Class:
INTERNET LINKS IN WEB PAGES
GENERATED FROM A PAF
DATABASE
©2007 by Donald R. Snow
Sections of the Class Notes
Return to Don's
Class
Listings page or to the home page of Utah Valley Technology and Genealogy Group . This page was last
updated 7 Feb 2007.
INTRODUCTION
- Instructors
are Donald R. and Diane M. Snow, 801-225-7123 in Provo, Utah
and 435-673-1932 in St. George, Utah (snowd@math.byu.edu,
dms34@juno.com)
- These notes with active Internet links are
posted on the
Utah Valley Technology and Genealogy Group website http://uvtagg.org
under Class Outlines, Don's Listings.
- These notes
are written for PAF (Personal Ancestral File), but the ideas
are useful for other genealogy programs too, and active Internet links may work
directly when geneating web pages in other programs.
FORMING WEB PAGES FROM PAF
DATABASES
- PAF itself will generate web
pages
- These reports are useful ways
to view your data in new ways,
even if you don't want to post it online
- Pages on your computer are
viewed with a web browser, e.g. Firefox, Internet Explorer, or Opera
and things like the back arrow work
- To
generate a web page in PAF click on Tools/Create-Web-Page or just click
on the World icon (3rd from the right end)
- Opens
the Create Web Page menu
- Select the options you want
- Type
of web page (Ancestors, Descendants, or Selected Persons)
- To
show everyone in your database use the Selected Persons option and
select All
- Most options are self-explanatory
- Notes
can be Embedded (in with the text) or Linked (click on the link to take you to the notes) -- each method has
its uses
- Web pages generated with PAF will not have active Internet links, even if entered correctly
- Other
programs, including Ancestral
Quest and The Next Generation, will read PAF databases or
GEDCOM's from PAF and generate web pages with active Internet
links, i.e. you can click on them and go to those web pages
- Ancestral
Quest is free for use in Family History Centers -- contact the author at http://www.ancquest.com/
- Examples
of active
links of each of the types discussed below will be shown from (1)
Ancestral Quest-generated web pages and (2)
from our online Early LDS database
on http://earlylds.com
which
is generated with The Next Generation software.
LOCATIONS
IN PAF FOR INTERNET
LINKS
- Internet links can be placed in PAF
databases in the following locations:
- In
a person's Notes the link could be to a biography posted on the
Internet or an explanation of something about the person.
- In
a Source the link could be to an online database that shows the source or gives information about it.
- In
Events the link could be to a website that explains details about that event
in the person's life.
- Note: since
URL's (Internet website addresses) change frequently, it is helpful to explain
enough about the site or database so that someone could find it later, even if the URL has changed.
PUTTING INTERNET LINKS
IN NOTES
- Open the notes of the
person where you want to include an Internet link, e.g. for a
biographical or explanatory link for that person
- Type
the following html text (hypertext markup language):
"Click
here for link <a
href=http://vitals.rootsweb.com/ca/death/search.cgi "
Target=_blank">http://vitals.rootsweb.com/ca/death/search.cgi</a>."
(without the quotes at the start and end)
- For
a link to a different web address put the address in both places where
the http://... occurs.
- After you have
experimented with this
a little you will see what you can modify.
- You can have this format set up in a text file and copy and paste it when you need it.
- In
a PAF-generated web page this shows up as meaningless text, but in an
Ancestral Quest-generated web page from this PAF database, it will be
an active Internet link.
- Examples
from an Ancestral Quest-generated web page using a PAF database
- Example
from http://earlylds.com
(generated by The Next Generation
software from a PAF GEDCOM) -- see Lyman Wight, born 1796
PUTTING
INTERNET LINKS IN SOURCES
- To put an active link in an individual's source, open
the source from the Individual Edit screen, and in the Comments field, NOT the text field, type
the following html text (hypertext markup language):
"Click here for
link <a href=http://vitals.rootsweb.com/ca/death/search.cgi "
Target=_blank">http://vitals.rootsweb.com/ca/death/search.cgi</a>." (without the quotes at the start and end)
- To
put an active link in a source that will be in the records of all
inviduals citing that source, go to the Edit/Sources List screen,
and select the
source and entering these words in the Comments for that source: "Click
here for link <a
href=http://iagenweb.org/pottawattamie/hist-mormonsettlements.htm "
Target=_blank">http://iagenweb.org/pottawattamie/hist-mormonsettlements.htm</a>." (without the quotes at the start and end)
- In
a PAF-generated web page these words show up as meaningless text, but in an
Ancestral Quest-generated web page from this PAF database, they will form an active Internet link.
- Examples
from an Ancestral Quest-generated web page using a PAF database
- Example
from http://earlylds.com
-- see Jane Lewis, born 1853
PUTTING
INTERNET LINKS IN EVENTS
- ENTERING EVENTS IN PAF
- To
enter a new Event, from someone's Edit Individual screen,
click on
Options/New Event-Attribute, and select an Event already in PAF or else
enter a new one.
- This
event will now be available to select for anyone in the database and
will show up under Other Events to enter the details for that person.
- INCLUDING INTERNET LINKS IN EVENTS
- The following example will form an Event
with a web link leading to more information about the death or burial
of an individual.
- From an Edit Individual screen
select Options/New Event-Attribute, and type in the title "html Death";
type in a short title such as "DH-html"; and Abbreviation
"DH"; check Use Description and for Male enter "Further information
about the
death or burial of %1 may be found at <a href="%6">
%6</a>." (without the quotes) in the No Date or Place box. For Female change the %1 to %2 and for Unknown sex to %7.
- To include
this event in someone's record, select it and enter the web
address, http://..., you want in the Description
field of the event.
- When
this Event is generated in a report it
will put the appropriate html words around the web address to form a
valid Internet link.
- Since PAF automatically
writes
certain words around Events when generating web pages, the
trick is to
write this so PAF writes the html code needed when it writes the Event
-- that's what the words you entered in the Use Description
field do.
- Examples from an Ancestral Quest-generated web page using a
PAF database
- Example from http://earlylds.com
-- see Jane Maria Shearer, born 1819
CONCLUSIONS
- Including Internet links in the database
helps record where the data came from and allows others to go to those
web sites easily.
- You can copy and paste the basic
link structure where it needs to go and then just enter the web address
you
want.
- The html text you write has
to be in the right place and in the right format, so you may need to
experiment and generate trial web pages using Ancestral Quest or some
other program to be sure you have the format right.
ASSIGNMENT
- Generate the web pages for a database using PAF. Experiment with the various options in
forming the
web pages.
- Enter an Internet link into the notes
for someone in a PAF database and form the web pages using a
program such as Ancestral Quest to read the PAF database directly and see if the Internet link is active.
- Enter
an Internet link into a source in a PAF
database and form the web pages using a
program such as Ancestral Quest to read the PAF database directly and see if the Internet link is active..
- Enter an Event and an Internet link into it in a PAF
database and form the web pages using some other
program such as Ancestral Quest that will read the PAF database directly and see if the Internet link is active..
Return
to Don's
Class
Listings page or to the home page of Utah Valley Technology and Genealogy Group .