ONCE AGAIN THE PAGE DISAPPEARS
US—City Directories, 1823–1935 [Part D] [MQ24-Q5J]
Three hours spent indexing and poof… it disappeared. Before anyone asks/makes a statement: NO, this is not a new computer, no, I did not walk away from the work I was doing, NO, the electricity did not go off, … I needed to ADD more lines to complete the indexing work (1,047 entered names), and the programed stalled and then… gone! Not only that, but after entering 500 names, the program slows almost to a crawl. Depressing ENTER or TAB takes 2-4 seconds before advancing to the next line. It might be time for the program to be upgraded!!!!!! This has happened to me so many times. The ONLY reason I continue to index is because I promised a missionary that as long as he was serving the Lord as a full-time missionary, I would index every day he served. BUT THIS PROGRAM!!!!!!!!!!
Answers
-
In any project where you have over a few hundred records, it begins to go really slowly. That's why many don't want to index batches that are really large. I can't tell you why your work disappeared. But what you can do going forward is to either just send a batch this large back and another indexer will do it and you can open another batch and only work on the ones with fewer and shorter columns of names. Or choose another project to work on.
0 -
With the larger batches—the kind you have to add entries to—what's always helped me when indexing slows, is to do something else for a while. Reading, games, whatever. I do it from anywhere from 30 minutes to a few hours. It helps with the lag and I'll repeat the cycle when I notice the lag. It does make indexing a large batch longer, but we have a week and if that large batch doesn't get done by me, it will be done by another indexer.
1 -
On the really big city directory ones (2 pages of 5 columns each…1000+) i have to switch from the table form to the line form, which goes faster. the table form bogs down. I have talked to FS help and suggested they break them into 2 batches, or give directions to index page 1 in one batch and page 2 in another batch. They said they couldn't do it. I wish they would as it would make it easier and faster to index.
1 -
This is the original text you asked me to remember:
If I didn't have 30 years of experience with indexing, I might not be as frustrated as I often am with the current indexing program. I don't index on a laptop! I have indexed more than 50, 100+, and sometimes over 1,000 entries for many projects. I always complete the work I start within the required time (some projects take two hours). I switch from column to form, to table and row depending on the type of work. What I'm trying to say is that the program itself needs some tender loving care! Perhaps someone from the BYU computer programming design department could take a look at the program and do a thorough revamp. There are a few changes that would greatly benefit the indexer. Please do not respond with a snide comment like 'If you don't like the program, stop indexing!' as was the case recently. That is not very Christ-like, nor productive. What I hope for is two-fold: to accomplish the work needed for those who have passed on and to help those of us who enjoy indexing.
1
