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Tuesday, June 2, 2015

The ONE, TWO Punch...for MAC


Cite...Cite...Cite...


Being a Mac APPLE user I am not pleased when articles such as "Source Citations" in the May/June issue of Family Tree magazine  reviews software solely for PC users.

The rationale by the magazine is that these three genealogy programs for the PC use Elizabeth Shown Mills Evidence Explained (EE) as a guide for creating source citations.

My experience with computers goes back as far as the Apple IIe. 

I was the first person at my university to take doctoral exams on a computer.  
• I carried my computer to the school, 
• the professor had to look at my discs, and 
• I sat in a separate room in case the clacking of the keys bothered the other doctoral students take the exam.

PAF 2 was my first genealogical software program. Once LDS stopped supporting upgrades for the MAC version of PAF, I changed to the Reunion software by Leister. 

Many MAC users have downloaded Reunion 11 (having kept records on Reunion 8, 9, and 10.)

Reunion has an app called ReunionTouch to read  Reunion information of ones's software on iPhone and iPad.

So...
Being a Mac APPLE user I am displeased when articles such as "Source Citations" in the May/June issue of Family Tree magazine  reviews software solely for PC users. 

Reunion does not use Elizabeth Shown Mills Evidence Explained (EE) to guide source entries. But it is not hard to adapt the template to EE guidelines or even use free form.  Some of us have asked Leister and Reunion through suggestion forums to rethink and revamp the source area to use EE as a guide.

Mark Harrison of Leister Productions states, "the citation style we employ has been around a long time. It's very flexible and powerful.

There are many different and valid approaches to source documentation. The bottom line is that we've tried to make it easy for any user to choose an approach that suits them and then be consistent. There is no one correct way.

We're not proponents of rigid formats to use in every situation. Too many rules and too much complication will likely discourage rather than encourage effective source documentation. We feel that good source documentation will get the average person to the source, and that goal can be accomplished in many ways.


The source template easily adapts with pull down options for source information.


The fact that Reunion does not use EE as a guide for creating a source is not a deal breaker for me and the use of a Mac Apple and Reunion. 

Would like to hear from you Mac Apple users on this topic.

Until later,







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