* Sentence construction

[Rusty]

How can I change the Degree fact to read "He received a degree in economics in 1993 at the University of Hertfordshire"? I've inserted the first 'in' between degree and economics but I can't see how to change the second 'in' to 'at', saying that the degree was received 'in' the University of Hertfordshire doesn't sound right.
Any help out there please?

[dewilkinson]

I did this by creating a Custom Fact called Qualification and used the coctruct <para><On {%FACT.DATE:DAY_OF_WEEK%}>< {date}>< at {_place}> {%CUR_PRIN.NAME[1]:FIRST%} received {his/her}< {note}>. I enter the actual qualification in the Note field, say 1st Class Honours Degree in Nuclear Physics.

{_place} has no prefix, {place} automatically inserts in. In the above <> means the content will only appear if a Place has been entered.

Hope that helps.

[LornaCraig]

'Degree' is not a standard fact so I assume you have either created it as a custom fact or imported it from another program. It would help to know what your existing sentence template is, but:

If "the University of Hertfordshire" is recorded in the Place field, you can use <at {_place}> in your sentence template. The underscore before place means the place will appear without the default 'in' prefix. The angle brackets round the outside mean that the "at" won't appear if there is no place recorded.

If "the University of Hertfordshire" is recorded in the address field, use <at {address}> (no underscore needed).

(Edit: dewilkinson just beat me to it!)

[AdrianBruce]

Just as an extra, sometimes I find that the decision as to whether to use and existing fact type for some data, or create a new one, is driven by considering the "at" / "in" aspect. (People who don't use narrative sentences will not care! ) Sometimes sentences work with "in", and sometimes they don't.

A not dissimilar thing is whether I need to put "the" as the initial part of the attribute value - if I'm using a military type fact, the generated sentence "He was in 633 Squadron" works (value = "633 Squadron") but "He was in Cheshire Regiment" doesn't work - I have to visually check the generated sentence and remind myself to make the value "the Cheshire Regiment" in order to generate "He was in the Cheshire Regiment". (Italics purely for emphasis)

[Rusty]

Thank you everyone, a bit of thinking for me to do.

Lorna, the Degree fact is amongst the 'Hidden' fact types, I don't think that I have ever used it before, my earlier generations of ag labs and miners didn't go much on education! {individual} received a degree {value} {date} {place} {age} is the template that it uses.

Lorna, I've just substituted your suggestion of <at {_place}> instead of just {place} and it works fine. Thank you.

[LornaCraig]

Ah, yes I didn't look at the hidden fact types. The Degree fact is in the Extended Set which is not from the standard Gedcom specification but comes installed with FH "primarily for compatibility with some other genealogy programs (when importing data from those programs).... However, they are available for use at any time, if required."

I'm glad you now have the template it set up as you want it.