* Using colour in Family Historian

[BonnieL]

I am a new user of Family Historian (just downloaded v5 last week). I really like the product so far, and definitely plan to purchase it.

My organizing system is a colour coded one. I use four different colours - one for each of my grandparents. In my Roots Magic program, I have been able to set up my individuals with the names in the text colour which represents the branch they are on. When I uploaded my data to Family Historian, the colors did not come over with the data - i.e. all text is black.

Is there a way to colour code the individuals, and to do so in such a way as to not have to do each one individually? I have about 1,100 people on my tree and do not want to spend a lot of time on this. However, I do like the colours, because it allows me to know immediately which branch I am looking at.

Thanks in advance for any assistance you can provide.

[tatewise]

You cannot colour code the text in the Focus Window, Property Box, Records Window, or in Reports, but you could use a code such as PP, PM, MP, MM to indicate the Paternal/Maternal ancestry, or use the initial letter of your colour.

In Diagrams you can use colour coding.

In either case you can use the =IsAncestorOf() function to determine the code or colour.
i.e.
=IsAncestorOf( %INDI%, Record(6,"I") ) is true if %INDI%vidual is ancestor of "I"ndividual with Record Id 6.

So by using the Record Id of each of the four grandparents you can conditionally display a code, or set a Diagram Box feature such as colour of box background, outline, or text.

[ronk]

Could I ask what folder/files are color settings kept in? I seem to have lost my customizations after opening the sample project from FH (I could be wrong, could have been something else). Are colors unique to each project, or to all projects?

[tatewise]

Colour palettes are NOT kept in the Project folder.
Different customisations are kept in different places.
Some are in the Windows Registry and some in the C:\ProgramData\Calico Pie\ folder.
It all depends on which colour customisations you are talking about.
BTW: It is always a good idea to be specific.

But opening the Family Historian Sample Project should have all the same customisations you set in any other Project providing you are still on the same PC.

[ronk]

Thanks for the response.

The reason for not being specific is because I was hoping all colour settings were kept in the same place. Unfortunate that they are spread about, and all in the OS or 'C' drive. All my projects are in a data partition for ease of image backup. Surprised there being any colour settings in the Registry. Seems to make retrieving settings difficult and hard to restore just the registry portion from a 'C' backup.

According to the FH 6.0 Guide, there are colour schemes under the preferences:general tab, but all that's there now is default and high contrast. Is it possible for users to save colour schemes eventually? Don't see how right now, but if one could save a scheme, or retrieve it that would be helpful.

BTW...I noticed, as I type, spellcheck underlines 'colour' in red, while 'color' is not. Thought it might be the other way around.

Thanks,

[tatewise]

See the Backup and Restore Family Historian Settings Plugin that is design to handle those Windows Registry and C:\ProgramData\ customisations, etc, and lets you keep the backup files with your FH Project backups and AS backups.

Regarding FH V6 colour schemes in Tools > Preferences > General then all the information you need to create extra schemes is in the Help (Why does nobody ever look there?)

I have not investigated exactly which colour customisations are preserved in those new Colour Schemes. There are colours for Fonts and Backgrounds all over the place in the Focus Window, Property Box, Records Window, Map Window, Media Window, Auto Citation Pane, Diagrams, Reports, etc.
EDIT:
I have quickly looked at what is preserved in a Colour Scheme. It is mainly graphics colours such as background, box fill, lines, etc, plus a few text font colours. Strangely, none of the Records Window text colour customisations are preserved (Tools > Preferences > Records Window > Colours). None of the Diagram Options colours are saved, presumably because they are saved in Diagram Types. Similarly, none of the Report Options colours are saved, presumably because they are saved in Report Types.

Since you are based in USA your browser will probably be setup for American English.

[ronk]

Helpful points, thank you. I had used your plugin, but didn't notice the registry backup; that's great! FH should have supplied that natively, IMO. (You and Jane should be compensated for all the plugins written to supplement the native software). The plugins have made my migration smooth and export to TNG flexible.

Yes, have noticed the colors all about the preference section and have been working through them. Have found Pixeur vary helpful to do precise color matching to what one wants, transferring RGB values into FH's color matrix.

Had looked through the preference's 'Help' area, and while color is interspersed here and there, there is no reference to a 'color theme' per se, only other sorts of text schemes, etc. I thought the FH guide 'Getting the Most from Family Historian' might explain how to create a color theme. The only reference to 'color theme' or 'theme' is

Colour themes (including high-contrast colour schemes) for the whole program now supported.◦Users can also create their own colour schemes and share them.

Legacy FT was quite cumbersome on color theme management also, but settings were saved in local files.

Yes, after I posted the last message....I realized spell check is managed by my local (American) browser.

Correction: I had used Backup Your Family Historian Settings, not your Backup and Restore Family Historian Settings. The Restore function is very important, with the registry involved.

Thanks again.

[tatewise]

The Help I am talking about is Tools > Preferences > General > Help where the Colour Scheme setting applies, OR use Help > Search Help > search for: "Colour Scheme" (the quotes are needed).
BTW: You use File > Import/Export to manage Colour Schemes.

See my EDIT in previous posting about what they do and do not control.

There won't be anything in 'Getting the Most from Family Historian 5' because that is for V5!
NB: 'GtMFFH6' is due out next week according to latest Email FH Bulletin but apparently only to purchase as hard-copy, not as a free download with tutorials?

[ronk]

I just used the Backup and Restore Family Historian Settings (for the first time) and it did back up items, but did give an error 'Too few Data Files' message. Is this OK? Is it because my data is on R:/ drive?

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Thanks on the Help pointers...will be looking around. Seems to be here and there. Forgive me for not checking all these places first.

Forgot that was V5 Guide. Interesting about the FH new guide...may not be available electronic? What software doesn't provide free (pdf) documentation to licensed user? Hmmm.

[ronk]

Forgot to ask, you said:

NB: 'GtMFFH6' is due out next week according to latest Email FH Bulletin but apparently only to purchase as hard-copy, not as a free download with tutorials?

Do all users receive that FH Bulletin?

[tatewise]

Don't worry about the Too Few Data Files Error, because there are no FH V6 Tutorial files (yet), unless you were clever enough to put/keep the V5 Tutorials there. Only your Backup Data is on R:\ drive, all the FH Program Data is on C:\ drive as shown in the screenshot.

The Getting the Most from Family Historian PDF and Tutorial electronic files have always been provided free with earlier versions of FH. Maybe it was just an oversight in the FH Bulletin not to mention the electronic versions.

Sign up for Bulletins at http://www.family-historian.co.uk/commu ... -bulletins.

[BillH]

Mike,

When did you get this bulletin? I've always gotten them in the past, but I haven't received this one.

Bill

[tatewise]

FH Bulletin Email Sent/Received Thu 24/03/2016 17:00 GMT, but maybe Calico Pie send them out in batches.

[ronk]

Thought I'd signed up for newsletters, but may have missed it, thanks for the link. Never had V5, being new to FH, but are the V5 tutorials free from FH site or?

[tatewise]

Yes, in how_to:key_features_for_newcomers|> Key Features for Newcomers follow link to how_to:family_historian_documentation|> Family Historian Documentation and Tutorial Files for FH5 from http://www.family-historian.co.uk/downl ... ad-archive Book tab.

[BillH]

FH Bulletin Email Sent/Received Thu 24/03/2016 17:00 GMT, but maybe Calico Pie send them out in batches.

OK... thanks. I'll keep my eye out for it.

Bill

[ronk]

FH news bulletin arrived this morning.

[ronk]

Decided to test to the plugin Backup and Restore Family Historian Settings, carefully following the procedures given. Objective to see if color settings are restored.

After customizing colors,first, used regedit, to exported full registry for backup. Then ran the plugin, chose Backup all files to a new backup folder, all ran successfully, noted registry keys included in the backup folder.

Next set the colors back to installation settings for property box, focus window and media. Then ran plugin Restore, with options set to alllow restore of registry settings. first option to restore data files, ok to option to copy 'old' data files over newer (changed) data files, next clicked 'restore registry' , clicking 'close plugin' , then closing FH, then answering 'Y' to cmd window registry dialogue, indicated importing registry, and cmd window closed.

Lastly, restarted FH, and the installation default settings for color were still enabled, and the color customizations were not restored. I knew some options were restored, since I had auto snapshot off before running the plugin, then turned on, then after restoration, the auto snapshot was off again.

So,...not sure what may have gone wrong. Colors not that important, just need confidence in the plugin and that I use it properly for expected results.

[tatewise]

Thank you for that feedback Ron.
I have just repeated a similar exercise, but using FH V5.0.11 on Windows 7, and it restored the customised colours as expected.

When I can, I will repeat the exercise using FH V6.1.4 and let you know how it goes.
There may be some side effect of the new Colour Scheme feature that the Plugin does not cater for.

[ronk]

OK, sounds fine. FYI, just noticed one item that was preserved, or more likely not changed by 'installation settings' refresh, was the color chart custom colors, several of which I had created.

[tatewise]

I have now checked FH V6.1.4 and repeated your symptoms.

It is caused by FH now storing Colour Scheme settings in the C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Calico Pie\Family Historian\ folder alongside Plugin Data.

To Backup and Restore those settings will need an urgent revision to the Plugin.

[ronk]

Mike,

Thanks for verifying my results. I see the 'pref.dat' and one other file there; that's all. You likely know this full well, but just a note that at the C:~ path you indicated the Plugin Data folder is empty, but in my project folders, the Plugin Data is not.

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Thanks again for you help.

[tatewise]

Plugins can save settings, data, etc, with respect to three different scopes:
1) Local to each Project as per your second screenshot is very popular.
2) All Projects per user account as per your first screenshot but rarely used.
3) Globally for entire PC within C:\ProgramData\Calico Pie\Family Historian\Plugin Data\.

[RogerF]

Call me naive, maybe, but I'm genuinely shocked to hear that FH has changed the way it stores configuration data without notifying Mike. His Backup and Restore plugin, whose functionality is perfectly well known to CP, is doing an excellent job in filling a hole that ought -- by any reasonable standards -- to be covered by CP itself. It's bad enough that FH doesn't provide a built-in Backup/Restore; to break the user-driven substitute without the courtesy of a heads-up is, in my mind, inexcusable. Sorry, but this really pisses me off.

[tatewise]

It gets worse!
I have updated the Plugin to Backup and Restore the C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Calico Pie\Family Historian\ folder so that the Preferences\prefs.dat file is correctly handled.

BUT, when FH closes, it unconditionally overwrites that file with its current colour settings, and thus obliterates the restored colour settings.

I think that last overwrite is unecessary, because whenever the colour preferences are changed the file is written at that time. So the last overwrite is pointless, and makes my Plugin task much more difficult. I will have to adopt the same strategy as for updating the Windows Registry, and leave a Command Batch job running after closing the Plugin and FH.