* New User (30 day free trial), Multimedia and Sources

[thejerrybryan]

I just started playing with the 30 day free trial. One of the most important things to me is to be able to link multimedia to sources. Well in excess of 90% of my multimedia files are documents (death certificates, census, newspaper obituaries, wills, deed, etc.) rather than being photographs. I have done a quick read through of the FH user manual, and nearly everything in the user manual seems to be oriented towards photographs.

Is there a place where I can get more information about FH's handling of multimedia for documents? Maybe it's in the user manual and I just missed it. But for example, the only thing I seem to be able to see is thumbnails, which are far too small to be legible for documents. And I'm sure I have a number of multimedia file types that FH doesn't understand how to display.

All the multimedia files in the sample FH file are for photographs. I created a test database by exporting a GEDCOM from my current genealogy program and importing the GEDCOM into FH. It looks like the all the multimedia files came over into FH (looks like links rather than the files themselves, which is just fine). But I really can't view the multimedia in a reasonable fashion. In my current genealogy program, I can specify that multimedia files are to be opened by an external viewer (typically, the standard Windows program associated with that file type), and this works just fine for me. I can't find the equivalent for FH.

Thanks,
Jerry

[Jane]

2014-05-20_080145.png (18.22 KiB) Viewed 3938 times

When you view the media in the Media Window, just click on the red arrow to launch the correct program for your media.

If you have scanned documents in PDF or similar I would consider converting them to png or tiff files, as that is what will be contained in the PDF files.

[tatewise]

You are correct that Getting the Most From FH focuses on photos, which is a shame because FH supports Source Documents so well.
There is a great deal of advice on how to use Sources and Media Documents in our FHUG Knowledge Base:
glossary:sources|> Sources and its links to further advice.
how_to:v4:adding_multimedia|> Adding Photographs and Other Multimedia

Also ancestralsources:index|> Ancestral Sources is a free add-on that offers more convenient ways of capturing your source records and media.

The point about converting media to PNG or JPG wherever possible is that FH natively displays them, and only such graphical format files are included in created Diagrams, Reports, and HTML Web/DVD pages.

[thejerrybryan]

Much thanks for your information. However, I don't see anything that looks like your screen shot.

I thought the easiest way to explain what I'm trying to do would be to post a screencast. The URL is

http://screencast.com/t/DA1HVfda65J

The screencast is a little better than two minutes long and it's easier to read the text if the screencast expanded to full screen mode.

Thanks,
Jerry

[Valkrider]

Jerry

You have gone a little too far. Click on the source record at the top of the tree as about 58 seconds into your video, don't go down the tree to the entry about the image.

You will then see the icons in the attached image shown. Click on the left hand of the two shown and the image will open. Click on the right hand of the two and you will be taken to the source record.

j1.JPG (9.25 KiB) Viewed 3887 times

[tatewise]

Also, if you click on the right-hand yellow triangle icon Go to Source Record the Source Property Box will open.
Select its Multimedia tab to view the media and if necessary use the red triangle Open in Editor/Player that Jane mentioned above.

The same method applies to the Multimedia tab of the Individual Property Box and Family Property Box.

I suspect you simply have not explored all the display modes of FH: Records Window, Multimedia Window, Property Box of all 9 Record types, etc, etc.

The Help > Book: Getting the Most From Family Historian 5 in Chapters 4 & 5 discusses the above, and although focussed on the Individual Property Box, it also applies to the Source Property Box.

Perhaps it is because your data has been imported rather being constructed in FH by you. If you had created the Source Records and attached the Multimedia and created the Citations you would be more familiar with the features.
I suggest you try some of the tutorials and scour our FHUG KB for examples.