* Sources and citation in fh7

[E Wilcock]

Please could someone help me with source and citation entry. If It cannot be sorted out for my old brain I will need to revert to fh6. If necessary I will pay for help from Mike or Jane.

I have just found a new 1851 census entry for one of my husband's family.
I enter the Event and then choose my 1851 census (general source)
The source panes that show up have a heading for the citation specific info but I cannot open it up so I can edit it or add the census entry details.

[ColeValleyGirl]

Hi, Evelyn.

Can I double check the sequence of actions you're taking?

1. Open the Property box for the Individual in question and then the Facts tab.
2. Add the Fact using the Add Fact button.
3. Click on Add Citation at the bottom of the Sources for Pane.
4. Choose Cite Existing Source and select your 1851 census source
5. The Citation Window opens with the Source details at the top and the Citation-specific details at the bottom.
6. At this point you ought to be able to edit the citation-specific details -- is this where you're having problems?

[tatewise]

After the 6 steps that Helen describes the Citation Window should look something like the illustration below.

If you cannot see all the Citation-specific Details then make the window larger by dragging its edges &/or drag the separator up (circled in blue below).

Note the tabs across the top (circled in red) that provide access to Text From Source, Notes & Media for both Source Record and Citation-specific deatils.

Are you missing some of the Citation-specific Details boxes (circled in green) that I've added via the cog Menu > Customize Citation Window and can explain if necessary.

CitationWindow.png (38.71 KiB) Viewed 3193 times

[E Wilcock]

I am getting the pane as shown above (last image)
And the citation-specific pane is there and the two little dotted lines. However, I cant separate those lines and the yellow space offered for citation is not editable. I could try to get you a snipped image if that would help.

[ColeValleyGirl]

An image would be really helpful -- thank you. Do you need help getting it?

[E Wilcock]

fh source 3 March.PNG (32.75 KiB) Viewed 3166 times

[ColeValleyGirl]

OK.

It looks as if you need to customise the window to include the citation details.

• Click on the Cog icon and then customise Citation Window.
• You'll get a window with two panes: Available items and Selected items.
• Under Available items are a number of fields starting Citation Details:
• Select each one of those that you want to make visible in turn, and click the > button to add it to the selected Items pane.
• Use the curly up and down icons underneath Selected Icons to order the items you've selected.
• Click OK when you're happy with your selections.

[tatewise]

Helen's technique will work but I think there is a shortcut. It seems your customisation has got upset.

Click on the cog icon Menu and then Customize Citation Window.
Click the Restore Defaults button bottom left, choose Yes in the popup, and then click OK.

If that does not give you all the fields you want then Helen's technique offers more options.

[ColeValleyGirl]

As Mike says, Restore Defaults it the fastest way to get back to default settings, but there may be citation fields you never use, in which case my technique will allow you to remove them.

[E Wilcock]

Thank you both.
That looks to have fixed it.
I did indeed try both the suggested solutions. Being simple, it is useful to go back to the default.
I also then tried a dummy census entry creating a new (dummy) citation and it is all clear.
Since I have been floundering with fh7 sources since last December, I am very grateful.

[E Wilcock]

I am sorry to ask you for further help over this. I have at last been using fh 7 more easilly thanks to your help today.
I need an author field in the citation. May be not clever of me but I have a general source for a Family Tree published by a user on ancestry and when I cite a tree, I put the user name in the author field of the citation.

I have been tring to do this but fh7 doesnt seem to offer an author field in a citation?
I can see the logic of this as a census or a book has one author. Though not always when articles in a book are by different authors.

[LornaCraig]

Would you be able to use the Where within Source field for the name of the name of the tree owner?

[E Wilcock]

Yes Lorna, I can, and I have done that in the past.
But why have they devised a complex source and citations system where one cant cite an author?

[AdrianBruce]

They haven't devised it - it's always been the case in FH 6 and earlier that the only "slot" for an Author is in the Source Record - there's been nothing in the Citation items that's explicitly for Author - that's all taken from the GEDCOM specification. I suspect that's why Lorna was discussing using the "Where within Source" for that information. For example, Where within Source = "Fred Bloggs' Wonderful Family Tree v3". Perhaps naughty but I won't tell....

I imagine that it would be possible to develop a Source Template in v7 to do what you want (to cite the Author in the Citation rather than the Source Record)
but whether you want to go there is another matter.

[LornaCraig]

As Adrian says, it's a limitation of the Gedcom structure, not a limitation imposed by FH. And it is not a new limitation in V7.

For the majority of source types the Author field, if it is applicable at all, applies to the whole Source. The example you gave where articles in a book have different authors might seem like an exception, but I think that is a case where it would be appropriate to use the Where Within Source field of the citation. It would contain the Article title and author's name, and perhaps the page number. The Author field in the Source record itself could contain the name(s) of the person who edited the collection of articles.

[E Wilcock]

Thank you, I appreciate those replies. All the new fields were daunting. But it is reasuring to know my intuitive habits are still pretty much OK.