Producing a Family CD

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Marshall Lake

Producing a Family CD

Legg inn av Marshall Lake » 20 des 2004 17:26:04

I am in the process of gathering together the family info I have in order
to produce a CD for members of my family and other interested parties.

I plan to produce an HTML version, a PDF version, and a plain text
version of the info to include on the CD.

I'd be interested in hearing from others who might have any suggestions,
tips, or ideas. Are there any pitfalls I should be looking out for?

Producing a DVD might be something interesting. Has anyone done this?

Dave Hinz

Re: Producing a Family CD

Legg inn av Dave Hinz » 20 des 2004 17:40:28

On Mon, 20 Dec 2004 10:26:04 -0600, Marshall Lake <mlake@NS.mlake.net> wrote:
I am in the process of gathering together the family info I have in order
to produce a CD for members of my family and other interested parties.
I plan to produce an HTML version, a PDF version, and a plain text
version of the info to include on the CD.

Great, so it's visible for anyone with a modern computer. Good choices.

I'd be interested in hearing from others who might have any suggestions,
tips, or ideas. Are there any pitfalls I should be looking out for?

Maybe a label telling them which file to start on?

Producing a DVD might be something interesting. Has anyone done this?

Piece of cake...if you have a Mac? iDVD gives you a bunch of nice options
for opening screens, menu selections, graphic mappings, music, and
scene/chaptering. I don't know of an equivalent for Windows, if that's
what you have.

Dave Hinz

Marshall Lake

Re: Producing a Family CD

Legg inn av Marshall Lake » 20 des 2004 19:18:48

I'd be interested in hearing from others who might have any suggestions,
tips, or ideas. Are there any pitfalls I should be looking out for?

Maybe a label telling them which file to start on?

Good idea.

Producing a DVD might be something interesting. Has anyone done this?

Piece of cake...if you have a Mac? iDVD gives you a bunch of nice options
for opening screens, menu selections, graphic mappings, music, and
scene/chaptering. I don't know of an equivalent for Windows, if that's
what you have.

Neither ... Linux. I know there is open source software for producing
DVDs with Linux but I have no experience with any of them.

Steve Hayes

Re: Producing a Family CD

Legg inn av Steve Hayes » 21 des 2004 03:28:48

On Mon, 20 Dec 2004 10:26:04 -0600, Marshall Lake <mlake@NS.mlake.net> wrote:

I am in the process of gathering together the family info I have in order
to produce a CD for members of my family and other interested parties.

I plan to produce an HTML version, a PDF version, and a plain text
version of the info to include on the CD.


Perhaps a GEDCOM version as well?


--
Steve Hayes
E-mail: hayesmstw@hotmail.com (see web page if it doesn't work)
Web: http://www.geocities.com/Athens/7734/stevesig.htm
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/7783/

Marshall Lake

Re: Producing a Family CD

Legg inn av Marshall Lake » 21 des 2004 04:32:32

I am in the process of gathering together the family info I have in order
to produce a CD for members of my family and other interested parties.

I plan to produce an HTML version, a PDF version, and a plain text
version of the info to include on the CD.

Perhaps a GEDCOM version as well?

That's a good idea but unfortunately I don't have an easy way of creating
a GEDCOM.

dps

Re: Producing a Family CD

Legg inn av dps » 21 des 2004 14:07:47

How much information is there? Are there a lot of people, or just a lot
of pictures?

There are lots of freeware genealogy programs out there which will
enable you to produce a GEDCOM file. However, you have to enter all the
names and dates into the program to do that. You didn't say whether you
had your information in a genealogy program or just on paper. If there
are only a few (<100) people, it can all be done on paper. However, if
you're really interested in genealogy, you will not be satisfied with
just a few ancestors. Once the number of people you are documenting
becomes larger than a couple of hundred, you need either a genealogy
program to keep track of them and their relationships or a really really
good memory. I would recommend finding a good program and starting the
process before your collection of ancestors and cousins becomes unwieldy.

Of course, a GEDCOM is of no value to the people you are going to
distribute your CD to unless they have a genealogy program also. I would
go with a word processor version for the average family member. Most
current word processors can output a file in HTML format also, so you
can have hard copy and HTML. However, the GEDCOMs are fairly compact, so
they wouldn't take up much space on a CD (unless you have a really large
family), so it wouldn't hurt to include it just in case someone else
gets into genealogy.

If you do get a genealogy program, the *FIRST* thing you want to do
(before entering any data) is to find out how to include source
references with each entry. Make sure you use that knowledge
consistently. This will not only enable others to find out where you got
the information, but will enable you to find it after a few years when
you have forgotten all about that book you found it in.

Marshall Lake wrote:
I am in the process of gathering together the family info I have in order
to produce a CD for members of my family and other interested parties.

I plan to produce an HTML version, a PDF version, and a plain text
version of the info to include on the CD.


Perhaps a GEDCOM version as well?


That's a good idea but unfortunately I don't have an easy way of creating
a GEDCOM.

Marshall Lake

Re: Producing a Family CD

Legg inn av Marshall Lake » 22 des 2004 00:48:04

How much information is there? Are there a lot of people, or just a lot
of pictures?

I have both ... a lot of info and a lot of pictures (and other graphics).

At last count my info contains 16,588 different individuals. When I
first began doing research in 1973 there were no genealogy programs
available. I decided to keep my info in a computer file in book form.
One of my goals was to produce a hard copy at some point which I did
in 1993. But now I have so much info that a book would cost too much.
Producing a CD or DVD is a good alternative.

Keeping my info in book form has worked out pretty well for me down
through the years. It's easy to search. And it's easy to exchange info
with other researchers via cut & paste.

Most current word processors can output a file in HTML format also,
so you can have hard copy and HTML.

How well does a word processor create the necessary links between people,
and between the entries in the index and the body of the text?

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