MacBMD 1.9.1
25 Sep 2005
by Ben Hines, bhines@alumni.ucsd.edu
http://homepage.mac.com/bhines/
http://freebmd.rootsweb.com/


MacBMD is a data entry helper for the FreeBMD Project, which is a group of volunteers transcribing indexes to the Birth, Marriage, and Death records of the UK. Transcriptions are done from web images, microfiche, microfilm, and books. FreeBMD can be found on the web at:
http://freebmd.rootsweb.com/  If you have not done so already, please read all the documents at that URL.

Please read the "MacBMDHelpW98" (MS Word 98 format) or "MacBMDHelpCW3" (ClarisWorks format) help files if you need detailed help. Thanks to Dick Jones for writing it.

Quick-Start Help:

1. To Start, click "Entry Info..." to enter your first line information.

2. Second, click the  "Source Info..." button to enter your second line.

2. Then click on the surname field and start entering info. After you enter a word hit TAB or RETURN to go to the next field - this will add the comma, write it to the file and switch to the next field. (I will probably make this happen if you just type comma, too, or any key the user chooses)

2a. If you have someone with one or more midle names, just hit 
OPTION-TAB or OPTION-RETURN, or just SPACE (after the name) 
to activate and tab into the next middle name box. When you no longer need these boxes, hit CONTROL-TAB or CONTROL-RETURN or (DELETE the text and TAB)
and they will disable. 

3. Once you TAB or RETURN out of the "page" field, it hits return and goes back to the surname field ready for the next line. If the surname there is correct (same as the last one) you can just hit tab again and it will be entered again - same with the other fields. 

4. Hit Command-S every now and then to save your file. Also, to be on the safe side i reccomend going into the finder and making a "copy" of your file as a backup.

5. Make sure to hit the "Page" button every time you reach a new page, and enter the new page number. When you finish all your pages, put one last "Page" at the end. The last line in a normal FreeBMD transription should be a "+PAGE" entry .

5. When you are done, you will go to the web site, enter the file updating system and copy & paste the text in. OR,  you can just click the "browse.." button and directly upload the file you saved!

Tips:

 Use command-left, command-right, up and down arrows to move the input window around. This is very handy if you have scanned page window in the background.

 In addition to autocomplete, you can type UP ARROW and DOWN ARROW to go to the next autocomplete entry in the list. This can save a lot of typing and is quite handy.

 If you make a typo and hit tab, just hit "command-Z" to "undo" what you just did, and macBMD will tab back to the last field.

 Remember CONTROL-TAB or CONTROL-RETURN or SPACE (after the name) to ENABLE disabled middle name boxes, and CONTROL-TAB or CONTROL-RETURN or (DELETE, TAB) to DISABLE them.

Please let me know about bugs.

Enjoy,

Ben
