Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Why and How Do You Use Other Software?

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

    Why and How Do You Use Other Software?

    While Reunion is my primary data base I have been using FTM 2017 as my link to Ancestry. I find the syncing function very helpful.
    I also have a copy of DevonThink which I intend to use to help track and manage my files, but I really have not fully utilized it.

    What software do you use to compliment Reunion?
    ``````````````````````````````
    Grant

    #2
    I use Reunion most because it is more flexible than any other genealogy program I have used and, even if some things can perhaps be improved, it helps me a lot in getting people and data into a tree instead of fighting your way via several dialog boxes or scroll scroll scrolling your way down for field entries. Ease of data entry is probably my biggest bug-bear: it has caused me to try and ditch every other genealogy program... (I started with Gene...)

    Reunion's graphics have improved tremendously over the years, but I still find myself doing a lot of this in MacFamilyTree. MFT is also great for working with the LDS databases, as it makes it easy to download large selections of people quickly to build a tree. (Although, considering the amount of garbage data in there, you still have to verify each and every person and the corresponding sources)

    To make sure that the GEDCOM generated by one is suitable for other the other, or for other purposes, I have written several AppleScripts to help 'translate' one type of GEDCOM output to another, so that nothing gets 'lost in translation', eg. cleaning up tags and what have you.

    DEVONthink is my go-to storage for complete source material. I do not as a rule keep scanned source documents in Reunion databases or folders if they are available from online sources, as long as I can (hard/deep) link into them. Source html to the links is kept in DEVONthink so I save only the 15k HTML file and not then 1 MB web archive. Web archives in DEVONthink is manageable with up to hundreds of documents... but even my main family tree has tens of thousands of source documents to I need to manage storage. (I use the aliases information in DEVONthink documents to tie this to the source number in Reunion)
    Because of lot of this in online, and in HTML, I also use AppleScript to read the documents and Keyboard Maestro to help automate getting data typed in into Reunion. This helps me save TONS of manual labour.

    --
    Eric Van Beest
    Spring, TX

    Researching: Van Beest, Feijen, Van Herk

    Comment


      #3
      Hello Eric,
      Might be you are willing to share those AppleScript files for adapting gedcom.
      Perhaps I can use them in adapted form for helping Dutch people who switch (most often from a Windows genealogy program) to an Apple-Mac to optimize the gedcom import for Reunion.

      Frans van Bodegom
      Dutch Reunion User Group
      Frans van Bodegom
      Reunion NL Support Team

      Comment


        #4
        Originally posted by eric.vanbeest View Post
        To make sure that the GEDCOM generated by one is suitable for other the other, or for other purposes, I have written several AppleScripts to help 'translate' one type of GEDCOM output to another, so that nothing gets 'lost in translation', eg. cleaning up tags and what have you.
        I too am interested in what you have here!

        I bought GenSmarts and Evidentia but haven't started using them yet for other reasons, but a smarter GEDCOM export from Reunion would help. I have been playing with RootsMagic for different reasons (better sourcing, ability to sync with FamilySearch, etc.), but their Lucy with the football routine for a native Mac version has gotten old.

        Bradley Jansen
        OS 10.15.2 on a MacBook Pro using Reunion 12 and ReunionTouch 1.0.9

        Comment


          #5
          Reunion is my main guy. However, I always keep the current version of FTM installed. The reason is twofold.

          First, the majority of my research either is on Ancestry or I end up uploading items from all kinds of places to my tree on Ancestry.

          This leads to my second reason ---- which is the synching of media between Ancestry and FTM. Do a synch and, voila, I have copies of all the media on my Mac. The only media that I include in Reunion's multimedia is photos of people. Everything else is easily found in my copy of FTM without my having to maintain a sensible filing system as I used to do for many years.

          Those things are a very substantial "pro" but there is a "con" and that is, when adding new persons to my trees, I do double entry. (e.g., Add the person on both Reunion and Ancestry) I find this to be a small "con" which is far outweighed by the convenience of storing media in FTM. (Note: I do almost zero work in FTM as, while it has improved over time, it is still pretty clunky when compared to the elegance of Reunion.)
          Bob White, Mac Nut Since 1985, Reunion Nut Since 1991
          Jenanyan, Barnes, White, Duncan, Dunning, Luce, Hedge and more
          iMac/MacBookAir M1 - iPhonePro/iPadPro - Reunion13 & RT

          Comment


            #6
            Originally posted by Bob White View Post
            Reunion is my main guy. However, I always keep the current version of FTM installed. The reason is twofold.

            Everything else is easily found in my copy of FTM without my having to maintain a sensible filing system as I used to do for many years.

            (Note: I do almost zero work in FTM as, while it has improved over time, it is still pretty clunky when compared to the elegance of Reunion.)
            Bob: Why did you give up on your "sensible filing system"?

            grant
            ``````````````````````````````
            Grant

            Comment


              #7
              Originally posted by gathompson56 View Post

              Bob: Why did you give up on your "sensible filing system"?........ grant
              Why spend lots of time naming and moving files around when one has a tool to do it for them? Maintaining one's own filing system is much work for storage of documents that one wants handy but rarely looks at. By using FTM as my files, if I need to see a particular document for a person, I just fire up FTM, locate the person, click the media icon and there is all of that person's documents. If Reunion was synch-able with Ancestry, I would not have FTM.
              Bob White, Mac Nut Since 1985, Reunion Nut Since 1991
              Jenanyan, Barnes, White, Duncan, Dunning, Luce, Hedge and more
              iMac/MacBookAir M1 - iPhonePro/iPadPro - Reunion13 & RT

              Comment


                #8
                Originally posted by Bob White View Post

                Why spend lots of time naming and moving files around when one has a tool to do it for them? Maintaining one's own filing system is much work for storage of documents that one wants handy but rarely looks at. By using FTM as my files, if I need to see a particular document for a person, I just fire up FTM, locate the person, click the media icon and there is all of that person's documents. If Reunion was synch-able with Ancestry, I would not have FTM.
                hmmmm...
                Interesting approach. I have both software. I will have to look into this a little further.
                ``````````````````````````````
                Grant

                Comment


                  #9
                  For those of you interested, attached the zipped AppleScript I use to sanitise external data for use in Reunion. I have annotated with some comment but offer no support.
                  Attached Files
                  --
                  Eric Van Beest
                  Spring, TX

                  Researching: Van Beest, Feijen, Van Herk

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Thanks for sharing, will take a closer look at this script.
                    Frans van Bodegom
                    Reunion NL Support Team

                    Comment


                      #11
                      Eric Could you repost a link to the apple script file. I tried the one posted in December but it did not work. Maybe I have come here too late? Thanks Roger

                      Comment


                        #12
                        Roger– the posted file still works.
                        --
                        Eric Van Beest
                        Spring, TX

                        Researching: Van Beest, Feijen, Van Herk

                        Comment


                          #13
                          eric.vanbeest and gathompson56 Ha! ..I clicked the link to this thread being 99.999% sure I the only Reunion user who also uses DEVONthink. Clearly I was wrong!


                          I too use DEVONthink as my primary everyday database for all-things genealogy. Reunion serves the exact role it should serve, as a tree-builder--a place to assign facts, narratives, images and so on to individuals. DT--for those not aware--is a database platform built on artificial intelligence--so what you get from it is sort of similar to what Amazon might throw at you when you scroll way down and see "you might also like."

                          My use-case scenario is probably a little different from most genealogy enthusiasts, in that I'm sort of obsessed with early New England history, and have a lot of book projects in mind--the types that would take decades to research and produce. These would be properly footnoted in the old-school (von Ranke) style and so on. So in short, I'm dealing with thousands of persons and hundreds of thousands of facts. It's impossible to remember it all. DT is therefore essential. I use that to assign various "things" to various other "things"--which a tree-builder simply can't do. In tree builders, we're assigning things to persons and that is all. In DT, I have categories for epidemics, hurricanes, ships by owner name, ships by ship-name, infrastructure projects, poetry contests, and the list goes on.

                          Where DT is a godsend, is in scenarios like books with bad (or no) index. I import hundreds and hundreds of these out-of-copyright books into DT as tiny text files, which DT then indexes word-for-word. Sometimes, I actually re-OCR the high-res PDF's of the book using ABBYY v.12, which is integrated within DT3 itself. It's fabulous. I then convert these 300-400MB files to plain text, and as crazy as this sounds, I then convert the 1MB-ish .txt into a 1MB-ish PDF, so I can highlight hits in the text files right-click, and assign those hits to whatever category I wish--be that a person, or something else.

                          The fun part is after the database starts getting big, DT's embedded AI circuitry then presents a list of "See Also" documents, which is astonishingly good! I'll attach below a clip from Joe Kissell's Take Controle of DEVONthink 3 which explains a scenario of this in action;
                          scr 2020-06-30 at 1.13.48 PM.jpg

                          Cheers!
                          noyesancestors@gmail.com

                          Comment


                            #14
                            Originally posted by Bob White View Post
                            Reunion is my main guy. However, I always keep the current version of FTM installed. The reason is twofold.

                            First, the majority of my research either is on Ancestry or I end up uploading items from all kinds of places to my tree on Ancestry.

                            This leads to my second reason ---- which is the synching of media between Ancestry and FTM. Do a synch and, voila, I have copies of all the media on my Mac. The only media that I include in Reunion's multimedia is photos of people. Everything else is easily found in my copy of FTM without my having to maintain a sensible filing system as I used to do for many years.

                            Those things are a very substantial "pro" but there is a "con" and that is, when adding new persons to my trees, I do double entry. (e.g., Add the person on both Reunion and Ancestry) I find this to be a small "con" which is far outweighed by the convenience of storing media in FTM. (Note: I do almost zero work in FTM as, while it has improved over time, it is still pretty clunky when compared to the elegance of Reunion.)
                            As a New User with Reunion, I'm trying to understand your process. Please don't take anything that follows as critical, I'm simply trying to understand. You say that you do most of your research in Ancestry and the sync (and backup) on FTM. I get that, if for no other reason than to have a copy of your Ancestry tree on your own computer (I do the same thing). What I don't understand is how you work between Ancestry and Reunion. You noted that when new persons are added to your trees, it then involves double entry work in Reunion. Understood. But if you add facts, events, or pretty much anything after doing your research on Ancestry, don't you then have to do a double entry to get that information into Reunion?

                            Research is, at least to me, much more easily done on Ancestry than in Reunion. It seems that I'm endlessly comparing various genealogy programs and that each one has pros and cons. Like you, I don't really like FTM, but it does serve a valuable purpose with the backup function. I like Roots Magic, but don't like the fact that it is a Windows program that struggles from time to time to work properly on a Mac (RM8 is, in my opinion, vaporware). I really like the RM support available on Facebook and the videos that are available on YouTube. I like the look of MacFamily Tree, but find it very difficult to work with and really dislike its alliance with Family Search, and find their support system lacking. Probably because I'm new with Reunion, I have difficulty understanding how it works - I'm constantly consulting the User Manual for even the most basic processes. Support from Reunion has been very responsive.

                            If it makes any difference, my tree is slightly north of 3400 persons. You are one of the "old hands" with Reunion. I'd appreciate your thoughts. Thanks.

                            Comment


                              #15
                              Originally posted by Herb View Post
                              .......... after doing your research on Ancestry, don't you then have to do a double entry to get that information into Reunion?......If it makes any difference, my tree is slightly north of 3400 persons. You are one of the "old hands" with Reunion. I'd appreciate your thoughts. Thanks.
                              Yes and no. At the Ancestry end, it's mind work plus a couple mouse clicks. At the Reunion end, there is actual physical work -- pounding the keyboard. In saying this, I'm really generalizing but it's basically how this works. Having a large 27" monitor is pretty much a necessity as I can have Reunion and Ancestry side by side for easy comparison and quality checking. Also makes it easy to copy/paste text from one to the other in either direction.
                              Bob White, Mac Nut Since 1985, Reunion Nut Since 1991
                              Jenanyan, Barnes, White, Duncan, Dunning, Luce, Hedge and more
                              iMac/MacBookAir M1 - iPhonePro/iPadPro - Reunion13 & RT

                              Comment

                              Working...
                              X