Basic Questions on Getting Started

  • Hello,
    I have some basic questions about starting a new family tree in rootsPersona.

    1 – I am *not* importing GEDCOM files created elsewhere. Thus, I don’t totally understand how to start a person’s profile (or the family tree, for that matter) from within rootsPersona. I have already checked off the box in the settings to allow for System of Record, but still cannot figure out how where to start in order to be prompted for my name, family relations, dates, etc. Perhaps I am supposed to start with a particular page template? If so, can you please tell me which one has all that stuff in it as a form where i can enter in my name, DOB, relationships, etc? I’ve shuffled through the 3 page templates and none of them have that kind of form.

    If I can only create profiles for people from a GEDCOM file, can someone please explain where and how to create one? Is there an application I’m supposed to be using before using rootsPersona?

    2 – I’m still a little unclear about pushing the profile pages down to the second level. I’m not very techy but can understand that, for some reason, it is advisable to have it on a lower tier than primary. Is that solely for the purpose of not having a new menu item appear for each new profile page that is created? Or is there another reason? Also, what, if anything, am I supposed to do with the rootsPersona Tree? How do i crate a “parent page” upon which to link other pages to? Is this an actual parent (i.e., my dad’s page is my “parent page” that I link mine to)?

    3 – What is the Evidence Index? How am I supposed to use it?

    4 – Does the program create an actual, visual & interactive tree? If so, where is that and how can I make that appear on the homepage? If not, is there a plug-in that will create a visual tree from the entire database of relationships?

    If not, where are less computer savvy family member supposed to start in order to find their pages after they log in and come inside? I’m assuming that other family members can log in, find their page and start to fill it in with details, right?

    Apologies for being such a newbie but, somehow, I can’t believe I’m the only one! Thank you in advance!

    https://www.ads-software.com/plugins/rootspersona/

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  • They do not make it easy

    i created a page, and put
    [rootsPersona personId=’I’ batchId=’1′ /]

    i have not done much yet, but i am able to edit this person and add their parents etc.

    Plugin Author ed4becky

    (@ed4becky)

    “They” is one guy so bear with me.

    The original program assumed you were starting out by importing a GEDCOM. Editing and adding on the site itself grew from there.

    That said, it CAN be done.

    1. “Tools->Rootspersona->Add single person”

    Once you add the person a page is created and added to the Index page. You can see a ‘tree’ and can link/add more people from there.

    2. “Is that solely for the purpose of not having a new menu item appear for each new profile page that is created?”

    Yes. When people import hundreds of persons via GEDCOM, each created page gets added to the top level menu. The menu itself can scroll forever, making the site unusable. Even at second level of a menu, the pages are so numerous, it takes a while to render them, even though the menus aren’t displayed.

    If you have a good menu plugin and no what you are doing, there are many ways to manage this. The ‘parent’ page was just a way to automate this.

    3. When importing a GEDCOM, sources get imported too, However not all users want pages created just for sources, and/or the import can timeout if the file is big. On the tools menu you can choose to create pages for the sources. Evidence Index then becomes the index for those pages.

    There is no way to create source pages via Rootspersona except GEDCOM.

    4. yes – see #1 Not a whole tree, just a 4 level tree per person page.

    Hope this helps!

Viewing 2 replies - 1 through 2 (of 2 total)
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