* Welcome all to the Family Historian

[admin]

Welcome all to the Family Historian Users Mailing List. This list is very new and has not yet shown much activity, but I hope it will now. I have just today emailed a large number of people who had expressed interest in subscribing to this list, to tell them that it is now running, and already I can see some people have joined as a result.
In the future, I will be posting some proposals for enhancements to Family Historian for the next version, for people to comment on. Early indications are that the following currently top the wish-list: more reports and more report types (esp. Individual Summary, Family Group Sheet, and the textual style Register Report), generation of html (web-pages), search-and-replace facilities, and help with correcting errors in GEDCOM files, generated by other applications. Smaller, but also popular features include: auto-completion of place names to make it quicker and easier to type them in, and auto-generation of surnames for children based on the father's name (if known) or the mothers name if no father. Does that seem like a reasonable first pass wish-list? Would people want an auto-save facility added to that list? What about the ability to bookmark frequently accessed records to make it very quick to jump to them? Some people would like it to be as easy to enter baptism, burial and christening details as it currently is to enter birth and death details. Some people have commented that the way that you resize a diagram when printed, or reposition diagrams on the printed page, is unintuitive and would like it made easier to understand. Is that seen as a priority? What about a very quick way to locate a person by typing in their record id?
I have a long list of things that I would like to do to Family Historian. These are just a few of the things in the pipeline. Is there anything really important that is missing from this list? Or anything included that doesn't deserve to be?
Other thoughts: has everyone found the User Manual (not to be confused with the printed Quick Start Tutorial)? Ultimately the User Manual (online document that you read using Acrobat Reader - preferably version 5.0 or later) is the most important source of information about how to use F.H.; so if you haven't looked at the User Manual yet, its well worth doing so.
This list is intended to be used for support queries; so please feel free to send them (remember to send your email to FAMILY-HISTORIAN-USERS-L@rootsweb.com); and please don't expect me to answer everyone's support queries because I don't intend to. If someone asks something and you know the answer, don't hesitate to reply; but please do so via the list, rather than emailing the person directly, so that everyone benefits.
Simon Orde List administrator and designer of Family Historian

[Guest]

Yes your initial list is still OK, for 2.1!
Reports; Web-ready; 'Ctl+H'; GEDCOM correction stuff; and Auto-completion, for those of us doing original data entry into FH.

This format of User Interaction is for me the lest time consuming...

Cheers Phil L

[zed]

Proposed enhancements certain whet the
appetite . One of my priorities
would be autosave. Yes, I know FH asks
if you want to save a file before
quitting but does that cover the
situation where Windows crashes?

[zed]

Ah! forgot to mention. How tiresome
would it be to have 2 versions of the
manual? I say this, 'cos I printed out
all pages - it sits on my desk when I
am using FH - but find that it many
instances it is too verbose!

What I envisage is one for those who
are unfamiliar with the Windows
environment and the other which would
exclude all the elementary Windows
instructions and get straight into the
'nuts and bolts' of what one is trying
to learn.

[wynpaul]

I have still not worked out how to record the source of information. EG I learned the name of a Great Grandfather from his sons wedding certificate, try as I might, having clicked on the scroll, I cannot get it recorded. How does one record the source as having come from the 1871 census.I have read the manuel and tried 'help' but the insruction might well have been written in ancient Greek.