Sunday, October 28, 2007

Converting PDF into RTF

PDF is a very popular way exchanging documents because the layout stays the same no matter what computer you are on, BUT there is no way to edit them or put them in your notes in your genealogy program. There are two ways I do it. Copy/Paste from Acrobat Reader or OCR it.

With Copy/Paste you need to paste it into word processor using the text selection tool. But you have to find the beginnings of your paragraphs & take out the end of lines within that paragraph. I will “Justify” all the text and do an indent, that way I can see my paragraphs.

The other is OCR but rather than print, scan, and convert to text, you just use the snapshot tool in Acrobat to copy and paste it into your OCR program. I found a free program that does an ok job of this called TopOCR http://www.topocr.com/ . It doesn’t work well with bold, italics, or pictures, but for free it does speed things up. I just found out if you change your setting to scanner mode "Settings->Image-> Source->Scanner" it will do a better job even with this copy/paste method in TopOCR.

Rede’s method:
Share Convert a PDF into a RTF Part 1 (Copy/Paste)
http://blip.tv/file/449914

Share Convert a PDF into a RTF Part 2 (OCR)
http://blip.tv/file/449936

Friday, October 26, 2007

Interlibrary Loan

If you are luck enough to find someone that has listed a book as a source in their genealogy, a good way of getting that book is through the interlibrary loan at your local library. A good place to start is WorldCat http://www.worldcat.org/ to see if it is available. Your local library has their own network they work with. So if it shows up on WorldCat doesn’t mean they can get it but if your search pulls up a close library it increases your chances.

I like the advance search, but on the homepage your can enter a title, subject or person in the main search. When you find the book you want it will list whether it is a book, microfilm, computer file, etc… Click on the book you want, and where it list the libraries type in your zip code and click go. This will sort the libraries by how close they are to you. Take down the information like title, author and anything else you think your library will need & ask you librarian about it.

Two things to remember, not all libraries are in WorldCat and just because it is in WorldCat doesn’t mean your library can get it. This is just a way to increase your chances to find it.

Note: I have had family actually get microfilm from state historical societies via interlibrary loan, so that is another good source.

Saturday, October 20, 2007

Using Notepad For Your Genealogy

Using Notepad to transcribe images & copy text for your genealogy. Read my way of doing it click here.

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Making Multi Page PDF Images With IrfanView

One nice thing about Multi Page PDF files are for things like Wills and other documents that take several pages, you can make a single file out of them for archiving & emailing.

I have talked about making multi page documents with IrfanView back in April of 2007. With the new update they fixed the compression problems I was getting with making multi page PDF documents with IrfanView. You can now choose how much compression you want to put into the images, thus making smaller files.

You will need to download & install the program & plugins from http://www.irfanview.net/ . It is DonationWare which means anything you want to donate is appreciated.

I think you can actually scan with IrfanView and save as a multi page PDF. But for this article I will just take a few pictures & combine them.

Steps for make a multi page TIF that some people prefer for archiving:
  • Open IrfanView.
  • Click “View”> put mouse over “Multiple Page Images”> and click “Create Multiple Page TIF”.
  • Click “Add Images” find the images you want> sort if needed> click “Compression” choose what you want> click “Browse” to put it where you want it on your computer> give it a “name”> click “Create TIF Image” and your done.

Steps for make a multi page PDF with IrfanView:
  • Open your TIF file in IrfanView.
  • Click “Save As”> choose "Save as type: PDF - Portable Document Format".
  • In the PDF Settings Tab "layout" Page Format=Like Image. Page Rotation=none. Page Border=unchecked. Compression Tab=Activate Compression is checked & "True Color Images" and "Grayscale Images" are set to "JPG (medium quality)".
  • Give it a name and click “Save”.

7 color images totaling 8 megs became a 76 meg TIF, on the medium compression setting I ended up with a single 1.64 meg multi page PDF file.

Monday, October 15, 2007

Ancestor Cards for Children

This was such a great idea I had to share. Please read the rest of the story it is just wonderful http://tinyurl.com/2vurh6

"Ancestor Cards for Children Recently I've been mulling over how to present the genealogy I've done on our family so that it would grab my 9 year old grandson's attention. My good friend Illya of Genealogy Today suggested I use a baseball or hockey card format with one ancestor per card.

I loved the idea and created cards 6 cm x 9 cm. Each card features one ancestor's picture or a picture representing that ancestor. The back of each card has ancestor stats - their relationship to my grandchildren, date and place of birth, date and place of death, spouse's name, parents' names and a tiny blurb about that person (hopefully something unique or of interest to an 9 year old!)"

More info: Olive Tree Genealogy Blog: Ancestor Cards for Children