* resizing of Sentence box in Individual Properties box

[IanTS]

Thought I would try the so called improved fact automatic sentence formatting (adding in a new line <br> or new paragraph <para>). It does work BUT with an added <para> at the beginning of the sentence template the sentence disappears from the sentence box at the bottom of the individual properties box when viewing the fact. You have to roll down in the sentence box to see the generated sentence. Is there any way of resizing the sentence box so you do not have to keep on rolling down to see the generated sentence? It’s a right pain as at first glance you’d think that no sentence has been generated as the box looks empty

[tatewise]

At the moment there appears to be no way to resize the Sentence box and I sympathise with your problem.

This issue will be added to list for Calico Pie to investigate, but I suspect it may be low down the pecking order.

BTW: There are some issues related to using <para> and <br>. If at the beginning of sentences then sometimes the initial letter is not capitalised. If at the end of the template then the layout of index superscripts to Sources is upset.

[IanTS]

Thanks for the reply Mike.

The addition of the formatting may have seemed like a good idea but it looks like the implementation of the feature should have been better thought out. For me it is so frustrating that I can't control the text formatting for the Sentences and, especially, the Notes. I am with Nick Walker on this one, especially with the formatting of simple columns (tab characters or whatever) so that the Text output from his excellent Ancestral Sources can be properly laid out within FH reports.

This “editing” or “formatting” feature was, after all, third on the list of our wants and I had been hoping for something better than this.

[tatewise]

I totally agree, but in the meantime you could try the how_to:tabulate_multiline_text_in_records_and_reports|> Tabulate Multiline Text in Records and Reports advice that I found can work well.

Also for FH Webpage/CD/DVD, my Improve Website CD DVD HTML Plugin formats tabulated text into tidy columns.

[jimlad68]

I have grappled with this kind of problem for years in different programs, and FH is very typical. Either the box is too small, or the font is not suitable, especially for alignment.

So Ian's problem of too small a box for editing. I totally agree. However, even when there is a good size box I will usually do my text editing externally (MSWord or Notepad++ ) as these are far more powerful, you can see how fixed width font or say Verdana etc displays. Then just copy/paste it back into FH.

Let me explain my point re " font is not suitable". Mike's link mentions "Tabulate Multiline Text etc..." Tabs are good in some situations, but can easily mess up in different situations. I have found that the most consistent way to tabulate/ align text is to use a fixed width font (Courier New is the only cross product "standard" I know of) and align the data with spaces. As long as you can display your data with a fixed width font it will be aligned. The big downside to this is that many programs display everything in the same font. So you can get your text aligned, but Courier New is not the best for general reading and very inefficient in lateral space usage. I find a compromise is Verdana as this is nice on the eye, and although not fixed width is better than many, especially Times new Roman, Arial and even Tahoma.

Within FH this is a problem as although you can change the Property Box font to Courier New which is fine for tabulating text, the space usage in the other information fileds is very inefficient and not as easy to read. The other example in FH is reports where the same applies, I can align my text with Courier New, but it means most other detail is in Courier New. This is where TMG was better, you could have say "notes" in a different font. I have not got around to it yet, but I am hoping a simple Recorded Word Macro will be able to set certain text with different fonts/ styles in reports.

Someone please correct me if there is a way to fix the above 2 examples.

[tatewise]

Original Sentence box problem is FIXED in 6.0.4.

[rtilyard]

I'm not seeing any means to resize the sentence box with 6.04. It's fixed at 2 rows with a vertical scroll bar.

[LornaCraig]

I think Mike may have been referring to this problem, which does now seem to be fixed:

with an added <para> at the beginning of the sentence template the sentence disappears from the sentence box at the bottom of the individual properties box when viewing the fact. You have to roll down in the sentence box to see the generated sentence.