In RM8, how can I open a media pane, for a birth, and simultaneously open the birth note to translate the handwritten text in the birth record’s media?
I don’t think you can, within RM. You would need to open the media item outside of RM.
Open an Edit person screen. It opens separate from main screen. Double-click the note icon for birth note. The right pane becomes the note for editing. Now, click Media button on the left back at the main screen. Main screen changes from People screen to Multimedia screen. Drag main screen and Multimedia screens apart a little bit and then one can click back and forth between them. To transcribe… one needs to double-click a thumbnail (or filename) to open View Image popup and make mental note of some info, then close the View Image popup and click back to the Edit Person window and enter info into Edit Note pane. It’s involved but the only way currently.
Very clever, Kevin. It doesn’t quite work on a Mac, but still very clever, and I’m sure it must be working well for you on Windows. (On Mac, you can see the ‘edit individual’ window and the ‘view image’ window at the same time, if you manipulate it correctly, but you can’t actually type in the ‘edit individual’ window until you close the ‘view image’ window.)
For years, I have been transcribing outside of RM. I use Irfanview to open the media file and Notepad to be the text editor. I have the Notepad window set fairly small - full window width but only three or for lines deep. It is on top of the Irfanview that has the image.
In this arrangement I can use the Notepad window border itself as a guideline to be sure I am transcribing the correct line from the image. I can move the Notepad window itself up or down as I complete a couple of lines of the transcription so I can see the next line or lines to transcribe. I can also move the mouse outside the Notepad window and on to the Irfanview window. Clicking on the Irfanview window would make the Notepad window disappear, but while hovering over the Irvanview window without clicking, Irfanview will respond to the mouse wheel to move the image up and down. This provides a second way to advance through the document in addition to moving the Notepad window up and down.
When I am done, I copy the transcription from Notepad and paste it into RM wherever it needs to go. This may sound convoluted in theory, but it’s very easy in practice. I do not find either RM7 or RM8 an easy environment in which to transcribe from images to text. It’s just much better to do the transcription from outside of RM.
Most of the documents I transcribe are impossible to OCR. But if OCR can be used with a document, I use OCR to create a first draft in Notepad. I then clean up the first draft in Notepad before copying from Notepad and pasting into RM.
Finally, if I am transcribing a document that has a standard layout which I have transcribed before, instead of starting with a blank Notepad Window, I copy a document a similar document I have transcribed before and paste into Notepad For example, most death certificates look about the same, especially if they are from the same year or nearly from the same year and the same state. I will then edit the old document text to make the new document text. This can be a big time saver and error preventer.
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Hi Kevin,
Tried out your suggestion and I was unsuccessful.
As soon as the media window pops up, no other window can be made active.
Oh, I am using Windows 11 and running RM8.
Dutch
Sorry, for the incomplete instructions. I was closing the View Image popup prior to toggling back to Edit Note. I’ve edited my original reply.
RM8, just like RM7, doesn’t allow multiple windows to be accessed.
What if any, is the process whereby I can suggest a change to accommodate the ability to open the View Image window and simultaneously access and modify the Edit Person window to enter transcribed text?
I’d suggest a new topic is the best way. It’s likely never implemented due to availability (programs available to open media) outside the program as Jerry mentions.
Thank you. I’ll request a feature to permit this action.
Know your ancestry.
If I have a situation like this (if I am understanding your description correctly), I will often take a screen print of the media and pop it into ifrfanview, and arrange my windows so I can see RM and irfanview, and transcribe. For me it is especially easy, because I have 2 monitors (every genealogist needs 2 monitors !) so I put irfanview with the media screenshot on one monitor and RM on the other monitor.
Beside the subject field, select the tag “feature-request”.