RootsMagic lets you add unlimited media items (pictures, audio clips, video clips, or files) to your database. When you add a media item, RootsMagic stores a link to that media item, but does not put the media item itself into the database. You can then "tag" a picture or media item with the person, family, event, source, citation, or place the media item refers to. A media item can have more than one tag, so you can, for example, tag a census image with the people and family mentioned in the image, the source or citation for the census, and the place the census image refers to.
There are 3 screens where you can see the photos in your database, the main Media Page, the Media slide-in for each fact, and the Edit Person Media Album.
Media Page
The Media Page will display all the photos in the database. You can enter text into the Search field to have RootsMagic filter the displayed thumbnails to only show those whose caption or filename contain the text you are searching for.
From the Media Page you can add, edit, or delete media items, see what records are using a media item, and otherwise manipulate your media.
From the Tools menu you can additionally select:
•Build thumbnails
•View selected media
•Print media
•Show tasks for selected media
Media Slide-In
The Media slide-in will show just the media which has been tagged for a single person, place, source, etc. You can open a media slide-in by clicking the Media button on the edit screen for a person, source, place, etc.
As a shortcut, if you click the media box in the Edit Person fact list, RootsMagic will display the media for that fact.
You can click the label "Media" in front of each item to display that item's information in the panel below. Or you can click on the media item itself to open the slide in where you can edit the actual media item.
Note: Since RootsMagic does not store the item in the database itself, if you move your RootsMagic files to a different computer, you also must copy your media items to the other computer. If you put them in the same directory on the second computer as you had them on the original computer, the links will continue to work. If you put them in a different folder, you can use the search and replace feature to update the links, or use the fix broken media links option.
See Also
Keep pictures and documents easy to find
Put the file in a folder where you intend to keep it before adding it to RootsMagic. Add a caption that identifies the person or document. Use Description for a longer explanation or a typed copy of the document. Use Tags to choose everyone the item belongs to, rather than adding the same file several times.
Open the linked file after adding it. A thumbnail alone is not a complete check that the original remains accessible. Back up the media files as well as the database, either separately or with the Backup media files option.
For image transcription assistance, see Using AI Prompts with Media. The prompt text and image are separate clipboard operations, and the resulting transcription needs comparison with the record.
