Family Historian User Group

I am posting this here to get your reaction to my request before it goes to the wish list. I do not want to burden any of the CP staff with things that they shouldn't do, or can't do, or maybe this is just the craziest idea you have ever heard.

I have been trying to produce better flowing sentences in my narrative reports. In FH7 there is a (temporary) step backward when trying to use <para> and <br> at the beginning or the end of a sentence. This has been reported to CP and without any inside knowledge I fell 100% confident that this will be fixed.

While trying to find a workaround I started to really look at how I wanted to format my output. In some cases a <para> (word processor friendly) does the job nicely. In some cases I need to use a CR/LF <br> to get a new line without a word processor thinking that this is actually a new paragraph. I have some sentences that work great making a bulleted list by using the <br>, spaces, and a special bullet character.

While doing this I also realized that I can change a sentence in a fact type and that should apply to all users of that sentence but if I make a change to that sentence at the local fact then it becomes a standalone sentence and changes to the sentence at the fact level do not propagate to this modified sentence.

I have many events (not GEDCOM events) that I would like to string together as a single paragraph. A marriage event actually consists of multiple separate facts. The marriage event itself, a possible name change for one of the partners, and a residence fact that would describe where the couple will live. I would like the ability to have them all in a single paragraph.

I have several such occurrences where sometimes I want to lump facts into a single paragraph and others where I want the fact to be separate on the printed output. Changing the sentence structure for <para> and or <br> does not do what I want.

My suggestion is to add a feature to the personal edit screen. On the main tab we see two checkboxes for living and private. We can add our own checkboxes there as well. I would like to see these types of checkboxes added to the facts tab where I can select a <para> and or a <br> at the beginning of the facts output and two checkboxes to do the same function at the end of the output. This would allow me to customize the output in a narrative report without compromising my ability to make global change to a fact sentence.

For your information the <para> issue has been fixed in v7.0.1.1.

I have some sympathy for your view that <para> is not always required, but I think that is too ambitious. For Calico Pie I think it has to be one thing or the other. When I don't want it I amend the rtf in Word. For events like a marriage I put the all of the information in the note field for reporting purposes, that way you don't have to worry about <para> as it is under your control.

dewilkinson,

I am glad to hear that it is fixed. I have 7.0.0 and I just checked for updates but it said I was current. How did you get the update?

I was afraid that maybe my possible solution was too ambitious.

First, a little clarification.
The two check boxes for Living and Private flags you have customised onto the Main tab.
Those check boxes are not standard, and only apply to Record flags.

I don't understand how the Facts tab check boxes for <para> and <br> would work.
Are you saying that if none of them are ticked, then the global Fact Type Sentence Template <para> & <br> apply.
But if one or other is ticked then all those Sentence Template codes are ignored and every Fact gets the local setting.

I don't think the upgrade to 7.0.1.1 is on general release yet, probably because Calico Pie are working on some other aspects as well and would rather have one upgrade available. I was notified of it as I raised a ticket for the <para> issue, I suspect you won't have long to wait (I'm not sure that I can release the link I was sent).

Mike,

I understand about the checkboxes on the Main tab but I was just trying to illustrate what I was thinking.

On the other question I was thinking hat if the first <para> checkbox was checked that during the creation of the narrative that CP would just insert the appropriate control character at the very beginning of the output for that sentence using whatever sentence structure applied to that fact. The second set would insert the control character at the very end of that facts sentence. The global sentence would always work as it does today but for the insertion of the control character. This second set may not be needed as I could use the first set on the next fact to accomplish the same thing.

I cannot think of many situations in which I would want every sentence for all the facts on one Facts tab to start or end with <para> or <br>.

If you download FH7 from Calico Pie's website, 7.0.1.1 is the version that is now offered. Running the installer automatically detects the original version of FH7 and updates it.

It could be that CP have not automatically offered it as an update to the original version because they want to see if any new bugs are reported, as can sometimes happen when previously found bugs are fixed, and only offering it to new purchasers or those who had reported issues that they believe have been fixed is a way of limiting it's distribution, at least initially, in case new issues do arise.

Mike,

I thought I sent a response but it appears I did not.

I would like all the sentences for all the facts to work as defined by CP but I would like the option to have CP insert a control character in front of or behind the sentences that they complete based on the sentence templates.

Please refer to the program Family Historian (FH) and not to the developers Calico Pie (CP).

Yes, I think I understand what you want, but cannot imagine any circumstances where I'd want that to happen to every sentence for one person's narrative everywhere it appears in any type of Narrative report.