* am I missing a setting? Attaching media to facts

[DJY]

Hi,

I'm using AS for census entries based on method 1. Although I always link media to sources, I don't like to use the "include source media" checkbox in the media screen for individual facts. I prefer to link the images directly to the facts.

When I enter a census record using AS, each person gets their own individual census fact with a common source that has the census image attached to the source but there is no media linked to the fact. I have to click on each person in FH and manually link the census image to each census fact on each individual's fact in the property box.

Am I missing a setting somewhere that tells AS to link each person's census fact to the census image attached to the AS entry?

[jbtapscott]

I'm sure Nick W will reply in due course, but I'm pretty sure one of the main features of AS is that for a given Census record, all the Individual Census facts created from it all link to a single Source record and that Source record is where the Media link resides. I have not seen, nor would expect to see, an option to link the media to an Individuals Census fact record.

[NickWalker]

Hi,

I'm using AS for census entries based on method 1. Although I always link media to sources, I don't like to use the "include source media" checkbox in the media screen for individual facts. I prefer to link the images directly to the facts.

When I enter a census record using AS, each person gets their own individual census fact with a common source that has the census image attached to the source but there is no media linked to the fact. I have to click on each person in FH and manually link the census image to each census fact on each individual's fact in the property box.

Am I missing a setting somewhere that tells AS to link each person's census fact to the census image attached to the AS entry?

Hi
No there isn't a setting to do this. As you've said, the image is linked to the the source, there isn't really any reason that I can see to also link it to each fact. Although I'm a great believer in people being allowed to record information in whichever way they wish, AS can't be expected to support every possible obscure method used. You've said "I don't like to use the "include source media" checkbox in the media screen for individual facts" - can I ask why? It seems like a useful checkbox that means you wouldn't have any need to link images to the facts?

[ADC65]

I wouldn't necessarily call this an obscure method myself; mainly as it's also the way I work when recording information I do this for all source images, not just censuses.

I do this for two reasons. Firstly, it helps when I export to my TNG website, as the media then appears on each relevant person's profile page under various Media headings. So, for example, Fred Bloggs will have a Census section with a thumbnail for each of the censuses he appears in, and this saves having to click through to each source individually to be able to see the image. (It has to be said that the TNG layout doesn't make it obvious or simple to click through to a source to see the image, which is why I prefer to have the media on the person's profile page directly).

Secondly, I like to have all the media showing on the Media tab of the person in FH. I know some people just want photos to show here, but again I like to be able to quickly browse all media rather than going through the various Source records.

I do also attach the media to the Source via AS. It is easy enough to then attach it to the various people in FH after creating the fact in AS, if not a little tedious and I have to try and remember to do it each time as it is easy to forget. If it were possible to add this functionality into AS I would be in favour of it.

[LornaCraig]

Secondly, I like to have all the media showing on the Media tab of the person in FH. I know some people just want photos to show here, but again I like to be able to quickly browse all media rather than going through the various Source records.

Adrian, I think you are talking about linking all media directly to the Individual record, whereas the OP is talking about linking media to facts. Media linked to facts don't show on the Media tab of the individual.

Also, in case you are not aware of this there is a quick way to view all media linked in any way to an individual. On the individual’s media tab click the cog wheel icon and you will see two options: View Pictures (etc) of … in Media Window and View Media linked to … in Media Window. The second option lets you choose to see:

Media linked directly to the record,
Media linked to facts,
Media linked to associated places,
Media linked to Sources and Citations,
Media Linked to Family records.

There is no need to go through all the various Source records.

[tatewise]

Also, on the Facts tab, the More column has a Media icon if any Media is attached to the Fact itself or to any of its Citations or associated Source records.
Click that Media icon or the Show Media button in the middle of the toolbar below to view Media for Fact.
The only proviso is that the Media For Fact window must have both options ticked for Include Source Record Media and Include Citation Media.

DYJ's request to add Media directly to the Fact is a personal requirement for exporting to TNG.
Perhaps a solution is a custom Plugin that ensures that the Media attached to any Source record is also attached to each Fact that cites the Source record. Is that something that DYJ would consider writing with some coaching?

[LornaCraig]

The only proviso is that the Media For Fact window must have both options ticked for Include Source Record Media and Include Citation Media.

But DYJ has already said 'I don't like to use the "include source media" checkbox in the media screen for individual facts.' (And Nick has asked him why not)

DYJ's request to add Media directly to the Fact is a personal requirement for exporting to TNG.
Perhaps a solution is a custom Plugin that ensures that the Media attached to any Source record is also attached to each Fact that cites the Source record. Is that something that DYJ would consider writing with some coaching?

DYJ didn't say anything about exporting to TNG. That was Adrian (ADC65), to whom I was replying. And from what Adrian said I think his requirement is for the media to be linked to the individual, not the facts.

[ADC65]

Thank you Lorna and Mike. Yes, I was confusing myself, and I was talking about linking to Individuals when the original poster was talking about linking to Facts. Sorry if I muddied the waters.

Thank you for explaining the various ways of viewing the media via the cog button, etc.. I was aware of these, but I had rather forgotten them because of my linking process. To get TNG to look the way I want, I will have to continue linking media to Individuals, and if this was ever an option in AS I would be very pleased

Thanks again.

[tatewise]

Sorry, I got DYJ and ADC65 posts confused

[DJY]

Sorry, I've been offline for a few days and just now catching up. I'll explain my thinking. (And I'm willing to accept that my thinking may be backward or that there may be a better way to do it!)

Reasons I don't like to use the check box to show media from the sources on the fact:

• It doesn't change the # of links for the image. I can look at the image in the media records tab and see how extensively it's used in my database just by looking at that number.

• I also can run the "Where Records Used" plugin to see who (and which facts) are associated with that image. I use "image" here purely to denote file type. My images are usually digital images of original documents. There are a couple of reasons this plugin is helpful. If I have a "better" document, that list of links tells me where I may need to go and add the new document to augment the evidence. That list also becomes fodder for telling me where to go back and review a record again. Basically, a high density of family members linked to an image indicates that the document is worth a fresh review to look for my new individual. I haven't tried it, but I'm assuming the "Where Records Used" plugin won't work if the image is just displayed based on the check box rather than linked as a media.

• Export: Because the # of media links doesn't change if you check or uncheck the "display media images" box, I've always assumed that box functions purely as a display mechanism and not an actual link. I've therefore assumed that the images don't export with the facts (though they would clearly export with the sources that are linked to those facts). I've looked and couldn't find anything in the help menu that specifically addressed whether that was true or not. I'm going on the idea of it being a DISPLAY that works only within the program. I like the idea of everything linked. Sort of a hard-coding, if you will. Having 3 different genealogy programs under my belt, I'm assuming this makes my database easier to import somewhere else, should I have to change in the future. (I don't use multiple programs at a time. I've transitioned twice, so now I'm all about future-proofing and maintaining as much of a direct link on things as possible.)

• Handling secondary vs primary records: This is probably unique to me, but I tend to attach or link primary and secondary documents to sources so I can quickly open the image file and see what was in the document, but I link/attach ONLY primary sources to the facts. My goal is to get original documents for everything whenever possible and I use the image icon in the "more" column in the property box to show me where I have such documents. A fact with a source but no image attached to the fact tells me at an immediate glance that the information is based on non-original records of some sort like an index, extract, transcription, journal article, book, etc. That shows me that it's a good target for digging deeper to go back to the original record.

If I'm wrong about the way I'm interpreting the check box handles links and exports, then I would happily start using the check box. It would create a bit of a mess on my historical secondary sources, but these days, I tend to use OCR to convert my transcribed sources (which are usually typed) into text that I insert as source or citation text, so I can live with the messiness of historical sources. Have I misunderstood the check box?

All in all, this desire for a direct link connecting media to a fact is probably a throwback to my TMG days where all information was triangulated and attached to facts about individuals: Here's a fact for a person; here's the document that proves that event; and here's that document attached to the source record that cites where I got that document. At the end of the day, all genealogy programs do this but it seems to me that FH centers around sources whereas TMG was centered around facts. Source first vs. life events first. It's all the same destination (facts w/ documentation) but the mental model of assembly is different. Source-driven data entry in FH (here's this record and all of the information I extracted from it) vs. having facts that you support with evidence in TMG (here's this event and here's the evidence that proves it's true).

As for my willingness to write a plugin --- sorry but no. I taught myself to code in C++ for something in grad school but I'm no programmer and I wouldn't have the time to dedicate to figuring out how to do that.

[tatewise]

Thank you for that explanation.
You are correct that the checkbox to Include Source Record Media is just a display option and does not change the # of links.

You could run the Where Used Record Links plugin on the Source Record instead of its Media Record and get similar results to running it on the Media Record.

However, your other points are valid.
If the Media is only attached to a Source Record then that is all that gets exported, but that is sufficient for most products.
Using the primary Media attached to the Fact as a kind of flag could probably be achieved some other way such as a Note or Citation setting but perhaps not so immediately visible.