Managing picture, sound and video locations in Legacy
A key to good picture management is keeping together all of your media (picture, sound, video and document files) in one place. Having media files scattered in different locations on your hard drive or scattered over different drives is a recipe for loosing media links.
To open the the Master Media Folder List click on View > Master Lists > Media Folder List. The Master Media Folder List contains all the locations of the pictures and sounds that are being used in the current Family File. Legacy only records one copy of each different path and points any use of it to its entry in the list. This saves a lot of disk storage space by eliminating duplications.
The Master Media Folder list uses tokens to represent a path. The use of tokens helps preserve media links when files are moved from computer to computer. In the image below the token is [Default Media Folder]. To see what the actual [Default Media Folder] path is, go to Options > Customize > 6. Locations and examine 6.2 Default location of media file (ff). It will show something like:
C:\Users\Jim\Documents\Legacy Family Tree\Media\
Other tokens are [Desktop], [Family File Folder], [MyDocuments] and [MyPictures].
Selecting a Path Name from the List
To select a particular path name, click on it and click the Change button. You can also select a path by double-clicking it.
Adding A New Path
When you enter a path name in a Path Name field, Legacy checks to see if the name is already in the Master Media Folder List. If it is not found, it is added to the list. Depending on the setting in Options, you may or may not be prompted for confirmation. When the Master Media Folder List is displayed, you can add new path names by clicking the Add button. This pops up a small form where you can browse to the location, which is then added to the list.
Change A Path Names
You can change a path in the Master Media Folder List by selecting it and clicking the Change button.
Other Options
Clicking the Options button displays a shortcut menu where you can choose from the following options:
Deleting a Path Name
If a path name in the master list is not being used, you can remove it from the list by highlighting it and clicking the Delete button. Legacy confirms that the name is not being used and removes it from the list. If one or more records are referencing the path name, it cannot be removed. In this case, Legacy offers to display a list of all records currently using the name.
Combining Duplicate Path Names
When correcting misspelled path names, you may find that you end up with duplicates within the list. To remove these duplicates and clean up the list, click the Combine option. Legacy then goes through the list, combines the duplicates and moves the links.
Purging Unused Path Names
To remove unused path names from the Master Picture/Sound List, click the Purge option. Legacy checks each name to see if it is being used. If not, it is removed from the list.
Importing a Path Names List
You can import a list of path names from a different Family File by clicking the Import button. Legacy prompts for the name of the other Family File and then loads its list.
Printing the List
You can print the contents of the list by clicking Print... The list will appear in the Print Preview window where you can view it and print a copy.
Printer Setup Options
You can can the formatting of the list report by clicking the Print Setup button.
Zoom
You make the screen font size bigger to make reading the Master Media Folder List easier by clicking the Zoom button.
The Pictures / Sounds Location List is reached by clicking on Options > Customize > 6. Locations. You can then click the View Current List of Multimedia Locations... button. You can also choose Master Lists / Picture Location from the View menu
Checking All Media File Locations
To reach the Check All Picture and Sound File Locations window, choose Customize from the Options menu, click on the Locations tab and then click the Test All Media Folders... button to open the Check All Media Locations dialog box.
When you import information from a GEDCOM file containing references to picture, sound, and video files, Legacy needs to know where they are located on the new computer. Most of the time, when you receive a GEDCOM from another person, the multimedia files do not accompany it. To reconcile picture, sound and video links, you should have Legacy search for them. To do this, click the Proceed button.
List of Missing Files
You can produce a list of all the missing multimedia files in the family file by selecting the option: Make a List of All Multimedia Files before clicking the Proceed button. All missing files are logged in a text file called Missing.txt in the Legacy folder. At the end of the process, Legacy offers to open and display this list. Click Yes to see it.
The list also includes the name and RIN number of the individual associated with each missing file.
When Legacy cannot find a picture or sound file by looking in the six picture/sound directories, the Find File dialog box is displayed. You have some options:
Start the Legacy Media Relinker (Recommended)
This is the best option. See I have missing media files (attached pictures and documents that can't be found)
Have Legacy Search for the File
This option will only find and fix the link for this one missing media file. If you have several missing media files you will have to repeat this action for each one. The Legacy Media Relinker is the best option.
Browse for the File Yourself
A file dialog box is displayed that you can use to locate the file yourself. If you know where the file is located, this might a faster method, bit if you have several missing media files you will have to repeat this action for each one. The Legacy Media Relinker is the best option.
Skip Lost Files
Forget about the lost pictures and sound files and continue on as if they were not there.
Check All Files
The program will proceed to check each record for attached media.
Remove Lost Files
If Legacy cannot find a picture, the label on the Check All Media button will change to Remove Lost Media. Clicking this button will remove the reference to this picture from the Family File. This is irreversible. If you change your mind later you will have to restore your family file from a backup.
