My current package has what I regard to be powerful tools to convert my data into various reports or documents, including book form, so I fail to see why you would want to restrict yourself to using a word processing package which is not, IMHO, all that great in generating web sites.

But, then, each of us has our own preferences. I, too, received Mr Gale’s email and was curious to see how the method he wrote about in his book worked for his genealogical website so I googled his name. Unfortunately, so far, I have not found it yet.

Have a good one.

There are much better tools for working on websites, some of them are free. By all means advise genealogists to use Word or Publisher if they are working with a print medium but NOT to design websites. There are many more genealogists designing websites to share there information that have no intention whatsoever that the info will appear in print.

Re the spamming, this thread post would never have happened if you had not done that, bad karma, bad ethics.

Just because something is ‘easy’ or ‘cheap’ does not make it ‘right’ or the ethical thing to advocate. Especially when there are alternative tools that will do exactly the same thing and are free. I think we have exhausted this thread now.

As for the controversy, I don’t think the tool whether it be Microsoft Word or Expression Web is the real issue for genealogists. The real issue is that genealogists want and need to “publish.” To me, “publishing” means creating a finished document then making it available to the public. That is, genealogists want to write about their family history and publish it so others can (hopefully) appreciate it too. The publication is the product. In our modern age, the web is the media. How the average genealogist can actually achieve publishing a document is our question (IMHO).

I recommend that genealogist start out with a “genealogy essay” which they carefully write over several weeks using their word processor. Once completed, how can the genealogist put his or her essay on the website? It’s true, many genealogists are computer power users and may already have and know-how to use an HTML editor such as their Microsoft Office component Frontpage. However, for most genealogists, actually putting their essay on a website is a show-stopper. Not only do they not own an HTML editor but they don’t know how to use one either. All the genealogist wants to do is write then publish his or her essay.

My point is that if they used Microsoft Word to write their essay as an HTML document then they can simply copy it to their website. The act of copying their essay to their website using FTP is the only new skill but it is straightforward. In this way, they can create their essay using skills they already have for the most part and without incurring additonal expenses.

Once published, the genealogy essay is the starting point of their genealogy website. I call this the “top layer” of a multilayered structure (an information structure). As time passes, they can create two other layers of the information structure to complete their website: a middle “synthesis” layer and a bottom “documents” layer. The “documents” layer contains the scans or snippets of historical documents. The “synthesis” layer brings together the information of the “documents” into meaningful generalizations. Microsoft Word also works fine for these two other layers.

I know that advocating the use of Microsoft Word is highly controversal and I appreciate your time reading this.

Note: There was a delay in posting moderated posts, as I have not been able to see to the blog due to offline life.

IMHO - the answer is yes and yes.

First the issue of the website authoring application: The major problem facing most genealogists as potential webmasters is the huge gap in the expertise required which is seldom part of the genealogist’s expertise. That is, web technology has its own pecular jargon, tools, and procedures. However, all the genealogists wants to do is tell his or her story. This is why Microsoft Word is perfect for them - it is a way to quickly create a hypermedia-based genealogy “document” which then can be shared with the world and which is easily in the expertise of most genealogists. By using Microsoft Word, genealogists can just “write” rather than continually having to contend with the minutia of web technology.

As far as Microsoft Publisher as a website authoring application, it is nothing short of awsome! Actually, I do all my commissioned websites in it. I’ll admit that these are all commercial static (text and images) based in which the creation and sharing of complex hypermedia-based documents is the requirement.

One of the really interesting issues brought up is whether a genealogy website can even be turned into a hardcopy book or are they just too different? Well, first the biggest part of the work of creating a genealogy book from a genealogy website has already been completed - the research and synthesis of the information. This is 80% of any book effort (take my word for it as I’ve written two big ones).

But what about the structure of the two? In the “[removed],” there is an extensive explanation of the use of multilayered structures (an information structure) for a non-fiction literary work such as a genealogy website or a genealogy book. That is, if one observes some design principles, the two projects (website vs. book) can be made to be compatible structurally from an information content standpoint. However, the actual project to create a genealogy book from a genealogy website is still a major, time-consuming effort of reformatting and tweeking. In the “[removed]” book, there is an explanation of how to proceed. Also, we have written an article on the multilayered structure (see [removed]).

I know these are highly controversal issues. Thank you for your time.

Thornton Gale

ps - as these are the holidays, my time is limited now but I will have more time after the new year to discuss these matters.

ED NOTE: Hyperlinks and the book name have been deleted, as I said I won’t be advertising it on my blog