* Temporary lists of Names

[E Wilcock]

What do FH users do when they want to record possibly temporary entries for people who may or may not be related. It happens a lot with common surnames?

I have today entered 56 people to a FH named list "Candidates". I am now ready to go to an archive and cross off the ones that dont belong to my research Project.

But what is the best practice?

These really amount to research notes. In TMG I used a data set - a subdivision of ones Project.
I did consider using a Word document or a spread sheet but decided it was too complicated where I needed to sort out wives and husbands living together.

[Gowermick]

Off the top of my head, I'd create a flag 'Candidate' then assign it to each new person you are not sure of. This will enable you create a simple query to produce a working list of everyone you are not sure of. If they turn out to be related just delete the flag, if not, just delete the individual. You can even use separate flags for each branch like 'Candidate Smith' or 'Candidate Jones'.

[trevorrix]

I use the In Progress flag for any person that is not absolutely proven to belong to a tree. The In Progress flag box is customised to show a heavy dotted outline, and the men at work icon clearly indicates work in progress. Use the Has Flag query to create a table of people that are in progress.

[tatewise]

If those 56 Individuals are initially unrelated to anyone, then I think the Named List is an excellent approach.

Did you know the blank pane below the list of Individual records allows you to keep Notes on each person.
You can also edit the Individual record directly in the Named List just like in the All tab.
But you must enable that via right-clicking the list name or Lists > Named List Properties.
You can also customise the Named List columns just like in the Records Window.
See how_to:customising_record_window_columns|> Customise or Print Records Window Columns.

A Query of Named List entries is easily produced using the standard Named List Members query.

Remember you can add ANY type of record to the same Named List.
So you could add relevant Source records or Media records and use the black arrows on right to adjust the order.

Named Lists are very powerful but much undervalued.

[E Wilcock]

Brilliant Mike - No , I knew little of that.
I didnt know about the Note pane. And I configured the columns to include Spouse and dates as I have on the main list of people.

And (after accidentally printing the whole project by not using the filter) I have printed out the Named Candidate List from a custom Query.

This is wonderful.

As a supplementary question, I have been looking for some way of altering the line spacing in the print out from the query?

Or of saving the print out as Text (as one does in Reports from the Publish Menu) so I can increase the line spacing in MS Word?

I gather I need to use the query route as that prints my custom columns. The default List report prints only names and dates.

Not just my elderly eyesight (the default type size is legible) but to annotate lists by hand in a library, one needs a little more space.

I have provided myself with this - by using the button: copy selected cells, selecting the whole thing and pasting it into a Word document. It arrived with each piece of data in quote marks.
I removed the quote marks using find and replace, altered the line spacing to 1.5 and now have a clear list to take to the archive.

I need it today so had to go ahead without your advice. But you may know a way of doing this within the FH software?

[tatewise]

Yes, you have to use the Save to Query technique together with the Query Rows tab List tab method to obtain all the Columns for only the Named List records.

The Query Print option will use larger Fonts set via the Query Menu > Options > Fonts button, but that does not increase line spacing.

Use the Save Results to File with either the CSV (ANSI) or Text (ANSI) option.
The CSV file will open in your spreadsheet program where you can adjust Fonts, Row Height, etc, before printing.
The Text file can be opened in your word-processor and quotes removed and line spacing and fonts increased.

[E Wilcock]

Thank you Mike - I dont know why I missed the little icon to save to file!

To round it off, my archive visit was successful - a needle in the hay stack enterprise - But used the print out and found the missing family.

I discovered that FH can export a GEDCOM of just that Candidate named list, so I can delete most of the people from the main project, but the data is saved just in case I need it again.

Thank you so much for your help. You are right. Named lists do seem brilliant