* Find and replace Dates

[E Wilcock]

I have managed to freeze fh by trying to find and change dates. I am not sure whether this arises from using the plug in or a find and replace request within fh itself.

I stupidly confused the date in which prisoners returned from a concentration camp 8 June 1945 with the date of the end of the war in Europe 8 May 1945.
I was running queries to see who died before the end of the war and who survived.
I was trying to change the death date entries from before or after the June date to before and after the May date.
Clearly I did something wrong.

I need to leave the computer now so will need to close the software with Alt Control Delete.

[tatewise]

Without more explicit details of what you were doing it is difficult to offer any advice.

If you were using the Search and Replace plugin then if you just run it, but do NOT perform a Search & Replace, the criteria you last used will be displayed. Tell us exactly what that is or post a screenshot and that will help us help you.

[E Wilcock]

I have had another look at this. And also the Help on dates.

If I know a person died between 2 September 1939 and 8 May 1945 I would like to use a between date for the death event.
But fh seems to prompt me to enter a "from . . . to" date, which is more useful for an enduring event, like residence or employment. The date entry assistant permits before and after dates
In the end I downloaded the latest plug in for search and replace and where no exact date is known, I removed all the more complicated date entries and have instead used a simple before or after 8 May 1945 death date.

The plug in (latest version 3.4 just downloaded) worked excellently Mike. Thank you.
Using a simple death date makes it easier to run queries too.

[LornaCraig]

fh seems to prompt me to enter a "from . . . to" date, which is more useful for an enduring event, like residence or employment.

That is what FH calls a date period, and as you say it is suitable for an enduring event. What you need for your purposes is a date range, which can be entered in the form "between (or just 'bet') xxx and yyy". If you look at the Date Entry Assistant you will see this is the option on the fourth tab.

[tatewise]

I think Evelyn knows that and said so in her posting: "The date entry assistant permits before and after dates "

[LornaCraig]

Yes, apologies if Evelyn already knows that, but she said "I would like to use a between date for the death event. But fh seems to prompt me to enter a "from . . . to" date" which suggested that she thought it was not possible to use between dates.

[E Wilcock]

Lorna, I am very grateful for your help.
Mike is correct. Initially I wanted to use a between date.
There is no problem entering one such date on an individual person record.
Where I ran into difficulties was trying to change a whole batch of records using the plug in.
For the simplicity of queries and because I am looking at large place studies I have abandonned the time span idea and started using a single date with before and after.
Thus it is not the software at fault, but my own decision to keep things simple.