* Pre-release of version 6.1

[SimonOrde]

We will shortly be officially releasing a free upgrade to 6.1. However you don't have to wait for the offical release. You can download it now (we're calling it a 'pre-release'). Go to http://www.family-historian.co.uk/downl ... ee-upgrade and click on the link "Upgrade to 6.1" at the top of the page. The link takes you to a new 6.1 page which provides full details of all the new features and improvements in 6.1, and a button to download it.

If anyone wishes to post comments about it, please post them here.

[DavidNewton]

Some very welcome additions regarding witnesses and I am particularly happy (despite all the effort it is going to cost) to see that the vitally important parent-child relationship can now be sourced.

David

[AdrianBruce]

"The new Witnesses Events query lists everyone who has participated in an event in a non-principal role" - oooh, nice - I think?

The absence of this was a deal-breaker on general use of witnesses for me. So now what? - I need to think about this and whether witnesses can come back for me....

[Valkrider]

I have just installed v6.1 on my Crossover v15 install and everything is working as before with v6.0.4 no issues found so far.

[lastejas]

Just downloaded the update but cannot get it to install. Running Windows 7 pro and FH 6.0.4 (fully registered).

Basically what happens is that when I run the update program it appears to start up and then nothing happens. Lots of disk activity appears to be taking place but after 30 mins still just disk activity. Using system monitor it shows no apps running but under processes it shows upgrade program and the only way to stop it is to kill the process.

Even tried running it without the AVG running but still the same.

Grateful for any help.

Rick

[mjashby]

Whilst all improvements are welcomed, I am disappointed that a critical dating flaw in the software, which I reported direct to Calico Pie on two occasions several months ago; and was assured would be resolved has still not been addressed in this latest update:

The issue is:

Julian dates do not work correctly, e.g. If you record Dates using the Julian Calendar, Family Historian insists that February 1750 is earlier than December 1750. IT WASN'T (in the UK and other parts of the former 'Empire' at least). This makes it impossible to use the Julian Calendar for a quarter of any estimated birth dates prior to 1752 where you usually only know a baptismal date.

If Gregorian 'dual-dating' is used instead of the Julian Calendar then you can enter accurate dates and 'precise estimated dates' e.g. "25 Feb 1749/50 (est)" is O.K., but you cannot enter "Feb 1749/50 (est)" as it throws up the error "The date entry is not valid. 50 is not a valid day number." This again makes it impossible to use Gregorian dual-dating correctly as you are, for example, left having to record a baptismal date of 6 Feb 1749/50 and an estimated birth date of "Jan 1750 (est)", which makes no presentational sense whatsoever!

This problem was only introduced with the release of FH Version 6, as the problems didn't arise in any previous version of FH back to Version 2 which all accepted those inputs correctly.

Mervyn

[tatewise]

I have the same problem as Rick lastejas.
When upgrade_fh6_to_6.1.0_dl.exe is run, nothing happens.
I am on Windows Vista Home Premium Service Pack 2 with FH V6.0.4 installed.
FH V6.0.4 was not running at the time.
In Task Manager the process exists, but with 00 CPU 916K Family Historian Setup.
I have set the folder containing the .exe as an exception in Avast anti-virus and tried disabling File Shield to no avail.
P.S.
Have solved the problem by uninstalling Trusteer Rapport that has become a known bugbear, although not on this PC until now.

[tatewise]

1. On installing V6.1 the Tools > Preferences > Records Window > Record Type Display Options were (I think) reset to Installation Settings. I usually have them all set to Always show. It may not be installation that is resetting them, as it has just happened again on re-opening FH, and I recall it happening with V6.0, but could never put my finger on what causes it.
2. Tools > Plugins > Plugin Store button does not work - nothing happens!!!
   Actually, several web access commands do NOT work:
   Help > Online Tour, Quick Start>On Web, Family Historian on Web, Tech Support, User Groups.
3. In Report > Options > Main section > Data Ref Assistant complains for %FILE_OWNER% that "Expression is not valid for this context." but if Copy & Pasted it works OK.
4. Help issues outstanding in Beta > Issues > New Help Text Issues (11621) still exist.
   (BTW: That posting is only visible to Beta testers.) Details repeated below...
5. Find and Replace Dialogs
   There is no Help for the new Edit > Find nor Edit > Find and Replace.
   The existing Help > Index > Find Record Dialog entry is broken.
   Reported on the FHU E-Mail list by walton a year ago.
6. Understanding Functions > DistanceBetween
   No Help despite being referenced in What’s New In Version 6.
7. Understanding Functions > LastUpdated
   Now returns Date + Time but is undocumented.
   Date parts can be extracted using Date(LastUpdated(%INDI%)) or Year(LastUpdated(%INDI%)), etc, but how is Time extracted?
   If used in Plugins via fhCallBuiltInFunction it returns three parameters:
   DatePoint, IntegerHour, IntegerMinute
8. Understanding Functions > TextPart
   The help says "Parameter 1: String. The input text".
   If Parameter 1 was a literal string then it would be of very limited use.
   More likely, as illustrated in the examples, is a Data Ref to a text field such as %INDI.BIRT.PLAC%.
   So it should add "Is usually the text associated with a data reference."
   
   This problem affects several functions that simply say a Parameter is a String:
   Text(), TextToNumber(), ToLower(), ToUpper()
9. Understanding Functions > Data Types
   This page does not mention String at all.
   So it should say "There are 6 basic data types:" and String should be defined as "Literal text or the text associated with a data reference."
10. Plugin > FH API > Function Index
    All the following new functions should say "Requires version 6 or later."
    fhConvertANSItoUTF8, fhConvertUTF8toANSI, fhIsConversionLossFlagSet, fhSetConversionLossFlag
11. See Beta > Issues > Place Queries Columns Items (11796).
    In Place Queries on the Columns tab when selecting Items the descriptive advice at the bottom is wrong for Place itself, as it talks about Immi/Emmigration _PLAC fields.
    
    The Status item is missing altogether, although it can be added into the Columns using Expression = %_PLAC.STAT%.
12. Beta > Issues > unable to scroll Facts all the way right using scroll bar (11551) not fixed.
13. Tools > Preferences > General > Latitude & Longitude Format
    See v6 Bug? Latitude and Longitude preferences inconsistent (12022).
    Preference does not affect input format in Latitude & Longitude data entry dialog in Place records.

And that is even before I have looked at the new features!!!!!!!!!!

[NickiP]

I've just upgraded on Win7 Pro with AVG software and all seems to be working OK.

That said, does anyone know which three standard fact definitions have been updated please?

Mike Tate says:
The new features are all fully documented in Upgrade to 6.1 under ENHANCEMENTS AND BUG FIXES IN VERSION 6.1.
Just scroll down and expand each subsection.
The three facts are Birth, Adoption and Census.

[ColeValleyGirl]

The page describing the fixes etc. says that the following standard fact definitions have been updated:

Birth, Adoption and Census

[davidm_uk]

I've just installed 6.1, with no changes to Avast, without any problem. Mind you I did right click on the installer.exe and chose "run as administrator".

[NickiP]

The page describing the fixes etc. says that the following standard fact definitions have been updated:

Birth, Adoption and Census

Teach me not to click on the item, I'd assumed they were just a list.

That said, as I'd already customised the standard Birth and Census Facts, my amendments have been retained.

[LornaCraig]

Like Mervyn and Mike, I am disappointed to find that several issues which have been reported to Calico Pie in the past have still not been resolved. Many of these are minor niggles so they are not ‘show stoppers’, but some are quite trivial so it should be a simple matter to fix them.

Here are some examples:

Viewing media linked to individual (12481)
Wrong dialog box when adding link to Place in Media Window (12177)
Property Box ‘Sync with Selection’ not working? (12116)

and from the Beta forum (visible to Beta testers):

2 Custom Colour palettes (11705)
Map Window pop-up misses some uses of places (12031)
Issues with How Related Tool (11801)

And (this was reported to Calico Pie but not in FHUG):

Sorting on Media tab of Property Box
If any of the media have a date in the format ‘between...and...’ the sorting in the media tab of the Property box is inconsistent.
If sorted on the Date column the media with ‘between’ dates are placed at the end of the list, although if sorted on Age the list and the thumbnails are displayed in the expected order. (I have a few photos where I can only be sure they were taken between two particular dates.)

[lastejas]

Mike, David.

Thanks both for the tips. I have Trusteer Rapport installed as my Bank uses it.

I first tried just running it as an administrator and everything installed fine, so I'll leave it at that but will keep in mind the removal of Rapport if I come across this type of problem again.

Cheers

[NickiP]

FH 6.01 Source Records view.JPG (77.46 KiB) Viewed 13752 times

Is it a deliberate change that any newly created Census Source Records are now showing with the Short Title, when previously they appeared under their Full Title please?

Those created prior to the upgrade are still showing with the Full Title. I have also created a separate Source Record for a Parish Register and they are still showing with the Full Title.

I can't see anything in the list of Updates about this.

I've not tried the updated Birth or Adoption Facts to see if this is the case (the latter I've never used so far anyway).

Adding The problem with the way it now standards for Census is that if you have more than one Census as a Source for a particular Fact, then when accessing the Sources for a particular Fact on the Individual Records page it is only going to show a list of "Census" Source names which you would have to expand to check which year they were for. Previously, with the Full Title showing this wasn't needed.

[tatewise]

Nicki,
See Tools > Preferences > Records Window > Use Short Title... and associated Help.
Is it possible you had this unticked and installing V6.1 has ticked it?
i.e. It has restored Installation Settings as per my point 1. earlier.

[NickiP]

Thanks Mike, that fixed it. Have to admit I'd flicked through your post but as most of it didn't apply to me, I'd obviously missed the first point.

I don't remember ever unticking that in preferences previously. I've only recently started using Source Records anyway, previously didn't bother. The strange thing was the one I created with Parish Registers for the Short Title post the update still showed the same way.

Adding I now know why the Census Fact showed that way with the preference ticked for Show Short Title and the others didn't - I'd managed to add Census to the Short Title field of the Source Record when it should have been in the Type field. I don't use the Short Title field.

Dooh, I think I'd better give up for the afternoon, but at least I know why it happened.

[LornaCraig]

Tatewise said

On installing V6.1 the Tools > Preferences > Records Window > Record Type Display Options were reset to Installation Settings.

Mike, FYI when I installed 6.1 it did not reset this to installation settings. (The only change I have ever made to the Record Type Display Options is to always show the Families tab, and that still showed as expected.)

[cageywoolf]

Just a tease.... All the responders to this subject are listed as using FH v6 EXCEPT Simon Orde. Surely not.

Happy Christmas Simon and all.

[tatewise]

Helen, may be it is not installation, but something appears to keep resetting those options.

[NickiP]

Has the field order in "New Source Record" window changed please?

I'm sure Type used to be the third field but now its showing as the second.

Of course, I could be completely wrong about this ...

[jimlad68]

Just a word on Trusteer Rapport. I'm not saying don't use it, it might well be a good defense for your banking etc, but it does seem to create a lot of problems, even in its new guise under IBM. System slowdown, messing with your windows files and virus programs, and much data collection.

I had it installed when I was with Natwest (a few years ago now, so things might have changed) and after problems and research decided it was not worth the hassle. At that time the "opinion" was that as long as you use an up to date browser like chrome and had the usual anti virus + something like Malwarebytes Anti-Exploit that was as good, and that the Trusteer Rapport was a safeguard for the banks for people who did not have those. But do your own research before deciding.

http://www.advantage77.com/2014/09/03/r ... its-worth/
http://www.alphr.com/realworld/359617/i ... -its-worth

[tatewise]

I echo Jim's comments. Rapport used to be a worthwhile extra defense and we recommended it to our Computer Club members, but since IBM got involved it has become more like a PUP.

[LornaCraig]

Has the field order in "New Source Record" window changed please?

I can't remember what the order was previously but there has been a change.
Under 'Numerous other enhancements and bug fixes' one of the items listed is The “New Source” dialog now has a dropdown list of Source Types.

[craigmollekin]

I think I might wait a while before 'upgrading', lol.

Prior to version 6, the most used location appeared first in auto completion. With version 6, it seems to be based on some kind of alphabetical preference. So, for example, I have around 300 'City Road Cemetery' instances but only one 'City Bus Corporation' but auto complete always picks the latter first. Does nobody know if this annoying niggle has been ironed out please?