Pinterest Article on Inspiration and paper.li

Based on the page count I get when I talk about Pinterest, several readers of this blog are interested in that particular website.

I subscribe to Daily Pinterest News, which is a paper.li daily. The issue today includes an interesting article: How Pinterest can Inspire You to Write More Blog Posts.

If you don't know about paper.li, here's a bit of a rundown on it. If you visit paper.li  you’ll find that it describes itself as a place where you can start an online newspaper today. Like many things on the web, paper.li isn’t that straight forward.

So let me start from the beginning. A person with a Twitter account can use paper.li to organize shared Twitter links into a webpage that is easy-to-skim and that looks like an online newspaper homepage. Paper.li creates the newspaper homepage automatically based on tweets (short messages) that a Twitter user posts, lists a Twitter user creates on Twitter, or hash tags a Twitter user adds to tweets. The same sort of model applies to posts on Facebook.

Is all of this Greek to you? You’re not alone. However, that doesn’t mean that you can’t enjoy all of the tweeting and automatic organization, and have a window into the breaking news and hot tips of the Twitter world. How you might ask? Because paper.li is a publisher, it has a newsstand…a newsstand that you can browse. 

How to Browse the paper.li Newsstand and Read a Daily

1. Open your web browser, and enter the following address: http://paper.li. The paper.li home page appears. Or, just click here.
2. Scroll to the bottom of the page to the section with this title: Newsstand staff pick.
3. Look in the lower right for this link: Check out the newsstand--> 
4. Click the link. A search page appears. You can search for papers or people. 
5. Enter Pinterest, genealogy, or any other area of interest in the papers search field, and then click the Search button. The dailies that have included the topic you entered in their description appear.
6. Scroll through the list to see the available dailies. 
7. Click a newspaper name to display it.
8. Click a headline of an article--it's a link--to go to the website where the article appears. 

Screen Shot of the Daily Pinterest News on paper.li.

 

If you want more complete info on paper.li, go to the About page on the paper.li website. If you're interested in creating your own newspaper, you’ll find set up instructions on the paper.li Help page.

 

Tagxedo...Word Cloud Software

I'm a word cloud junkie. I like word clouds because you get to make art from words. You can use a program like Paint to create a word cloud. Or, if you're lazy like me, you can use a generator. One of my favorite generators is Wordle.

However, a new generator has entered the market: Tagxedo (tag-SEE-doh). Tagxedo, which is in Beta testing at the moment, bills itself as a word cloud with styles. The Tagxedo link above will take you to the gallery where you can see word clouds of people who are easily recognized. With Tagxedo, you can upload an image and turn the image into a word cloud.

I'm just beginning to play around with this new toy but I can already see that if I had an outline of a county, I could add the places where my family lived in the county and have a nifty piece of art to use on a blog.

One word of caution. These pieces of software usually come with terms of use. If you decide to reproduce a tagxedo on something like a book cover, I would recommend writing to the software owners to confirm that you are within the terms and/or get permission to use the piece of art for your project. If your project doesn't involve a charge (that is, you aren't charging for your book), you should be able to use the tagxedo but it must include the following attribution: http://www.tagxedo.com.

I'm sure that as I play with this new toy and learn how to use it well, I'll be writing about the experience. Writing about software is after all what I do. So you can expect to see more on this topic.

P.S. If you find that you're interested in word clouds, click here to visit an educational website with more information on word cloud software.

Writing an Engaging Intro

I'm going to switch things up on you. Many moons ago, I wrote an article that I meant to do something with and never quite got around to it. I recently submitted it to the Illinois State Genealogical Society's Education Committee. For those of you who won't see it from that source, I thought I'd publish it here. The article is about writing an engaging introduction...usually the hardest thing you'll do whether you're writing an article or a book. So here it is.

Writing an Engaging Intro

Writing articles is the natural outcome of any research project. If you are only doing the research and not reporting your conclusions, you're doing only half of the job. However, the thought of writing anything causes many people to have flash backs of miserable academic experiences, and so, they put off that part of the task. That's unfortunate because when the facts are fresh and you're inspired by what you've found out, you're likely to write the best piece of your life. 

Writing is a learned skill. The more you do it the better you get at it. I have found that many times people simply need a nudge to get them started. You don't have to be a great author to write an article about your family and have it published in a quarterly. Most society quarterly editors are begging their members for articles. With a little care and an analysis of what you know, you can write an article with a great introduction, which is half of the battle.
 
A well-constructed introduction draws your reader into your article. Unfortunately, too many authors are stuck in the chronology mode, thinking that they must start at the beginning of a person's life. Family-related writing frequently starts with this type of sentence, "Henry James was born in South Carolina on 5 September 1835." The introduction frequently continues with a dry recitation of facts. Your readers will read your article because they want the information. The problem is that they aren't going to enjoy it. In this article, I'm going to try to change that for you by giving you some suggestions that might help you write engaging introductions.
 
When I start writing, I use a few premises as a guide. The first premise is t hat every person's life includes drama, happiness, loss, silliness, tedium, fun, and work. The second premise is that people's lives frequently follow a pattern or illustrate a theme, which can be summed up in a word or two. The questions I ask myself are:

1. Can I interpret the evidence I have to identify a theme?
2. Can I state that theme in just one or two words?
3. Can I write an introduction that supports the theme?

 
Let's start by looking at the timeline of a person's life--in this case, one Agnes (McKee) Anderson. 

• 1802 Agnes is born in Ireland.
• 1830 Agnes marries James Anderson.
• 1830 to 1837 Agnes and James have children in Ireland.
• 1837 everyone in McKee family except Agnes moves to the United States.
• 1851 Cheshire, England census shows Agnes and family working in cotton weaving industry.
• 1854 Agnes' husband James dies, leaving her with four children.
• 1857 - 1859 all of Agnes' children marry in England.
• 1860's brings grandchildren and Agnes is making her home with her oldest daughter.
• 1864 Agnes' son-in-law dies leaving her youngest daughter a widow with two small daughters.
• 1867 Agnes (age 65) emigrates from Liverpool, England to New York City, and on to Illinois with her youngest daughter and two granddaughters.
• 1870 Agnes is living on a farm in Galum, Perry County, Illinois.
• 1870's Agnes dies sometime after the 1870 US census.

 
Can I interpret the evidence I have to identify a theme?
A few years in Agnes' life are pivotal. In 1837, Agnes is having her youngest child while her entire family is packing up and moving to America, leaving Agnes behind. Some time between 1837 and 1851, Agnes packs up and moves from Ireland to England, leaving behind everything she knows. In 1854, Agnes' husband dies and Agnes moves in with her oldest daughter. In 1867, Agnes packs up and moves to America, leaving her urban English home of many years and her older children and many grandchildren in England. She moves from urban to rural life.
 
Can I state a theme in a just one or two words?
The fact that jumps out to me is that Agnes is always separated from family members, and once separated, she frequently never sees them again or at least doesn’t see them for long periods of time. When the McKee's move to the United States, Agnes' father dies before Agnes makes her way to the U.S. When Agnes leaves England, she never sees her older children or her English grandchildren again. The word I would choose to define Agnes' life is alienation. That's not to say that Agnes was never happy or satisfied; but, one could observe that she is always being left or leaving. The people she cares about are never in one place.
 
Can I write an introduction that supports the theme? 
My first task is to find a starting point and construct an opening sentence. Any one of the movements would work. When Agnes' family left Ireland for the United States, Agnes must have felt deserted. Can I empathize and imagine what she must have felt and remain true to the facts? The move from Ireland to England must have been frustrating for Agnes. She is leaving everything she knows for a place that is farther from her family in the United States. She seems to accept her fate. But life held one more move for Agnes. The move that is perhaps the most traumatic of all when circumstances force Agnes to move from her English home at an advanced age when she probably least expected it. Agnes dies in the bosom of her family but also as a stranger in a strange land bereft of her English children and grandchildren. The last move is the move with which I chose to start the introduction. 

Here's the opening of an article about Agnes (McKee) Anderson.
 

In the fall of 1867, a 65-year-old Irish widow named Agnes (MCKEE) ANDERSON boards the ship Helvetia at Liverpool, England. Traveling with her are her young widowed daughter Mary Jane (ANDERSON) ASHWORTH and two orphaned granddaughters—Mary Louise Alice and Agnes Eleanor. As Agnes sails from Liverpool bound for New York, she leaves behind her English home of many years, her older children, in-laws, and many grandchildren. Her familiar world and her family simply slip away until they are no more.

Agnes is fleeing the deteriorating conditions in County Cheshire, England. As the Civil War raged in the United States, cotton shipments from the former colonies stopped, unemployment at English cotton mills mounted, and the food riots started. By the time Agnes leaves, the English government—in an effort to ease pressures in the Cheshire area—was paying passages to anywhere outside of England. I’m guessing that Agnes, Mary Jane, and the children took advantage of the government's offer and naturally decide to join the remainder of Agnes' McKee family in Randolph County, Illinois. The fact that Agnes knows exactly where her family is hints that a thread spread across the Atlantic 30 years earlier when Agnes’ family left Ireland is still holding strong and fast.

The women arrive in New York on 30 December 1867. Agnes, Mary Jane, and the two small granddaughters must find their way through Castle Garden. Immigrants can stay at Castle Gardens if they have no other accommodations. Many immigrants do and describe parts of Castle Garden being covered with maps. They explain that agents list your options for going west and tell you the costs. Immigrants also describe the high walls that prevent the predators of New York from gaining access to unsuspecting immigrants with an eye toward stripping them of anything of value. The scene must have been dizzying for a woman of 65 with her daughter and granddaughters in tow.

The idea is that when you start an article at an interesting point in a person's life, you jump into that person's life with both feet and take your reader along for the ride. With your reader on board, you can then write a transition that allows you to begin a chronology-based history for the person. For example, I could start the next paragraph with, "Nothing in Agnes' early life hints at the alienation that awaits her later in years. Agnes' life begins in Ireland where she is born 3 July 1802. The oldest daughter of Alexander and Mary Jane MCKEE, Agnes grows up on a farm in blah blah blah blah..."
 
By the time you start writing about the more mundane facts of the person's life, your reader is hooked and can't put your article down. As you write your article and get to the part of the person's life that you started your article with, you will have created a frame that allows you to bring the person's life full circle. You can then write about the remainder of the person's life and state any conclusion you have come to based on your research. 

So fire up your word processor and use the questions from this article to create a framework for your next article intro. With a little thought, you can write an intro that will have your readers begging for more. With a little practice, you can write an engaging introduction for every article you write, and well written articles are always a welcome addition to society quarterlies. 

Shhhh...Pinterest Adds Secret Boards

Collecting gift ideas on Pinterest for your genealogy friends? You can now do it in secret.

Earlier this week Pinterest sent an email to users explaining that Pinterest would be down for maintenance. When I signed in to Pinterest today, I had a splash screen that announced the addition of the ability to add three secret boards.

When you add a board now, a new field appears in the form: Secret. Click the Off button to change it to On and add the board as a Secret board.

According to Pinterest:

"When you add a pin to a secret board, it won’t show up anywhere else on Pinterest—not in the category sections, Popular, Everything, anyone’s search results, your followers’ home feed, your own home feed, or even pins or activity pages on your profile."

If you want more information about this new feature, display Pinterest, and then select Help from the About drop-down menu. Look at the menu on the left of the Help page, and click Support. You'll find an announcement: Announcing Secret Boards: Important Launch Information.

I'm not too sure yet how useful this new ability will be for genealogists. After all, we generally are trying  to get everybody to look at what we post. Of course, genealogists struggled with using Pinterest in the beginning but eventually discovered lots of interesting ways of using it. I'm sure that the use of secret boards will evolve in the same way.

Table as Graphic

With this particular type of blog, I am able to see what search terms are leading users to this page. Recently, someone was searching for information on turning a table into a graphic. If you're a longtime reader of this blog, you know that the answer is to create the table, do a screen capture of the table, open Paint, paste the screen capture, clip the area with the table, and save the table as a .png, .gif, or .jpg. You can then insert the graphic into other documents and rotate and resize it as necessary. 

Here's a sample of what the end product looks like.

Following is a list of the posts you need to complete this task:

• Create Table: Table It!...Part 6...Creating the Table 
• Capture the Table, Create the Graphic, Insert Graphic into Document: Table It!...Part 7...Turn Word Table into Graphics

I find it interesting that I've written enough that I'm beginning to circle back on myself and posting links rather than writing instructions. 

I'm Back!

Seven certificates and one program later, I'm finished with the forms (some fillable, some not) and the banquet program that the state society needed for the conference, which is next weekend. Members of the FSGS have put in long hours trying to make this conference a standout. I'm hoping they have a roaring success on their hands. With the certificates and program, I've been able to participate even though I'm unable to attend the conference.

During all of this mass production, I did realize one thing that I was doing that might be of interest to anyone who reads this blog.

Color Sampling and Filling
If you look back at the sample certificates I posted earlier, they all include color. The certificates use different layouts; however, they all have cells filled with a color that matches another color in the certificate.

• For Orange Blossoms, I sampled a green in the leaves to create the green borders.
• For Pioneer Border and Pioneer Stripe, I sampled blues in the society seal to create the blue on blue border.

Long ago, I learned that you can't guess at these colors. Something that looks great on a computer screen can look awful in print and match nothing.

I use Paint to sample the color that I want to insert into a Word document, frequently filling the cell of a table with color.

To sample a color: 

1. Confirm that you have the color version of the graphic for which you want to sample colors. The graphic needs to have any of the following extensions: .bmp, .jpg, .gif, .png, or .tif. 
2. Open Paint (select Start, All Programs, Accessories, and then Paint). 
3. Open the graphic (select File, Open, and then open the graphic). For example, in my case, I was opening a color scan of the state society seal.
4. Click the color picker tool, and then click a color in the graphic. Color 1 in the Colors group updates to that color. 
5. Click the Edit colors button. The Edit Colors dialog appears.
6. Look for the Red, Green, and Blue numbers. The numbers you see are the formula for the color.
   
   See Much Ado About Graphic Software...Part 6 for information on tools and colors for older versions of Paint. 
7. Jot down the three numbers. Be sure to note which is red, green, and blue.

To insert the color in a Word table: 

1. Open a Word document, and add a table with three columns and three rows. 
2. Right-click in the center cell of the table. A pop-up menu appears.
3. Select Borders and Shading to display the Borders and Shading dialog.
4. Click the Shading tab in the dialog. 
5. Locate the Apply to field and select Cell from the drop-down list. 
6. Locate the Fill field, and click the drop-down arrow beside it. The Theme Colors pop-up appears.
7. Click More Colors. The Colors dialog appears.
8. Click the Custom tab. 
9. Enter the Red, Green, and Blue numbers you jotted down for the color formula, and then click OK. The dialog closes.
   
10. Click OK on the Borders and Shading dialog. Word adds the color to the center cell of the table. 

This example isn't very realistic or practical. However, if you look at the sample certificates  you can see how I used color sampling and the fill option in Word to create frames and stripes for the certificates.

Assuming that nothing more is needed for the state conference, I should be back to my regular posting. So if you have questions, please send them along.

Forming Up Your Genealogy--Part 22

If you visit Family Tree Templates.net, you'll find an enterprising soul who has designed fillable forms but is calling them templates. You can get a free fillable PDF version or for $4 an enhanced version, which I assume means the Word or Excel version of the form...with the password.

To my way of thinking, a document doesn't become a template until I've saved it to my system as a template that I can copy to produce many different documents. It's a matter of semantics and I suppose from the casual user's point of view not much of a point of contention. 

Regardless of what you decide to call the document, if you're a longtime reader of this blog, you know how to create a fillable form and a template. My point is, if you're in business, you have lots of the tools you need to create your own forms and templates and perhaps sell them too just like this enterprising soul. I can't imagine that it's a huge revenue stream...but a revenue stream is a revenue stream.

Anyway, if you're interested in seeing a model for picking up bits of cash, you might want to visit this site and see what this genealogy entrepreneur is up to.

On another topic--Pattie, Cathy, and I are off to Palm Harbor today to do a presentation for an afternoon workshop. Pattie and I do two or three presentations a year just for the fun of it. Today we are doing "The Next Generation" and "Dipping Your Fingers in Paint." Cathy is part of the trio doing the Computer Interest Group for the Florida Genealogical Society (Tampa). Next weekend all three of us will be at USF for a daylong seminar. The presenter is D. Joshua Taylor.

I'm still trying to finish up the certificates for Florida State and I need to put together a template for the program for the banquet. All together, it's a very busy time for me. I'll get back to post as soon as I manage to clear the decks. But at this rate, it's going to be a bit longer than I had anticipated.

One day...

I'm going to be finished designing certificates for the Florida State Genealogical Society. Currently, I'm working on a researcher's certificate, and then I'll be looking at a President Citation along with a few other types of certificates. They need to be ready by 10 November. So the rush is on.

This point will make you chuckle. I'm the recipient of one of the certificates I'll be designing. I received notice that I'm to be awarded a certificate--along with Pattie Schultz and Cathy Vance--for work done with the Florida Genealogical Society (Tampa)...not to be confused with the Florida State Genealogical Society.

In the meantime, the address of this blog has been posted to another blog and it's generated lots of traffic as readers are going through two years worth of posts. I'm going to take the opportunity to take a break and go quiet for a while while people read and catch up.

As always, if you have questions, please post them and I'll try to help.

Forming Up Your Genealogy--Part 21--Ribbon Custom Tab

The last bit of information you need about using buttons on the Forms tab is in reference to the Properties button you added to the Text Group. You can use the same Properties button with each type of fillable field that you added (text, check box, or combo selection). After you add a field, you can click the Properties button on the ribbon and the Properties dialog associated with the fillable field type will appear. You can do the same task by right-clicking in the field and selecting Properties from the pop-up menu. It's all a matter of how you like to work.

In formal documentation, the display of different Properties dialogs based on a fillable field type is referred to as being context sensitive. Lots of the functionality in Word 2007/2010 is context sensitive, which is one of the things that makes users crazy...tabs and buttons appear and disappear...if you don't know why it will make you nuts.

You can use a Word fillable form as is. However, if you plan to publish it to the web, you'll need to convert the form to a PDF. The next bit of info you'll need is what to do in Adobe Acrobat to get a fillable form as a PDF. So stay tuned...in case you have that friend who has access to a copy of Acrobat.

Also, Pattie uses a product named pdf995. I'll have to see if you can convert fillable forms with it also. If yes, this solution is free or at best $9.95 for a download copy. I'll keep you posted.

As always, if you have questions, please post them. I'll be happy to try and help.

Forming Up Your Genealogy--Part 20--Ribbon Custom Tab

To add a new tab:

1. See the previous post to display the Customize Ribbon dialog. 
2. In the list on the right, click the New Tab button. Word adds a new tab to the list.
   
   

To rename New Tab and New Group:

1. Click the New Tab (Custom), and then click the Rename button. A rename dialog appears. 
2. Enter the tab name Forms Tab...or any name that makes sense to you..., and then click OK. 
3. Click the New Group (Custom), and then click the Rename button. A rename dialog appears.
4. Enter the group name Text, and then click OK. 

To add new groups:

1. With your cursor on the Text group, click the New Group button. Word add a New Group (Custom) entry to the list.
2. Rename the new group Check Box. 

To get the tab that I use, repeat these instructions to add these groups:

• Text (Custom)...Already done!
• Check Box (Custom)...Already done!
• Combo Box (Custom)
• Other Buttons (Custom)

The following groups are options...you can choose to add them or not.

• Align Bottom (Custom)
• Align Center (Custom)
• Align Top (Custom)

I add the align buttons so that I don't have to constantly click another tab to align text within the table I most likely will add when creating a form. The cell alignment is available on the right-click pop-up menu too.

So adding the buttons on the ribbon might be overkill for you. Or, you might want to have other buttons at hand on the ribbon. Group names appear below the buttons and cause the buttons to spread out over the width of the ribbon rather than bunching up in a few crowded groups.

To add buttons:

1. Click the group name Text. This group is the first group to which we will be adding buttons. 
2. From the Choose commands from drop-down list on the left, select Commands Not in the Ribbon. The list below updates with command that do not appear on ribbons.
   
   
3. In the Commands Not in the Ribbon list, look for Text Field (Form Control).
   
   
4. Click Text Field (Form Control) and hold your mouse key to grab it. 
5. Drag and drop Text Field (Form Control) over the group name Text. Word add the buttons to the group. 

Repeat these steps to add buttons to groups so that you have the following structure.

• Text (Custom)
  Text Field (Form Control)...Shows as Edit Box button on tab...
  Form Field Options...Shows as Properties button on tab...
• Check Box (Custom)
  Check Box (Form Control)
• Combo Box (Custom)
  Combo box (Form Control)
• Other Buttons (Custom)
  Reset Form Fields
  Restrict Editing...You'll find this button on the All Commands list...See below.
  Legacy Tools...You'll find this button on the All Commands list too...Shows the drop-down with all of the tools...Add it just in case.

You now know how to add a tab, add groups, and add buttons to a group. I'm going to let you experiment with any additional groups and buttons you might want to add to your custom forms tab.

Next post, we'll talk about using the buttons on your new custom tab.