Day 3 – Saturday, Tech Day #SLIG

WOW, what a day!!!  I’ve learned SO much. I’m very impressed by the content of the courses I attended.  The day started off with a class by Kimberly Powell called Spreadsheet Tips & Tricks.  I learned things I didn’t even realize I could do!  We talked about a Land In-Out table.  You can track land records of a family by what properties they bought and sold during their lives.  What a great idea!  But the thing that blew me away was that you can export a file from Family Search to Excel to analyze data.  Wait, WHAT??  You can??  I’ve looked at search results on Family Search thousands of time and I don’t know why but I never noticed the “Export Results” over on the right-hand side.  Kimberly walked us through exactly how to export those files, clean up the database and use them for analysis.  #lifechanging  Seriously.  This saves time from having to sort through EVERY record or screen.  

Next class was by Elissa Scalise Powell and she presented the topic “Baker’s Dozen Steps to Writing as you Go”.  This was about writing research reports as you go.  Sometimes this aspect can be totally intimidating but Elissa breaks it down and makes everything so clear!  The most important thing is not to wait until the end. She called it WAYgo – write as you go.  Excellent course. 

The third class was Scrivener for Genealogists by Kimberly Powell again and was an all afternoon workshop.  Ok, where has this program been all my life??!!!  Again, this information is life changing!  Research and documentation can be easily organized into Scrivener.  Not only does this program organize your research, you can compile the information and export it into a Word document, a PDF, a book format and so many other options.  The paper is written with footnotes, annotations and whatever else you put into the program.  You don’t have to re-write anything!  What the WHAT??!!!  #amazing  This program is for writers and makes research and documentation so much easier!  And this is just the tip of the iceberg.  Just WOW!  Mind blown.  One of the women in the class had mentioned that she used Scrivener for her SLIG class last year.  It’s like the angels suddenly started signing Hallelujah.  I’m TOTALLY using Scrivener for my DNA class.  Oh and I’m using it for this blog now too.

I’m half-way through ProGen and all the intense stuff is coming up.  As a matter of fact, next month’s assignment will be a research report.  These three courses have just streamlined my whole process!  In ProGen and beyond!  Client reports are going to be so much easier.

It’s been a long day, 8:30 am to 8:30 pm but it also FLEW by!  I’ve learned so much today.  And it’s only the FIRST day!  If anyone reading this is thinking about attending SLIG in the future, you will not be disappointed!    

Dave loved it too.

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