* How to edit and change source for existing source

[MFriend]

Hi Folks:
I have a lot of citations that I want to change their sources. I'm using Method 2 where the important data is in the citation. When I go to create a new citation the button allows me to choose an existing source.

Is there no way to choose an existing source for a citation that has already been created?

Thanks,
Matthew

[tatewise]

Hi Matthew.

I need a little more information to give a complete answer.

Are you using Generic Sources or Templated Sources?

Since you are using Method 2, there will be many Citations that all link to one Source record and presumably all need to be changed in the same way to one other Source record.

It is possible to change one Source record at a time via the All tab of the Property Box.
Expand the details until the Source you wish to change is displayed.
Right-click the record title on the right and choose Replace Link With > Link to Existing Source Record
But I guess you will have to tediously repeat that for every occurrence of similar links to that Source record.

So the Replace Selected Source Citations plugin from the Plugin Store may do the bulk conversion job for you.

[MFriend]

Thanks Mike, the "Replace Selected Source Citations" worked perfect. I had looked at it briefly and I had thought it just changed all the citations for one source to another source, but it did exactly what I needed. I started off with 66,055 "Familysearch" citations and was able to move them to appropriate specific sources. After a couple of hours I only have about 11,000 left so that save alot of work.

I do have two more questions when you have time:
1. I have several thousand duplicate citations. I tried using the "Find Duplicate Citations" plugin but it seemed to only look at the Source information in determining what was a duplicate and not the citation information also so it wanted to delete sources citations that may have the same title but different citations. There is not a plugin for FH that will look at the citation info right?

2. Over time I want to work my way through each ancestor deleting and merging some citations. It would be helpful if the citations were in alphabetical order. Am I correct that that is not possible in FH 7? (Other than using the little arrow at the top that lets you move one source citation at a time to reorder?). Just wanted to make sure I wasn't missing anything obvious.

Thanks again for all your help

Matthew

[David2416]

I have long wanted a method of sorting source citations. Haven't found a way.

[tatewise]

It may not be exactly what you are looking for, but the Where Used Record Links plugin may provide what you need.

In the Records Window, select the Source record(s) you are interested in investigating and run the plugin.
It tells you if it finds any duplicated Citations and marks them with an asterisk * in the Result Set.
It also gives each Citation a Key number where all identical Citations have the same Key.
The results are sorted by Source Record and then by Individual/Family Record where used.

See the Help page https://pluginstore.family-historian.co ... cord-links for details.

[arthurk]

2. Over time I want to work my way through each ancestor deleting and merging some citations. It would be helpful if the citations were in alphabetical order...

I have long wanted a method of sorting source citations. Haven't found a way.

How would any automated method know which order to put them in? Apart from putting censuses in date order, I usually arrange citations so that the ones which best support a fact go to the top, and as this isn't always predictable, I need to have full manual control.

At least in FH there already is this easy way to reorder sources with the up/down arrows. One of the reasons I switched to it is that to reorder citations in my previous program you had to copy one and paste it in as a duplicate, which went to the top or bottom of the list (I can't remember which), then delete the original. Repeat ad nauseam until you have the whole list in the desired order - and be prepared to go through the whole process again if you discover another source which doesn't belong at the top/bottom of the list.

[tatewise]

@arthurk ~ As you say, it is usually best to put the most relevant Citation at the top of the list.
Then tools such as Lookup Missing Census Facts and Lookup Missing BMD Records plugins and Diagram Box Expressions will work reliably.

What is needed is a way of presenting the Citations in a sorted (alphabetical) list and the Where Used Record Links plugin offers just that.

[MFriend]

Hi Mike:

The "Where Used Record Links" plugin I think does what I need. What I haven't figured out is what exactly do I click on to select two citations to merge? I tried clicking on different fields and then selecting the merge function on the edit menu but it seems to want to merge sources and not citations?? Here is an example of a source that has duplicates. I tried selecting two complete rows, clicking on record numbers, etc. Maybe the merging has to be done elsewhere? Thank you for your time

[tatewise]

Matthew, since the Citations are identical you simply need to delete one of the duplicates.
It is not possible to merge Citations.
So double-click the Data Ref Where Used cell (e.g. INDI.RESI[3].SOUR[5]) for one of the duplicates.
That will open all the Citations with that chosen duplicate selected, so click the red X Delete Citation button to delete it.

[MFriend]

Thanks Mike, that works