* Names in Ancestor Narrative Reports

[Shiriki]

Hi
When I produce an ancestor narrative report where I have a number of ancestors which do not have a birth or baptism, the section within the report for the individual concerned does not have a name after the number (see snips below from my numbers 139 and 141.)
I am wondering what is the best way to overcome this apparent anomaly in such reports.
Note that I have a customised birth (and similar customised baptism fact) fact as follows:
{individual} was born< {date}><at {address}>< {place}>< ({age})>{=CombineText( Text( " and is " . FileRoot() . "'s "), TextIf(IsSameItem(FileRoot(),%CUR_PRIN%) or IsSameItem(FileRoot(),%CUR_PRIN.~FATH>%) or IsSameItem(FileRoot(),%CUR_PRIN.~MOTH>%), "", Relationship(FileRoot(),%CUR_PRIN%,TEXT,1) ) )}.<br>

FHUG2.JPG (53.38 KiB) Viewed 2878 times

FHUG1.JPG (45.53 KiB) Viewed 2878 times

I have tried entering a birth fact but without any date or place information and this then produces the individuals name followed by a sentence saying for example ‘James KIRKE was born and is George KIRKES’ great (x3) grandfather…...
Unless there is something more elegant I guess this may have to do unless someone has a better idea.
Many thanks in advance
Shiriki

[tatewise]

Assuming that when there is no Date then there will be no Address or Place then you could make was born conditional:
{individual}< was born {date}>
Then later the and could be conditional too:
{=CombineText( Text( Textif( Exists(%FACT.DATE%), " and is ", " is ") . FileRoot() . "'s "),

So it would say: James KIRKE is George KIRKES’ great (x3) grandfather…...

[Shiriki]

Hi again

Many thanks Tatewise for the heads up on the conditional sentence construction.

I modified my customised birth fact with the additional conditional items and text, but thought that I had done something wrong. No matter how hard I tried the birth fact generated sentence would resolutely say for example “He and is George KIRKEs’ (x3) grandfather” in spite of the birth fact just having been added with no additional information added within any of the associated fields.

I took a break from my machine and powered down and returned later in the day to double check to ensure I had not made any keying in errors and was surprised to find the narrative text now said “He is George KIRKES’ Great (x3) grandfather”.

I then entered a plausible date for James Kirk and the narrative text generated immediately changed to “He was born in 1690 and is George KIRKES’ Great (x3) grandfather”.

As a test, on removing the birth date from the birth fact, the sentence did not switch back to the required sentence and I now seemed to be stuck with the sentence containing and is and not with the just is.
Clicking away to display another individuals Property Box did not force the change of the sentence either or waiting some time to see if a refresh was just being slow.

However, I discovered that just closing down the Family Historian project and then re-opening seemed to force the change back to the desired sentence. On now double checking the sentence I discovered an additional space prior to the “is” which was easily amended within the customised sentence associated with the customised birth fact.

So, to alleviate the issues within my generated sentence and hence narrative reports, it appears that I must remember to enter the birth facts as required but to then close and then reopen the project to ensure the correct sentence is generated and thus displayed.

Perhaps someone else can check my findings to see if it is peculiar to my machine or if it is something to do with the Family Historian program itself in this instance.

The only downside is that the word birth appears against those individuals on displayed diagrams, but I am not sure if this may be obviated by using conditional text within the diagram text options if so allowable.

Regards to all

Shiriki

[tatewise]

You have fallen into a common trap.
Whenever you add a Fact it automatically includes empty Date and Place fields.
Likewise, when you clear the Date or Place box, that leaves behind an empty Date or Place field.
So, Exists(%FACT.DATE%) is true even though the Date is blank because the empty field still exists.

BTW: The {date} code returns a blank value even when the empty Date field exists, so it works correctly.

When FH is closed and reopened it purges those empty fields so they don't exist.
It is also possible to delete the empty Date field on the All tab.
That explains the temporary rogue and in the sentence.

You could replace Exists(%FACT.DATE%) with DayNumber(%FACT.DATE%)>0 and that copes with empty dates.

Yes, a similar conditional test in the Diagram Text Scheme for the Birth item would eliminate those blank entries.

[Shiriki]

Hi Tatewise

Many thanks for the possible solution.

I tried replacing Exists(%FACT.DATE%) with DayNumber(%FACT.DATE%)>0 which worked, but then fell foul of dates which I have been editing (correcting?) with Julian dates i.e entered then appear with a [J] prefix in the Birth date field.
I guess an additional or logic function DayNumber(%FACT.DATE%)> [J] 0 or similar will have to be inserted to cater for any Julian dates. Had a go at editing the birth Fact Type, but got into such a tangle I have reverted to my original with the Exists(%FACT.DATE%) and accept that the sentence will get sorted with closing and reopening Family Historian.
I have also reinserted the space before the "is" which is required when a Narrative Report is generated but looks like a double space in the generated sentence within the Property Box.
Next thing to look at is to try and suppress the Born on diagrams when no actual date is entered......I expect I will need help on this, but will have a go before admitting defeat.

Shiriki

[tatewise]

Why are you using Julian dates? Stick with Gregorian and avoid complications.