* Reports Show [Person] when data is available

[edmacke]

I'm generating an "Ancestors By Generation" report. One of the people in the report has a death date and location filled in (under the Main tab), but the report generates placeholders for that person.

For example, Susie SMITH died on "Dec 18, 2010" in "Dallas, TX".

The report that's generated looks fine, except... the death information shows as "[person] died < [Date]>< [person:Age]>< [PlaceDetails]>< [Place]>. <desc>.

If it matters, this is a new project created from an imported RootsMagic7 GEDCOM file. However, there were no real problems with the import, and other people with death information show up fine in reports.

Question 1. Why is it doing this?

Question 2. Is there any report options that specify to not include missing information in this "placeholder" format?

[tatewise]

Welcome to the FHUG.
I have moved this to the FH General Usage Forum that is more appropriate.
The General Forum is for miscellaneous discussions nothing to do with FH.

Regarding your Report problem, I suspect the Sentence Template has been upset for that specific Death Event, probably by the import.

Open the Property Box for the offending person, but instead of the Main tab, open the Facts tab to view the details, and select the Died fact. The details of Date and Place will be shown below, along with the Sentence template/text.

My suspicion is that says [person] died < [Date]>< [person:Age]>< [PlaceDetails]>< [Place]>. <desc>. and is a sentence template inherited from RootsMagic7. If I am correct, then simply delete it all, and the default FH sentence will be restored.

Did you follow the advice in how_to:import_from_roots_magic|> Import from RootsMagic (RM) which gives recommended export settings for RM that might exclude such sentence templates, and some other things to check.

As a newcomer I suggest you study how_to:key_features_for_newcomers|> Key Features for Newcomers and follow up all its links.

[Jane]

You might find this query handy if you want to check for any more in your file.

If you want to get rid of them all you can just highlight the first column and press delete (after backing up of course).

Facts with Custom Sentences.fhq

(1.41 KiB) Downloaded 159 times

[tatewise]

As a newcomer you may not know how to create a Backup, and use the Query.

In FH use File > Backup/Restore > Small Backup to create a backup of the Gedcom file.

Click on the orange link in Jane's posting to download and install the Query into FH automatically.

In FH use View > Custom Queries > Facts with Custom Sentences to create the Result Set.
Select the entire Sentence column of cells (select first cell, hold down Shft key, and select last cell).
Finally, press the Delete key, or use Edit > Delete, and OK the warning message.

[edmacke]

Wow, very quick and helpful responses... thanks all!

That indeed was the problem. There was one person that had a custom sentence specified for that fact. When I deleted it, it immediately reverted back to the default sentence, which was correct.

I had seen some references to the ability to query but hadn't looked into yet. I ran the Custom Query and it worked great (confirmed there was only 1). I am a programmer by trade, so I think I'm going to love the ability to perform queries! I'm already thinking of all sorts of things I'd like to be able to find (I have like 15,000 people).

Thanks again, all!

[tatewise]

Glad that my suspicion was correct. Checkout the import RM advice and you may discover other anomalies.

If you love Queries wait until you discover Plugins (see the Plugin Store) and the many other customisation features!!!
e.g.
You can customise the Sentence Templates to produce fancy conditional text output.

Checkout the newcomer advice - FH is a programmer's playground.