* Pre-release of version 6.1

[RogerF]

Prior to version 6, the most used location appeared first in auto completion. With version 6, it seems to be based on some kind of alphabetical preference. So, for example, I have around 300 'City Road Cemetery' instances but only one 'City Bus Corporation' but auto complete always picks the latter first. Does nobody know if this annoying niggle has been ironed out please?

No, this deeply annoying glitch is still unfixed. Like you, I waste hours every week having to correct auto-complete's unhelpful selection of place names.

[johnmorrisoniom]

I seem to got an annoying glitch since updating to 6.1 . The media filtering seems to be broken

See Screenshot below filtering for Malew keyword Baptism.

Capture.JPG (168.93 KiB) Viewed 10473 times

There also seems to be a similar problem with source filtering. Is anyone else experiencing this

Capture2.JPG (125.28 KiB) Viewed 10473 times

John

[tatewise]

Yes John, something very odd is happening to filtering.
Take the new Family Historian Sample Project and on Media tab enter Filter Title Carrington.
The list of three Media records includes Anthony Munro that does NOT have Carrington anywhere in the record.
Similarly, with Filter Title Munro the record Charlotte, Paula, Janet and Christopher is included.

[tatewise]

I do not understand how for companion products "FH now saves the last-used record id for each record type in the GEDCOM file". I can see the 1 _USED tag with a list of record id, but it never changes, whatever records are updated within FH. Does it mean record id last-used by the companion program?

[DavidNewton]

Yes John, something very odd is happening to filtering.
Take the new Family Historian Sample Project and on Media tab enter Filter Title Carrington.
The list of three Media records includes Anthony Munro that does NOT have Carrington anywhere in the record.
Similarly, with Filter Title Munro the record Charlotte, Paula, Janet and Christopher is included.

To add to the oddity this does not happen in the same way with my installation of FH6.1. The Carrington filter produces just two records both of which contain Carrington, however, the Munro filter does not include the Charlotte etc but does include Nigel & Susan Dowling which, as far as I can see, does not involve Munro.

David

[tatewise]

It may not matter David, but have you updated to the new File > Project Window > More Tasks > Samples > Reset Sample Project that comes with V6.1?

[johnmorrisoniom]

I have also tried with the sample project (After resetting it)
My use of Carrington also produces 3 records, but the odd one is Janet Record

[NickiP]

Has the field order in "New Source Record" window changed please?

I can't remember what the order was previously but there has been a change.
Under 'Numerous other enhancements and bug fixes' one of the items listed is The “New Source” dialog now has a dropdown list of Source Types.

Yes I'd noticed that. However, there is no autocomplete option with it so you would have to click the drop down menu to make use of the feature. As such, its not really that useful when trying to complete new Source Records quickly and you know what to enter.

I'm convinced that Type used to the 3rd field, so now I've got to remember to only tab down once instead of twice or I get the Type entered in the Short Title. Hence the confusion I had yesterday.

[tatewise]

Yes, the New Source Record dialog is a continuing disappointment.
Although it looks very similar to the Source record Property Box - Main tab, the fields lack most of the features. None of them have the [...] edit box, and Type does not auto-complete.

I cannot understand why it does not use the same blank Property Box dialog as when the Add > Source command is used.

The same general observation applies to other New... dialogues such as New Repository.

[LornaCraig]

Re the odd filtering behaviour:
With the Carrington filter I get only two records, both Carringtons.

But with the Munro filter I get ten results, four of which do not contain 'Munro'. These are:
Ian and Charlotte and family
Ian Wiley and family
James Reardon and Edna Cole
Midsomer Norton parish church

I have also tried entering Carrington or Munro in the Keyword field instead of the Title field for the search. Although the media all seem to have either the keyword 'Picture', or both 'Picture' and 'Monochrome', the Munro keyword filter produces 3 records, two of which have nothing to do with Munro, while the Carrington keyword filter produces 1 record (marriage of Ian Munro and C Carrington).

Edit: I tried all the above again two days later and got different (but still wrong) results! I had not done anything with the Sample Project between the two tests.

[tatewise]

Another few odd ones for the Media Filter:

Keyword: Marriage Certificate - Ian Munro and C. Carrington.png or any trailing whole words of that
Record match: Marriage Certificate - Ian Munro and C. Carrington
i.e. It is matching the File parameter

Keyword: jpg
Record matches: Most (but not all) records whose file type is jpg including the one whose Format is tiff.
( Similarly for tif and png but oddly NOT gif ? ? ? )

Title: jpg
Record matches: Nigel and Susan Dowling

And for Sources Filter:

Title: Certificate
Record matches: All the Certificate ones, plus Parish Records: All Saints, Bristol Parish Register, Passport: Anthony Munro, and Verbal Interview: Charlotte Carrington.

[tatewise]

I may be missing something, but I fail to see what has really been gained by allowing the Principal of a Fact to also be a Witness, apart from now not needing to include principal in the <with {other=principal,resident}> part of the Witness Sentence Template.

BUT, since only the Sentence Template of the Principal is applied, codes such as {role name} and {%CUR_WITN.ROLE%} cannot be used. This poses problems when there is more than one Witness Role.

So, in cases similar to the Residence example, it would be better if the Witness Sentence Template could override the Principal Sentence Template, especially if in addition to the Resident Role there was also say a Landlord Role and the Principal could have both Roles.

However, in cases such as the Marriage Event the Principal Sentence Template must override the Witness Sentence Template, where say the Groom was also a Photographer at his own wedding.

Might it be possible to allow say {blank} in the Principal Sentence Template to let the Witness Sentence Template take over?

[DavidNewton]

It may not matter David, but have you updated to the new File > Project Window > More Tasks > Samples > Reset Sample Project that comes with V6.1?

I have to say I assumed that would be done by the installation. So now I have reset the sample project and the two example filters mentioned both seem to be working correctly but some of the other suggestions made are producing odd results.

I usually work with the Media Gallery when I am adding media, mainly because of the simplicity of viewing images in my default viewer, As such I have almost always used the Find>Search Text to filter media. As far as I can tell this still works OK, but no guarantees!

David

[tatewise]

Minor issues with new =Sex() function.

The Upgrade to Version 6.1 under Numerous enhancements (and bug fixes) for power-users it says:
"The male text is used if no text is specified for people of unknown sex."

Whereas, the FH Help page says for Parameter 4 what actually happens:
"Optional text to return if Individual's sex is not known. Default if not supplied is blank."

I think I would prefer the default if not supplied to be "unknown".

Also in the Examples there is a string quote missing from , child")

[tatewise]

I am doubtfull whether the Tools > Preferences > File Load/Save > Save in UTF-8 file format option is beneficial and may be misleading.

Experts understand that changing between UTF-16 and UTF-8 makes no difference to the data structures and that different GEDCOM dialects used by different products will still prevent the transfer of some data & media, so a Plugin such as Export Gedcom File is needed to improve the transfer.

Novices may assume that if another product does NOT accept UTF-16 but does accept UTF-8 then all their GEDCOM data transfer problems have been resolved, and will not realise that a Plugin such as Export Gedcom File is needed. So they will be dismayed when data or media are missing from the other product.

[NickWalker]

I wonder why UTF-8 hasn't been made the new default format as it would at least remove one compatibility hurdle and also reduce file sizes.

[tatewise]

Nick, as I explained, removing that tiny compatibility hurdle does not help much, because it is the GEDCOM dialects that are the real hurdle, such as Custom Attributes (_ATTR), Fact Witnesses (_SHAR), Place Records (_PLAC), Media Face Frames (_AREA), and all the other custom tags in glossary:gedcom_extension_list|> GEDCOM Extension List, not to mention the way other products mishandle GEDCOM.

Removing that hurdle only lulls novices into thinking that all their compatibility issues have been resolved.

Reduced GEDCOM size is also of little benefit given current disk sizes. A very large 100,000 Individual database reduces in size by only about 40MB, or about the size of roughly 40 Media JPEG files.

[jimlad68]

I'm a bit confused Mike/ Nick.

Is all the same data stored in a UTF-8 file, or would some strange language characters potentially be missing?

I appreciate Mike's point about the GEDCOM Extension List, and wholeheartedly agree with the portability aspects, but if there is no data change in the original FH file, what is the point of UTF-16, other than possible future compatibility/ standards etc. I suspect Simon has introduced the UTF-8 for users who may not use FHUG and plugins and perhaps feels it creates a "standard" FH way of exporting data, which must be good for the product, and as much as I or anyone else might feel that FH is limited without plugins.

[tatewise]

Jim, UTF-16 and UTF-8 are simply two alternative ways of encoding the same UNICODE characters, and have absolutely no impact on the GEDCOM tag structure. No language characters are affected.
e.g.
UTF-16 letter A is encoded as 16-bit number 0065 and all other characters use 16-bit numbers.
UTF-8 letter A is encoded as 8-bit number 65 but other characters (mainly those with accents or for Asian languages) need two or more 8-bit numbers.

UTF-16 is the GEDCOM standard encoding for UNICODE whereas UTF-8 is not. Both encodings have been defined for decades. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unicode.

See the File > Import/Export > Export > GEDCOM File > Format: > More format options... > Help for full details.

But as I have repeatedly said, UTF-8 simply fools users into thinking they have resolved their GEDCOM transfer problems when they have not. It just gets them past the character encoding hurdle, but none of the others. Although it makes their GEDCOM file smaller, it takes longer to load and save, but that impact is small except on very large files.

[jimlad68]

Right, so UTF-16 seems to be the "ideal" structure/standard (not just for Gedcom), but in practice many people use an "interim" UTF-8, presumably because it uses less space and fulfills their requirements. So FH is caught between using the Gedcom standard UTF-16 or the more widely used nonstandard UTF-8. So the option for FH to have both is nice to have.

I fully appreciate your argument re "UTF-8 simply fools users", but unless FH integrated the features of your export gedcom plugin, the UTF-8 option must surely be a good thing. However, if UTF-16 is the Gedcom standard, I suppose FH should support it as its main structure, but in practice using UTF-8 as default save might be the more practical option "in the grand scheme of the current real world scenario".

So, the question for FH users is, what is the downside to using UTF-8 as default, does it load slower to FH for instance? The main upside I can see is that file sizes would be smaller and possibly easier compatibility with other programs, accepting that the Gedcom export plugin is usually by far the best way to exchange Gedcom data from FH.

[AdrianBruce]

... But as I have repeatedly said, UTF-8 simply fools users into thinking they have resolved their GEDCOM transfer problems when they have not. ...

Not sure I agree with you, Mike. The problem is that the diagnostic message tends to say that the file is not a correct GEDCOM format - people just believe this and off goes a posting to another list saying that FH's claim to GEDCOM compatibility is just a con trick. Virtually no-one outside the FH list and UG board will realise the real issue.

Although I have to admit that people in that situation are perhaps unlikely to know to switch to UTF-8 in the first place.

[tatewise]

Exactly my point Adrian.
Experts know about UNICODE and GEDCOM and what options are available.
Novices faced with a product that does not accept the FH GEDCOM probably have no idea what workarounds are possible. In the same way they need help adjusting GEDCOM imported to FH from elsewhere.

The File > Import/Export > Export > GEDCOM File command has always had the option to use many character encodings, but have any novices thought to use it to overcome problems transferring a GEDCOM to another product?

Jim, the issues of file size and save/load time are covered in the earlier postings.

BTW: UTF-8 is not an 'interim' standard, because it has many useful features for bridging from say ASCII/ANSI to UNICODE. i.e. The first 127 character codes are the same in UTF-8 and ASCII/ANSI. UTF-8 was simply overlooked in the GEDCOM spec for using UNICODE.

[NickWalker]

Nick, as I explained...

Yes but I think you're wrong. We've always had the issue on this site of helping people to transfer their data to other applications for all versions up to FH v5 but since version 6 this has been even more problematic because of the use of UTF-16. UTF-8 is the standard most applications (of all types not specifically genealogy) use for Unicode so I still don't really see any benefit to FH using UTF-16 as the default.

[johnmorrisoniom]

The update to 6.1 has re-enabled the My Heritage hints without asking (I had disabled it). Surely the installer should offer the same option as a clean install.?

[NickiP]

The update to 6.1 has re-enabled the My Heritage hints without asking (I had disabled it). Surely the installer should offer the same option as a clean install.?

Strange, I disabled My Heritage on the original installation and it hasn't been re-enabled when I upgrade to v6.1 as I've checked it.