Running the "Create Generations Book" Extension

Most users should use this extension only by creating a Book Style record and clicking that record's "Create Book" button. Sometimes you may want to run this extension directly such as for testing or for one-time book creation. This section explains all steps for running this extension and then for manually typesetting the output files. Before running it the first time, you have to be sure LaTeX is installed on your Mac.

Book Extension Steps

The following steps outline the process of running this extension:

  1. Select one or more individuals in the file. For accurate generation chapters, all selected individuals should be in the same generations (e.g., select siblings, any cousins (zero times removed), or spouses).
  2. Run the "Create Generations Book" extension and answer all these preliminary questions:
  3. When the script is done, you will be alerted the files are ready to be typeset. Follow these steps to manually typeset the book (note that by using Book Style records you can have the final book automatically typeset).

Manual Typesetting of the Book

The best way to create books is to have them automatically typeset by using Book Style records, but there are several reasons you may need to manually typeset the output files created by this extension:

  1. If you run this extension directly (i.e., without using a Book Style record), it creates files and you will have to manually typeset the results.
  2. If unknown errors occur while creating books using Book Style records, it is useful to know how to manually typeset books as well to debug the errors.
  3. You may want to make small changes to the output files and then re-typeset the book. This approach may be more efficient then re-generating the entire book. It can be done by editing the files and then manually typesetting.
  4. Recent MacOS's interfere with the automatic typesetting (for as-yet-unknown reasons). If you try to automatically typeset, the script window will display a bunch or error message and the book will not be created. All the files you need, however, are still created. To finish the book, you will need to use the following manual typesetting process.

For these or other reasons, the steps for manually typesetting the book given below. These steps assume you are using TeXShop (although other LaTeX typesetting applications on Mac or PC should work as well).

  1. Open the "BookLaTeXBody.tex" file in the "Generations_LaTeX_Book_#" folder created by running this extension in the LaTeX typesetting application. When using TeXShop and when any text in your file has accented characters, you must open the file using TeXShop's "Open..." command and select the "Unicode (UTF-8)" option in the "Encoding" menu. If you simply double click on the file, it may open with the wrong encoding and therefore not typeset all letters correctly. (Note: when the files were created with a Book Style record, the folder and main file name may differ. The folder name used will be listed in the "Save Folder" field in the "Advanced" section and you can click the "magnifying glass" icon next the folder name to open the folder in the Finder and locate the ".tex" file with name from your record.)
  2. Typeset the book once. This first pass verifies all syntax (hopefully there will be no errors) and writes some auxiliary files needed to complete the book. The most common errors are character problems. The LaTeX system does not support all of UTF8 characters and will claim an error for some characters, even when they are valid characters. You can usually ignore these errors (by typing return in the TeXShop console and the typesetting will continue) and get good results. Alternatively, you can change the character in the .tex file (and ideally in your genealogy file as well) to one the typesetting will accept.
  3. Run BibTeX, which will create files needed for the book's bibliography.
  4. Run MakeIndex, which prepares the book's index.
  5. Typeset two more times. The two typesets are needed to finally get all citations correct.

The output from TeXShop (and probably other applications) will be a PDF file. You can email or print this file to have your book. See the help on book printing for more details.

For best book results, you should prepare your data to work well with the book script. See the help on optimizing books for more details.