Creating Buddy Files

What's in your genealogy tool cabinet? Do you ever experiment with various software tools until you find one that fits your needs or thinking process?

Well, I have experimented with various tools. One of those tools I'm experimenting with right now is Tony Proctor's program to create what he calls a 'Buddy File'. This is being discussed in Dear Myrtle's Facebook group. My Buddy File post describes my learning process.

At least one of the comments discussed whether the time involved in creating the text file was worth it. I have to admit that was my initial thought as Tony made his presentation last week. 

Since I want to use the 'buddy file' for transcriptions, it dawned on me this morning that I likely already have the information to put in a buddy file. I just need to copy/paste into Notepad and save the file.

Buddy File

Do you ever find yourself looking for a picture of an individual in a group and not finding it? Or, do you struggle to find a digital image of a document that someone witnessed?

I know I struggle with this issue. That's why Tony Proctor's presentation regarding indexing off file names during last Monday's session of Monday's with Myrt proved intriguing. (Organizing More Resources)

Tony developed a simple program to attach a 'buddy file' to the image. As he was presenting, I kept thinking, about the time involved to add this information to each and every photograph.

Then, Hilary commented that she has been using Tony's program to attach transcriptions to a digital image. With the transcription attached to the image, I would be able to search my files for a member of an ancestor's FAN club and find records they were mentioned in. That makes it worth the time to learn how to do this.