Fact Sets, events and attributes

GIBBS_DP · Post by **GIBBS_DP** » 21 Feb 2007 21:07

I have a number of Sailor records that show personal details, ie height, eyes, skin, hair, marks as well as when unemployed where the person resides etc. I had originally put in a Fact Set 'Seamans Tickets' and the attributes like eyes, hair etc but the report gets a bit repetitive with 'his har was..., his ayes were...., his skin was... etc each followed with a date, Any suggestions how this data would be best entered.

David[smile]

ID:2194

YouTube · Post by **Jane** » 22 Feb 2007 13:07

In the fact set tool, properties for a fact, if you click on the Advanced tab you can define a auto create note for an attribute, so you could have a note of say

He was tall, with eyes, skin and had the following distinguishing marks.

Each time you add that attribute the note will be created and you can fill in the blanks, so to speak.

GIBBS_DP · Post by **GIBBS_DP** » 22 Feb 2007 21:37

Thanks. I had a go at that. I assume that if there are 4 attributes, eyes, hair, height and complexion then when you auto text it repeats the same text and requires populating 4 times. If so then potentially you get 4 lots of the same description. Is that correct?

David

JonAxtell · Post by **JonAxtell** » 22 Feb 2007 23:43

Not quite. Rather than put each attribute of the person into seperate Seamans Tickets (which is what I think you're describing - kick me if I'm wrong [tongue]), just have one ticket with all the attributes of the person described in it. So what Jane is saying is that you end up with 'He was 6ft tall, with blue eyes, fair skin and had the following distinguishing marks. Tatoo.' output once.

YouTube · Post by **Jane** » 23 Feb 2007 08:37

Thanks Jon, that's what I was meaning, you could also consider using the standard Physical Description attribute for this, the source will be the Seaman's ticket so it may not be necessary to have a custom attribute for this.

It's what I do for my military records, anyway.

You could use the Note Labels if you wanted to be able to query on the data, but I have not bothered doing that for descriptions. For more information on Note Labels see the GetLabeledText function in the help.

mezentia · Post by **mezentia** » 23 Feb 2007 15:37

This is an area that's puzzled me for some time, and I must admit I've not yet played with Events and attributes sufficiently to get to grips fully with what you can do.

I would like to see an attribute, say Physical Description, that can then have a number of properties defined, say Height, Eye colour, Hair colour, etc. Associated with each property there should be a template that can govern the format of the output depending on whether the information is supplied or not. The dialogue box that is displayed to allow this information to be entered should provide entry boxes appropriately labelled, one per attribute.

For Military personnel, an event should be capable of being structured in the same way. So, for example, an event such as Enlisted, would specify the branch of the armed forces, date and place of joining, the regiment, rank, and any other pertinent information. The result should be capable of reading like 'Fred Smith enlisted into the 4th Brigade, Grenadier Guards, on such and such date, as a Private'.

If this can already be achieved, I think we need a masterclass or something on how to do it. The standard documentation does not go deep enough or give adequate step-by-step examples on how it is to be achieved.

David

GIBBS_DP · Post by **GIBBS_DP** » 24 Feb 2007 14:14

I'll give it a go. I am struggling with the general concept of fact sets per se. There are a number of standard documents Birth, Marriage and Death Certificates that repeat time and time again. Seamans tickets are the same, the record the physical attributes as well as; Where born where he resides when unemnployed, Served in the royal navy, seen foreign service, age when went to sea, can write, etc. With all of the above I was rather hoping that attributes and events of a custom fact set can be inputed in such a way that they can be customised on reports, ie no code for atributes but a code for say a fact set that pulls together the various attributes and events (sub elements). There is also another issue with fact set attributes and events, how do you sequence them so that that appear in some form of logic as if you were reading a death certificate or seamans ticket.

Sorry that this is length but I am trying to get my head around this.

David [confused]

YouTube · Post by **Jane** » 26 Feb 2007 19:42

There is a wish list item to allow custom fields to be added to an attribute/event, this is worth a vote as it would probably make this process easier, for now the default note is the closest I can suggest.

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