* Place format and geocoding

[SteveRP]

I am very new to Family Historian and was interested in the discussion about the difference between Place and Address. My favoured use is four comma aligned fields for Place but, in many cases, that leaves blanks in the first column and I have noticed that automatic geocoding doesn't take place in that case. It seems to work fine if there is sensible value in column one, which implies my chosen format for Places won't work with geocoding. Have I misunderstood, is there a way round or do I need to rethink?

Steve

[tatewise]

Welcome to the FHUG Steve.
I presume you have studied how_to:key_features_for_newcomers|> Key Features for Newcomers and within that glossary:places|> Places and Addresses that links to many discussion threads.

I suspect it is just coincidence that your Place names with leading blank columns don't geocode, as I have plenty that work fine. Could you give some examples.

Also the geocoder used by FH is not as effective as say Google Maps, but its licence fee is probably considerably less.
However, the Map Life Facts Plugin is allowed to employ Google Maps for your personal use, and can automatically set the Lat/Longitude in your Place records for display in the FH Map Window. See its Help & Advice > F.A.Q..

[SteveRP]

Mike, thanks replying so quickly. I am using v.6.2.2.

The data were input from TMG and I am still working on it.
Looking at Tools>>Work with data>>Places
the following give no lat and long.

<blank> Alphington, Devon, England
<blank> Belfast, Antrim, Northern Ireland
<blank> Glossop, Derbyshire, England
<blank> Cape Town, Western Cape, South Africa
<blan> York, Yorkshire, England
There are a total 52 places with a leading <blank>, none have lat and long

The following do have lat and long that looks correct
10 Downing Street, Whitehall, London, England
Alphington, Devon, England,
12 Seymore St., New Brighton, Cheshire, England

I have now noticed that there are many places I have changed, have zero use but are still in the list and, oddly,have lat and long.

Steve

[LornaCraig]

Steve,
I have just tried the examples you give and the auto-geocoding appears to work correctly. This suggests that perhaps you have unintentionally blocked the geocoding for these places.

If you view these places in the Map window is there a padlock symbol next to each? Or does it show a question mark (which would mean geocoding has been tried and failed)?

In Tools>Preferences>Map window is Enable Auto-Geocoding ticked? (I assume it is, or none of your Places would have geocoding unless you entered it manually).

[tatewise]

Steve, similarly I have geocoded several of your examples and they yield Lat/Longitude values OK.
How are you attempting your geocoding? Exactly what commands are you using?

In the Map Window, if you right-click a Place, and hover on Geocoding, what options are bold, and what happens when you choose Refresh Geocoding?

I imagine the actual Place fields look like the following with leading commas:
, Alphington, Devon, England
, Belfast, Antrim, Northern Ireland

If when changing Place names you perform the Edit in the Place field of one fact, then that will create a new Place record, leaving the original Place record behind. Preferably, use the Tools > Work with Data > Places or the Place records in the Records Window to alter existing Place names within the same Place record.

[SteveRP]

Lorna,

That particular problem is now solved but I am still a little confused. The places that geocoded before did so with no action from me. I had missed the drop-down menu allowing me to Map all places and that has worked, so everything is now geocoded.

I haven't done anything with the Map preferences, the Enable auto-geocoding is checked and was before.

I am happy that I can now geocode everything, thanks for your help.

That does leave the problem of old, unused Places still in the list. How do I get rid of them?

Thanks, Steve

[tatewise]

Steve, did you see my earlier posting about how those unused Place records get created?

To delete the odd record of any type, select it in the Records Window and either hit Delete key or use Edit > Delete.
To delete many records see how_to:delete_a_large_number_of_records|> Delete A Large Number of Records.

BTW: That is covered in how_to:key_features_for_newcomers|> Key Features for Newcomers mentioned earlier, in the book "Getting the Most From Family Historian" in Chapter 7 Browsing, Searching & Editing in the Records Window under Delete Record.

[SteveRP]

No, I didn't see the earlier posting on deleting, I only noticed the zero entries when checking the place entries to respond to Lorna. I was thrown by the geocoding happening automatically and then not happening, presumably, the circumstances were different even though I thought they were the same.

Thanks to you and Lorna for taking the time to respond, I will now browse the Knowledge Base.

Steve

[dewilkinson]

I too migrated from TMG recently and have been struggling a bit with Places and Addresses. I have concluded that the best option for me is to ignore the Address field and have everything in the Place field without leading blanks. In TMG it was a structured Place, so everything lined up neatly but in FH I have found that if you have leading blanks the Place is more difficult to find when entering a Fact, although the Place can easily be found in the records window using the filter which locates the Place whatever part it is in.

For Places that won't auto geocode I have not found a way to quickly pin point on the map to pick up the co-ordinates, do you know how to click on the map to select the Latitude and Longitude? It is a slow process getting the co-ordinates elsewhere and copying them across into the property window.

[tatewise]

See the FH Help page for the Map Window where among other things it says under Geocoding:

Alternatively, click-and-drag on any Place record (or event linked to a place) in the List Pane, and drag it onto the Map Viewer. The Place record will be set at the location where you 'drop' it.

Yet another option is to use a plugin (possibly one downloaded from the Plugin Store) to geocode some or all Place records.

As I said earlier in this thread, the Map Life Facts Plugin will automatically geocode all your Place names (including street addresses in many cases) using the Google Maps geocoder and with the appropriate options settings synchronise the Lat/Longitude in your Place records.

[dewilkinson]

Mike,

Many thanks, the drag and drop worked a treat. Don't know why I just didn't try it in the first place.