* Thoughts on 2.3

[Jane]

What do you feel about 2.3 does it have features which you find useful?

Personally, I find the copy/paste very useful, along with the save as option for diagrams. Once saved as EMF files they can be loaded into Viso for more work.

ID:640

[martync]

I've only had a very quick look so it's early to comment but I've already seen two things which are useful to me. The first is the step child entries, having 3 of my own it's nice to be able to put in the link, fair enough you could see it from the chart but it's nice to have a 'proper' link.

The other thing is being able to save the diagram as a graphics file. Even my small (so far) family tree takes a while to generate so being able to save it is good, but even better I can now cut and paste my Step childrens relatives on their fathers side into our chart in a graphics program on the PC before printing so it doesn't look like an after thought. This makes them feel better and also will, I hope, make his family (he has died) feel like helping us in this part of their family.

[bwmitch]

I like the upgrade very much.  I too like the copy/paste function, the new narrative reports, and the much improved support for sources (especially).  

A few things crossed my mind while I was exploring the new features.  For instance, the formatting for the narrative reports will no doubt be improved in future upgrades; the narrative report options in preferences might include (if it can) a {notes} code to really 'up' the power/flexibility of the sentences for custom events (or regular events, too?); the 'work with data' section of the program, now that there are narrative sentences and so on, could really use a 'work with events/attributes' at this stage in the program's development.  

All in all, I appreciate all Family Historian upgrades and the latest is no exception!

[annie]

Having only had a quick look at it, I think it's an excellent upgrade - for free too!  I especially like the narrative sentences - even though some of my custom event labels look a bit stupid in the sentence.  I gather I can use a text editor to change the labels though.  It is also very useful to be able to save the diagrams in different formats.  Cut and paste will save so much time too![grin]

[g_mcallister]

Not explored everything yet but I like the narrative reports and the improved handling of sources. I have found a little quirk with my narrative reports and wonder if anyone else has this. When I don't have a marriage date or place but do have a spouse, it doesn't put in the sentence for example 'John married Jane Brown' though it does have the section on Jane Brown below. If I then enter a fictious date for this marriage it will report that 'John married Jane Brown in 1550'.
The odd thing is that if I delete the date again it will correctly report now that 'John married Jane Brown'. Anyone else seen similiar behaviour?

[Jane]

If you do not have a marriage event then there is no proof they married!

Remember you can have a family with out a marriage.

[g_mcallister]

Thanks Jane - I take the point that couple may not have married and hence there is no marriage event to report. (In the cases I have I am confident there was a marriage; we are in the 16C. I just haven't found where or when yet). Anyway that doesn't explain the program behaviour that if I put a date in and then delete it, it happily reports that the couple were married.

[g_mcallister]

Just to add a bit more information on my earlier post. The Individual Summary Report and the Family Group Report both regard my couples as married even when I have not entered a marriage event (i.e. date or place) but the new Narrative Report will only regard them as married if there is a marriage event. Inconsistent?

I have never used the Marriage Status field. Examining that now, I see the options are Divorced, Separated, Unmarried, Never Married or Unknown. The default is blank. Should we not have a 'Married' status or is the default blank meant to be interpreted as married?

[Jane]

Even if you delete the date the marriage event will still exist, if you delete the event rather than the content the program will no longer treat them as married.

[akirk]

Agree - the default should logically say married - could we perhaps add that to the wish list?

Presumably it would not be too difficult to change the blank to 'married'?

Alasdair Kirk

[g_mcallister]

Thanks Jane - that explains that little apparent anomaly. However the basic problem is that the new narrative report treats the same data in a different way to the other reports in that it only recognises spouses as married if a marriage event has been entered. The default should be 'Married' unless one of the other descriptions is selected in the marriage status field.

[Jane]

...

[Mark_H]

What a very pleasant surprise it was to get the email notification today that 2.3 was available. Haven't had a chance to look at it (much) yet but just wanted to say thanks for all the hard work that clearly went into it.

I have been using FH for well over a year now and I would be lost without it, so it's great to see it continually improving.

Mark

[dg2000r]

The 'Save As' for diagrams is a great addition as it gives vector output, which can then be converted to PDFs. I'd still like it to be able to output direct to PDF, but this will do for now!

[Guest]

can you clarify the step child link please in 2.3

[Jane]

Sue, what don't you understand?

[Guest]

i think i've worked out how to do it, but if you put the natural father in as well as say the step father the person appears on the tree twice.

also it doesn't make it clear in the narrative report that it is a step parent/child

[Jane]

This has been covered about the tree, you can easily turn off the branch you do not want to show.

The narrative report does not show everything yet. However I think you will find the Individual summary does.