When you open a database (either existing or new), the following window is displayed:

The main &app; window contains the following elements: Menubar The menubar is located at the very top of the window (right below the window title) and provides access to all the features of &app;. Toolbar The toolbar is located right below the menubar. It gives you access to the most frequently used functions of &app;. You can set options that control how it appears by going to EditPreferences. You can also hide it entirely by going to ViewToolbar. Progress Bar The Progress Bar is located in the lower left corner of the &app; window. It displays the progress of time consuming operations, such as opening and saving large data bases, importing and exporting to other formats, generating web sites, etc. When you are not doing these types of operations, the Progress Bar is blank. Status Bar The Status Bar is located to the right of the Progress Bar, on the very bottom of the &app; window. It displays information about current &app; activity and contextual information about the selected items. The behavior of the Status Bar can be adjusted in the Preferences dialog, which can be found by selecting EditPreferences. Display area The largest area in the center of the &app; window is the display area. What it displays depends on the currently selected View. We'll discuss Views in detail below. Genealogical information is very broad and can be extremely detailed. Displaying it poses a challenge that GRAMPS takes on by dividing and organizing the information into a series of Views. Each View displays a portion of the total information, selected according to a particular category. This will become clearer as we explore the six different Views, listed below: People View Family View Pedigree View Sources View Places View Media View Before we launch into a description of each View, let's first explain how to switch between Views. As mentioned above there are six different Views. In addition, there are two different Viewing Modes. You can tell at a glance which Viewing Mode you are in: If you see icons listed vertically in a sidebar at the left of the window, you are in the Sidebar Viewing Mode. If instead you see a series of "notebook tabs" (labeled People, Family, Pedigree, Sources, Places, Media) that run horizontally across the window, then you are in the Tabbed Viewing Mode. You can switch from one Viewing Mode to another by selecting ViewSidebar from the Sidebar menu item. If you're in the Sidebar Viewing Mode, you can select the View you want by clicking one of the sidebar icons.

Shows sidebar viewing mode.

If you're in the Tabbed Viewing Mode, you can select the View you want by clicking the corresponding notebook tab.

Shows tabbed viewing mode.

When &app; first opens a database, it displays the People View ( and ). This view lists all the people stored in the database. You'll note that people are grouped according to their family names. To the left of each family name is an arrow. Clicking it once will reveal the entire list of people sharing that name. Clicking the arrow again will "roll up" the list and show only the family name. By default, the People View, displays the following columns: Names, &app; ID numbers, Gender, and their Birth and Death dates. You can add or remove columns to and from the display by calling up the Column Editor dialog (EditColumn Editor) and checking or unchecking the boxes listed. You can also change the position of a column in People View by clicking and dragging it to a new position in the Editor. Once you have made the changes you want, click OK to exit the Editor and see your changes in the People View. The Column Editor is available in all Views and works the same way in each.

Shows column editor dialog.

Genealogical databases can contain information on many people, families, places, and objects. It's therefore possible for a View to contain a long list of data that's difficult to work with. &app; gives you a means for controlling this condition by allowing you to filter a list to a more manageable size.

Shows filter controls.

When &app; opens a database, no filtering is in effect. In People View, for example, all people in the database are listed by default. To filter the list, go to View Filter . This will place a new menu just above the list of People. Click on the double arrows of this menu to get a pop-up list of all the criteria by which you can filter the People listed. Choose a filter (for example, "Males" or "People with children") and click Apply. To reduce screen clutter, the filter menu is hidden by default. To display it, go to the View Filter menu. Please understand that even if the filter menu is not displayed, filtering may still be in effect. (Thus, we say that filtering is persistent.) If you are unsure if your list is filtered, bring up the filter menu (by going to View Filter ) and check if any filtering is set. To show males only, choose the Males filter, then click the Apply button. To cancel any filtering, set the filter to Entire Database and then click the Apply button. The Family View displays the family information of a selected person that we call the Active person. Specifically, it shows his or her closest relationships.

Shows Family View.

The Family View displays the following series of list boxes: Active person Shows birth and death data for the individual you have selected. Double-click inside the box to edit the Active person's information. Click on the double arrow to the right and the currently selected Spouse will become the new Active person. Relationship Displays birth and death data for the Active person's Spouse(s). In the Family View, we use the term "spouse" for sake of simplicity. However, please note that "spouse" may in fact be a domestic partner, a partner in a civil union, etc. Double-click a Spouse to edit his or her relationship to the Active person. Shift-click (that is, hold down the Shift key while you click) a Spouse to edit his or her personal information. Click the icon to the top right of the Relationship box to add a new person to the database and to create a relationship between this person and the Active person. Click the middle icon to create a relationship between the Active person and another person already stored in the database. Click the minus (-) button to remove the relationship between the currently selected Spouse and the Active person. (Note that this does not remove the Spouse from the database.) Active person's parents Click the + or - buttons to add or remove parents of the Active person. Click the right arrow button to make the Father the new Active person and the Mother the new Spouse. Spouse's parents This list box functions the same as that of the Active person's parents. Children Displays the children of the Active person and the currently selected Spouse. The list can be ordered however you want by clicking on a column heading. Note that in addition to columns for Name, ID, Gender, Birth Date, and Death Date, there is a column labeled Status.1 This column reflects the relationship between the child and his parents (Birth, Adoption, etc.). As with the other list boxes, the Children list box has some associated buttons. Click the left arrow button to make the selected Child the Active person. Click the next button down to add a new person to the database and to make this person a Child of the Active person. Click the next button down to select a person from the database and to make this person a Child of the Active person. Click the lowest button to remove the selected Child from the Family (note that this does not remove the Child from the database). Most of the functions described above can also be executed by right-clicking your mouse. The layout of the Family View can be switched from the "left-to-right" arrangement shown in to the "top-to-bottom" arrangement shown in . This is done by going to EditPreferences and selecting the Display section of the dialog that appears.

Shows Alternative Family View.

The Pedigree View displays a family tree of the Active person's ancestors. The Pedigree View shows up to five generations, depending on the size of the window. Each person is indicated by a box labeled with his or her name. Two lines branch from each box. The top one shows the person's father and the bottom one the mother. Solid lines represent birth relations, while dashed lines represent non-birth relations such as adoption, step-parenthood, guardianship, etc.

Shows Pedigree View.

If you move your mouse over a box, it expands to show birth and death dates. If you move your mouse over a line, the line gets highlighted, indicating an active link. Double-click the line to make the corresponding ancestor the Active person.

Shows Children Menu in Pedigree View.

To the left of the Active person is a left arrow button. If the Active person has children, clicking this button expands a list of the Active person's children. Selecting one of the children makes that child the pctive Person. The appearance of the children's names in the menu differentiates the "dead ends" of the tree from the continuing branches. Children who have children themselves appear in the menu in the boldface and italic type, while children without children ("dead ends") appear in a regular font. If the Active person has only one child, no menu will be displayed (since there is only one choice) and the child will become the Active person when the arrow button is clicked. The right-hand side of the window shows two right arrow buttons. When the top button is clicked, the Father of the Active person becomes the Active person. Clicking the bottom button makes the Mother of the Active person the Active person.

Shows Context Menu in Pedigree View.

Right-clicking on any person's box in the Pedigree View will bring up the "context menu". Among other useful items, the context menu has sub-menus listing Spouses, Siblings, Children, and Parents of that person. "Greyed-out" sub-menus indicate the absence of the data in the appropriate category. Similarly to the children menu above, Childrens' and Parents' menus distinguish continuing lines from dead ends.

Shows Pedigree View with the anchor set.

Pedigree View gives you an additional, advanced way of labeling generations. This feature becomes available by setting the "anchor" on a selected person. If the anchor is set, the generations are labeled as follows: The Anchor Person (and his/her generation) is labeled as 0. The ancestor generations are numbered with positive integers (1,2, 3,etc.). The descendant generations are numbered with negative integers (-1,-2, -3, etc.). In all cases, the number represents the number of generations between the labeled generation and the anchor person. In this mode, you can travel along the extensive pedigree line and see the number of generations removed from the Anchor Person. To set the anchor, select the person you want as the Active person (recall that you can do so in the Pedigree View by clicking the line that leads to the person from his or her child). Then, while in Pedigree View, right click anywhere in the main window. A context menu will appear. Select Set anchor and you will see the Active person indicated as the anchor in the lower left corner. This newly established Anchor Person will remain in effect until you right-click again and select Remove anchor from the context menu or until a new Active person is chosen who is unrelated to the Anchor Person. Sources View lists the sources of certain information stored in the database. These can include various documents (birth, death, and marriage certificates, etc.), books, films, journals, private diaries, - nearly anything that can provide genealogical evidence. GRAMPS gives you the option to provide a source for each event you record (births, deaths, marriages, etc.). The Source View lists the Title, ID, and Author of the source, as well as any Publication information that may be associated with it. The list of Sources can be sorted in the usual manner, by clicking on a column heading. Clicking once sorts in ascending order, clicking again sorts in descending order. The Column Editor dialog can be used to add, remove and rearrange the displayed columns.

Shows Sources View.

The Places View lists the geographical places in which the events of the database took place. These could be places of birth, death, and marriages of people, as well as their home, employment, education addresses, or any other conceivable reference to the geographical location. The Places View lists the places' Name, ID, Church Parish, City, County, State, and Country. All of these columns can be used for sorting by the usual sorting rules. The Column Editor dialog may be used to add, remove and rearrange the displayed columns.

Shows Places View.

Shows Media View.

The Media View is a list of Media Objects used in the database. Media Objects are any files that relate somehow to the stored genealogical data. Technically, any file can be stored as a Media Object. Most frequently, these are images, audio files, animation files, etc. The list box on the bottom lists the Name, ID, Type, and Path of the Media Object. The Column Editor dialog may be used to rearrange the displayed columns, which obey usual sorting rules. The top part of the GRAMPS window shows a preview (if available) and information about the Media Object.