Want the Google toolbar go to http://toolbar.google.com/ then click on “Download Google Toolbar” follow your on screen instructions.
Research Logs
http://www.ancestry.com/save/charts/researchcal.htm
www.familysearch.org click on the Search tab, then Research Helps, then Sort by Document Type
http://byubroadcasting.org/ancestors Look for “free charts” under Online Tools on the left.
http://www.familytreemagazine.com/forms/download.html
http://www.cs.williams.edu/~bailey/genealogy/
Make your own logs with Microsoft Word or Wordperfect by creating a “Table.” Click on Table, Insert, Table. Decide how many columns and rows you want and then click OK. You then can type in your log information.
Other quick tricks
Deleting a file
You can delete a file from any program. Click on File – Open. Highlight the file and then press the Delete key. A box will come up asking, if you are sure you want to delete the file. Click Yes.
To open or delete multiple files
In any program click File, Open, choose your file directory. Hold the CTRL key down and hit the “A.” This then should highlight every file in the directory and you can either open or delete the files. This process will not work in Microsoft Word, you will have to hold the CTRL key down and left click on each file separately. Another way to highlight a group of files is to left click on the first file and then hold down the Shift key and left click on the last file. (this will work if your files are in consecutive order)
Find a file
Click on Start, Search or Find files and folders, All files and folders. For Windows XP type in a word or phrase that you think you named the file in the “A word or phrase in the file: box.” Then click on Search. This will then check your whole hard drive and list every file with the word or phrase that you typed along with the file locations. In Windows 95 or 98 it is Start, Find, Files and folders. In the Named box type your word or phrase and then click on Find now. This process will tell you the whole file structure of where to find the file. Example: c:\Documents and Settings\Cathie\Cookies (listed under “In Folder”
Searching the internet
1. Use all lower case letters. Using Caps will limit your search.
2. Try various search engines (listed on page 1). Not all search engines search the web the same.
3. Try a different order of words or phrases for your searches. Be creative in your searches, if one wording does not give you the right answers, reword and search again. You can even ask in the search box a question and then search for the answers. Examples:
a. wellington wood
b. wood, Wellington
c. “wellington wood”
d. how do I find death certificates for denmark?
4. Use “” marks around more than one word. Search with and without the quote marks. When you use the quote marks it will search for the words next to each other on the web page. Without quote marks the words in your search can be any where on the page and not next to each other.
5. Use a + or – with a group of words
a. “wellington wood” +utah
b. “wellington wood” -furniture
b. how do I find death certificates for denmark? +fyen
6. Use the Edit, Find on page (enter a word or phrase you entered into your search) to search through the pages quickly.
7. Web address, you must watch for the lower and upper case of the letters. They DO matter.
8. When typing in a web address in the address bar it is not necessary to always type the www or http. Just type in the rest of the address and save your typing. If you do not get to the correct web site you might have to type the www or http.
9. Use a ~ when searching for like words. Example: ~genealogy will also search for family history, family, tree, family tree, etc.
10. On Google.com there is a “Cached.” If the website you are searching for does not come up, click on the “Cached” and you will see what the website looked like when it was on the web.
11. Internet Explorer – When you use the Green Back Button, you can right click on it and you will see a list of sites you have been to. You then can click on the one you want without clicking on the back button several times.
12. Favorites on Internet Explorer – When you find a website you like click on Favorites, Add to Favorites, then choose which area you want to save the site to. You can create new folders so that you can better organize your favorites.
13. Internet Explorer – When you are doing a search, if you do not want to loose your place from all the hits, you can right click and “open in a new window.”
14. If you use the MSN instant messaging, you can copy the whole thing and paste it in your word processor. (you have to first click in the area where the type is) Click on Edit, Select All then copy. Open your word processor, right click on a new document, then click Paste.
Use of “My Computer” you can:
1. Create file structure
2. Delete files
3. Make new directories or folders
4. See what drives are available on your computer. You can single left click on a drive and then right click, then click on properties and it will show you how much space is used and available on that drive.
5. Opening two windows of My Computer you can copy and paste from one drive to another.
To Clean up the internet places viewed
Make sure your internet explorer is on the screen. These instructions are for Internet Explorer. I do not know how Netscape Navigator works.
1. Tools, Internet options, make sure you have clicked on the General Tab
2. The Temporary files
a. Delete the files and cookies
b. History area – clear history (you can also set the number of days that you store the history web sites)
Split Screens
1. Open two programs
2. Make sure you have minimized each program by clicking on the middle box in the upper right corner.
3. Move the cursor over one of the edges of the window until you get a double arrow.
4. Left click hold and drag the window to half the size of your screen vertically.
5. Do the same with the other program.
This works well when you want to copy and paste from one program to another. You can also use split screens when using PAF and TempleReady. This helps when inputting the new information, so you do not have to print or hand write any of the new information that you find.
Change size of font
Hold the CTRL key and roll the mouse to make the size of print bigger.
Boolean Searching the internet
http://www.hamline.edu/administration/libraries/bush/handouts/boolean.html
Many online databases and web based search engines utilize Boolean logic. This is simply a convention for using standard terms, or operators to combine the keywords or search terms you wish to search. In some cases, you may need to do something, such as use all capitol letters, to indicate which words are the operators. It is important to read the directions for the particular index you are using to find out which operators it uses, how to enter them, and what it does if you don't use any operators. Online library catalogs and journal indexes usually default to AND, while Web based search engines often default to OR. In a library catalog, therefore, "Minnesota Twins" would yield only those articles about twins (or Twins) AND Minnesota, while in many web search engines, it would yield pages about Minnesota OR about twins
The standard operators and some other standard tools are:
ADJ
The search terms must be adjacent
i.e. they must be a phrase with no intervening words
example:Minnesota ADJ Twins would yield only items containing the phrase "Minnesota twins", not "twins in Minnesota".
AND
The search terms must both be present
AND can be used to string many words together when adjacency is not critical
OR
either of the search terms must be present, not necessarily both
NOT
One of the terms must NOT be present
This is usually used to eliminate irrelevant items
If one were interested in identical twins in Minnesota, the search: Minnesota AND twins NOT baseball might be effective
NEAR
This indicates the terms mus be within a certain number of words from one another, not in separate paragraphs, for example.
This operator is not very commonly available
?
This is a wildcard symbol.
It takes the place of a single letter
For example: twin? for twin or twins
Some databases use + in place of ? (twin+)
*
This wildcard replaces many letters
It can be used to get many words with the same root
constit* would find constitute, constituting, constitution, constitional,constituant, constituants
In many cases, search terms and operators can be combined in very long strings, using parentheses to indicate the order in which each of the operators is to be considered. Sometimes they are always considered in a particular order unless parentheses are included. For example:
Minnesota AND (twins or vikings)
would find items about either team
(Minnesota AND (twins or Vikings))NOT (*ball)
would find items about genetic twins and early explorers in Minnesota, rather than about the sports teams
http://www.internetmarketingwebsites.com/how-to-search.htm
Other search Boolean Ideas
Results on all of these search terms:
Example: +Internet +Marketing (or) Internet AND Marketing
This will return results only for sites that contain the words
Internet and Marketing.
Find sites on any of these words:
Example: Search Engine Placement Services
This will return results with any or all of these words in any
combination.
Omit a term:
Example: Search Engines -AltaVista (or)
Search Engines NOT AltaVista
This returns pages that include search engines in the pages but
will not return any results that contain the term AltaVista.
Search for a specific phrase:
Example: "Web Site Promotion"
This returns pages that contain this exact phrase only.
Wildcards - Not sure of spelling or proper use of word:
Example: market* (or) optimi*ation
This returns pages that use variations of the word that you have indicated.
To locate one or the other of specific phrases:
Example: HTML Meta Tags AND (create or optimize)
This finds phrases that contain both variations of the above phrase.
Locate results that have certain words near each other.
Example: promotion NEAR "web site hosting"
This returns results that would include pages that have the word
promotion near the phrase web site hosting.
Search for a site using natural language:
Example: How do I search the Internet?
This will return pages that answer your specific questions.
Find pages with specific words in the title:
Example: +title "submitting companies"
This only returns results of pages that include these words in the title of the page.
Find sites with specific words in the domain:
Example: +domain "search engine marketing"
This only returns pages whose domain names include this phrase.
Look for specific images:
Example: image: "search engine logos"
This returns pages that contain images named after your specified terms.
Locate sites that are hosted by a particular server:
Example host: ceeserve.com
This returns pages that are hosted by your specified company.
Find links to particular sites:
Example: link:internetmarketingwebsites.com
This shows a listing of all of the sites in that engine that are linked to the specified domain.
Find pages containing specific text somewhere throughout the page:
Example: text: learn how to optimize your website for search engines
This will return results to pages that contain your specified words within the page.
Search for sites that are related to a particular site:
Example: related: www.internetmarketingwebsites.com
This will return results for other sites with similar content to the site that you specified.
There are some engines that will support some of these methods of searching, all of these methods or none of these methods. Experiment by searching multiple engines by using various methods of searching.