Hi Mike, We use doxygen for producing some pretty decent looking manuals for our software products. I agree its not the easiest to use, and can be a bit quirky at times but in the end it works and it means every time a change is made to the software the manual reflects this change provided the developers follow a simple set of rules. In this way the manual is always up to date and matches the software.
In the case of family research, its all very well collecting lots of facts and spending lots of money in researching ancestors, storing it away in some database, but until you publish this information in some way, either on the internet or in a book, then no one else in your family is aware of the extend and wealth of knowledge you've discovered and there-in lies the crux of family history. I've only used 2 family history packages in anger. Generations which is no more and Legacy. I bought Legacy because of the reviews which indicated it was the best of all of them at producing reports, but the issues I have found by trying to use it in anger has left me wondering that if this is the best, then there's a heck of long way to go. Based on my recent experiences I think I'll submit some of the issues encountered to the Legacy developers. regards Paul On Wed, Nov 20, 2013 at 7:54 AM, Mike Fry <[email protected]> wrote: > On 2013/11/20 03:14, Paul Richardson wrote: > > > I'm not keen on generating pdfs or rtfs and then re-editing docs. after > all > > what's the point of the publishing center if thats what you have to > resort to. I > > also work as a software engineer and I'm used to using tools that > generate > > manuals from basic text and information in the code, so if we can do > this for > > the software industry I'd have though it could have been done in Legacy > as well. > > For the price, what you get with Legacy is cheap. If you want something a > bit > more professional-looking, the solution is going to cost you money that you > could probably better spend on more research. > > As for your throw-away comment concerning tools within software for > generating > documentation... I'm also a developer and the general-purpose tools > built-in to > development software are in my opinion, largely, a piece of crap! There is > nothing that couldn't be improved with the judicious use of a good > Technical Writer. > > Same goes for Legacy. If you want something that looks good, you have to > do some > extra work to achieve it. Legacy is never going to write your books for > you. All > it can do is lift the basic information out of the database in a > semi-presentable form that can be further manipulated. After all, the main > raison-d'etre for Legacy is the database and the recording of facts > discovered > through research. > > -- > Regards, > Mike Fry > Johannesburg (g) > > > > Legacy User Group guidelines: > http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Etiquette.asp > Archived messages after Nov. 21 2009: > http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ > Archived messages from old mail server - before Nov. 21 2009: > http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ > Online technical support: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Help.asp > Follow Legacy on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/LegacyFamilyTree) and > on our blog (http://news.LegacyFamilyTree.com). > To unsubscribe: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/LegacyLists.asp > > > Legacy User Group guidelines: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Etiquette.asp Archived messages after Nov. 21 2009: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ Archived messages from old mail server - before Nov. 21 2009: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ Online technical support: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Help.asp Follow Legacy on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/LegacyFamilyTree) and on our blog (http://news.LegacyFamilyTree.com). To unsubscribe: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/LegacyLists.asp
