* Custom Fan Chart

[Kathryn]

I have created a custom fan chart with the following contents:
%INDI.NAME[1]%
%INDI.BIRT[1].DATE:YEAR%-%INDI.DEAT[1].DATE:YEAR%

This works well where I have both birth and death dates or birth or death dates for an individual. However, where I don't have a name for an ancestor, I end up with a hyphen displaying in the box. Is there any way to avoid this?

[Jane]

You could simply use

%INDI.NAME[1]%
=Lifedates()

or

%INDI.NAME[1]%
=TextIf(Exists(%INDI%),%INDI.BIRT[1].DATE:YEAR%-%INDI.DEAT[1].DATE:YEAR%,"")

[Kathryn]

Thank you Jane. The first example works perfectly.

[tatewise]

Note that =LifeDates(,STD) should give Baptism/Christening and Burial/Cremation life dates if Birth or Death are missing.

A variant on that you could use:

%INDI.NAME[1]%
=LifeDates(,EXT)

which gives estimated life dates preceded with a tilda ~ where all the standard dates are missing.