* Custom fact name not accepting hyphen

[Dave41]

When attempting to create a 'Co-residence' fact I get the standard warning about Fact names only containing alpha-numeric characters...

I have a couple of Co-residence facts created in an earlier version and these still appear on the Facts tab of the Property Box, but I'm unable to create any new ones in V6.

[tatewise]

Dave, I don't quite understand exactly where you are experiencing the problem.

I also have a Co-residence Family Attribute inherited from early versions.
There is no problem using the Add Fact button on Facts tab of Property Box to add a Co-residence Fact selected via More Fact Types... and the Fact Types window.

If you are talking about using Tools > Fact Types to create a New... Fact, that should not be necessary because the Custom Fact definition should have also been inherited from earlier version.

However, if you need to redefine a New... Fact with a hyphen, then initially create it with only alphanumerics in its Name, but in the Label and Abbreviation you can use whatever characters you like, and those are what get displayed. The Name is only used to define the underlying Gedcom tag which must be alphanumeric.

[Dave41]

Mike

I had a complete misunderstanding of how Facts work, and as usual your explanation was excellent, and I now understand that I can create a New Fact using alpha-numerics, but put the hyphenated name in the Label.

However, I'm still confused as to why I would have to do this in V6 when V5 allowed a hyphenated Fact Name?

For example Chapter 6 in the book 'Getting the Most from FH5' uses a tutorial which creates a New Fact of Co-residence. This doesn't seem possible in V6.

It's not a big deal, but I'm just curious.

[tatewise]

Dave, it is not entirely clear to me why FH V6 has changed, but I think the reasoning is as follows.

I suspect FH has just tightened the rules on creating Custom Facts, which may have had underlying problems in the past.
When a Custom Fact is created a Gedcom Tag is created that MUST be alphanumeric.
So in the past, FH would discard non-alphanumerics from the Name to create the Tag.
e.g. Name: Co-residence Tag: CORESIDENCE

Creating a Custom Fact with a different but similar Name such as Co+residence, would have various side effects.
If it was in same Fact Set as other similar Name, then FH would complain and say it is not allowed as the Tags clash.
But if in a different Fact Set, FH would allow it, but the other similar Fact would be eclipsed/hidden, and all those similar old Facts would be adopted by the new Custom Fact.

Now with FH V6, such Name conflicts are possibly less likely.