* Witnesses in Diagrams

[Wilfreda99]

Up until V6 I recorded witnesses in Notes in marriages, and created Events - witness, best man, etc -for those individuals carrying out these roles. These were then visible in the Diagram I usually use - 'All Events and Attributes, and Notes' (or my customised version).

I have been going through these and inputting them via the new Witness box and then I have deleted the previous Marriage Note about the witness, and the Event against the individual acting as witness. But they don't appear now in the diagrams, neither for the happy couple nor for the witnesses. Is it possible to make them appear or should I revert to my previous method? If it is possible I would also like any local note against each witness appear, rather than (or as well as?) the overall one about the wedding.

I haven't had to change many so it's not a big deal but will obviously mean that I won't be able to use the new function when I add new records. I know they appear in narrative reports but I rarely use these, I find diagrams much more user friendly.

Hope that makes sense, my fingers are frozen and it is difficult to think straight, I might even break the habit of a lifetime and switch the heating on early!

[tatewise]

I will double-check but I don't think the Witnesses can have the Events they witness listed in their Diagram Box.

It should be possible to list the Witnesses to an Event and their local Note in the principle persons Diagram Box.

I can give details if required.

[Wilfreda99]

Yes please, I tried to work it out for myself, but couldn't.
I saw your other post about witnesses in diagrams, thank you for taking this further for me.

I await a possible solution.

[tatewise]

I presume you know how to Edit your custom Text Scheme Items.

The item Template for various cases would be similar to the following.
For each Witness there is a Label, their Name, their Role, and the local Note.
Note how the [1+] looping index ensures all Witnesses are listed.

For Individual Events such as Birth or Death:
Birth Witness: %INDI.BIRT._SHAR[1+]% %INDI.BIRT._SHAR[1+].ROLE% %INDI.BIRT._SHAR[1+].NOTE2%

For Family Events such as Marriage or Divorce:
Marr. Witness: %CUR_FAMS>MARR._SHAR[1+]% %CUR_FAMS>MARR._SHAR[1+].ROLE% %CUR_FAMS>MARR._SHAR[1+].NOTE2%

If you have Name Only Witnesses then use _SHAN instead of _SHAR in a Cloned Template.

[Wilfreda99]

Ian Munro birth witnesses sentences 11 02 15.jpg (228.57 KiB) Viewed 6542 times

Ian Munro birth all witnesses 11 02 15.jpg (196.86 KiB) Viewed 6542 times

Hello,
I first added your sentence to the end of the 'birth' but the result was rather messy, so I then added a second 'birth' event and entered your sentence there instead of the original one, see screen shot 'birth witness sentences'.
This works well except:
1) The third witness doesn't appear, see screen shot 'all witnesses'. The missing person has a different role, but I don't know if this is the reason.
2) There is a rogue "in (7 Effingham Road)" which appears before the 2nd witness but I don't know why.

I think that when I added the witness sentence to the end of the birth one, all the witnesses appeared but also "in (7 Effingham Road)" followed all of them, as well as in the expected place.

Any further advice would be much appreciated.

[tatewise]

Yes, I did intend that you added a new Item Template for the Witnesses.
It probably would not work at all well appended to the Birth Item Template.

2) The reason for the rogue "in (7 Effingham Road)" is that you've omitted the [1+] looping index from %INDI.BIRT.ADDR% in the Birth Item Template.

1) The 2) problem is probably the cause of the 3rd Witness being obscured.

May I congratulate you on incuding all the relevent details.
It makes diagnosing the problems so much easier than guesswork.

[Wilfreda99]

Did you mean like this?
=ExistsText(%INDI.BIRT[1+]%,"Born:") %INDI.BIRT[1+].DATE:COMPACT% in %INDI.BIRT[1+].PLAC:TIDY% (%INDI.BIRT[1+].ADDR%).

It seems to have done away with the extra address items as desired, but also the 2 other witnesses. I have checked that I haven't inadvertantly also changed the Birth Witness sentence.

Just for the .... of it I reverted to my original sentence, though includeding the [1+] as advised.

=ExistsText(%INDI.BIRT[1+]%,"Born:") %INDI.BIRT[1+].DATE:COMPACT% in %INDI.BIRT[1+].PLAC:TIDY% (%INDI.BIRT[1+].ADDR%). Birth Witness: %INDI.BIRT._SHAR[1+]% - %INDI.BIRT._SHAR[1+].ROLE%. %INDI.BIRT._SHAR[1+].NOTE2%
Ian Munro combined birth and witness sentence 11 02 15.jpg[/attachment]

It has done away with the extra address as above, but included the brackets of the address and the second and third witnesses are in twice.

One of these days I shall understand what I am doing rather than blindly following instructions - or trying to!
My brain aches so I am off to make the tea!
Cheers.

Ian Munro amended sentence 11 02 15.jpg (26.95 KiB) Viewed 6518 times

[tatewise]

Keep the Birth and Witnesses in completely separate Item Templates, otherwise the [1+] looping index confuses things, because one is looping on Birth Events, and the other is looping on Witnesses for the 1st Birth only.

I don't understand why so many users are intent on using [1+] looping index where not needed.
Unless you regularly create multiple Birth Events there is nothing to loop on, so drop the [1+] from BIRT tags.

Keep the [1+] on the _SHAR tags to loop on the multiple Witnesses.

[tatewise]

So to spell it out explicitly...

(1) Individual Birth item Templates

Use the default template Date & Place plus (Address) to display 1st Birth Event.
Template: Born: %INDI.BIRT.DATE:COMPACT% in %INDI.BIRT.PLAC:TIDY% (%INDI.BIRT.ADDR%)

But if you insist on needing [1+] looping index use.
Template: Born: %INDI.BIRT[1+].DATE:COMPACT% in %INDI.BIRT[1+].PLAC:TIDY% (%INDI.BIRT[1+].ADDR%)

A looping index is useful on facts such as Census and Occupation that do often repeat.
Template: Census: %INDI.CENS[1+].DATE:COMPACT% in %INDI.CENS[1+].PLAC:TIDY% (%INDI.CENS[1+].ADDR%)

An initial label such as Born: is only displayed if subsequent expressions display anything.
So =ExistsText(%INDI.BIRT%,"Born:") is unnecessarily complex to do the same thing.

(2) Individual Witness item Templates

Use the looping template to list all Witnesses for 1st Birth Event.
Template: Birth Witness: %INDI.BIRT._SHAR[1+]% - %INDI.BIRT._SHAR[1+].ROLE%. %INDI.BIRT._SHAR[1+].NOTE2%

It is NOT currently possible to have one Template that will loop through all Birth Events listing all Witnesses, so you would need to add separate templates with Birth index [2], and [3], and so on.
Template: Birth Witness: %INDI.BIRT[2]._SHAR[1+]% - %INDI.BIRT[2]._SHAR[1+].ROLE%. %INDI.BIRT[2]._SHAR[1+].NOTE2%

(3) Family item Witness item Templates

These are a little different for Family events such as Marriage and Divorce.
Template: Marr. Witness: %CUR_FAMS>MARR._SHAR[1+]% - %CUR_FAMS>MARR._SHAR[1+].ROLE%. %CUR_FAMS>MARR._SHAR[1+].NOTE2%

[Wilfreda99]

Sorry not to have got back to you earlier, I have been very busy the last week.

Thank you very much for spelling out exactly what I had to do, I followed your instructions to the letter and it all works exactly as I wanted.