gramps/src/data/tips.xml

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<!-- Tip of the day collection -->
<!-- $Id$ -->

<tips>

<tip><i>You can represent a range of dates by using the format 
of &quot;between January 4, 2000 and March 20, 2003&quot;</i></tip>


<tip>You can drag and drop an image from either the Media View or any 
gallery into another gallery</tip>

<tip>You can add an image to any gallery or the Media View by dragging and
dropping from a file manager or a web browser.</tip>

<tip>You can set the birth order of children in a family even if you do not 
have birth dates by using drag and drop.</tip>

<tip>You can convert an alternate name to the person's preferred name by 
selecting the desired name in the person's name list, bringing up the context
menu by clicking the right mouse button, and selecting from the menu.</tip>

<tip>
<b>ASKING RELATIVES BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE</b>: 
Your oldest relatives could be your
most important source of information. They usually know things about the
family that hasn't been written down. They might tell you nuggets about
people, the information about whom might one day be reduced to numbers. We
often wonder why we didn't write down pieces of information that grandfather
told us while we were young. Don't wait till it's too late... 
</tip>

<tip>
<b>EXAMPLES OF A FAMILY TREE</b>: To see how a Gramps family tree database looks,
check Help &gt; Open example database. You'll find the elaborate Smith family
database, It includes 42 individuals and 15 families, with fairly complete
basic data about many of these individuals.
</tip>

<tip>
<b>THE PEOPLE VIEW</b>: The People view throws up a list of all individuals in the
database. You can sort the listing simply by clicking on numerous headings
such as name, gender, birth date or death date.  Clicking heading the second
time will reverse the sort.
</tip>

<tip>
<b>FILTERING PEOPLE OUT</b>: In the People view, you can 'filter' out individuals
based on certain criteria. Go to the Filter (just to the right of the People
icon) and choose one of the dozen different presets. For instance, all
adopted people in the family tree can be located. People without a birth
date mentioned can also be filtered. To get the results, click on Apply.
</tip>

<tip>
<b>INVERTED FILTERING</b>: You can get another set of results by using the 'invert'
option. For instance, if you choose to filter the 'People with children'
preset filter, and then invert it, you'll find all the people without
children in the family tree.
</tip>

<tip>
<b>LOCATING PEOPLE</b>: In the People view, you can locate any individual by
navigating through the alphabetic tabs of surnames. Then, click on the names
themselves to unfold display of all the individuals with the same last name.
</tip>

<tip>
<b>TO ADD INFORMATION TO SELECTED PEOPLE</b>: First, locate them in the People
view. (Use the alphabetic tabs of surnames, and click on the names to unfold
the display of all individuals sharing the name). Then, go to the Family
view, and add the relevant information.
</tip>

<tip>
<b>THE FAMILY VIEW</b>: The Family view display a family of parents, grandparents
and children along with the birth and death dates (if relevant) and
relationships. You can navigate to nearby relatives with a single click.
</tip>

<tip>
<b>IMPROVING GRAMPS</b>: Users are entitled to request enhancements to GRAMPS. 
Requesting an enhancement can be done either through the gramps-users or
gramps-devel mailing lists, or by creating a Request for Enhancement (RFE) at 
http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?group_id=25770&amp;atid=385140
The last is preferred.
</tip>

<tip>
<b>WHO WAS BORN WHEN</b>: The 'Compare individual events' tool allows you to
compare data of all (or some of) the individuals in your database. This is
useful, say, if you wish to list the birth-dates of everyone in your
database. For best results, your data needs to be complete.
</tip>

<tip>
<b>WHO'S THE OLDEST OF US ALL?</b> You can find out a lot of statistical
information about your entire family, using the Tools &gt; Utilities &gt; Verify
the database facility. For instance, what was the maximum age of any
individual in the family? Or the largest husband-wife age difference. Or the
minimum age at which anyone in your family ever married. Or even the minimum
age at which a woman bore a child.
</tip>

<tip>
<b>CALCULATING RELATIONSHIPS</b>: This allows you to check if someone else in the
entire family is related (by blood, not marriage) to you. Precise
relationships as well as the common ancestors are reported. See Tools &gt;
Utilities &gt; Relationship calculator.
</tip>

<tip>
<b>USEFUL CODES FOR SURNAMES</b>: SoundEx is a utility that will allow you to type
in a surname, then give you the SoundEx Code for that name.  Knowing the
SoundEx Code for a surname is very helpful for researching Census Data files
(microfiche) at a library or other research facility. To get your Soundex
codes for surnames in your database, go to Tools &gt; Utilities &gt; Generate
SoundEx codes.
</tip>

<tip>
<b>SETTING YOUR PREFERENCES</b>: Edit &gt; Preferences will allow you to choose a
number of settings, determining how your GRAMPS program should work.
Particularly useful are the report preferences (set the format in which you
would like your reports to appear, and in which directory these should be
stored).
</tip>

<tip>
<b>GRAMPS REPORTS</b>: GRAMPS offers a wide number of reports that can be
generated. The Text Reports are particularly useful if you want to send out
the results of your family tree to members of the family, via e-mail.
</tip>

<tip>
<b>STARTING A NEW FAMILY TREE</b>: The best way to start a new family tree is
probably to add-in all the members of the family into the database (use Edit
&gt; Add or click on the Add button under the People menu). Then go about
tracing the relationships among them all under the Family menu.
</tip>

<tip>
<b>TRACING RELATIONSHIPS</b>: People from an existing database can easily be all
linked into the family. Go to Family, and choose the second button to the
right of the Relationship window. (The first button to the right of the
relationship window adds a new person to the database, and adds to a new
relationship.)
</tip>

<tip>
<b>ASKING RELATIONS FOR DETAILS</b>: To get inputs for building your family tree,
ask key members of your extended family (including other families connected
to yours via marriage) to send in information. Most important is the full
name, date and places of birth and death (if expired), relationship within
the family.
</tip>

<tip>
<b>UNSURE ABOUT BIRTH-DATES?</b> If you're unsure about the birth-dates about
individuals in your family, GRAMPS allows you to enter a wide range, based on
a guess or an estimate. For instance, &quot;about 1908&quot; is also a valid entry.  for a
birth date in GRAMPS. Subsequently, the precise dates could be included once
it is available.
</tip>

<tip>
<b>DUPLICATE ENTRIES</b>: Tools &gt; Database Processing &gt; Find possible duplicate
people allows you to located (and merge) entries of the same person entered
more than once in the database.
</tip>

<tip>
<b>ADDING A SIBLING</b>: To add siblings in Gramps, make yourself or your spouse an
active person (i.e. navigate to yourself or your spouse). Then switch to the
Family View and add a new child by clicking the button second from the top on
the right of the Children list (the &quot;New&quot; button). Enter the data for the
new person and click OK.
</tip>

<tip>
<b>EDITING THE RELATIONSHIP OF A CHILD</b>: You can edit the relationship of the
child to each parent by selecting the child, right-clicking, and choosing
&quot;Edit the child-parent relationship&quot; item. If this is not your child but
your wife's child, you would select &quot;Birth&quot; in relationship to her and
&quot;Stepchild&quot; in relationship to you.
</tip>

<tip>
<b>ADDING A CHILD</b>: If the child is already in the database, then you don't need
to add him to the database. Just add the child to the family, which can be
done by pressing the third button from the top (the &quot;Select&quot; button). Then,
select the person from the list.
</tip>

<tip>
<b>SHOW-ALL CHECKBUTTON</b>: The list of people you can add into a family is
filtered to display only people who could possibly be the child (based on he
birth-dates). In case GRAMPS is wrong in making this choice, you can always
over-ride that filtering by checking &quot;Show all&quot; checkbutton.
</tip>

<tip>
<b>KEYBINDINGS</b>: GRAMP's manual is quite elaborate and well written; it also is
detailed about keybindings (in a separate appendix) and other matters. Check
it out.
</tip>

<tip>
<b>GRAMPS-USERS</b>: Want to answer your queries about GRAMPS? Check out the
gramps-users list. Many users are on the list, so you're likely to get an
answer faster. If you need to ask questions -- use either gramps-devel or
gramps-users at lists.sf.net, as appropriate for your questions.
</tip>

<tip>
<b>TIPS OF THE DAY</b>: GRAMPS's development version has the option of popping up a
window with the tip of the day about the use of GRAMPS. The tip is chosen
randomly from the pool of tips. To add your own tip, send it in to
gramps-users@lists.sf.net
</tip>

<tip>
GRAMPS (Genealogical Research and Analysis Management Programming System)
offers you a well-designed user interface to make entering data easy, and
browser-like controls to allow you to navigate your family tree with ease.
</tip>

<tip>
<b>DIFFERENT VIEWS</b>: There are six different views for navigating your family:
People, Family, Pedigree, Sources, Places, Media. Each helps you to achieve
one or more specific tasks.
</tip>

<tip>
<b>CHANGING A CHILD/PARENT RELATIONSHIP</b>: In the Family view, a right-click on
the Children allows you to edit the child/parent relationship. This is used
to mark out children as adopted or step-children.
</tip>

<tip>
<b>BOOKMARKING INDIVIDUALS</b>: To 'bookmark' individuals in your database,
navigate to them using the Family view, then right-click and 'add bookmark'.
You can visit these bookmarks much like in your browser, simply via Bookmark
&gt; Go to bookmark.
</tip>

<tip>
<b>DATES</b>: Incorrect date formats will show up with the red button alongside the
date. Green means okay, and amber signifies acceptable.
</tip>

<tip>
<b>LISTING EVENTS</b>: Events in the life of any individual in the database may be
added via the Person &gt; Edit Person &gt; Events option. This space can be used
to include a wide range of options ranging from adoptions, to baptisms (and
other religious ceremonies), burials, causes of death, Census listings,
degrees earned in education, divorce filings, elections, emigration,
military service, nobility titles, number of marriages, occupations,
ordination, property, religion, retirement, wills, etc.
</tip>

<tip>
GRAMPS' People view gives you a list of all individuals in the database. You
can sort the listing by differing priorities simply by clicking on headings
like name, gender, bate date or death date.
</tip>

<tip>
<b>CHANGING PREFERRED NAME</b>: If a person has several names, it is very easy
to manage these names in Gramps.  Find the person in the Family view,
double-click on the record, and open Names tab.  You can add different
types of names here, like Married Name, Birth Name, etc.  Selecting a
preferred name is just a matter of right-clicking on the name and
choosing the only item in the menu.
</tip>

<tip>
The Pedigree view display the family in the traditional pedigree view. Hold
the mouse over individuals to see more information about them and to move to
more distant parts of the tree.
</tip>

<tip>
The Sources view shows all the family's referenced sources in a single view. 
Double-click on each to edit, add notes, and to see which individuals
reference the source.
</tip>

<tip>
The Places view shows all places referred to in the database. It also allows
you to sort the list by half-a-dozen different criteria, such as City,
County or State.
</tip>

<tip>
The Media list includes all forms of media referenced by the database. These
could be graphic images, videos, sound clips, spreadsheets, documents, and
more.
</tip>

<tip>
GRAMPS allows you to bookmark key individuals in your family tree, for quick
access. The number able to be marked is unlimited.
</tip>

<tip>
GRAMPS comes with a rich set of tools. This allows you to undertake
operations such as checking database for errors and consistency, as well as
the research and analysis tools such as event comparison, finding duplicate
people, interactive descendant browser, and others.
</tip>

<tip>
The 'merge' function allows you to combine separately-listed people into
one. This is very useful for combining two databases with overlapping
people, or combining erroneously-entered differing names for one individual.
</tip>

<tip>
The Soundex generator allows you to generate the standard codes commonly
used in genealogy, to compare similar sounding names even though spelled
differently.
</tip>

<tip>
Custom filters allow you to dig out family data and interesting facts, in a
number of interesting selections. Such custom filters can be used in addition
to the numerous preset filters.
</tip>

<tip>
GRAMPS allows you to import from, and export to, GEDCOM format. There is
extensive support for the industry standard GEDCOM version 5.5, so you can
exchange GRAMPS information to and from users of most other genealogy
programs.
</tip>

<tip>
You can convert your data into a GRAMPS 'package', which is a compressed
file containing your family tree data and any other files used. This is
useful for backup or sharing with other GRAMPS users.
</tip>

<tip>
Make your data portable -- you can export your family tree data and media
directly to the GNOME file manager (Nautilus), for burning onto a CD.
</tip>

<tip>
Web Family Tree (WFT) allows you to display your family tree online with
only a single file, instead of many html files. GRAMPS allows you to export
data to the WFT format.
</tip>

<tip>
GRAMPS currently runs on Linux, BSD, and Solaris.
</tip>

<tip>
There are several ways to report a bug, including the GRAMPS Bugs mailing
list. The best way to report a bug is to use the GRAMPS Bug Tracker at
Sourceforge. Using the bug tracker will make sure that your issue will be
handled, and doesn't miss the developers' attention.
</tip>

<tip>
GRAMPS is taken forward by a set of useful mailing-lists, which any serious
user needs to consider joining. These lists include gramps-announce
(announcements relating to the software project), gramps-bugs (to track
bugs), gramps-devel (for developers), and gramps-users (for all users,
including beginners).
</tip>

<tip>
Tonnes of GRAMPS-related information at http://gramps.sourceforge.net/
</tip>

<tip>
GRAMPS stands for Genealogical Research and Analysis Management Programming
System. It allows you to store, edit, and research genealogical data, with
similar functionality to other genealogical programs.
</tip>

<tip>
GRAMPS offers some unique features, including the ability to input any bits
and pieces of information directly into GRAMPS and rearrange/manipulate any
data events in the entire data base (in any order or sequence) to assist the
user in doing research, analysis and correlation with the potential of
filling relationship gaps.
</tip>

<tip>
Respect the privacy of people in your family tree. Genealogy shouldn't
reveal anyone's current health condition, their financial information, and
other information they would prefer be kept confidential.
</tip>

<tip>
Be accurate when recording genealogical information. Don't make assumptions
while recording primary information; write it exactly as you see it. Use
bracketed comments to indicate your additions, deletions or comments. Use of
the Latin 'sic' is recommended to confirm the accurate transcription of what
seems to be an error.
</tip>

<tip>
You can link any 'media' (including non-text information) and other
file-types to your GRAMPS family tree. Choose between copying (if in text
format) or linking the file to the database.
</tip>

<tip>
Privacy options allow the restriction of any information marked  or
information about living individuals. Data marked with this option can be
excluded from reports and data exports.
</tip>

<tip>
GRAMPS allows you to generate brief or detailed reports for the ancestors or
descendents of any individual in your family tree, depending on your
requirements.
</tip>

<tip>
Multiple styles of reports are currently available by default. Users can
also create their own custom styles.
</tip>

<tip>
Eight output formats are supported by GRAMPS -- PDF, AbiWord, KWord,
OpenOffice Writer, HTML, Rich Text Format (RTF), Latex, and plain text.
These formats generate data which can be read in Windows computers, making
it easy for anyone to access it.
</tip>

<tip>
Custom reports can be created by advanced users under the "plugin" system
which allows the sharing of custom report styles between users.
</tip>

<tip>
Book report allows the user to collect a variety of reports in a single
document, which in turn is easier to distribute, especially in a paper
format.
</tip>

<tip>
Want improvements in GRAMPS? You can do it yourself too. Since GRAMPS is
free/libre and open source software, nobody prevents you from taking all of
the code and continuing its development in whatever direction you see fit.
</tip>

<tip>
Interested in getting notified when a GRAMPS release is made? Sign up on the
gramps-announce mailing list ultra-low bandwidth, at 
http://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/gramps-announce
</tip>

<tip>
Have questions about GRAMPS, or are you looking to discuss GRAMPS
related items? The best place is the gramps-users mailing list
http://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/gramps-users You need to
first sign-up to be able to post.
</tip>

<tip>
Need enhancements for GRAMPS? Requesting an enhancement can be done either
through the gramps-users or gramps-devel mailing lists, or by creating a
Request for Enhancement (RFE) 
http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?group_id=25770&amp;atid=385140
</tip>

<tip>
Good genealogy tip: Information collated about your family is only as good
as the source it came from. Take time and trouble to write down all the
details of where the information came from.
</tip>

<tip>
Go from what you know to what you do not. Always record everything that is
known before making conjecture. Often the facts at hand suggest plenty of
direction for more research. Don't waste time looking through thousands of
records hoping for a trail when you have other unexplored options.
</tip>

<tip>
Genealogy isn't only about dates and names. It is about people. Be
descriptive. Include the <b>why</b> of how things happened, and how descendents
might have been shaped by the events they went through. Narratives go a long
way in making your family interesting to others too.
</tip>

<tip>
Join the gramps-users mailing list at
http://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/gramps-users
</tip>

<tip>
You can create graphical ancestor or descendent charts in several formats --
box charts, a fan chart, multiple formats (OpenOffice Draw, PDF, PostScript,
SVG), and custom charts.
</tip>

<tip>
You can easily export your family tree to a web page. Select the entire
database, family lines or selected individuals to a collection of web pages
ready for upload to the World Wide Web.
</tip>

<tip>
Multiple calendars and date ranges are supported by GRAMPS.
</tip>

<tip>
Support is mature for multiple languages and cultures.
</tip>

<tip>
GRAMPS offers translations for 15 languages.
</tip>

<tip>
GRAMPS has been designed so that new translations can easily be added with
little development effort. If you are interested in participating please
email gramps-devel@lists.sf.net
</tip>

<tip>
Relationship calculators in GRAMPS are available in four languages.
</tip>

<tip>
GRAMPS offers full Unicode support. Characters for all languages are
properly displayed.
</tip>

<tip>
You can choose anyone as your 'home person' in GRAMPS. Use Edit -> Set Home
Person. The home person is the person who is selected when the database is
opened, when the home-button is pressed in your browser-like GRAMPS
interface, and when Home is selected from the context menu anywhere.
</tip>

<tip>
You can specify several names for a single person -- such as, birth name,
marriage name, etc.
</tip>

<tip>
To switch between the different names of a single individual (birth name,
marriage name, etc) right-click on the name wanted in the list of
alternative names (under the Names tag in the EditPerson dialog) and select
an item from the context menu. This name will become the primary name, and
will be used in all display-related places.
</tip>

<tip>
Many current GRAMPS users contribute reports, suggestions, and feedback to
the developers through various public mailing lists. The program is only a
few years old and already has wide capabilities and features. Would you like
to help too?
</tip>

<tip>
New versions of GRAMPS that are already in testing use an advanced database
design that guarantee very fast access to many thousands of entries in the
database. Other new features are being designed and coordinated by several
active developers.
</tip>

<tip>
Numerous GRAMPS releases are made each year (11 during one 12-month period).
</tip>

<tip>
GRAMPS is written in a computer language called Python using GTK and GNOME
libraries. While only well supported in certain Unix and Linux environments,
these are multi-platform development libraries, meaning that GRAMPS can be
ported to any platform the required libraries are ported to.
</tip>

<tip>
The Free/Libre and Open Source Software (FLOSS) development model means
GRAMPS can be extended by any programmer since all of the source code is
freely available under its license.
</tip>

<tip>
GRAMPS is freely distributable under the General Public License, see
http://www.gnu.org/licenses/licenses.html#GPL !
</tip>

<tip>
GRAMPS performs slowly with databases of over 10,000 people, does not
support TempleReady GEDCOM extensions, and offers limited drag-and-drop
support. Currently, there is no support for drag and drop between databases.
Graph reports are also limited in functionality.
</tip>

<tip>
To learn more about the GRAMPS Next Generation, visit the wiki page at
http://gramps.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/GrampsNextGeneration
</tip>

<tip>
GRAMPS is the Genealogical Research and Analysis Management Program System.
In other words, it a personal genealogy program letting you store, edit, and
research genealogical data using the powers of your computer.
</tip>

<tip>
GRAMPS can be downloaded from Sourceforge http://sf.net/projects/gramps at
no charge. GRAMPS is an Free/Libre and Open Source Software project covered
by the GNU General Public License http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html .
You have full access to the source code and are allowed to distribute the
program and source code freely.
</tip>

<tip>
A port of GRAMPS to Mac OS X exists from the Fink project
http://fink.sourceforge.net/pdb/package.php/gramps . It is not unusual for
this version to lag behind the Linux version. The port is not supported by
the GRAMPS project (since few if any of us have Macs), but we try to help
out where we can.
</tip>

<tip>
GRAMPS works with KDE too, as long as the required GNOME libraries are
installed.
</tip>

<tip>
To run GRAMPS, you need to have GNOME installed. But you do not need to be
running the GNOME desktop.
</tip>

<tip>
The latest versions of gramps (0.9.0 and higher) require GNOME 2.0 or
higher. Previous versions required GNOME 1.X.
</tip>

<tip>
GRAMPS makes every effort to maintain compatibility with GEDCOM, the general
standard of recording genealogical information. We have import and export
filters that enable GRAMPS to read and write GEDCOM files. Please do inform
us about any GEDCOM flavor not supported by GRAMPS, and we will do our best
to support it!
</tip>

<tip>
GRAMPS can produce many different charts and reports. Moreover, the plugin
architecture enables a user (you) to create his own plugins which could be
new reports, charts, or research tools.
</tip>

</tips>