Much Ado About Graphic Software...Part 1

One of the presentations at RootsTech was for a piece of screen capture software called Snagit. I didn't attend the session in part because I've used Snagit in the past. It's an excellent tool for creating graphics, for doing large scrolling screen captures, for sharing to social media, and for completing an assortment of other tasks. If you google screen capture software, you'll find that there's lots of this type of software available. Some of it is free. Some of it is commercial software with varied costs. Snagit is going for $50.00 these days.

If you're a professional genealogist, you may want to consider purchasing software. If you're a hobby genealogist on a tight budget, you might be surprised to find that you already own a lesser but similar tool that might meet your needs.

Paint

For as long as I can remember, Windows has included a low level graphics program called Paint. Most people don't know that the program is there, and if they do know, they've never learned to use it. In my opinion that is ashamed because many screen capture software programs are modeled off of Paint.

What does that piece of info mean to you? It means that if you learn to use Paint before you purchase commercial software, you'll have a better chance of assessing the software you are considering for purchase. Learning to use Paint will also cause you to assess your needs and decide whether you need purchase additional software at all.

You may also be interested in knowing that I use Paint to produce every screen sample you see in this blog. I use it to clean up graphics, to add the circles and arrows around items I want you to look at, to add comments directly in the graphics, and to layer one graphic over another so that you can see the results of a selection process. In my own genealogy, I use it for several addition tasks; for example, clipping sections of newspaper columns and placing the clips so that I create one graphic.

If you are using an earlier version of Windows, you'll find that Paint is somewhat limited. You can still accomplish ordinary tasks; it's just that you'll have to click more to accomplish those tasks. If you are using Windows 2007 or greater, you'll find that Paint is very useful for doing everyday graphical tasks.


In addition, if you use a Mac, there's a free clone you can download.

If you're a long time reader of this blog, you may remember that I've had you use Paint to crop and turn graphics. We just did that with tables. I haven't given you much background where Paint is concerned. So I thought I'd do that in this post.

Opening Paint

Select Start, All Programs, Accessories, and then Paint. The palette appears.

The Home tab contains the majority of the tools you'll use. I'll go through the tools and give you a run down of what I use (if I use it) and how I use it. If you're using an earlier version of Windows, here's what your palette looks like.

If you look closely, many of the buttons use the same icon for the same function. For example, regardless of the version the Eraser, Pencil, and Eye Dropper present with the same icon. Other items that are on the toolbar in current version of Paint are in menus in earlier versions of Paint.

Resizing the Drawing Area

The drawing area is the bright white space you see in the sample screens above. When you capture screen and paste it into Paint, the palette resizes automatically. However, as your use becomes more sophisticated, you'll need to know how to resize the drawing palette. The process is the same regardless of the version. The palette has small circles along the outer edge. Point at any circle and your cursor changes to a double-headed arrow. Click your mouse once to grab the circle and drag your cursor to resize the palette. When the palette is the size you want it to be, release your mouse button.

Capturing a Screen

1. Display any web page you like (actually anything on your screen).
2. Press the PrintScr button. If you're on a laptop, you'll probably need to press a color coded function key too. On my laptop, I hold down the FN key, and then press PrtScr. Windows places a copy of your screen on a clipboard (temporary storage area).
3. Open Paint if you don't already have it open.
4. Paste the screen capture (Ctrl + V). You get the whole thing. You don't want the whole thing.

Clipping and Saving What You Want

1. Use the Select tool to select the portion of the capture you want. You've already done this task.
2. Click the select tool.
3. With your mouse, click in the upper left of the area you want to keep.
4. Move your cursor to the lower right of the area you want to keep.
5. Let go of your mouse button. Paint has added a dotted line around the selected area. The outlined area is what your graphic will look like.
6. Crop the area.--In Windows 2007/2010, click the Crop button beside the Select tool. Paint displays the cropped area.
   --In earlier versions, copy the selected area (Ctrl + C). Open another instance of Paint (you can run more than one session of the same software). Paste the selected area (Ctrl + V).
7. Save the cropped area. Select File, and then Save As to display the Save As dialog.
8. In File name, add a name.
9. In Save as type, select PNG (*.png). Your version of Paint may default to .png. Just be sure to confirm you have the right file format selected so that you don't loose color in the graphic.
10. Click the Save button.

Evaluation

Can you do this same task easier with Snagit? Yes, you can. Is that ease of use worth $50.00 of your cash? In my opinion, no, it's not.

Can you do more with Paint? You can do lots more with Paint just as you can do lots more with Snagit. What you learn to do with software is often a reflection of your needs. In my opinion, these needs should be assessed before a cash outlay.

Future Postings

I've just started talking about Paint and I have to be careful because I have an outstanding article on the topic that I hope to have published. I don't want to rob myself of my own thunder! However, Paint offers lots of capabilities that I didn't talk about in the article. So, we have lots of territory to cover while I wait out seeing if the article makes it into print.

Table It!...Part 7...Turn Word Table into Graphics

Brace yourself. It's another zinger!

If you remember, I'm trying to place a landscape size table into a portrait oriented document. I've also made the assumption that since the original project was a report to a client that the document is several pages in length. To get the table to appear mid-document, I need to convert it to two graphics and turn the graphics. I've talked about a similar task once before. See Turn the Graphic or Turn the Page and Flip that Graphic for more information on what your options are and why you would want to rotate the graphic instead of the page. At any rate, we want a document that ends up looking like this...

Notice that this sample has mirrored margins and the second page has running text beside the graphic.

To capture part one of the table:

1. Open the landscape Word document with the table. 
2. Set your view to about 70%. You need to adjust your display so that you can capture all of the table on page one in one window. Depending on your screen size, you might need to fuss with your system a bit to get the same results. After page one of the table has been turned into a graphic, you can resize it as you would any other graphic.
   --Word 2003: On the View menu, click Zoom. Under Zoom to, enter 70%. Or, if you happen to have the Standard toolbar displaying, you can enter 70% in the Zoom box, which most likely has 100% in it.
   --Word 2007/2010: You can use the slider in the lower right of the page. Or, you can select View, and then click the Zoom button to display the Zoom dialog. In Percent, enter 70%, and then click OK. 
3. Click the PrintScreen button. Word adds a copy of your screen on the Word clipboard (temporary memory area). If you're working on a laptop, you need to press a combination of color coded keys. On my laptop, I press FN +PRTSC. 

To create the graphic:

1. Open the graphics program Paint. Select Start, All Programs, Accessories, and then Paint. The program opens. 
2. Paste the screen capture. Hold down the Ctrl key and type V (Ctrl + V). 
3. Click the Select tool.
   
4. With your mouse, click in the upper left of the table on page one and move your cursor to the lower right of the table section on page one. 
5. Let go of the mouse. Paint has added a dotted line around the selected area. The outlined area is what your graphic will look like.
6. Crop the selected area.
   --In Windows 2007/2010, click the Crop button beside the Select tool. Paint displays the cropped area.
   --In earlier versions of Windows, copy the selected area (Ctrl + C). Open another instance of Paint.  Select Start, All Programs, Accessories, and then Paint.  Paste (Ctrl + V) the selected area. 
7. Save the cropped table. Select File, and then Save As to display the Save As dialog. 
8. In File name, add a name; for example, 1850 Table 1.
9. In Save as type, select PNG (*.png). Your version of Paint might default to .png. Just be sure to confirm you have the right file format selected so that you don't loose color in the graphic. 
10. Click the Save button. Do not leave Paint or close the graphic. 

To rotate the graphic:

• In Paint 2003 or 2007, select Image, Flip/Rotate, Rotate by angle, 90 degrees, and then click OK.
• In Paint 2010, select Rotate on the Home tab, and then select Rotate Left 90 degrees. 

Save the graphic. If you're asked if you want to replace the current version, select yes.

To create part two of the table:
Repeat the instructions above to convert the section of the table that is on page 2 of your landscaped Word document. After you have the two graphics, you're ready to insert the graphics into a document.

You might have to use your imagination on this part. Or, if you happen to have a document that is several pages long, open it, save it under another name (for example, Junk), and complete these instructions to see how the graphics are inserted.

Insert graphics into document:

1. Open the document in to which you want to insert the graphics. 
2. Type the text: 1850 Census Entries for McKee in Randolph County, Illinois.
3. Apply a Heading 3 style.
   (See Electronic Table of Contents and Styles if you need help applying a heading style.)
4. Make a local change so that the title is on a new page. Right-click to display the popup menu, select Paragraph, click the Line and Page Breaks tab, select Page break before in the Pagination group, and then click OK. 
5. Press the Enter key to create a new empty line. 
6. Insert the part one graphic.
   --In Word 2007/2010: Select Insert, and then select Picture. The Insert Picture dialog appears. Locate the page one graphic (1850 Table 1), click it once to select it, and then click the Insert button.
   --In Word 2003:  Select Insert, and then select Picture. Select From File to display the Insert Picture dialog.  Locate the page one graphic (1850 Table 1), click it once to select it, and then click the Insert button.
7. Repeat steps 5 and 6 to add the page 2 graphic (1850 Table 2 if you followed the naming convention).

To adjust text wrap:

This step is optional and will depend on how much room you have on the page where you placed the last graphic. If you look at the particular example that I've created, the graphic covers about 1/3 of the page, which means that about 2/3 of the page is empty. You can leave the space empty...white space isn't necessarily a bad thing...or you can change the text wrap option around the graphic, which will allow you to type text in the 2/3 of the page that is empty.

1. Right-click the graphic to display a popup menu.
2. Select the Square text wrap option.
   --Word 2007/2010: Select Wrap Text, and click Square, and then click OK.
   --Word 2003: Select Format Picture, click the Layout tab, and then click the Advanced button.  Click  Square, and then click OK.  
3. Click your mouse to the right of the graphic. Your cursor will begin to flash in the first line beside the graphic. 

Comments

Your page should be finished and should look similar to these pages.

Can you spot the one change that you could make to the second page graphic? Look at the alignment of the two graphics. The graphic on the second page is slightly higher than the one on the first page. The graphic on the first page has a title that is pushing it down on the page. You have two options to fix the alignment.

1. Click the graphic to select it and press the Enter key to add an empty line before graphic. One empty line is frequently enough to create a better alignment...not perfect but better. You can make a local change using the Paragraph dialog to get the alignment closer (add space before/after to adjust the graphic alignment). For help, see Spacing: Before/After in the post Format-->Paragraph. You may also want to add a page break, which also affects spacing. While you have the Paragraph dialog open, click the Line and Page Breaks tab, click Page Break Before in the Pagination group, and then click OK. If you think you're going to complete these steps more than once, create a style (I call mine Spacer).
2. Click the graphic and do not release your mouse button. Use your mouse to move the graphic down so that it's more closely aligned. 

So are you gasping yet? I am...actually I'm talking to the trainers at work to see if I can use some software to produce what are basically movies. If we're going to get this complicated, I perhaps need to get a bit more sophisticated.

Upcoming posts are going to involve creating the sidebar title and exploring the many other options that are included in table-related dialogs. We'll also create additional tables. I'll pick up posting on tables again at the beginning of next week. 

Table It!...Part 6...Creating the Table

Brace yourself. This one is going to be a long slog. However, at the end, you'll have several new skills.

To construct this table, you need to open a new document and add the table. After the table is finished, we're going to turn the two pieces into graphics, and then rotate the graphics so that they fit on a portrait page. Here's what the final pages with the table graphics inserted will look like. Notice that you can use wrap options to type text on the right-hand page.

To set up the page:

1. Open a new Word document.
2. Reset all margins to .5 inches.
   Open the Page Setup dialog.
   --Word 2003: Select File, and then Page Setup.
   --Word 2007/2010: Select the Page Layout tab and locate the Page Setup group. Click the small arrow in the lower right of the group.
   The Page Setup dialog appears.
3. Enter .5 for top, bottom, right, and left.
4. Click the Landscape button.
5. Click OK.

To add the table:

1. Add the table title.
   --Type this text: 1850 Census Entries for McKee in Randolph County, Illinois--Apply a Heading 3 style, and then press the Enter key.
2. Display the Insert Table dialog.
   --Word 2003: From the menu, select Table, Insert, Table.
   --Word 2007/2010: On the Insert tab, click Tables.  
3. In Number of columns, enter 13.
4. In Number of rows, enter 10.
5. Under AutoFit behavior, click AutoFit to contents.
6. Click OK. The table appears in your document.
7. Save the document under a name you will recognize.

To add text to your table:

1. In the first row, type the 1850 census column titles.
   
   --Click in the first cell, and type the column title.
   --Press the Tab key to move forward to the next cell, and add text.
   --Press Shift + Tab to move backward to the previous cell.
   Notice that in the table I created I abbreviated Age, Sex, and Color. I've included all of the columns because while the census entries I'm looking at do not have entries in all columns that may not be the case for entries you are looking at.
2. In the second row, type the location description, and then merge the cells in row two.
   
   To merge, select the entire row. Move your cursor to the left of row two. Your cursor changes from an I beam to an arrow. Point the arrow at row two and click once to select the entire row. Word highlights the row. Right-click in the row to display the popup menu, and then select Merge. Word removes all vertical table borders except the end borders.
3. Add a gray fill to rows one and two.
   
   To fill, select rows one and two. Move your cursor to the left of row one. Your cursor changes from an I beam to an arrow. Point the arrow at row one and click once. Hold down the mouse button and drag your cursor down to the second row. Word highlights rows one and two. Right-click in the highlighted rows to display the popup menu, and then select Borders and Shading. The  Borders and Shading dialog appears. Select the Shading tab. In the Fill drop-down, select one of the shades of gray. You add a bit of color to a heading (gray if you are printing to paper) so that your reader has a visual break that they can use to identify titles and locations.
4. In the third row, start adding census data. You can add the data I show in the sample or your own data.
5. When you have a new location (township), add the location, merge the fields, and fill with gray to provide a visual break for your reader.
6. Continue adding entries. When you table breaks to page two, just let it break. After you have two pages of entries, we have two problems to fix: 1) row splitting across page break; 2) no titles above page 2 columns.
7. To stop a row from splitting across a page break, complete these steps.
   
   --Select the entire table. Click once anywhere in the table, and then right-click to display a popup menu. Click Select, and then Table. Word highlights the entire table.
   --Display Table Properties. Right-click anywhere in the highlighted table to display the popup menu, and then select Table Properties. Click the Row tab.  In Options, remove the check mark from Allow row to break across pages. Depending on what you've done, you might see the check box filled in with color. Click it twice to remove all marks. Click OK to save the change. The table will allow only entire rows and will not split a row across a page break. Click anywhere outside of the table to remove the highlight.
8. To add a title row to page two, repeat header rows.
   
   --On page one, select row one (the title row) of the table.
   --Word 2003: From the menu, select Table, Repeat Header Row.
   --Word 2007/2010: On the Layout tab, click the Repeat Header Row button  in the Data group.
   
   Regardless of how many pages of census entries you enter, the heading row will appear at the top of each page.

So are you exhausted yet? I know I am. So I'll save turning the table into a graphic for the next post. After you have the table you want, turning the pages into graphics, rotating them, and inserting the graphics into a document is a minor task. So until the next post, happy table making.

Pinterest Update Update

I'm doing this post far too late...I should be in bed!

Proper pinning with Pinterest = http://thedailydigi.com/how-to-properly-pin-to-pinterest-a-tutorial/.
Also includes comments that are interesting. Seems to have an association with scrapbooking.

The ultimate guide...maybe I'll have better luck at figuring out how I want to use Pinterest...
http://theblogstylist.com/pinterest-add-pin-it-button-blog/

Pinterest Update

Hmmm...It appears you must be able to pin a graphic published on a website. So far I'm struggling with seeing how this might help with my genealogy...unless I start traveling and taking lots of photos that I can upload and label for family members... 

However, my gardening could get a real boost since lots of gardening involves being able to see rather than read.

And each time you pin a graphic, it turns up in the public stream of graphics...so careful what you pin!