* Focus Person

[d_c_weber]

The help screen and the FHUG knowledge base is useless for describing "focus person".
I can see of the left in focus window only one person, the root person. How do I change the focus person to show a different person?

This is a basic need that any genealogial program does , and there must be a secret way to do this that I don't know, and the help screen may know buy does not tell me. This program is very hard to use after UFT.

[d_c_weber]

I finally figured this out. The find can find the person, but you need to tag the "focus" button to transfer that person to the focus window. So, FH needs to have a help screen that tells peopl/users that vital information. And the FHUG knowledge base needs a "focus person - change" title and procedure added.

[davidm_uk]

I find it easier to have FH start with the Individual Records window displayed (Tools...Preferences...Startup... then tick Display the Records Window, instead of the Focus Window, at Startup). Click Apply and OK. Restart FH.

Then from the Individual Records window find and select the individual that you want and click the Focus button on the toolbar (or just double click the persons name on the Individual Records window to open their properties box).

[tatewise]

If you tap the F1 key (the standard Windows method to get Help page) there is some useful advice about using magnifying glass icons, and on the left if you click List Topics there is even more advice.

If you enter "focus person" in the FH Help > Search Help there is quite a lot of more focussed (sic) advice.

It is covered in the ƒh Book: "Getting the Most From Family Historian" in Chapter 1. Getting Started with the Focus Window as referenced in the how_to:family_historian_documentation|> Family Historian Documentation. Have you read any of that?

FYI: In addition to the main toolbar magnifying glass Focus button, there is also a Property Box magnifying glass button, each Focus pane box has a magnifying glass button, and double-click on any box brings that person into focus.

As an FHUG member you are welcome to add any advice you like to the Knowledge Base wiki as advised in contributeyourknowledge:index|> Contribute Your Knowledge and at the bottom of home|> Knowledge Base Home. Others have not added anything because it was thought well covered by the Help and Book above.

[d_c_weber]

Mike: Under the " knowledge base" alphabetic_index|> Knowledge Base Index when I scroll down to "Focus person" , there is no listing. This is needed, because it isn't easy to find a person from a list and make that person a focus.

There is a "Focus Window" navigation procedure as a Utube how_to:v4:focus_window#introduction_to_the_focus_window|> Introduction to the Focus Window, but no mention of how to find another person and make that person the focus in the window, unless that person is nearby on the family tree.

I am not conversant enough to use FH yet, so I shouldn't be the one dinking with adding this vital info to the help screen and FHUG website.

[tatewise]

I am not sure whether you are saying "it isn't easy to find a person from a list" or "it isn't easy to make that person a focus".

In FH Help > Search Help for "focus person" it lists Main Toolbar that for Focus button says:

Show the selected person as focus person in the Focus Window.

In the ƒh Book: "Getting the Most From Family Historian" in Chapter 1. Getting Started with the Focus Window and under The Focus Button with the magnifying glass icon it says:

Another useful toolbar button is the Focus button. This button is just to the right of the Home button. If you select a person and click the Focus button, that will show the selected person as the focus person in the Focus Window. You may be wondering why that's useful. Why not just double-click on the person's box or click on their magnifying glass to make them the focus person? Bear in mind that those options are only available when you are viewing the Focus Window, and as we have already mentioned, there is much more to Family Historian than just the Focus Window.

The Focus button only works when you have first selected a person. When you click on the Focus button, it activates the Focus Window and makes the selected person the focus person.

That seems to clearly explain how to make any selected person the focus person.

So is your problem how to find a person from a list?

The general concept adopted by this users group (we are NOT Calico Pie) is to only add to the [kb]|[/kb] where a topic is not well covered in the standard FH documentation, otherwise it would just repeat everything

[d_c_weber]

To: davidm_uk
Here is the only procedure that I found that works if the person is not local to the person already in the focus window:

individual records icon (on left, white stack of disks icon), then search for a person on the list that pops up, then highlight the person, then tag the focus icon (on top, eyeglass icon)

[d_c_weber]

To: Mike
For FH help, I tag "help" and then "search help". Then, I type in the words to search for "focus person". What I get is a list of topics ranked 1 --> 22. None of the topics is "Focus Person - How to change". This is sorely needed. I spent 2 hrs trying to determine the simple step that davidm_uk outlined.
Then, for the forum, I see nothing wrong with adding the same thing to the FHUG knowledge base index, since the first thing a user wants to do is to go to an individual record and see the facts about that person. They want help to do this simple thing. It is simple once you know the sequence of 3 things to do, and but before doing it, it takes many hrs to find out without a help screen.

As a suggestion to improve the FH program, far easier is to make it so that a double-click of a person (i.e. one row) on the individual list and the screen goes back to the "focus window" with that person the "focus person". Easier and labor saving and intuitive.

[tatewise]

You can also:

• Display any Diagram and select any Individual box there.
• Run a Query or a Plugin that lists Individuals and select one from the Result Set.
• Compile Named Lists of Individuals and select them from there.

and you can navigate through Property Boxes following the links to parents, spouses & children until you reach anyone of interest and then click the magnifying glass icon in their Property Box toolbar.

When searching help enclose "focus person" in quotes so it only finds focus person rather than every occurrence of focus and every occurrence of person. That produces a much shorter list. Also study the introductory documentation that explains the key features.

I will add some notes in the [kb]|[/kb] somewhere.

BTW: Double-click on an Individual (anywhere) opens their Property Box that gives far more details than the Focus Window, but also has a Display in Focus Window magnifying glass icon in its toolbar.

[Valkrider]

Also take a look at the videos on YouTube from Jane and others, you will pick up lots of tips from there about how to use FH.

[d_c_weber]

To Valkrider:
The video was no help. This did not try to find a person to focus on that was not already there nearly the existing focus person.

[d_c_weber]

To Mike Tate:
Thanks for the advice about the quotes. I typed in "focus person" and got now only 12 topics {was 22}. But, none of the titles said "focus person" in the title let alone "changing a focus person".

How does a user send a suggestion to the FH company to improve their help screen?

[tatewise]

Use the advice in how_to:about#problem_reporting|> Problem Reporting which is also in the http://www.family-historian.co.uk/suppo ... t-overview and the FH Help > Technical Support command.

[Valkrider]

To Valkrider:
The video was no help. This did not try to find a person to focus on that was not already there nearly the existing focus person.

Did you actually watch all of them? There are more than 1. They cover many aspects of FH and are worth your time to watch them.

[Jane]

Don't forget the Quick start guide, it covers Changing the Focus person on Page 11 and is accessible from the help menu and from the FH web site

http://www.family-historian.co.uk/quick-start-guide

[tatewise]

That is a useful guide, but in this case just reiterates the OP problem.
It does not mention the Focus button (next to the Home button) that allows any selected Individual record (in Records Window, Named List, Diagram, Result Set) to become the Focus Person.

I have updated the how_to:v4:focus_window#introduction_to_the_focus_window|> Introduction to the Focus Window to provide that advice.

[E Wilcock]

This thread does highlight a few problems both with fh and with fh help.

For new users the terminology is extremely confusing. That is the word Focus used for a Focus person ad a focus window and the difference, if any between the two magnifying glass icons. Indeed it transpired that some original users of fh work from a tree diagram directly to the Property Box and do not use the focus window at all.
The focus window is very useful as the arrows alllow one to move back and forwards between unrelated individuals but this can prompt one to enter data into the wrong property box, since selection in the focus window does not change the focus in the property box alongside.

The other problem is finding the concise relevant information one needs to solve a simple problem. Hence we annoy Mike so ,much by repeatedly asking. Either a topic does not show at all in the Knowledge base or, for instance in the book, appears with so many page numbers alongside (not differentiated) that it completely puts one off ploughing through them all.

Just one example - I mispelled a word in data entry - just a type, e.g. for nationality and the auto text insisted on repeating that original error again and again.
Searching under auto text and auto complete I could find no information at all on how to stop auto complete (tho I did open the suggested options page, I could get no further). Neither the book nor the user info enlightened me.

And it was by chance after a thread here revealed to me the columns in fh place names - (another welcome surprise) That - via Tools, Work with data, I found Nationality listed and was able to edit or delete there the text previously mis-spelled.

The more I use fh the more I discover it can do and the more convenient it becomes - but finding what it can do and finding simple answers to one's initial questions is a nightmare.

[LornaCraig]

The focus window is very useful as the arrows alllow one to move back and forwards between unrelated individuals but this can prompt one to enter data into the wrong property box, since selection in the focus window does not change the focus in the property box alongside.

Evelyn, when you refer to the Focus window having arrows allowing you to move back and forwards between individuals, I think you mean the arrows in the Property Box.

Selection in the Focus window does always change the person in the Property Box. But the reverse is not true (selection in the Property Box does not change the Focus person) and I think this is probably what you mean.

[tatewise]

Evelyn is talking about the white arrows to left of the Focus Windows tabs that change focus, but do NOT change Property Box, and that can lead to potential data entry errors. The focus person sequence can be totally unrelated Individuals perhaps selected from the Records Window over the FH session.

[LornaCraig]

Ah, yes, sorry. As one of those people who "work from a tree diagram directly to the Property Box and do not use the focus window at all", as Evelyn put it, I hadn't spotted that anomaly.

[AnneEast]

I don't use the focus window at all either. I work mostly with the property box sitting in the middle of the screen with the list of everyone in the project seen behind it.
Perhaps the OP might find that easier?

Anne