Family Historian User Group

I spend a lot of time studying the timeline of a person and the only way to do it quickly in FH is to look at the Facts section. It would be a lot neater and easier to read if the years could be right-aligned. Could we be given the option to left or right align the date column?

Yes, that would be a useful feature.
Could you clarify how it should work with Date Ranges and Date Periods, bearing mind that there are often two Dates and the Facts when sorted by Date use the first Date.

As a workaround, with a little effort, you could add the Year to the start of every Fact as shown in the Fact column, with the exception of all the optional Timeline Facts.

Use Tools > Fact Types... and select each Event/Attribute in turn.
Click the Edit... button and then the Advanced... button.
Tick Use Override Template for Facts tab Listings and in the Template enter:

{=TextIf( Exists(%FACT.DATE%), Year(%FACT.DATE%), "____" )} {abbr} {place}

unless a Template already exists, in which case just insert the {=TextIf(...)} part.
Finally, click OK.

Also for Facts that support Witness Roles click the Roles... button.
Select each Role in turn and click Edit and Advanced... buttons.
Insert {date:YEAR} into the Template.
(Unfortunately, this gives nothing for a Date Range/Period or no Date, but I cannot get the {=TextIf(...)} function to work in this context due to the bug reported in Referring to the Fact Note in role sentences (12069). [EDIT 2016: Now fixed in FH V6.1.4 (Feb 2016).])
Click OK twice.

P.S. How does the TextIf(...) function work?
If the Fact Date exists, then show its Year text, otherwise the "____" text.

Thanks Mike - I will have a go with your suggestion. I so far have not been using date ranges in my dates so not sure that I can comment on that.
I've been looking at the timeline in RootsMagic - which does right-align the date column and it is certainly easier on the eye when looking at a long list - some of my key people have a lot of events.

Nicola

The original user, and nobody else, has commented on the alternative offered, so if there is no further interest, this will be moved to the Closed Wish List Requests.