Subgroups in sources list

PeterWieland · Post by **PeterWieland** » 14 Dec 2009 08:33

I have searched the forum and the program and as far as I can tell this has not been addressed in the past. (please correct me if I am wrong!)

I have one source record for every document I have e.g. census page, BMD certificate, letter, book etc), and I now have approaching 2000 entries. Would it be possible to have some sort of grouping in the source records list to group similar documents together e.g 1891 census, birth certificates etc. It would save an awful lot of scrolling through the list!

Regards
Pete

http://www.fhug.org.uk/wishlist/wldispl ... lwlref=453

ID:4226

brian1950 · Post by **brian1950** » 14 Dec 2009 09:17

Pete,

I don't have anywhere near your number of sources - a mere 822!

However, planning ahead, I labelled my Source Records Certificate, Birth/Marriage/Death etc as appropriate. The censuses I named UK Census 1901/1911/1861: BLOGSS, Joe/Ada etc. In the Source Type field I labelled the Types Census; Birth Certificate; Military; Correspondence; Letter etc.

This way, on clicking on the Sources headings, I can get FH to sort my sources into easily viewed blocks of the same source type.

If I get into thousands, I might have to re-think my approach!

Brian

YouTube · Post by **Jane** » 14 Dec 2009 09:28

Don't forget you have the Source Type field available, I set all mine so I can sort the list by Source type, you can use this to group your sources, and you could always additionally use a query to prompt for the type and use that to filter down rather than the records window.

There is already a wish list item for Record Window Filtering.

http://www.fhug.org.uk/wishlist/wldispl ... wlwlref=66

One other handy trick is when selecting a source, I generally find the one I want is the newest one, so either use Autosource citation, or click on the Last update column when prompted for a source to get the newest ones to the top.

PeterWieland · Post by **PeterWieland** » 14 Dec 2009 12:13

I have mine titled the same way as Brian, however I am currently working on entering a load of marriage certificates, and they are near the bottom of the list after all the census entries.

I do use the 'Type' field, but when selecting a source record the dialog box only allows sorting in one direction putting all the marriage certificates near the bottom. This also applies to the Record ID field; the newest record (which is usually the one I want) is at the bottom.

This isn't really the same as Record Window Filtering, as that filtering wouldn't apply to record selection dialogues.

Perhaps the 'list' in the subject title should have been 'selection dialogue'!

EDIT: Whoops, I missed the last line of your post Jane, and yes, that works for the situation I am currently in, but if I am searching for an older entry it doesn't.

YouTube · Post by **Jane** » 14 Dec 2009 13:35

You can sort any column in both directions, just Alt Click on it.

PatrickT · Post by **PatrickT** » 14 Dec 2009 13:41

I do use the 'Type' field, but when selecting a source record the dialog box only allows sorting in one direction

_left_click on the column header should sort in reverse order.

[Edit: D**n, beaten to it again!]

PeterWieland · Post by **PeterWieland** » 14 Dec 2009 14:47

Jane said:
You can sort any column in both directions, just Alt Click on it.

Doh, that does the trick nicely, I never knew that [oops]

JonAxtell · Post by **JonAxtell** » 14 Dec 2009 17:03

PeterWieland said:
Doh, that does the trick nicely, I never knew that

Don't put yourself down and don't be surprised that you couldn't work this out. FH is just about the only program in existence that does sorting on columns in this way. All other programs allow subsequent clicks on a column header to alternate the sorting direction.

ireneblackburn · Post by **ireneblackburn** » 14 Dec 2009 18:22

I disagree, several of the programs I use at work allow Alt Click, it is widely used.

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