Buy Personal Historian User's Guide

Personal Historian: The Companion Guide

�User Manual� is such an unfriendly word. This book much more than a cold, technical description of just another computer application. Because a personal history should be much more than a lifeless description of events, we wanted this book to be a little more colorful and have a little more personality.

Yes, you will find the expected technical descriptions and walk-throughs. But, hopefully, you�ll also find practical tips, new ideas, and needed inspiration to finally bring life to your life stories.

This 192-page book is written by Michael T. Booth, the author of Personal Historian. In addition to writing Personal Historian, he is also an accomplished trainer, teaching thousands of individuals how to write their life stories.

Table of Contents

• Introduction
  • Why you need Personal Historian
  • What is Personal Historian?
  • Personal Historian�s History
  • About this Book
• Why you can�t write your personal history
  • Why are you doing this?
  • The obstacles
  • �I don�t know where to start�
  • �I don�t have the time�
  • �I can�t remember enough details�
  • �I�m not a good writer�
• Getting started
  • The Welcome Screen
  • Creating a new file
• Importing Data
  • Importing Genealogy
  • Importing LifeCapsules & Timelines
  • Importing Other Text Data
• The Main Screen
  • Main Menu Toolbar
  • Status Bar
  • Story Details
  • Time Slider
  • Story List
  • Search Box
  • Filtering Stories
• Working with Files
  • Open an Existing File
  • Searching for a File
  • Moving or Renaming a File
  • Deleting a File
  • Copying a File
  • Checking and Repairing a File
  • File Options
• Managing Your Stories
  • Story Status
  • Adding a New Story
  • Editing an Existing Story
  • Picking a Random Story
  • Adding a Journal Entry
  • Deleting a Story
• Using Categories
  • Adding a New Category
  • Editing a Category
  • Deleting a Category
  • Changing the Order of Categories
  • Changing a Story�s Category
• Recording People
  • Relationships
  • Dates of Involvement
  • Adding a New Person
  • Editing a Person
  • Deleting a Person
  • Adding a Person to a Story
• Tracking Places
  • Geocoding Your List of Places
  • Adding a New Place
  • Editing a Place
  • Deleting a Place
  • Changing a Story�s Place
• The Editor Screen
  • Editor Menu
  • Editor Toolbar
  • Editor Status Bar
  • Story Information
• The Organizer
  • Organizer Toolbar
  • Organizer Items
  • Moving Organizer Items
  • Selecting Multiple Items at Once
  • Copy Items to the Composer
• The Memory Solution
  • Brainstorming
  • Step 1: Visualize
  • Step 2: Summarize
  • Step 3: Organize
  • Step 4: Repeat
  • The �O� Word
• The Composer
  • Composer Toolbar
  • Applying Styles
  • Fonts & Formatting
  • Adding Pictures
  • Importing a Document
  • Spell Check & Thesaurus
  • Readability Check
  • Dictating and Reading Back Your Story
  • Fullscreen Editing
• How to Write Good
  • Let Your Voice Shine Through
  • Make it Readable
  • Write to Your Audience
  • Write with Strength
  • Finding the Right Word
  • Shaking Things Up
  • The Difference
• Do I Have Your Attention?
  • Show, Don�t Tell
  • Add Context
  • What�s a newspaper?
  • Let Your Characters
• Speak Putting It All Together
  • Creating a New Book
  • Managing Books
  • Using the Publisher
  • Printing and Exporting Your Work
  • Publishing a Single Story
• Protecting Your Work
  • Rule #1: Backup your data often
  • Rule #2: Keep past backups, not just the latest
  • Rule #3: Keep backups in multiple places
  • Restoring from a Backup
• Good Luck
• Reference Guides
  • Program Options
  • Dates and Ages
  • Menu Commands
  • Keyboard Shortcut Keys
• Index