Narrative Reports - Use of TAB Key in Sources

jcm · Post by **jcm** » 15 Feb 2005 12:24

I have used Nick Walker's excellent GedCom Census program, method 1,using the TAB key when entering Actual Text so that the text is shown in columns. This works fine when viewing FH Source Actual Text and also the Individual Summary Report and Family Group Sheet. However, when viewing the Narrative Report, the source text is no longer in neat columns. Can this be fixed please. One for the wish list?

ID:793

Post by **nsw** » 15 Feb 2005 15:58

The use of Tab is quite difficult to deal with as it all depends on the font used. Just because it lines up in Gedcom Census doesn't mean it will line up in Family Historian. The font used in Gedcom Census is MS Sans Serif. I suspect the font used in your narrative report is different to the one used in the other reports.

Actually for the next version I'm working on I've been using Courier New because this is a fixed-width font (e.g. the letter i is the same width as the letter X) so it is easier to ensure that the data lines up. However, I now realise having thought about this while answering your question that I might need to think about this further and do something else.

What would help is some way of defining tables/columns within the source text and note boxes, e.g. perhaps the | symbol could be used to represent a change of column and this could then be automatically formatted in a Family Historian report so that it wouldn't matter which font was used.

Actually it is also possible to use tabs in Family Historian if a source or note is opened in its own window (by clicking on the tall/thin button next to the text box). Just use Ctrl+Tab to insert a tab character.

jcm · Post by **jcm** » 16 Feb 2005 13:59

Thank you for your input Nick. The problem lies not with your Gedcom Census program, which correctly aligns the columns in the 'Source Actual Text' field, but with FH itself. My Records Window is set for the MS Sans Serif font, but the default font for reports is Times New Roman. Changing the reports font to MS Sans Serif makes no difference to the report output, the columns are still not correctly aligned. Further investigation showed that the problem applies to the Narrative Descendants Report, the Individual Summary Report, the Family Group Sheet Report and the Record Detail - Sources Report, and possibly to others. I deleted the text in the 'Source Actual Text' field and retyped it using Ctrl TAB to create the columns again - this did not solve the problem in the reports. So again, may I place this request on the Wish List please?

YouTube · Post by **Jane** » 16 Feb 2005 14:17

I suspect this is covered with in the wish list item
Word-processing facilities for notes (italics, bold etc)
as the storage of more formating would I suspect include support of tabs.

jcm · Post by **jcm** » 16 Feb 2005 14:24

I doubt whether this is covered Jane. The tabs are stored correctly in the 'Source Actual Text' field. The problem lies in the outputting of these tabs in the reports.

YouTube · Post by **Jane** » 17 Feb 2005 18:42

I have just tried this and the only thing I seemed to have to do was to play with the tab widths to pull the text apart. The default tab is only .25 of an inch setting it higher helps, but the report has more identation. You may wish to consider printing short ciations and separate Source Listing if you want wide tabs.

jcm · Post by **jcm** » 18 Feb 2005 14:01

Many thanks for your help Jane. This certainly works in most cases - the tab needs to be set to at least 0.5' and in some cases up to 1.0'. I can now print pages 1 to x on the original setting (the report) and pages x+1 to the end (the source listing) on the increased tab setting. This will suffice until a software fix comes along.

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