that different software implementations (Family Tree Maker, Legacy, Roots Magic, Ancestry.om, etc.) might do different things with the extra NOTEs fields in the GED. Some might concatenate them, some might overlay the first one with the second one and so on so that only the last one gets imported, and some might just ignore all but the first one. If it's not part of the GEDCOM definition, it's anyone's guess!

[sgtbob]

Re: Add new Notes fields...?

I've experimented with the foregoing suggestions, but have a question. In preparing a 'Book (narrative)' where do the added notes appear in the book? The main notes appear, but my experiment with adding notes does not seem to appear in the book.

[donworth]

Re: Add new Notes fields...?

It should work like it does for the Register Report, if you select Book you can pick a Layout and select Define Layouts. Then you can add whatever fields exist in your database to the report.

[sdengle]

Re: Add new Notes fields...?

So what happens if you create more than one field that has the NOTE GEDCOM tag? (or does Reunion prevent that?) Do they get concatenated together or included as separate NOTE fields to the superior value? If the latter, I wonder what a GEDCOM import would do with more than one NOTE field.

Several years ago I began adding more Notes. I kept MiscNote but renamed it Notes01, where I dumped everything I had found so far for that individual. When I added Notes02 and Notes 03, I created my own GEDCOM tags. Thus, Notes01 was already tagged as NOTE; Notes02 - I tagged as NOTF; Notes03 - NOTG, and so on, (skipping I and O).

Just for fun, after the 11.0.2 update, I exported a GEDCOM that contained everything from my Familyfile11 and imported it into an empty new file. All notes imported correctly with these tags. I was happy to see two new Notes: Education and Religion. I kept the tags included but renamed the notes as shown above. (I prefer Notes over Facts.)

I added a short word to indicate the purpose of each: Note01Misc, Note02D&Bur, Note03Obit. Other notes include: Cens, for my own transcriptions from census images; Marr, for transcribed newspaper articles for engagement/marriage and from handwritten marriage records; Research, random notes on what I have found or not found; ToDo, for research I have not yet done; MySource, for Reunion's source numbers used for that individual: I put numbers in the first line, which show in the main window. Below in numerical order, I copy whatever I typed into the Detail field of my citations so I can see at a glance what I have included.

Gradually, over time, I transferred information from MiscNotes to my new notes fields. I generally don't use every note for a single individual, but I do have text in all my notes somewhere in my family file.

I started with Reunion6, just before Reunion7 was released, and I have gotten each new version as soon as I was aware of it!

Many thanks to the team who not only helps but actually listens to and responds to its customers while producing excellent software that is easy to use/customize that one can "grow into" its power and capabilities.

Susan
Highly satisfied customer

[kmgenealogy]

Re: Add new Notes fields...?

Susan,

Could you possibly show us some screenshots of your notes and GEDCOM tags? Sounds interesting but I just can't picture in my mind!

Also, do you use the Logs at all? I'm hoping to start using them for to-do items and research results.

Kaye

[Michael Talibard]

Re: Add new Notes fields...?

Just for fun, after the 11.0.2 update, I exported a GEDCOM that contained everything from my Familyfile11 and imported it into an empty new file. All notes imported correctly with these tags

Correct import back into Reunion is reassuring, but no surprise. What I'd like to know is which of the Windows packages it will go into satisfactorily.

[Frank]

Re: Add new Notes fields...?

I added a short word to indicate the purpose of each: Note01Misc, Note02D&Bur, Note03Obit. Other notes include: Cens, for my own transcriptions from census images; Marr, for transcribed newspaper articles for engagement/marriage and from handwritten marriage records; Research, random notes on what I have found or not found; ToDo, for research I have not yet done; MySource, for Reunion's source numbers used for that individual...

Hi Susan, I'm glad you posted this. It's a good example for those desiring to record lots of text. And even for those with not so much text to record.

Occasionally, a user will bump into the 64,000 character limit of a single note field. When this happens, chances are very good that a bit of parsing, such as you've done, would avoid any limit.

In addition, your model provides the means to select the note fields you want and don't want in reports. When a single catch-all note field contains any and all topics, sometimes you find that there are topics and comments that you don't really want in a particular report. Parsing notes also creates similar flexibility when creating family views, exporting data, etc.

[donworth]

Re: Add new Notes fields...?

My interest is in keeping my data "vanilla" - exchangeable with any other genealogy software - Windows programs, Family Tree Maker, Ancestry.com, etc. That way I can share my entire genealogy with other researchers in a format that they can use. And, if I ever have to go back to Windows, I can get my data transferred.

Obviously, other programs that might import the GED file won't be able to do recognize notes fields you've added with anything other than the NOTE GED tag. If I put important information in those custom notes fields, they will not (necessarily) be imported by a cousin's Roots Magic program. So I wondered what would happen if I used the NOTE tag on more than one note field. (Hoping they would be concatenated into a single GED NOTE.)

I tried creating two notes fields - one is Misc Notes the other I called "Stuff" - both with the NOTE GEDCOM tag. What I got was two separate references to note fields in the person structure in the GED file with the text of the notes in two independent places.

In my past experience with multiple instances of the same GED tag in a person entry (eg. NAME, OCCU, etc.), many programs accept the first occurrence and ignore any subsequent ones.

So, creating custom note fields will work fine as long as you are exporting from Reunion and importing into Reunion. Not sure about anything else. Keeping things interchangeable between different genealogy software products pretty much means sticking to the standard GED definition.

[sdengle]

Re: Add new Notes fields...?

Susan,

Could you possibly show us some screenshots of your notes and GEDCOM tags? Sounds interesting but I just can't picture in my mind!

Also, do you use the Logs at all? I'm hoping to start using them for to-do items and research results.

Kaye

Yes, I have used Logs in the past but not recently - some are reminders/explanations to myself for how and why I did something in my family tree. Here is a merge of screen shots (using Grab and PhotoshopElements) of my first 6 notes with note name and GEDCOM tag. I avoided the use of the letters I and O as the final letter to avoid confusion with numerals.

Susan