Facebook Posts

Facebook Posts

There is a difference between how posts to your Timeline and posts to a Group work.

• Timeline posts don't offer any format options
• Group posts offer several format options

1. Boldface
2. Italics
3. Headings
4. Bullet Lists
5. Numbered Lists

Dick Henthorn

13 July 2020

Facebook Formatting

Facebook Formatting

There is an issue with document formatting on Facebook.

I tried two ways of sharing a document on Facebook that didn't work well.

First, I copied obituary text that I'd extracted from a Find A Grave memorial. I made some addtions using square brackets [ ] and uploaded my file as a "Document" to a Facebook Group. This didn't work well. Paragraph breaks were inserted between text several sentences long and a one line piece of information in parentheses that should have followed immediately after the text.

Next, I tried copying the same text as a "post" to the Group. This resulted in the same problem, excessive paragraph breaks.

Here's how I solved the problem. I was working with a couple who didn't have children. There was an obituary for the wife only. I told RootsMagic to create a Family Group sheet for the couple. I saved the output as a PDF file. I uploaded the PDF to the Facebook Files area of the Group just as I have often done with Descendant Reports as PDFs.  As a result the obituary paragraph formatting appears to my liking and the PDF can be previewed online or downloaded.

Dick Henthorn

3 Jun 2020

Some RootsMagic7 Glitches

Yesterday I installed RootsMagic7.  I noticed several disappointments.

The problem with wrap-around text when you save a report in .txt format hasn't been fixed.  When I mentioned this yesterday to Tech Support the person I talked to brushed me off saying that no one had ever reported the problem.

The installation procedure suggested that I let them uninstalled RootsMagic6.  I followed their suggestion.  I'm not sure this was such a good idea.  They didn't warn me that the newly installed version of the program would forget all of the formatting information such as color scheme and toolbar button icon placement.  I'm not happy about that.

I installed a copy of the program on a thumb drive for the first time.  I had a new SanDisk 4Gb thumb drive on hand.  After the installation I copied one of my files to the thumb drive in order to test drive how it works. This is a very handy way to take your genealogy with you if you travel and don't want to take your laptop. I think I'll take the thumb drive to the computer club meeting to show Dale Grant who does genealogy.

Dick Henthorn
6 January 2015