* Property Box - showing sources

[arthurk]

I'm currently using the trial version of FH as a possible replacement for RootsMagic. There's a feature which RM has (and some other programs do too) that I haven't so far found in FH, and I'm wondering if I've missed something.

In these other programs, where a person's facts/events are listed in the equivalent of the Facts tab of FH's Property Box, there's a small symbol to show which ones have sources attached - the same kind of thing as I can see in the More column for notes, media etc.

Does FH have anything similar, without having to display the Source Box? - though even with the Source Box, you can only see one fact/event at once. It's quite useful to be able to scan the list of all of a person's facts and see instantly which ones do and don't have sources - or is there some other way in FH to see this kind of list?

Thanks,

Arthur

[tatewise]

You suggestion for an additional More column to numerate Source Citations is a nice idea, but Source Citations can be linked to a lot more than just Facts, and the yellow Sources pane does identify them all.

Click on the Sources box at the top, and the drop-down lists all items that could have Source Citations and marks those that do with an asterisk (*).

For just Facts, another approach is to use a Query based on the View > Standard Queries > All Facts.
This can be customised to include Source Citations and filtered by Fact Owner if required.
See fhugdownloads:queriesfact|> Downloads and Links ~ Query Type: Fact for examples.
A custom Plugin could provide an even more comprehensive report of whatever you want.
See the Sources List for Individual Plugin for example.

However, my impression is that users are usually more focussed than just reviewing the Facts of one person.
They are often looking at a particular Census Year and Place, or the Parish Records for a particular era and Church.

[arthurk]

Thanks for the reply:

You suggestion for an additional More column to numerate Source Citations is a nice idea, but Source Citations can be linked to a lot more than just Facts, and the yellow Sources pane does identify them all.

Click on the Sources box at the top, and the drop-down lists all items that could have Source Citations and marks those that do with an asterisk (*).

Fair comment - I'd overlooked this.

For just Facts, another approach is to use a Query based on the View > Standard Queries > All Facts.
This can be customised to include Source Citations and filtered by Fact Owner if required.
See fhugdownloads:queriesfact|> Downloads and Links ~ Query Type: Fact for examples.

That's pretty impressive. I wasn't quite sure if/how it showed events with more than one source, but for picking out the ones without any it looked very useful - and in contrast to what I initially asked about, you can scan through lots of people at once.

A custom Plugin could provide an even more comprehensive report of whatever you want.
See the Sources List for Individual Plugin for example.

As a trial user I can't explore that, but if/when I pay up I'd certainly take a look at it.

Thanks again,

Arthur

[DavidNewton]

I know this is an old thread but I would like to share a method I use which essentially copies the * marking in the sources drop down list for the individuals fact list.

The following 'kludge' achieves this by using a source tag, which I never use, namely the 'Agency Responsible'. If that doesn't work for you choose another unused tag.

In the Fact Type definitions add the following code {%FACT.SOUR>DATA.AGNC%} to the front of the Override Template for Facts tab listings and populate these source tags with '*'.

To make this work it is necessary to add the asterisks into every source record. But a simple plugin, below, does that. I found it more arduous to change the fact type templates but at least that is a one-off task.

Code: Select all

ps=fhNewItemPtr()
psa=fhNewItemPtr()

ps:MoveToFirstRecord('SOUR')
while ps:IsNotNull() do
	psa:MoveTo(ps,'~.DATA.AGNC')
	if psa:IsNull() then psa=fhCreateItem('DATA',ps) psa=fhCreateItem('AGNC', psa) end
	fhSetValueAsText(psa,'*')
ps:MoveNext()
end

David

[tatewise]

That is a neat concept David, but can be achieved without a Plugin to change any data.

In the Advanced Template use {=ExistsText( %FACT.SOUR%, "* " )}{abbr} {place} for Events.

Alternatively Attributes will need {=ExistsText( %FACT.SOUR%, "* " )}{abbr} {value}.

However, we can go a bit further and indicate how many Source Citations there are:

{=TextIf( Exists( %FACT.SOUR[3]% ), "*3 ", TextIf( Exists( %FACT.SOUR[2]% ), "*2 ", TextIf( Exists( %FACT.SOUR[1]% ), "*1 ", "- " ) ) )}

That works for up to 3 Citations, but could be extended for more, or "*3 " could be replace by ">2 " to indicate more than 2.

[DavidNewton]

Thanks Mike.

My knowledge of the functions '=etc' is close to nil so it is good to see them in action.

David