Free Online Converter
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From the Ogden Regional Family History Center newsletter, November 2011
"Using DropBox to backup and share your important files – or why I don’t bother carrying a flash drive anymore" is a very good article at TechTips on lds.org. I've been using Dropbox for a couple of years and have not used my jump drive since then. My RootsMagic genealogy database is stored on Dropbox so it's available to me from any computer. Check out the article at the TechTips link above, or call me if you have any interest in learning more about using Dropbox. It's free, easy, and safe! --Becky Jamison
From Cyndi's List, Sept. 24, 2011 (Thank you, Cyndi Howells!)
Tools I Use Every Day: Copy & Paste
There are a specific set of tools I use every day when maintaining
Cyndi's List and I couldn't get by without them. I thought I might share
them here with you in an ongoing series of blog posts. These tools make
my work faster and easier, and they should do the same for you.
We're starting with the basics today. The first tool is the good old
"copy & paste" (C&P) function. This is one of the most basic
computer functions we should all know and use on a daily basis. There
are probably a lot of people out there who think that it is silly for me
to bring this one up because everyone must already use C&P. So, why
bother mentioning it? Because I still know a large number of people who
don't know how to C&P. And some people don't realize you can
C&P between different applications. For example, you can copy from a
web browser and paste into a Word document or into an e-mail. I rarely
retype anything. If I can copy it and paste it, I do it. I do this for
web addresses – some are short and simple, but many these days are long
and complicated. I use it for web site titles and descriptions. Anything
that will save me time while building a new link.
To copy and paste you have to first highlight the text that you want to
copy. Insert your cursor in front of the first character, hold down the
mouse button and drag the cursor to the last character you want to copy.
The text you want should now be highlighted.
To copy, Windows users can use any of the following commands:
- Edit, Copy
- Right-click, Copy (click the right mouse button)
- Ctrl+C on the keyboard
To copy, Mac users can use any of the following commands:
- Command+C (Apple/propeller key) on the keyboard
- Right-click - hold down Command and the mouse button, Copy
The text you copied has been placed on a clipboard in the background.
You can't see the clipboard. It is invisible. Trust me, it is there.
To paste, you need to place your cursor in the spot into which you want
your text to be copied. For example, if you are copying something from a
web page and into a Word document, you first need to open that Word
document. Place your cursor in the Word document and paste.
To paste, Windows users can use any of the following commands:
- Edit, Paste
- Right-click, Paste (click the right mouse button)
- Ctrl+V on the keyboard
To paste, Mac users can use any of the following commands:
- Command+V (Apple/propeller key) on the keyboard
- Right-click - hold down Command and the mouse button, Paste
There are numerous helps online. If you need more information search on Google for how to copy and paste.
Now that I've explained how to C&P I should also tell you this - just because you can copy and paste doesn't always mean you should copy
and paste. Please be sure to respect the work and the copyrights held
by others. It is very easy to copy the research from someone else and
paste it into your own. But, that work is the intellectual property of
the author. You need their permission to use their work before you do
so. If you are only using the information for your own personal research
you can do so in small portions, especially if that information is not
going to be published anywhere. That is a very brief disclaimer on
copyright. For more information on copyright see: Cyndi's List - Copyright
Examples of when and where you might use C&P in your daily research:
Examples of when and where you might use C&P in your daily research:
- research notes
- web browser
- a word processor document
- notes software such as Evernote
- your genealogy software program
**********************************************************
Telling the Story of Your
Ancestor Through Images
Not all of us are lucky
enough to inherit photographs of our ancestors. In those cases, consider
substituting photographs of your ancestor for images that depict their lives
such as images of maps, old vintage photographs of their town, Photographs of
battles they fought in, images of the clothing style they would have worn, or
the ship they came to America on. One place to find vintage photographs
is Flickr: The Commons. This collection of
photographs from repositories including the Library of Congress and the UK
National Archives are all available for download without any known copyright
restrictions.
Source:
Gena Ortega, Internet Genealogy, Moorshead
Magazines Ltd., 7/18/2011, Published in the Logan Utah Family History Center newsletter, September 28, 2011, Vol 12, Issue 39
