Family Historian User Group

I have a few days left on my evaluation version.

A couple media-related questions:

#1 Frame Link vs media link:
My imported data has many people already linked to media.
It does not have the frame links FH7 allows you to add: those identify a particular face in a media image to the person via a rectangle drawn around a person's face.
But if I try to add the frame link, because of my existing media links, I get a warning:
"You already have a link to this Media record. Proceed anyway?"
Did not OK that: not sure what that would do.
Can you not add a frame link to ID a person within a photograph if the media is already linked to that person (without the frame link)?
Also, is this info exportable in any way? I am guessing it is only viewable directly within the app, although I could think of some clever ways you could export that info in a report via graphic markups, not to mention using some simplified processing logic to generate a person list caption (L to R: person1, person2, etc.).

#2 Open PDF
I have many PDF media (also other non-image media, like audio files).
There does not seem to be a way to open these from the app...REALLY?
Hoping someone can explain an easy way to do that.
For images, I just double click from the media thumbnail view and I can open it for viewing within FH7.
If it is a filetype not supported by FH7, why wouldn't it let me launch the default system viewer associated to the filetype?
I did find one thing, and I think this would be acceptable, just wondering if there is anything else/better: in the media record shown when the media is double clicked, you do get a "Location:" line with a hyperlink that will show the file in the Windows Explorer. I can live with that, but ideally directly opening without the extra step of going to the explorer would be nice.

-Strathglass

#1:
Yes, you can opt to “Proceed anyway” and add a frame link to a individual if the media is already linked to them.
Frame links can appear in FH-generated reports and you can take advantage of the ability to use different captions for the two links if they are included in reports. Either in the Links tab of the main Media Window or the small Edit Media Item dialog you can enter text in the Link Note field and tick the option to Use Link Note as Caption. (Be aware that the Link Note field is not the same as the main Picture Note field).

#2:
File types which cannot be opened in FH itself can be opened by clicking the icon shown below, in the toolbar of the Media tab of the Property box. The same icon can be found at the extreme right hand end of the Media Window toolbar.

#1:
You're adding the Face Frame Link via the Media Window and selecting the lefthand 'Add Frame Link' icon with the green +
That adds a new link to the image with the Face Frame Link so FH warns that you already have the full image linked.

Instead of that icon use the dotted red rectangle icon 'Select frame for current link' to ad the Face Frame to the image already linked to the person.

The two alternative icons are shown in the screenshot below.


You are correct that Face Frame Links are a feature in FH that few other products support.
However, the 'Export Gedcom File' plugin knows which products do and don't support that feature and adjusts the Media output appropriately. In most cases, it creates a cropped image for each Face Frame Link and links to that. It also adds custom tags to for example identify the preferred photo for each person according to the destination product.

#2:
If you have PDF or other non-image media files that are just an 'image' then it is recommended that you convert them to an image format such as JPG or PNG so they automatically display in FH on screen and in Reports and Diagrams.
See FHUG Knowledeg Base Adding Photographs and Other Media.

Mike / Lorna - Thanks for the very helpful replies: brilliant - both issues are resolved better than I expected!
I am finding the usability of FH7 to be very good!

Just to add a little to the answers above about the person frame link. As Mike says, it is a feature that few other products support. However, it is worth noting that the co-ordinates for the frame are stored in a custom tag in the GEDCOM file, something like this:
The numbers in the _AREA tag define the corners of the frame, and these can be useful in plugins. For example, I wrote (with Mike's help) a plugin which runs through my gedcom and produces thumbnails of people in my project which I upload to an external site.

So although the frame data is not immediately useful or useable by many other products, I would still recommend converting the frames, or adding them where you can, for possible future use.