Anyone who's been reading this website for any length of time knows that I'm what Marlo E. Schuldt of Heritage Collector calls a "cobbler", i.e. a patcher of bits and pieces. In this case, software. It sounds like a character flaw. Marlo can discourse for hours on the failures of various organizational systems. He's a brilliant man and he's probably right. But cobbling in e-space as on Earth is just my nature, I can't help it. continued...

As I'm sure you've noticed, Passage Express is just a folder tree with pizazz. Worthwhile pizazz to be sure. It's an attractive way to present your family history. And I do like that Presentation Menu designer. If you've got time to burn that's a fun place to do it. However, I've run into some serious inconveniences. continued...

Warning: Read slowly. May cause headaches. For longer than I can say I have been trying to use my photos in multiple locations and finding it way too much work. And this is not the first time I've been looking for a cure. Being in the usual labyrinth with my now-12,000 photographs, and yet-another filing system experiment, I finally got fed-up enough to go have another look at what the rest of the world is doing. continued...

For the month of October there is a 5% discount on all annual and biannual signups. Just enter the promotion code 'OCTOBER'. continued...

From DEAD FRED: The #1 Best-Selling Genealogy Reference Book Of All Time (at DeadFred.com)! continued...

Footnote is the exclusive provider of the electronic version of Elizabeth Shown Mills' new book! Evidence Explained features over 1,000 citation models, including how to site digital media: websites, digital books, DVDs, CDs, podcasts and more. continued...

One of my former theories about how to do things was this. I decided that anyone put into my database without a 'proper' source - birth, death or marriage certificate, military record, census record, etc, should have no source at all. Surely not a 'descendants of' chart from some other collector who probably got it from some other collector. I still like that idea because it keeps me from getting complacent with my research. continued...

Can you find anything in your Master Sources list? When I had 200 sources I could. Now I've got 1,100 and if I hadn't categorized everything I'd be lost. The census records are self-explanatory but nothing else is. continued...

This cleaning up frenzy I'm into can't last forever - well, maybe it can. continued...

I came across a family website where there's a large header that says something like "For security reasons all Social Security numbers have been removed from death certificates ..." continued...

No, I haven't dropped off the face of the Earth. Following my own advice, I finished my first Passage Express project. 740 MB of charts and chapters and photos and slideshows and maps. Then some relatives came calling. Then the sun turned to rain and I've turned into a squirrel preparing for winter. A large pot of home-made soup on the stove as I speak. continued...

If you're still looking for IPTC software that goes beyond jpg's, this could be it. I tried several but MediaDex is the only one I've found that will add IPTC information to multiple formats. It also claims to be familiar with 127 different file types. BreezeBrowser has multi-format ability (photos only) but I found some incompatibility problems there, no response from their tech support and the trial version went by too fast. MediaDex comes in two versions, Standard and Professional. The Pro version also handles pdf's, MS office documents and digital RAW images.

I mentioned portable apps before. I'd like to go back over it in more detail as I find them so darn handy. I don't travel much so I don't have a regular reason for carrying my software around in my pocket, but there's another way to use them. Right on my hard-drive. continued...

From World Vital Records : "We have added over 800,000 browseable census images to our site. These census images include SELECT counties from every state in the U.S. except Alaska. We do NOT have an index to these census images so this new data is NOT searchable. The user can browse these census images by selecting a census, then a state, then a county. From there they must browse each image one by one to find the information they need. continued...

World Vital Records would seriously like to have your attention. They are practically giving away a subscription to their databases. For $49.95 you get two years for the price of one, plus your choice of a free software package, each with a value between $25 and $40. Here's the list you get to choose from: continued...