* Searching for family members with accent marks in name

[cjdenbow]

I'm a refugee from TMG. I have a lot of family members on my mother's side (Icelandic) that have all kinds of accent marks in their names. In TMG I was able to do a search for them without entering the accent marks, which was quite handy. For instance I could search for "Jón Björnson" by typing "Bjornson, Jon." Is there a way to do this in FH? Perhaps a plugin? Thanks for any help you can give me. If this is not possible now, perhaps I should put it on the "wish list" for a future enhancement. Thanks for any help you can give me. -- Carl

[Jane]

It's not possible on the main filter.

The search all possible names plugin has a Soundex option, which although not ideal might work.

I suspect it would also be possible to adjust the plugin to search ignoring accent characters. If I can think of a way to easily find the "root" letter.

https://pluginstore.family-historian.co ... ible-names

[cjdenbow]

Thanks, Jane. That does work. I was able to find both surname searches and full name searches (both first and last names) with that plugin using Soundex. It's one extra step, but it's easier than typing all the accent and other marks when using a Windows keyboard. Those kinds of things are very easy in the Mac OS, but unfortunately not in Windows. Maybe Win11? I think I'll add this to the wishlist, but one user told me that it was easier in TMG because didn't use UTF-8, which FH does. -- Carl

[tatewise]

Carl, I presume you are using the Records Window search Filter top left.
Have you tried using the standard method of entering accented characters in FH?
i.e. To get ö hold down the letter o and a popup will let you choose from ô œ ö
If any accent characters you need are missing then use the cog option to update the lists.

[davidf]

... plugin easier than typing all the accent and other marks when using a Windows keyboard. Those kinds of things are very easy in the Mac OS, but unfortunately not in Windows.

Carl

Have you found the FH accented letter functionality for (moderately) quick entry of accented characters? For instance in FH6 (I would be amazed if it's not similarly in FH7) to type an e with an accent, type e and hold down the key - this brings up a pop-up of accented variations of "e" to select. Click on the gearwheel in the pop-up and you can find a way to customise it and install additional accent sets (Icelandic included).

If it does not work in a specific field report it as a bug!

David

[Jane]

FYI I think I have worked out a way of doing this. In FH7 at least.

[Jane]

The attached script will search after converting accented letters to plain ones, however some letters are converted to two letters. It's easy to adjust this by editing the table at the bottom of the plugin to change the conversions.

It's not perfect and occasionally throws errors when run down in the UTF-8 module. I suspect a memory leak of some kind. So I don't intend putting it in the pluginstore.

I don't recommend running it in the editor, as it is extremely slow, but it's not too bad when run directly.