I just upgraded from RM 7 to RM 9 and it stinks. When I try to add a source to an event, it won’t let me compose one. I have to go to the Sources section, create a source, which is tedious given the tiny text boxes and they open one at a time and keep closing the source; and then it is not added to the event! I have to go back to the person being edited, and say I want to add a source…then it displays the entire list of all sources in the database, just to make me waste time hunting for the one new source I just composed. For the record, I use Free Form only.
Tom’-- others can tell you more BUT after creating your fact, to create and attach a source citation, you need to click on SOURCES in the right panel under fact items and it will take you to add source citation/ paste citation
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I’m about as critical as anybody of RM9’s process to enter new sources and citations. But it definitely does work. Click on the + sign for Add Source Citation as suggested in the screen shot posted by nkess.
I do have some suggestions. I have found that I want to spend as little time in the Add Source and Add Citation screens as possible and instead do as much of my data entry as possible from the Edit Citation screen. Also, I have a very mature database so I seldom actually enter a new Source. Instead, I use an existing Source or I select an existing Source and make a copy of it to use. It’s usually easier to copy an existing Source and then to change it a little bit than it is to start a new Source from scratch.
That being said, if you want to compose a new Source from scratch, be aware that after clicking the + sign for Add Source Citations, it will default to Select Existing Source in the upper left corner of the screen. As long as that selection is left unchanged, you are correct that you cannot compose a new Source from scratch. If you wish to compose a new Source from scratch, you will need to change the selection to Add New Source.
When I check the plus + on the person’s “edit” page, I get a screen with “Select Source” at top; then +Add New Source; then the magnify glass and “Select Existing Source” with a list of existing sources under that. So couldn’t you just check “+Add New Source” and check “Free Form” which is top of list then click next bottom right to continue? I very much dislike RM9; except for being able to see how many citations are attached to each source. The rest of RM9 is worthless to me. I use RM7, which should never have been replaced.
Yes you can certainly do that. That’s one of the ways RM9’s source and citations screens are designed to be used.
The reason for doing the Use Existing Source option is as follows. Suppose you Add New Source and make the footnote be something like U.S. Federal Census, 1910, Kentucky, Bell County, Enumeration District 12 and suppose you made the page number be page 12. Then suppose you had another citation where the footnote was U.S. Federal Census, 1910, Kentucky, Bell County, Enumeration District 12 and suppose you made the page number be page 97. So instead of doing another + Add New Source and clicking “Free Form”, instead you could click Use Existing Source and choose U.S. Federal Census, 1910, Kentucky, Bell County, Enumeration District 12 again. It would already from that choice that your source and citation are free form. Then the only new thing you would have to add would be page 97.
Thank you. I am familiar with the “use existing source” function. If I know I’m going to use the source I just created for the next entry, I just “memorize” it, then paste it in the next fact and modify it as necessary so I don’t create duplicate sources. The one function of RM9 that I really like is the fact that I can see the citations for each source. My 1850 source has over 1200 citations. I can then modify the citations to make them uniform. The rest of RM9 does nothing for me and since I don’t use “tree share” at all, I will keep using RM7.
Okay, everybody, the design was confusing at first. ADD SOURCE CITATION to me, means add a citation to a source that was already in SOURCES. That means creating a new source in SOURCES and then going back to the person in question and click ADD SOURCE CITATION and then go thru the long list of sources to find the one I needed. It says ADD SOURCE CITATION instead of CREATE NEW SOURCE FOR THIS FACT. I tested and even figured out a workaround, naming the new source “0” so when I went back to find it in the sorted list of sources, it would be at the top, attaching the source to the fact, and then renaming the source. But I didn’t need to. Thanks.