Family Historian User Group

I have a number of media files that are scanned family documents - e.g. letters, postcards and wills. Some of these are handwritten and not easy to read, so I am transcribing them into Word documents. For the shorter examples I have cut and pasted the transcript into the Media Notes section, but some probated wills are two or three pages long. What is the best way of dealing with these.

My main use for these is in sources. - would it be best to convert them to JPEG files and add them to the source along with the originals?

When you ask for a 'best way' you need to identify your criteria for what constitutes 'best'.
e.g.
'best' for fully documented, traceable and searchable citation records?
'best' for including such records in Reports?

Not sure why you ask about converting to JPEG files because if they are 'scanned family documents' then they are already in JPEG or some similar image format.

tatewise wrote: ↑

31 May 2023 11:31

Not sure why you ask about converting to JPEG files because if they are 'scanned family documents' then they are already in JPEG or some similar image format.

Or PDFs.

What I tend to do with multiple images such as this e.g.Service records, which can run into many pages, is to store them in an appropriate place within my filing system, and just add bare details as a fact to the individual and then just add a simple source to indicate I have the actual image. The generic source would simply be Service record Image
With my unique custom IDs, I just name the files J0087abc Service record for Jim smith 1 of 6 etc.

I am a great believer in the KISS principle, so do not clutter my FH file with media, so this works for me

tatewise wrote: ↑

31 May 2023 11:31

Not sure why you ask about converting to JPEG files because if they are 'scanned family documents' then they are already in JPEG or some similar image format.

The scanned images are either jpeg or png, but as I said I have made manual transcripts - these are in Word or plain text.

What I do is scan the transcriptions into a multi-page PDF file and attach that to the source record.

Bill

Gowermick wrote: ↑

31 May 2023 15:05

What I tend to do with multiple images such as this e.g.Service records, which can run into many pages, is to store them in an appropriate place within my filing system.

I am not talking about multiple images - I am talking about a scanned image of a letter or postcard, that I have made a transcription of in Word. Some of these documents are difficult to read, so I want to keep a copy of the transcription in the source citation with the document image.

The most common strategy is to enter the transcript text in the Source record Text From Source field.
i.e. Copy & Paste the text from the Word document into the Text From Source field.
Then it sits alongside the image attached to the Media tab of the Source record.

That is what the Text From Source is intended for, to hold transcriptions.
You are using FH V7 so any layout & style should be reproduced in the rich text formatting of the Text From Source field.

In future simply type the transcription straight into the Text From Source field and avoid Word altogether.

tatewise wrote: ↑

01 Jun 2023 21:12

In future simply type the transcription straight into the Text From Source field and avoid Word altogether.

I am using Word because I use these transcripts elsewhere, outside of FH7. For example to send copies to family members. They are just plain text transcripts, so no layout or formatting to worry about.

That goes back to my original point that the 'best way' depends on your criteria for what constitutes 'best'.
So for you, the best way is to type the transcript into Word and then copy that text into the Text From Source field.
Whereas my best way is to type the transcript directly into the Text From Source field or sometimes use AS to do that.
Unless we know your criteria we cannot advise what is best.

You could of course use the opposite route.
i.e. Type directly into the Text From Source field or use AS to generate the Text From Source transcript.
Then copy the Text From Source field into a Word document.

Perhaps I was not precise with my question, I was not asking about how and where to create the transcription, but where to put it in FH7. I was also taking a rather blinkered view on just the Media and forgetting the Source citations - 'Text from Source' is clearly the right place.

As far as creating the 'Text from Source' transcription I use whatever I feel most comfortable with, so -

For BMD and Census records, I use AS and create 'Text from Source' within AS.
For records in PDF format, I use OneNote - for it's ability to extract text from PDFs.
For media like hand written wills and probate records, which can be several pages long and not easy to decipher, I feel more comfortable using Word, as I can dictate the draft rather than having to type it. Also, although I want a full transcript for my records, It may be overkill to cite the whole document as Text from Source.