Family Historian User Group

I sometimes use record flags in diagrams to show, for example, which census returns I have recorded for which individuals and I use icons below each box to illustrate this. Although I have added record flag as a condition (in Diagram options) and have chosen an icon for each census year, the icons are showing for some people but not for others. The census data has been entered using Ancestral Sources. I have discovered that if I select an individual and edit record flags that I can manually set a flag, but I'm sure that in the past I've been able to set flags for an entire diagram by adding the record flag as a condition. I cannot work out what I am doing wrong and why the flags appear for some people and not for others. I've checked the Census Flag Settings in Ancestral Sources and performed the Census Date Check and Census Flag Check in AS too but there's obviously something I'm missing. Can anyone help please?

The first thing to get clear is that Flags and Icons are two different entities.
Flags are only attached to Individual records, and are added manually, or by AS.
Icons are only attached to Diagram Boxes, and are added by Box Conditions created manually.
For an Icon for a particular Census year to appear it must have a Box Condition for the appropriate census Flag.
So if you have 8 Census record years, there will be 8 Flags, 8 Icons, and 8 Box Condition Flag tabs that pair them up.

If an Individual is born after, or died before, a Census year then they won't have a Flag for that Census, and thus no Icon.
The AS checks you performed should ensure all Flags are correct, but Flags will also be omitted from Individuals for whom you have not entered Census data.

However, having said all that, using Flags is a rather outdated and unreliable method of adding Diagram Icons.
The modern method is to use Box Condition Expressions. Each Expression tests for the existence of a Census Event for a particular year with (if you wish) a Source Citation for that Census. The benefit is that the Expression driven Icons always automatically reflect your database condition directly without manual intervention. Whereas the Flags indirectly signal the database condition and require manual adjustment from time to time.

See how_to:using_flags_and_icons_and_expressions|> Using Flags and Icons and Expressions for full details.

Many thanks for your help Mike. I am now using the Box Condition Expressions and the icons are displaying correctly.

Excellent!
So now you can delete all those redundant Census Flags, get rid of the Box Flag Conditions, and never worry about AS Census Flag Checks again.

The same technique can be applied to BMD Certificated Sources.