Caution regarding Biography Tools

Question

I have noticed more and more members using some of the wonderful apps and tools created by WikiTree members.  

However, I also notice that data is being removed during the use of these tools.   For example, a list of children may be in the biography, but, profiles have not been created for all those children.   When the tool creates a biography it only looks at profiles attached and therefore removes children in the biography.   All I ask is that the everyone pay attention when using these tools.

Has anyone seen other issues that we should make members aware of?

Comments

This is all I ask, too:  Read the message and notes that come with the generated bio.  This asks the editor to edit the new bio before removing the old one. For anyone who hasn't read the WBE space page, it says this:

The idea (if the instructions are not clear) is for you to take any useful text from the old bio that has not been included in the generated bio and insert it in the right place in the generated bio. After you've edited the new bio and you're happy with it, you should remove the message above and the old bio. There is a convenient 'Delete Old Bio' button to do this. Please don't just hit the Auto Bio button and do a full save. If you do that, you'll be saving the new bio, the message, and the old bio. No-one wants that.

Answer 1

It's also a known problem with the auto bio feature that existing research notes don't always get copied into the new bio. Bottom line, the new bio should always be compared to the old bio before overwriting it to make sure nothing was lost.

Comments

The known problem with research notes (known by me at least) is that some people have been using level three headings for them, which is non-standard as, according to the biography style guide, research notes should have a level two heading. Adjusting the Auto Bio to take this unexpected behaviour into account is top of my list.

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Thanks, Ian!!!!

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Oops.  Thanks, Ian!

Answer 2

Yes, comparing the old list to the new list of children with profiles is always helpful.  It's a good opportunity to add the missing children if you have time or a maintenance category for Needs Profiles Created if you don't.

Where is the message and where is the delete Old Bio button?  How do I turn that on?  I usually just integrate the good stuff to save and then do the old fashioned highlight and delete.  Might be a bit faster to have the button.

One thing I have always wondered about is that the Auto Bio (which I LOVE), also creates a siblings list.  Sometime way back in my early days of learning formatting, I thought I saw that siblings lists are not standard profile elements.  I always delete them because our project has never included them.  Is this just a project level decision not to have them or a whole WikiTree standard to have them?

Comments

Hi Cindy... Have you used the Auto Bio recently (since it was added to the WBE)?  It's different, in many ways, from how it was before. There is a message found between the generated bio and the old bio explaining what to do next. Please see the WBE space page for more details. Also, two buttons, which I think are hard to miss, appear in the toolbar above the editor.  One is 'Undo Auto Bio' in case you change your mind; the other is 'Delete old bio'. You don't need to turn these on.  They always appear. 

You mentioned the Needs Profiles Created maintenance categories.  The good news (I hope) is that there is an option to add these automatically when there are people in census household members tables/lists who seem to be missing from the database. This is not a perfect system, but I hope it's useful. The Auto Bio can add location categories automatically, too, which can probably save some time.

A good thing about the new Auto Bio is that it has more options than before. The sibling list was actually optional in the BEE version, and it's the same now. This was something that was requested early on, not by a project but by a member who would always add sibling lists to their profiles. When you have a minute, please take a look at the options in the Auto Bio. (Click the extension icon to see the options window; go to Editing > Auto Bio > Show options.) If you see any option that seems odd, it was probably suggested or requested by someone who wanted it. And remember that they are options, that is, you can choose to use them or not.

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Ian, thank you so much for this information.  I use Auto Bio everyday but never noticed the little settings button next to it while editing (I had only used the global settings in the Extension itself, for which unchecking the sibling list didn't work).  I now have used the settings to get more detailed choices and love it.  Definitely a timesaver not to have the Auto Bio labels, and not to have the siblings list.  I also see the undo Auto Bio button.  But do not see the delete the old bio button. 

I also do not find the setting to add location categories (do see the place to add locations to the bio).  I would like to have the categories added though am wondering how it would know to find the Acadie Pisiguit category for example.