DON'T PANIC IF YOUR COMPUTER FREEZES AND YOU GET AN INFECTION NOTICE...

Don't Panic if your computer freezes and you get a pop-up warning telling you your computer is infected and you need to call the number on your screen

• DO NOT CLICK ANY BUTTON ON THE SCREEN!
• DO NOT CALL THE NUMBER!
• SIMPLY HOLD THE POWER BUTTON ON YOUR COMPUTER AND POWER OFF (OR PULL THE PLUG!)

When you start your computer again, everything will be fine.

This is caused by a scam, with the scammer using a glitch in website software. It puts your computer in a continuous loop, and 'freezes' it because it's using all of the available processing capability.  There is no simple way to break out of this other than to force the computer to power off.

NEVER CALL A NUMBER THAT POPS UP ON YOUR SCREEN. NO LEGITIMATE COMPANY WILL EVER DO THAT.

IF ANYTHING STRANGE EVER HAPPENS ON YOUR COMPUTER, POWER DOWN AND THEN RESTART. In all likelihood, you will have cleared the problem.

Facts Without Foundation Is Fiction

How to add sources and citations to your family tree software, specifically RootsMagic. Tips and techniques on creating, customizing and using sources and adding media to your citations. Advanced techniques on bulk import and caption assignment of media files, sharing your sources between projects, and creating custom source templates

Presentation Handout (pdf)

Adding Multiple Images to RootsMagic Media Library

Have you ever been faced with the challenge of adding a sizeable number of media files to the Media Gallery in RootsMagic.   Under normal conditions, each one of your files would need to be individually imported and a caption for the file entered.

Here is a technique where you can add multiple files at one time and automatically assign their filename to the caption WHERE THE CAPTION IS CURRENTLY BLANK.  (Use the Naming Convention described in another post on this site). This works on Windows computers only.

Initial Preparation
You will need to add a program and associated files to your computer.  This may be downloaded to your computer from this site. Download the RootsMagic Special Routines.zip file from this website and extract (right-click:Extract All...) to your Genealogy folder.

Bulk Addition of Media Files

1. Backup or make a copy of your current RootsMagic project file (.rmgc)  (Always do this before making major changes, so you can get back to where you started.)
2. Open the RootsMagic project file and click on Lists:Media gallery...
3. Open the folder containing the media files you wish to import in another window.
4. Arrange the Media Gallery window and media file folder window so you can see both at the same time.

• On Windows 10, you can select one of the windows, press the Win key & left arrow simultaneously and the selected window will be resized and moved to the left half of the screen. Release the keys, select the the other window, and it will fill the right half of the screen.
5. Select all of the media files you want to import, then click-drag these files onto the Media gallery.
• You will observe that all of the files will load to the Media gallery, but have no captions.
6. Repeat Steps 3-5 for additional folders containing media files you wish to import.
7. Close your RootsMagic project file

Assigning Filenames to Captions

1. Open the RootsMagic Special Routines folder and arrange this window so you can also see the window containing your RootsMagic project file.
2. Click-drag your RootsMagic project file onto the top of  Set Captions.bat file.
1. A dialog window will open that will display Assigning Captions.
3. Press any key to continue.
4. Re-open your RootsMagic project file, go to Lists:Media gallery, and you will see that all of the files has been assigned a caption equal to their filename.

Organizing Your Digital Data

A complete guide to name and organize all of your digital files on your computer to enable easy retrieval, analysis, and backup of your entire genealogy research.

Presentation Handout Available on how to use your computer file system to enhance your research. (pdf)

File Naming Conventions

Over the years I have gathered a huge number of images for my genealogy research... pictures I have taken, and downloaded images of source material. I have often not changed the names of the files as they were transferred from my camera or from the download site.  This resulted in files that could not be identified unless they were opened.

By renaming files with a standardized format, it is not only easier to determine what they represent, but also what information you may be lacking.

The recommended format is:

                                  SURNAME, Given Name - Subject Date.suffix

For example,                     SMITH, John J - Fed Census 1920.jpg

By using this format, you will know the content of each file, as well as be able to sort your files by name and see whether there is a missing date in a series.  Furthermore, this naming convention lends itself to be an image caption, such as would be assigned in genealogy software such as RootsMagic. (In a future post, I will discuss how you can easily add multiple images to RootsMagic and bulk assign the filename as the caption).