Having copy-paste'd an index record from FamilySearch, how to "block-ify" it?

Question

When citing a source, I like to include the index record along with the citation.  To do that, I cut-and-paste from, say, FamilySearch.  The resulting text in Edit has line-breaks, but they are stripped by the formatter.

I've been laboriously entering a colon (':') at the beginning of each line.  Is there a simpler way?

I wish that WT had a BLOCKIFY button that would work like the CITE button.  [Newbie NOTE: The CITE button is in Edit view of profiles; it's the rightmost button, labeled "C", in the row of buttons above the Edit Text box.  To put <ref>...</ref> markers around the text of a citation, simply highlight the text, click the CITE button, and voila! <ref>highlighted text</ref>.]

I'd like to be able to highlight rows of text that should appear on separate lines, click a BLOCKIFY button, and voila! separate lines -- perhaps with ':' at the beginning of each line, or perhaps bookend'd with <block>... </block>.

Comments

You shouldn't have to enter a ":" at the beginning of each line IF there is no hard carriage return at the end of a given line. I.e., just add the ":" at the beginning of a first line of a paragraph.

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Jilliane, there IS a hard carriage-return at the end of the line, which i want to preserve.  See:

<center>2013, age 88, DIES.</center>
''U.S. Social Security Death Index''<br>
:Age    88
:Given Name    Roland
:Surname    Straehle
:Birth Date    27 May 1925
:State    New York
:Event Date    27 Jul 2013

<ref>"United States Social Security Death Index," database, FamilySea... <SNIP> ...ional Technical Information Service, ongoing).</ref>

Answer 1

Ignoring line breaks is a basic HTML thing, and there doesn't seem to be a fix.  There's a <pre> tag, but it will muck about with the font as well.  And it's not on the WikiTree supported list.  Only the : and the <br/> tag are on the menu here, short of creating a table.

Answer 2

Normally we just post the source with a link included such as to a page and person listed in family search and do not include all the text found with in the searched persons information. In fact if you just copy the part at bottom of your search ancestor on family search it will include the needed link and info for the person.

Example:

Citing this Record "United States Public Records, 1970-2009," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:2QTZ-7ZY : accessed 2 June 2016), Sarah J Straehle, Residence, Raleigh, North Carolina, United States; a third party aggregator of publicly available information.

I think I understand what you are asking but I do not know of a better way than what you are now doing if you want all the details for a person to show, maybe put the details in the bio section with the rest under sources.

 

 

Answer 3

I just use the citation that FamilySearch provides for their collections. I don't use the data in the Family Tree, however. Here's an example of what they look like:

<ref name="WWII">"United States World War II Draft Registration Cards, 1942," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/V1KT-Z5P : accessed 2 June 2016), Charles Stuart Jones, 1942; citing NARA microfilm publication M1936, M1937, M1939, M1951, M1962, M1964, M1986, M2090, and M2097 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.).</ref>

Comments

Rosemary, I'm not having a problem with citations -- the magic 'C' button works fine to place <ref>...</ref> tags.

The problem is with text which originated in tabular format, and for which i'd like to preserve line-breaks.  For instance,

Name    Ronald Strahle
Event Place    Assembly District 4, Queens, New York City, Queens, New York, United States
Gender    Male
Age    14
Marital Status    Single
Race    White
Relationship to Head of Household    Son
Birthplace    New York
Birth Year (Estimated)    1926

 

I'd like to be able to highlight the text...

Name    Ronald Strahle
Event Place    Assembly District 4, Queens, New York City, Queens, New York, United States
Gender    Male
Age    14
Marital Status    Single
Race    White
Relationship to Head of Household    Son
Birthplace    New York
Birth Year (Estimated)    1926

then press the "◼︎" button (next to the magic C button above the text-entry box).

The result would be that the chosen text now has a colon (':') at the beginning of every line.

:Name    Ronald Strahle
:Event Place    Assembly District 4, Queens, New York City, :Queens, New York, United States
:Gender    Male
:Age    14
:Marital Status    Single
:Race    White
:Relationship to Head of Household    Son
:Birthplace    New York
:Birth Year (Estimated)    1926

 

Kinda like the magic C button acts on highlighted text to bookend it with <ref>... </ref> tags.

 

 

 

 

 

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I understand.  Royal PITA. And I don't know enough about Wiki Language to offer a suggestion.

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Juli, add some tags to your question, such as improvements, style, formatting. Maybe the programming team can implement your excellent suggestion!

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I think that would be a brilliant improvement. I prefer  to add the text from the source in a citation,  ie my own transcription of a parish register or census  or the text of an index as  presented on a site like Free reg it  If it's something like a census or marriage register then it  takes many '':''s to format. (Why bother?, I don't trust links as they may get broken  plus  if something is on a paid site or found in a records office then it is only accessible to limited number of people)