Usage
As commonly encountered in everyday life, there is usually more
than one way to accomplish something in &app;. The alternatives to
some actions will therefore be listed as appropriate.
Starting a New Database
To start a new database, choose
FileNew.
You will then be prompted with the Create GRAMPS
database dialog asking to specify the name under
which the new database will be stored. The new database will be
created in the BSDDB format, with .grdb as
the default extension.
Selecting file
This version does not require selecting a directory for the
database. Please select filename, as you would in any other
application.
Opening a Database
To open a database, either choose
FileOpen
or click the Open button on the Toolbar.
The Open database dialog will appear.
The filetype filter in the Open database
dialog allows you to display files of a certain type. If the
All files filter is selected (the default),
all the files will be shown. The type will be determined by the
extension of the selected filename.
Selecting file
Unlike the version 1.0.X of &app;, this version does not
require selecting directory for the database. Please select
filename, as you would in any other application.
If you do not have write permissions for the selected database,
it will be opened in a Read Only mode. In this mode, the data
may be viewed, but no changes will be made to the database. To
indicate this mode, the title of the main window will be
appended with (Read Only) text.
Opening XML and GEDCOM databases
This version allows direct opening and editing of &app; XML
and GEDCOM databases. Please keep in mind that, unlike using
the native grdb format, these formats require holding all data
in memory. This leads to performance and memory consumption
problems which grdb was designed to solve.
While direct opening of a &app; XML or GEDCOM file is
convenient for a small database, it may prove burdensome for
large databases. If you experience this, please consider
creating a new native (grdb) database and importing your XML
or GEDCOM data into it. This will make accessing your data
much more efficient and quick.
GEDCOM Editing
Please keep in mind that some information in a GEDCOM file may
be lost during import into &app;. Simply opening and viewing
the file will not change it. However, if any changes were
made and they were not abandoned upon exit, exiting &app; will
save the data, with possible data loss.
To open a recently opened database, choose
FileOpen Recent
and select the filename from the list. You can also use
ActionsRecent Documents
from the GNOME Actions menu.
Saving a Database
A consequence of the new database backend is that the changes,
once approved by the user, are applied immediately. Once you
click OK in the Person, Family, Source,
Place, Media object, or Event editor, all the changes made to
this object are recorded in the database. No saving is
necessary, or even possible.
Choosing
EditUndo
allows you to undo the changes you made, one step at a time.
Reverting the whole session
If you would like to revert the whole editing session, choose
FileAbandon
changes and quit. This will be
analogous to quitting without saving any changes in other
applications.
If you would like to save your database under a different name,
you can do so by choosing
FileSave as...
and specifying the name (and, optionally, format) of your new
database.
"Save as" continues editing
If you use the Save as... function, the
editing in the main window is performed on the newly made
copy. If this is not what you want to do, please consider
using Export... instead.
Importing Data
Importing allows you to incorporate the data from other
databases into your currently open &app; database. Currently,
&app; can import data from the following formats: &app; database
(grdb), GEDCOM, &app; XML, &app; package, and GeneWeb. All of
these are available by choosing
FileImport
and selecting an appropriate file.
&app; database (grdb), &app; XML, and &app; package are all
native &app; formats in that there is no information loss
resulting from reading from and writing into these formats.
&app; database (grdb)
The native &app; database format is a specific form of
Berkeley database (BSDDB) with special structure of data
tables. This format is binary and
architecture-dependent. It is very quick and efficient,
but not generally portable across computers with
different binary architecture (e.g. i386 vs alpha).
&app; XML
The &app; XML file was the default format for the
previous stable version of &app;. Unlike the grdb
format, it is architecture independent and
human-readable. The database may also have references to
non-local (external) media objects, therefore it is not
guaranteed to be completely portable. The &app; XML
database is created by saving (
FileSave As...
) or exporting (
FileExport...
) data in that format
&app; package
The package is a compressed archive containing the &app;
XML file and all media objects (images, sound files,
etc.) to which the database refers. The &app; package is
created by exporting (
FileExport...
) data in that format.
Opening vs importing
The difference between opening &app; database (in any format)
and importing from &app; or GEDCOM database is that importing
incorporates all the data into your currently open database,
if any. In contrast, opening the database will switch from
editing your current data to editing another file.
After choosing an import format, you will be prompted with the
Import database dialog asking you to
specify the file name from which to import.
Selecting file
This version does not require selecting a directory for the
database. Please select filename, as you would in any other
application.
Upon starting the GEDCOM import, &app; will display the
following GEDCOM import dialog with the summary of the
information about the data. The information is updated as the
import progresses.
Upon starting the &app; database or &app; package import, &app;
will display the progress in the progress bar of its main window.
If a media file is not found during import, the following dialog
will prompt you for the possible actions:
To remove the object corresponding to the missing file as
well as all the references to that object from various
database records, click the Remove
Object button. This will alter your database so
that it will be in a consistent state, but all the
references to the missing file will be gone. Use this option
if the file is irrevocably lost and there is no possibility
of ever replacing it.
To keep the reference to the object corresponding to the
missing file, click the Keep
Reference button. This will leave things as is,
i.e. in an inconsistent state. You could supply the missing
file later, in which case you will have to copy it into your
database directory. Choose this option if the replacement is
possible, but not available right now.
To supply the missing file during import, click the
Select File button. This will copy
the file you select in place of the missing file. No
references will be altered in the database, and it will be
in the consistent state. Use this option if the replacement
is readily available.
To automatically use the selection made in this dialog for
all missing media files, check the Use this
selection for all missing media files box. This
will remember your choice and use it for all media files
missing during this import, so that no further dialogs will
be presented. Use this option if you anticipate many missing
files and want to deal with all of them in the same manner.
Exporting Data
Exporting allows you to share any portion of your &app; database
with other researchers as well as to make your database
completely portable to another computer. Currently, &app; can
export data to the following formats: &app; database (grdb),
&app; XML, GEDCOM, &app; package, Web Family Tree, and GeneWeb.
Export is saving a copy
Exporting will create another file with the copy of your data.
The database currently opened in your &app; window is NOT the
file saved by your export. Future editing of the currently
opened database will not alter the copy produced by the
export.
To export data, choose
FileExport.
This will bring up the Export druid. Its
pages will guide you through the format selection (see ), file selection, and format
specific export options (see ). After a final confirmation
page, the export will be performed according to the choices you
have made. At any time, you can click the
Back and revise any selection, and then
go forward to redo the export.
GEDCOM export
GEDCOM export options allow you to fine tune your export (see
). Choose the desired
Encoding of the exported file. Use the
Filter pop-up menu to limit the scope of
the export according to the stated rule. Use the
Target menu to select the desired GEDCOM
dialect. Select your copyright statement from the
Copyright menu. Check Do not
include records marked private to disable the
output of private records. Check Restrict data on
living people to limit living people's data to
family ties. With this option, information concerning birth,
death, addresses, various events, etc. will be omitted in the
exported GEDCOM file. If this option is selected, you can
further choose whether to use the word "Living" as first name,
exclude notes, and exclude sources for the living
people. Check Reference images from path
to tell &app; to use the specific path for your images when
writing image references in GEDCOM.
Export into &app; formats&app; database (grdb) export
Exporting to the native format will simply make a copy
of your data under another name. It also may be useful
if you have directly opened XML or GEDCOM file and
would like to save it as the grdb file.
&app; XML database export
Exporting into &app; XML format will produce a database
compatible with the previous versions of &app;. As XML
is a text-based human-readable format, you may also use
it to take a look at your data.
&app; package export
Exporting to &app; package will create a gzip-compressed
tar archive (also known as tarball) which contains
gramps database and copies of all media objects
files. This is a useful format for moving your database
to another machine or for sharing it with somebody,
while retaining all the features provided by &app; .
Export to CD
Exporting to CD will prepare your database and copies of
all media objects files to be recorded to the CD. This
is done through the burn:///
location in Nautilus. After exporting to CD, go to the
burn:/// location by selecting
GoCD Creator
in Nautilus menu (unless this location is already
displayed by &app;). Your database directory will show
up. To record it on to the CD, click the CD icon on the
Nautilus toolbar, or select
FileWrite to CD
in Nautilus menu.
If a media file is not found during export, the following
dialog will prompt you for the possible actions:
To remove the object corresponding to the missing file
as well as all the references to that object from
various database records, click the Remove
Object button. This will alter your database
so that it will be in the consistent state, but all the
references to the missing file will be gone. Use this
option if the file is irrevocably lost and there is no
possibility of ever replacing it.
To keep the reference to the object corresponding to the
missing file, click the Keep
Reference button. This will leave things as
is, i.e. in the inconsistent state. You could supply
the missing file later, in which case you will have to
copy it into your database directory. Choose this option
if the replacement is possible, but not available right
now.
To supply the missing file during export, click the
Select File button. This will
copy the file you select in place of the missing
file. No references will be altered in the database, and
it will be in the consistent state. Use this option if
the replacement is readily available.
To automatically use the selection made in this dialog
for all missing media files, check the Use
this selection for all missing media files
box. This will remember your choice and use it for all
media files missing during this export, so that no
further dialogs will be presented. Use this option if
you anticipate many missing files and want to deal with
all of them in the same manner.
Export into other formatsWeb Family Tree
Exporting to Web Family Tree will create the text file
suitable as an input for the WFT program. Specific
options include filter selection and the ability to
restrict data on living people, that is to limit living
people's data to family ties.
GeneWeb
Exporting to GeneWeb will save a copy of your data into
a popular web genealogy format. To find out more about
GeneWeb and its format, visit
this site.vCalendar and vCard
Exporting to vCalendar or vCard will save information in
a format used in many calendaring and addressbook
applications, sometimes called PIM for Personal
Information Manager.
Editing Data: Quick Start
Editing any portion of data allows you to amend and/or modify
information stored in the database. The available editing
options include editing personal data, relationship data, data
about children and parents, and information about sources,
places, and media objects used in the database. In short, any
data stored in the database can be edited! Adding a new piece
of information is the process of creating an appropriate empty
data structure and subsequently editing that empty structure.
This section refers mainly to the menu items and buttons as
the main way of interacting with &app;. In addition to this,
&app; provides an extensive set of key bindings. The detailed
reference to the key bindings is found in the
.
To Add a Person
To add a person to the database, switch to the People View
() and then click the
Add on the toolbar. Enter any data you
know about this person into the Edit
Person Dialog (see
for details). To edit information about a person already
present in the database, select an entry you would like to
view/modify, and then click the Edit
icon on the toolbar.
You can also use Add... and
Edit... menu items available under the
Edit. Or you can right-click on the
person and select Add... or
Edit... from the invoked context menu.
To Specify a Relationship
To specify a relationship, first switch to the Family View
(). Then click one of the two top
buttons on the right of the spouse box. The topmost button
adds a new person to the database and to the relationship,
while the second top button adds a person that is already in a
database to the relationship.
If using the second button, select the spouse/partner from the
list and specify the relationship using the menu at the
bottom. If necessary, you can add a person to the list by
clicking the + button. &app; will
filter the displayed list of people based on the apparent
relationship possibility. Specifically, shown are the people who
could possibly be in relationship with the active person, as
judged by the available birth and death information. To
override this and display all people from the database, check
the Show all box.
To edit information about a relationship already present in
the database, move the mouse over the
Spouse box and double-click. If the
relationship lists has more than one person, you can specify
the preferred spouse/partner by selecting an appropriate item
from the context menu available upon right-clicking into the
spouse box. Also, most of the above function are available
from the items of this context menu.
To Specify Parents
To specify parents of an active person, first switch to the
Family View (). Then click the
+ button on the right of the active
person's parents list box. Select the parents from two lists
and specify the parents' relationships to the active person
using menus at the bottom. You can also specify parents'
relationship to each other. If necessary, you can add a
person to the list by clicking the
Add... button.
The top and bottom lists contain males and females,
respectively. By default, &app; will limit both lists to
people who could possibly be the parents (judged by the date
of birth) of the active person. To override this, check the
Show all box for each list.
To specify parents of the active person's spouse, switch to
the Family View and then click the +
button on the right of the spouse's parents list box. To edit
information about parents already present in the database,
move the mouse over the corresponding parents' box and
double-click. All these functions can also be performed by
right-clicking on the parents' box and selecting an
appropriate item from the context menu.
To Specify Children
To specify children of an active person, switch to the Family
View () and then click either the
second or the third button from the top on the right of the
children list box. The second button adds a child to the
database and to the family, while the third button adds a
child already present in the database to the family.
If using the third button, select a child from the list and
specify the child's relationship with father and mother using
menus at the bottom. If necessary, you can add a person to the
list by clicking the Add... button. By
default, &app; will limit the lists to people who could
possibly be the child (judged by the date of birth) of the
active person. To override this, check the Show
all box.
The relationship of the child to the parents can be modified
by selecting an appropriate item from the context menu
available upon right-clicking into the children box. Also,
most of the above function are available from the items of
this context menu.
To Add Images
You can add images (as well as other media objects) to
individual people, events, sources, places, as well as images
generally related to the database (e.g. group family photos).
To add images related to a single person, switch to the People
View (), select a person, and
then click the Edit icon on the toolbar
to invoke the Edit Person Dialog
(). Then, select the
Gallery tab, and click the
+ button to invoke the Select
a media object dialog. Type the filename or select
a file with the image, then provide a title for that
image. Keep adding images until you are done.
To add images related to a relationship (e.g. marriage),
switch to the Family View () and
then double-click on the Spouse box invoke the
Marriage/Relationship editor
dialog. Select the Gallery tab and click
the + button to add an image.
To add images related to a source or a place, first switch to
the Sources View () or Places
View (), respectively. Then select
the appropriate source or place and then either double-click
on it or click the Edit icon on the
toolbar to invoke the Source Editor (or
Place Editor) dialog. Select the
Gallery tab and click the
+ button to add an image.
Finally, to add images that are generally related to the
database but not limited to any person, relationship, source,
or place in particular, switch to the Media View (). Then click the
Add icon on the toolbar to add an
image. If you have already added any images to any individual
galleries, you will also find them listed in the Media View.
In any gallery, you can also use the
Edit and -
buttons to edit image information and to remove the image
reference from that gallery. Note that in all galleries
removing the reference to the image does not remove the image
from the database. To completely remove the image from the
database, delete it from Media View by first selecting it and
then clicking the Remove icon on the
toolbar.
To Edit Sources and Places
To add a source or a place to the database, switch to the
appropriate Sources View () or
Places View (). Then click the
Add icon on the toolbar to add a
source/place. Enter the information into the Source
Editor (or Place Editor)
dialog.
To edit information about sources and places already present
in the database, switch to the appropriate view, select an
entry you would like to view/modify, and then click the
Edit icon on the
toolbar. Alternatively, you may double-click on the entry to
edit it.
Editing Data: Complete Description
This section provides a complete description of all editing
options for all pieces of data in the &app; database. It refers
mainly to the menu items and buttons as the main way of
interacting with &app;. In addition to this, &app; provides an
extensive set of keybindings. The detailed reference to the
keybindings is found in the .
Add, Remove, and Edit buttons
In order to save precious screen space, most of the
Add, Remove,
and Edit buttons no longer are labeled
with text. Instead, the first two use
+ and - icons,
and the third uses the icon depicting a pen on top of a paper
sheet.
Reference the latter as the
Edit button, while using
+ and - to
denote the former two buttons.
Personal Information
Editing of personal data can be performed in the following
ways:
From the People View:
Double-click the name of the person whose data you would
like to edit, or select the name by single click and
then click the Edit icon on the
toolbar. You may also select the name and then press
Enter. Finally, you may select
Edit... from the
Edit menu of &app; or choose
Edit from the context menu
that appears upon right-click on the name.
From the Family View:
To edit active person's data, move the mouse into the
Active person box, then
double-click, or use any of the menu items described
above. To edit Spouse's data, Shift-click desired
spouse entry. Also, from Spouse and
Children boxes you may select the
desired person, right-click, and then select the menu
item from the context menu to edit the selected person's
data.
From the Pedigree View:
Move the mouse into the box bearing the name of the
person whose data you would like to edit, then
double-click.
With either method, the following Edit
Person dialog will appear:
The top of the window shows the name of the person whose
data is being edited. The main part of the window displays
ten notebook tabs containing different categories of
available information. You can bring any tab to the top for
viewing or editing by clicking on the appropriate tab
heading. The bottom part has OK and
Cancel buttons. Clicking the
OK button at any time will apply all
the changes made in all tabs and close the dialog
window. Clicking the Cancel button at
any time will close the window without applying any
changes. If any of the data in any tab were modified, the
alert window will appear with the choices of closing the
dialog without saving changes, canceling the initial cancel
request, or saving the changes.
Clicking OK will immediately save
changes to the database (write on disk). This version of
&app; does not have a separate saving function, all
changes are immediate.
The tab labels reflect the presence of corresponding
information: if the tab contains any data, its label
appears boldface; if the tab has no data then its label
appears regular (not bold).
The tabs provide the following information categories of
personal data:
General
The General tab allows editing of
general information about the person. This includes
the text entry fields of Given
name, Family name,
Family prefix (such as de or
van), Suffix (e.g. Jr. or III),
Title (e.g. Dr. or Rev.),
Nickname (Bob for Robert),
Type of the name (birth name,
married name, etc.) and Date and
Place of birth and death. Some of
these (Family name,
Type, and both
Place fields), also provide
autocompletion feature: as you type in these fields,
the menu is displayed below the field with the
available entries from the database that are
compatible with your partial input. This allows for a
quick selection of an available entry by selecting it
from the menu, either using the mouse or arrows and
Enter key.
The Edit button located by the
Family name entry allows editing
the preferred name in complete detail, by invoking
the Name Editor dialog (see
).
The Gender radio buttons offer the
choice of person's gender between
male, female,
and unknown. Clicking the colored
circle buttons (green, yellow, or red, also called LED
buttons) located next to the birth and death Date fields
will bring up the Date Selection
dialog allowing detailed modification of the date, see
. Clicking either
Edit button located next to the
birth and death LED buttons will bring up a dialog
allowing you to edit the corresponding event (birth or
death) details, see . The field
ID displays an internal &app; ID
number which identifies the user in the database. The
Image area shows the first image
available in the Gallery of this
person (if any exist).
Finally, the Information is
complete and Information is
private check buttons provides the way to
mark whether this person's record is complete or not and
whether it is a private record.
Names
The Names tab displays information
concerning alternate names of the person and the
controls allowing their modification. The bottom part
displays the list of all alternate names of the person
stored in the database. The top part shows the details
of the currently selected name in the list (if any). The
buttons +,
Edit, and
- allow the addition,
modification, and removal of an alternate name record
from the database. Note that the
Edit and -
buttons become available only when an alternate name is
selected from the list.
Events
The Events tab displays information
about the events relevant to the person and controls
allowing its modification. The bottom part displays the
list of all such events stored in the database. The top
part shows the details of the currently selected event
in the list (if any). The buttons
+, Edit,
and - allow you to
correspondingly add, modify, and remove an event record
from the database. Note that the
Edit and -
buttons become available only when an event is selected
from the list.
Attributes
The Attributes tab displays
information about the attributes of the person and
controls allowing their modification. These could be any
personal attributes of a person whose description
naturally fits into Parameter-Value pairs (e.g. enormous
generosity can be stored as the parameter "Generosity"
with the value "Enormous", etc.). The bottom part
displays the list of all attributes stored in the
database. The top part shows the details of the
currently selected attribute in the list (if any). The
buttons +,
Edit, and
- allow you to correspondingly
add, modify, and remove an attribute record from the
database. Note that the Edit and
- buttons become available only
when an attribute is selected from the list.
Addresses
The Addresses tab displays
information about the addresses of the person and the
controls allowing their modification. The bottom part
displays the list of all addresses stored in the
database. The top part shows the details of the
currently selected address in the list (if any). The
buttons +,
Edit, and
- allow you to correspondingly
add, modify, and remove an address record from the
database. Note that the Edit and
- buttons become available only
when an address is selected from the list.
Some reports allow you to restrict data on living
people. In particular, that option will omit the
addresses of people who are currently alive.
Notes
The Notes tab displays information
about the notes concerning the person. These could be
any notes which do not naturally fit into the
Parameter-Value pairs available to Attributes. To add
a note or modify existing notes simply edit the text in
the text entry field.
The Format option allows you to set
the appearance of the note in the output (i.e. in
reports and web pages). Selecting
Flowed will replace all multiple
spaces, tabs, and single end-of-line characters with
single space in the output. The two consecutive new
lines (i.e. an empty line) denote a new paragraph.
Selecting Preformatted will honor
all multiple spaces tabs, and new lines, so that the
output will appear as it is entered into the text entry
field.
Sources
The Sources tab displays
information about the sources related to the person and
controls allowing its modification. These could be any
general sources which refer to the person but do not
describe specifically any event. For example, Aunt
Martha's memoirs may mention her great grandson Paul, so
the researcher may assume that this person (Paul)
existed and cite the memoirs as the source for this
assumption.
Sources documenting specific events are better
recorded in relation to those events, under the
Events tab. The person's
Sources tab is best used for
general source references.
The central part displays the list of all source
references stored in the database in relation to the
person. The buttons +,
Edit, and
- allow you to correspondingly
add, modify, and remove a source reference to this
person. Note that the Edit and
- buttons become available only
when a source reference is selected from the list.
Gallery
The Gallery tab displays
information about media objects associated with the
person and controls allowing subsequent
modification. The central part shows the list of all
such media objects. For media object which are valid
image files, previews of images are displayed. For other
objects such as audio files, movie files, etc., a
corresponding file type icon is displayed instead.
The first available image in the gallery will be also
displayed in the Image area in
the General tab.
The buttons +,
Select,
Edit, and
- allow you to correspondingly
add a new image, add a reference to an image already
stored in the database, modify, and remove a media
object reference to this person. Note that the
Edit and -
buttons become available only when a media object is
selected from the list.
Removing a media object from a person's gallery does
not remove it from the database. It only removes the
reference to that object from this person's record.
Internet
The Internet tab displays
information about Internet addresses relevant to the
person and the controls allowing data modification. The
bottom part displays the list of all such Internet
addresses stored in the database. The top part shows the
details of the currently selected addresses in the list
(if any). The buttons +,
Edit, and
- allow you to correspondingly
add, modify, and remove an Internet address record from
the database. The button Go
allows opening a web-page with the corresponding address
with your default browser. Note that the
Edit, -,
and Go buttons become available
only when an address is selected from the list.
LDS
The LDS tab displays information
about LDS ordinances of the person and controls allowing
modification. These are LDS
baptism, Endowment, and
Sealed to parents ordinances, as
labeled inside the tab. Each ordinance is described by
its date, LDS temple, and Place where it happened. An
additional pop-up menu Parents is
available for the Sealed to parents
ordinance. Each ordinance can further be described by
its status through the selections available in the
Status pop-up menu and can also be
referenced by sources and notes via corresponding
Sources... and
Note buttons.
Dates
This section describes the details of entering and modifying
dates. Dates are important in genealogical research, so &app;
goes a long way to preserve and use any date information
available.
Date types and validity indicators
&app; uses color circles to indicate the validity of the
entered date.
Date LED buttons
The color circles are also referred to as the LED buttons.
Clicking on an LED button will invoke the Date
selection dialog described in detail below, see
Green circle means that the date is valid and complete
regular date (e.g. May 24, 1961). In simple terms, green
means that the date is uniquely defined up to a day.
Yellow circle means that the date is valid but is not a
regular date. This could be the date of an alternative
type: a before date (before May 25, 1962), an after date
(after May, 1960), an about date (about May 23, 1961), a
range (between May 1, 1961 and May 31, 1961), or a span
(from May 1, 1961 to May 31, 1961). It can also be a
complete single date, but with quality of Estimated or
Calculated. Finally, it could be a partial date, i.e. a
regular quality single date missing some portion,
e.g. May 1961 or 1961.
While partial dates do not uniquely define the day, they
allow at least for some type of comparisons between the
dates.
Red circle means that the date is not recognized as a
valid date (e.g. "Christmas week of 61", or "the summer
when I had surgery"). n that case the date will be
stored as a text string. Therefore, no comparison with
other dates will be available. It is best to avoid such
date entries. Same information can be entered as a note
for the event of interest instead of a date. In the
example considered, a better things to do is to enter
December 1961 as a date and "Christmas week of 61" as a
note.
Acceptable date entries
&app; recognizes many formats of exact dates. The numeric
formats are determined by the default environment &app; is
running under. Most European countries use DD.MM.YYYY, the
US commonly uses MM/DD/YYYY, and so on.
Besides exact dates, &app; recognizes many dates that are
not regular: before, after, about, ranges and spans. It also
understands the quality: estimated or calculated. Finally,
it supports partial dates and many alternative calendars.
Below is the list of date entry rules to allow precise date
parsing.
Date parsing rules
The list below is only valid for English. If you are using
localized version of &app;, your version may or may not
provide a localized date parser. At the time of this
writing, localized parsers exist for French, Russian, and
Spanish languages.
If the localized parser is available for your version,
chances are that other rules are in effect. If there's no
manual in your language yet, you may try following your
instinct and go with the common ways of denoting dates in
your language. If all else fails, use the Date
selection dialog described below.
Regular single dates can be entered just as you would
write them in the letter: May 24, 1961 or January 1,
2004.
Dates that are not regular should start with the
quality: estimated or calculated, if applicable. Regular
quality does not need to be specified, as it is the
default. Example: est. 1961, or calc 2005.
Next should appear the type: before, after, or about.
Ranges are denoted with "between DATE and DATE" and
spans use "from DATE to DATE" patterns, where DATE
stands for a single date.
Examples: est from 2001 to 2003, before June 1975, est
about 2000, calc between May 1900 and January 1, 1990.
Partial dates are entered simply by omitting unknown
information: May 1961, 2004.
Alternate calendars are calendars other than Gregorian
calendar. Currently, &app; supports Hebrew, French
Republican, Julian, Islamic, and Persian alternate
calendars. To specify the calendar other than the
default Gregorian, append the name of the calendar to
the date string, e.g. "January 9, 1905 (julian)".
Graphical User Interface for entering dates
While the above rules provide a quick and easy way for
entering most common dates, sometimes there is a need to
either build a complex date or simply check the date using
graphical user interface. The Date
selection dialog can be invoked by clicking the
color circle button (also known as the LED button) next to
the date entry field.
The Calendar menu allows the choice of
any supported calendar. The Quality
menu provides choices of Regular, Estimated, or Calculated
quality. The Type menu allows to adjust
the exact date type: Regular, Before, After, About, Range,
Span, and Text only. A set of controls labeled
Date allows setting the day, the month,
and the year for a date. The second set of controls,
Second date, is disabled for all dates
except for those of Range and Span type. For ranges and
spans, the Second date controls allow
setting the details of the second date. Finally, the
Text comment text entry field allows
storing an arbitrary text string along with the date.
If you enter the date outside this dialog, i.e. as a text
in any date entry field, that text will be copied and
stored as the text comment string during parsing of
entered text.
Therefore, the comment only lives until the next parsing.
If you have some important text corresponding to the date,
you are probably better off by saving that text as a Note
for the corresponding event.
Relationship Data
Editing of relationship data is performed in the following
Marriage/Relationship Editor dialog which
appears after double-clicking on the spouse box in the Family
View. Alternatively, you may invoke this dialog by
right-clicking into the spouse box and selecting
Edit relationship item from the context
menu.
The top of the window shows the names of the people whose
relationship is being edited. The main part of the window
displays seven notebook tabs containing different categories
of available information. You can bring any tab to the top for
viewing or editing by clicking on the appropriate tab heading.
The bottom part has OK and
Cancel buttons. Clicking the
OK button at any time will apply all
the changes made in all tabs and close the dialog
window. Clicking the Cancel button at
any time will close the window without applying any
changes. If any of the data in any tab were modified, the
alert window will appear with the choices of closing the
dialog without saving changes, canceling the initial cancel
request, or saving the changes.
Clicking OK will immediately save
changes to the database (write on disk). This version of
&app; does not have a separate saving function, all changes
are immediate.
The tab labels reflect the presence of corresponding
information: if the tab contains any data, its label
appears boldface; if the tab has no data then its label
appears regular (not bold).
The tabs provide the following information categories of
relationship data:
General
The General tab allows editing of
the most general information about the relationship: the
relationship type. The available types (such as
married, partners, etc.) can be chosen from the
drop-down Relationship type menu.
The ID field displays &app; ID
number which labels this relationship in the
database. The Last changed label
shows the last modification time for this relationship.
Finally, the Information is
complete check button provides the way to
mark whether this relationship's record is complete or
not.
Events
The Events tab displays information
about the events relevant to the relationship and the
controls allowing modification. The bottom part displays
the list of all such events stored in the database. The
top part shows the details of the currently selected
event in the list (if any). The buttons
+, Edit,
and - allow you to
correspondingly add, modify, and remove an event record
from the database. Note that the
Edit and -
buttons become available only when an event is selected
from the list.
Attributes
The Attributes tab displays
information about the attributes of the relationship and
the controls allowing modification. The bottom part
displays the list of all such attributes stored in the
database. The top part shows the details of the
currently selected attribute in the list (if any). The
buttons +,
Edit, and
- allow you to correspondingly
add, modify, and remove an attribute record from the
database. Note that the Edit and
- buttons become available only
when an attribute is selected from the list.
Notes
The Notes tab displays information
about the notes concerning the relationship. These could
be any notes which do not naturally fit into the
Parameter-Value pairs available to Attributes. To add a
note or modify existing notes simply edit the text in
the text entry field.
The Format option allows you to set
the appearance of the note in the output (i.e. in
reports and web pages). Selecting
Flowed will replace all multiple
spaces, tabs, and single end-of-line characters with
single space in the output. The two consecutive new
lines (i.e. an empty line) denote a new paragraph.
Selecting Preformatted will honor
all multiple spaces tabs, and new lines, so that the
output will appear as it is entered into the text entry
field.
Sources
The Sources tab displays
information about he sources related to the relationship
and controls allowing its modification. These could be
any general sources which refer to the relationship but
do not describe specifically any event. For example,
Aunt Martha's memoirs may mention that her great
grandson Paul was married, so the researcher may assume
that this relationship (between Paul and his wife)
existed and cite the memoirs as the source for this
assumption.
Sources documenting specific events such as marriages
or divorces are better filed in relation to those
events, under the Events tab.
The central part displays the list of all source
references stored in the database for this
relationship. The buttons +,
Edit, and
- allow you to correspondingly
add, modify, and remove a source reference to this
relationship. Note that the Edit
and - buttons become available
only when a source reference is selected from the list.
Gallery
The Gallery tab displays
information about media objects associated with the
relationship and the controls allowing modification of
such. The central part shows the list of all such media
objects. For media object which are valid image files
previews of images are displayed. For other objects such
as audio files, movie files, etc., a generic &app; icon
is displayed instead. The buttons
+, Select,
Edit, and
- allow you to correspondingly
add a new image, add a reference to an image already
stored in the database, modify, and remove a media
object reference to this relationship. Note that the
Edit and -
buttons become available only when a media object is
selected from the list.
LDS
The LDS tab displays information
about the LDS Sealed to spouse
ordinance of the person and the controls allowing
modification. The data can include date, LDS temple, and
Place where it happened. The ordinance can further be
described by its status through the selections available
in the Status pop-up menu and can
also be referenced by sources and notes via
corresponding Sources... and
Note buttons.
Source Data
To edit source data, switch to the Sources View and select the
desired entry in the list of sources. Double-click on that
entry or click the Edit icon on the
toolbar to invoke the following Source
Editor dialog:
The top of the window shows the Source
Editor title of the dialog. The main part of the
window displays four notebook tabs containing different
categories of available information. You can bring any tab to
the top for viewing or editing by clicking on the appropriate
tab heading. The bottom part has OK
and Cancel buttons. Clicking the
OK button at any time will apply all
the changes made in all tabs and close the dialog
window. Clicking the Cancel button at
any time will close the window without applying any changes.
Clicking OK will immediately save
changes to the database (write on disk). This version of
&app; does not have a separate saving function, all
changes are immediate.
The tab labels reflect the presence of corresponding
information: if the tab contains any data, its label
appears boldface; if the tab has no data then its label
appears regular (not bold).
The tabs provide the following information categories of
source data:
General
The General tab allows editing of
the most general information about the source: its
title, author, abbreviated title, and publication
information. This information can be typed in the
appropriate text entry fields.
Note
The Note tab displays any notes
concerning the source. To add a note or modify existing
notes simply edit the text in the text entry field.
The Format option allows you to set
the appearance of the note in the output (i.e. in
reports and web pages). Selecting
Flowed will replace all multiple
spaces, tabs, and single end-of-line characters with
single space in the output. The two consecutive new
lines (i.e. an empty line) denote a new paragraph.
Selecting Preformatted will honor
all multiple spaces tabs, and new lines, so that the
output will appear as it is entered into the text entry
field.
Data
The Data tab displays Key/Value
pairs that may be associated with the source. These are
similar to the attributes used for other record
types. The difference from these Key/Value pairs and the
attributes is that the attributes may have source
references and notes, while the Key/Value data may
not.
The central part shows the list of all Key/Value pairs,
if any. The buttons + and
- allow you to correspondingly
add and remove pairs. To modify the text of Key or
Value, first select the desired entry (may be an empty
entry when new pair has just been added). Then click
into either Key or Value cell inside that entry and edit
the text in place. When you are done, click outside the
cell to exit editing mode.
Gallery
The Gallery tab displays
information about media objects associated with the
given source and controls allowing its modification. The
central part shows the list of all such media
objects. For media object which are valid image files
previews of images are displayed. For other objects such
as audio files, movie files, etc., a generic &app; icon
is displayed instead. The buttons
+, Select,
Edit, and
- allow you to correspondingly
add a new image, add a reference to an image already
stored in the database, modify, and remove a media
object reference to this source. Note that the
Edit and -
buttons become available only when a media object is
selected from the list.
References
The References tab displays
information about database records that refer to this
source. If the source is not referenced from any
database record, the tab shows an empty list. If the
source is referenced from many records, the tab will
list all of them. The list can be ordered by any of its
column headers: Type,
ID, or
Name. Double-clicking on the list
entry opens up an editor for a corresponding record
allowing to view or modify the record.
Only primary objects can be shown in the
References tab: Person, Family,
Event, Place, or Media object. The secondary objects
such as Names and Attributes, although may refer the
source, will only show up through their primary
objects they belong to.
Place Data
To edit place data, switch to the Places View and select the
desired entry in the list of places. Double-click on that
entry or click the Edit icon on the
toolbar to invoke the following Place
Editor dialog:
The top of the window shows the Place
Editor title of the dialog. The main part of the
window displays seven notebook tabs containing different
categories of available information. You can bring any tab to
the top for viewing or editing by clicking on the appropriate
tab heading. The bottom part has OK
and Cancel buttons. Clicking the
OK button at any time will apply all
the changes made in all tabs and close the dialog
window. Clicking the Cancel button at
any time will close the window without applying any changes.
Clicking OK will immediately save
changes to the database (write on disk). This version of
&app; does not have a separate saving function, all
changes are immediate.
The tab labels reflect the presence of corresponding
information: if the tab contains any data, its label
appears boldface; if the tab has no data then its label
appears regular (not bold).
The tabs provide the following information categories of
place data:
General
The General tab allows editing of
the most general information about the place: the title
which labels it in the database, city, church parish,
county, state, country, longitude, and latitude. This
information can be typed in the appropriate text entry
fields.
Other names
The Other names tab displays
information concerning other names by which the place
might be known and the controls allowing their
modification. The bottom part displays the list of all
other names of the place stored in the database. The top
part shows the details of the currently selected name in
the list (if any). The buttons
+, Edit,
and - allow you to
correspondingly add, modify, and remove a name record
from the database. Note that the
Edit and -
buttons become available only when a name is selected
from the list.
Note
The Note tab displays any notes
concerning the place. To add a note or modify existing
notes simply edit the text in the text entry field.
The Format option allows you to set
the appearance of the note in the output (i.e. in
reports and web pages). Selecting
Flowed will replace all multiple
spaces, tabs, and single end-of-line characters with
single space in the output. The two consecutive new
lines (i.e. an empty line) denote a new paragraph.
Selecting Preformatted will honor
all multiple spaces tabs, and new lines, so that the
output will appear as it is entered into the text entry
field.
Sources
The Sources tab displays
information about sources relevant to this place and
controls allowing its modification. The central part
displays the list of all such source references stored
in the database. The buttons +,
Edit, and
- allow you to correspondingly
add, modify, and remove a source reference to this
place. Note that the Edit and
- buttons become available only
when a source reference is selected from the
list.
Gallery
The Gallery tab displays
information about media objects associated with the
given place and the controls allowing its
modification. The central part shows the list of all
such media objects. For media objects which are valid
image files previews of images are displayed. For other
objects such as audio files, movie files, etc., a
generic &app; icon is displayed instead. The buttons
+, Select,
Edit., and
- allow you to correspondingly
add a new image, add a reference to an image already
stored in the database, modify, and remove a media
object reference to this place. Note that the
Edit and -
buttons become available only when a media object is
selected from the list.
Internet
The Internet tab displays
information about Internet addresses relevant to the
place and controls allowing its modification. The bottom
part displays the list of all such Internet addresses
stored in the database. The top part shows the details
of the currently selected addresses in the list (if
any). The buttons +,
Edit, and
- allow you to correspondingly
add, modify, and remove an Internet address record from
the database. The button Go
allows you to open a web-page with the corresponding
address with your default browser. Note that the
Edit, -,
and Go buttons become available
only when an address is selected from the list.
References
The References tab displays
information about database records (events or LDS
ordinances) that refer to this place. If the place is
not referenced from any database record, the tab shows
an empty list. If the place is referenced from many
records, the tab will list all of them. This
information cannot be modified from the Place
Editor dialog. Instead, the corresponding
database record (e.g. birth event) has to be brought up
and its place reference edited.
Media Data
To edit media data, switch to the Media View and select the
desired entry in the list of sources. Double-click on that
entry or click Edit on the toolbar to
invoke the following Media Properties
Editor dialog:
The top of the window shows the dialog title. Below the title
is the preview of an object and the summary of its properties
(ID, path, and object type). The central part of the window
displays four notebook tabs containing different categories of
available information. You can bring any tab to the top for
viewing or editing by clicking on the appropriate tab
heading. The bottom part has OK and
Cancel buttons. Clicking the
OK button at any time will apply all
the changes made in all tabs and close the dialog
window. Clicking the Cancel button at
any time will close the window without applying any changes.
Clicking OK will immediately save
changes to the database (write on disk). This version of
&app; does not have a separate saving function, all changes
are immediate.
The tab labels reflect the presence of corresponding
information: if the tab contains any data, its label appears
boldface; if the tab has no data then its label appears
regular (not bold).
The tabs provide the following information categories of
media object data:
General
The General tab allows editing the
title which labels this object in the database. The
title can be typed in the appropriate text entry
field. The Date field allows
entering the date by typing, while the LED button beside
it will invoke a Date selection
dialog for setting the date graphically.
&app; no longer has a concept of local media objects.
Every media object is referred to by its path. The
users are responsible for keeping track of the object
files. &app; will only reference and display the
contents, not manage the files themselves.
Attributes
The Attributes tab displays
information about the attributes of the media object and
controls allowing its modification. The bottom part
displays the list of all such attributes stored in the
database. The top part shows the details of the
currently selected attribute in the list (if any). The
buttons +,
Edit, and
- allow you to correspondingly
add, modify, and remove an attribute record from the
database. Note that the Edit and
- buttons become available only
when an attribute is selected from the list.
Notes
The Notes tab displays information
about the notes concerning the media object. These could
be any notes which do not naturally fit into the
Parameter-Value pairs available to Attributes. To add a
note or modify existing notes simply edit the text in
the text entry field.
The Format option allows you to set
the appearance of the note in the output (i.e. in
reports and web pages). Selecting
Flowed will replace all multiple
spaces, tabs, and single end-of-line characters with
single space in the output. The two consecutive new
lines (i.e. an empty line) denote a new paragraph.
Selecting Preformatted will honor
all multiple spaces tabs, and new lines, so that the
output will appear as it is entered into the text entry
field.
References
The References tab displays
information about database records that refer to this
media object. If the object is not referenced from any
database record, the tab shows an empty list. If the
object is referenced from many records, the tab will
list all of them. The list can be ordered by any of its
column headers: Type,
ID, or
Name. Double-clicking on the list
entry opens up an editor for a corresponding record
allowing to view or modify the record.
Only primary objects can be shown in the
References tab: Person, Family,
Event, Source, or Place. The secondary objects such
as Names and Attributes, although able to refer the
media object, will only show up through their primary
objects they belong to.
Events
Events are edited through the following Event
Editor dialog:
The top of the window shows the dialog title including the
name of the persons whose event is being edited. The central
part of the window displays four notebook tabs containing
different categories of available information. You can bring
any tab to the top for viewing or editing by clicking on the
appropriate tab heading. The bottom part has
OK and Cancel
buttons. Clicking the OK button at any
time will apply all the changes made in all tabs and close the
dialog window. Clicking the Cancel
button at any time will close the window without applying any
changes.
The tab labels reflect the presence of corresponding
information: if the tab contains any data, its label appears
boldface; if the tab has no data then its label appears
regular (not bold).
The tabs provide the following information categories of
the event data:
General
The General tab allows editing of
the most general information about the event: its type,
date, place, cause, and description. The type can be
selected from available types listed in the
Event type drop-down menu. The
rest of the information can be typed in the appropriate
text entry fields. Check the Private
record box to mark this event record as
private. This will give you a chance to omit this event
from being included in reports, if you choose so among
the report generation options.
Sources
The Sources tab displays
information about sources relevant to this event and
controls allowing its modification. The central part
displays the list of all such sources references stored
in the database. The buttons +,
Edit, and
- allow you to correspondingly
add, modify, and remove a source reference to this
event. Note that the Edit and
- buttons become available only
when a source reference is selected from the list.
Note
The Note tab displays any notes
concerning the event. To add a note or modify existing
notes simply edit the text in the text entry field.
The Format option allows you to set
the appearance of the note in the output (i.e. in
reports and web pages). Selecting
Flowed will replace all multiple
spaces, tabs, and single end-of-line characters with
single space in the output. The two consecutive new
lines (i.e. an empty line) denote a new paragraph.
Selecting Preformatted will honor
all multiple spaces tabs, and new lines, so that the
output will appear as it is entered into the text entry
field.
Witnesses
The Witnesses tab displays
information about witnesses relevant to this event and
controls allowing its modification. The central part
displays the list of all such witnesses stored in the
database. The buttons +,
Edit, and
- allow you to correspondingly
add, modify, and remove a witness reference to this
event, see . Note that the
Edit and -
buttons become available only when a witness reference
is selected from the list.
Source Information
When adding source references to events, places, etc., the
following dialog appears:
The top of the window shows the dialog title. The central part
displays the source information. The bottom part has
OK and Cancel
buttons. Clicking the OK button at any
time will apply all the changes made and close the dialog
window. Clicking the Cancel button at
any time will close the window without applying any changes.
The source can be selected from available sources listed in
the Title drop-down menu. If the source
you are referencing is not present in the database yet, you
can enter it into the database. To do this, click the
New... button and enter source
information into the invoked Source
Editor dialog. You can also set the details
specific for this particular reference: confidence,
volume/file/page, date, text, and comments. Choose the
confidence level from the Confidence
drop-down menu. The rest of the details can be typed in the
appropriate text entry fields.
Information in this dialog is specific to the particular
reference. A single source can be referenced many times,
and all such references will have in common the overall
source information. This dialog lets you provide
reference-specific data, such as relevant quotes, comments,
confidence, page numbers, etc, to further specify and
document the reference.
Names Names are edited through the following
Name Editor dialog:
The top of the window shows the dialog title including the
name of the person whose name is being edited. The central
part of the window displays three notebook tabs containing
different categories of available information. You can bring
any tab to the top for viewing or editing by clicking on the
appropriate tab heading. The bottom part has
OK and Cancel
buttons. Clicking the OK button at any
time will apply all the changes made in all tabs and close the
dialog window. Clicking the Cancel
button at any time will close the window without applying any
changes.
The tab labels reflect the presence of corresponding
information: if the tab contains any data, its label appears
boldface; if the tab has no data then its label appears
regular (not bold).
The tabs provide the following information categories of the
name data:
General
The General tab allows editing of
general information about the name: given name, family
name, patronymic (a form of father's name used in some
languages, e.g. Russian), family prefix, suffix, title,
and type of the name. The information can be typed in
the appropriate text entry fields. The family name and
the type can be also selected from available choices
listed in the appropriate drop-down menus. Options allow you to adjust
specific grouping, sorting, and displaying properties of
this name, as well as to provide the date corresponding
to the name. The Grouping field
provides an alternative grouping node for a given name,
overriding the default grouping based on the family
name. This may be necessary with similar family names
that need to be grouped together -- for example Russian
names Ivanov and Ivanova are considered the same, but
difference in gender is reflected in different
spelling. To enable typing into this field, check the
Override check button. The
Sort as and Display
as determine the manner in which the name
appears in the People View and in the reports. The
Date can provide information on the
validity of this name -- use spans as necessary. Check
the Private record box to mark this
name record as private. This will give you a chance to
omit this name from being included in reports, if you
choose so among the report generation options.
Sources
The Sources tab displays
information about sources relevant to this name and
controls allowing its modification. The central part
displays the list of all such sources' references stored
in the database. The buttons +,
Edit, and
- allow you to correspondingly
add, modify, and remove a source reference to this
name. Note that the Edit and
- buttons become available only
when a source reference is selected from the list.
Note
The Note tab displays any notes
concerning the name. To add a note or modify existing
notes simply edit the text in the text entry field.
The Format option allows you to set
the appearance of the note in the output (i.e. in
reports and web pages). Selecting
Flowed will replace all multiple
spaces, tabs, and single end-of-line characters with
single space in the output. The two consecutive new
lines (i.e. an empty line) denote a new paragraph.
Selecting Preformatted will honor
all multiple spaces tabs, and new lines, so that the
output will appear as it is entered into the text entry
field.
Attributes Attributes are edited through the following
Attribute Editor dialog:
The top of the window shows the dialog title including the
name of the person whose attribute is being edited. The
central part of the window displays three notebook tabs
containing different categories of available information. You
can bring any tab to the top for viewing or editing by
clicking on the appropriate tab heading. The bottom part has
OK and Cancel
buttons. Clicking the OK button at any
time will apply all the changes made in all tabs and close the
dialog window. Clicking the Cancel
button at any time will close the window without applying any
changes.
The tab labels reflect the presence of corresponding
information: if the tab contains any data, its label appears
boldface; if the tab has no data then its label appears
regular (not bold).
The tabs provide the following information categories of
the attribute data: General
The General tab allows editing of
the most general information about the attribute: name
of the attribute and its value. The information can be
typed in the appropriate text entry fields. The
attribute name can also be selected from available
choices (if any) listed in the Attribute
drop-down menu. Check the Private
record box to mark this attribute record as
private. This will give you a chance to omit this
attribute from being included in the reports, if you
choose so among the report generation options.
Sources
The Sources tab displays
information about sources relevant to this attribute and
controls allowing its modification. The central part
displays the list of all such sources references stored
in the database. The buttons +,
Edit, and
- allow you to correspondingly
add, modify, and remove a source reference to this
attribute. Note that the Edit and
- buttons become available only
when a source reference is selected from the list.
Note
The Note tab displays any notes
concerning the attribute. To add a note or modify
existing notes simply edit the text in the text entry
field.
The Format option allows you to set
the appearance of the note in the output (i.e. in
reports and web pages). Selecting
Flowed will replace all multiple
spaces, tabs, and single end-of-line characters with
single space in the output. The two consecutive new
lines (i.e. an empty line) denote a new paragraph.
Selecting Preformatted will honor
all multiple spaces tabs, and new lines, so that the
output will appear as it is entered into the text entry
field.
Addresses Addresses are edited through the following
Address Editor dialog:
The top of the window shows the dialog title including the
name of the person whose address is being edited. The central
part of the window displays three notebook tabs containing
different categories of available information. You can bring
any tab to the top for viewing or editing by clicking on the
appropriate tab heading. The bottom part has
OK and Cancel
buttons. Clicking the OK button at any
time will apply all the changes made in all tabs and close the
dialog window. Clicking the Cancel
button at any time will close the window without applying any
changes.
The tab labels reflect the presence of corresponding
information: if the tab contains any data, its label appears
boldface; if the tab has no data then its label appears
regular (not bold).
The tabs provide the following information categories of the
address data:
General
The General tab allows editing of
the most general information about the address: date,
street address, city or county, state or province,
country, the postal code, and the phone number. The
information can be typed in the appropriate text entry
fields. Check the Private record
box to mark this address record as private. This will
give you a chance to omit this address from being
included in reports, if you choose so among the report
generation options.
Sources
The Sources tab displays
information about sources relevant to this address and
controls allowing its modification. The central part
displays the list of all such sources references stored
in the database. The buttons +,
Edit, and
- allow you to correspondingly
add, modify, and remove a source reference to this
address. Note that the Edit and
- buttons become available only
when a source reference is selected from the list.
Note
The Note tab displays any notes
concerning the address. To add a note or modify existing
notes simply edit the text in the text entry field.
The Format option allows you to set
the appearance of the note in the output (i.e. in
reports and web pages). Selecting
Flowed will replace all multiple
spaces, tabs, and single end-of-line characters with
single space in the output. The two consecutive new
lines (i.e. an empty line) denote a new paragraph.
Selecting Preformatted will honor
all multiple spaces tabs, and new lines, so that the
output will appear as it is entered into the text entry
field.
Witnesses
Witnesses are edited through the following Witness
Editor dialog:
The top of the window shows the dialog title. The central part
of the window displays information about the witness. The
bottom part has OK and
Cancel buttons. Clicking the
OK button at any time will apply all
the changes made and close the dialog window. Clicking the
Cancel button at any time will close
the window without applying any changes.
The witness name can be entered in two ways, depending upon
whether the witness is a person already stored in the database
or not (unrelated person).
If the person you would like to add as a witness is in fact
a member of the database, it is better to use the first
method below.
Person from the database
If the person's data are stored in a database, check
Person is in the database box. Then
click the Select button to invoke
Select Person dialog. Choose the
person from that dialog and click the
OK button. The
Person text field will display the
name of the person you selected.
Even though the person's name is displayed in the
Person field, it is not available
for direct editing.
Unrelated person
If the person is not in the database, make sure that
Person is in the database box is
unchecked. Then enter the name or any description of a
person into the Person text entry
field. This information is stored as entered, and this
is the only place it is stored. In other words, there
is no reference to that person in the entire database
except for this witness reference. If the person is in
fact a member of the database, it is advised to use the
former method.
The Comment text area allows you to enter
any comments concerning the witness. To add a comment or to
modify existing comments simply edit the text in the text
area.
Merging records
Sometime several records in the database turn out to be
describing the same object: same person, same place, or same
source. It could happen either when the data is entered twice
by mistake, or when new information reveals that the two
entries refer to the same person. It can also happen after
importing GEDCOM obtained from a relative, whose database
overlaps with your existing data.
Whenever you detect duplicate records, merging them a useful
way of correcting the situation.
To make a merge, exactly two records have to be selected in
the appropriate view (People View, Sources View, or Places
View). This is accomplished by selecting one entry and then
selecting another person while holding down
Ctrl key.
Merge People
There are two ways of merging personal records:
Compare and Merge and Fast
Merge, both available from the
Edit menu.
Merging people does not discard any information with
either method. The decisions you make during the merge
only affect which data will become primary and which will
become secondary for the resulting merged record.
Compare and Merge
When exactly two people are selected, choose
EditCompare
and Merge... to invoke
Compare People dialog.
The dialog allows you to make a decision on whether or
not the selected records should be merged. If you
decide that the records should not be merged, despite
similar names, you may click
Cancel to close the dialog
without making any changes. If you decide to proceed
with merging, select the appropriate
Select radio button to specify
the record to be used as the source of primary data,
then click Merge and close.
The data from the other record will be kept as
alternate data. Specifically, all names from the other
record will become alternate names of the merged
record. Similarly, parents, spouses, and children of
the other record will become alternate parents,
spouses, and children of the merged record, and so on.
Fast Merge
When exactly two people are selected, choose
EditFast
Merge to invoke
Merge People dialog.
The dialog allows you to quickly merge two records,
specifying the record to be used as the source of
primary data. The data from the other record will be
kept as alternate data. Specifically, all names from
the other record will become alternate names of the
merged record. Similarly, parents, spouses, and
children of the other record will become alternate
parents, spouses, and children of the merged record,
and so on.
If you are not certain whether or not you need to
merge the records, or which record to specify as the
source of primary data, use Compare and
Merge method described above..
Merge Sources
When exactly two sources are selected, choose
EditCompare and Merge... to invoke Merge
Sources dialog.
The dialog allows you to make a decision on whether or not
the selected records should be merged. If you decide that
the records should not be merged, despite similar titles,
you may click Cancel to close the
dialog without making any changes. If you decide to proceed
with merging, choose the appropriate radio button to specify
the title, author, abbreviated title, publication
information, and the ID to be used for the merged record,
then click OK.
Merge Places
When exactly two places are selected, choose
EditCompare and Merge...
to invoke Select title dialog.
The dialog allows you to make a decision on whether or not
the selected records should be merged. If you decide that
the records should not be merged, despite similar titles,
you may click Cancel to close the
dialog without making any changes. If you decide to proceed
with merging, choose the appropriate radio button to specify
the title of the merged record, or specify
Other and enter new text, then click
OK.
Navigation
As long as any database is open, &app; is focused on a single
person usually referred to as an Active person. This allows
you to view or modify the data concerning this person, his or
her immediate family, etc. Navigating in the database (i.e.
moving from person to person) is in fact nothing else but
changing the Active person. This section describes many
alternative ways to navigate through the database using both
the complex and the convenient interfaces &app; provides. All
these ways eventually accomplish the same thing, but some are
more convenient than others, depending what you are doing in
&app; at the moment.
Using the People View
The most intuitive way to select an active person is to use
the People View (see ). When in
the People View, just select the name of the desired person
from the list by clicking that list entry. The person you have
selected becomes active. The statusbar updates to reflect the
change of the active person.
Using the Family View
When in the Family View (see ),
you can easily navigate between the members of the displayed
family as follows:
To make the currently selected spouse the active person,
click the double-arrow button to the right of the active
person box. Alternatively, right-click into the spouse
box and select Make the selected spouse an
active person item from the context menu.
To make the currently selected parents the active family
(thereby making father the active person and mother the
selected spouse), click the right-arrow button to the
right of the active person's parents box. Alternatively,
right-click into the active person's parents box and
select Make the selected parents the active
family item from the context menu.
To make the currently selected spouse's parents the active
family (thereby making father the active person and mother
the selected spouse), click the right-arrow button to the
right of the spouse's parents box. Alternatively,
right-click into the spouse's parents box and select
Make the selected parents the active
family item from the context menu.
To make the currently selected child the active person,
click the left-arrow button to the right of the children
box. Alternatively, right-click into the children box and
select Make the selected child an active
person item from the context menu.
In addition to this, &app; provides an extensive set of
keyboard navigation options. The detailed reference to the key
bindings is found in the .
Using the Pedigree View
The Pedigree View (see ) also
allows you to move along the family tree. The benefit of this
method is that you can see more than one generation of the
family tree. Also, you can jump directly from a great-grandson
to a great-grandfather without going through the intermediate
generations.
Note that after changing the active person in the Pedigree
View, the display is re-adjusted to show four generations,
starting from the newly selected Active person. When in the
Pedigree View, you can easily navigate between the members of
the displayed family tree as follows:
To make any displayed person the active person,
double-click the line that connects to the left side of
the corresponding box.
To make a child of the currently active person (if any)
the active person, click the left arrow button to the left
of the corresponding box. If there is more than one child,
the button expands to the menu listing the children to
choose from.
To move the whole family tree one generation back, click
on the corresponding right arrow button on the right-hand
side of the display area. Clicking the upper button will
move the tree along the paternal line. Clicking the lower
button will move the tree along the maternal line.
Clicking either of these buttons is completely equivalent
to double-clicking the lines connecting to the left of the
corresponding boxes for father and mother.
You can also quickly access any of the spouses, siblings,
children, or parents of any displayed person. To do this, move
the mouse over the desired person's box and right-click to
invoke a context menu. The appropriate menu items will contain
submenus listing all spouses, siblings, children, and parents
of the corresponding person.
Advantages of using right-click menusDirect access to spouse and siblings
Complete lists of all member of all categories, not only
the preferred members.
Setting the Home Person
One and only one person in the database can be selected as the
Home person. Once the Home person is selected, moving to that
person becomes a matter of a single click, regardless of which
view you are using at the moment.
To set the Home person, first navigate to that person using
any method you like. Then choose
EditSet Home person.
Once this is done, you can move to the Home person from
anywhere in the database by simply clicking the
Home icon on the toolbar. You can also
choose
GoHome
from the menu or select Home item from
any context menu available on the right click.
Using history-based tools
&app; also features a powerful set of history-based navigation
tools. These tools are similar to those commonly used in web
browsers. They include Back and
Forward items available from the
Go
menu, context menus (available in People, Family, and Pedigree
views), and the toolbar buttons. They also include the list of
the recent selections available under the
Go
menu that allows you to jump directly to any of the recent
selections. Finally, right-clicking on the
Back and Forward
toolbar buttons invokes the popup menu with corresponding
portion of the history. Select any item from the menu to jump
directly to it.
Bookmarking People
Similar to setting the Home person, you can bookmark other
people from the database to simplify further navigation. To bookmark
a person, first navigate to that person, then choose
BookmarksAdd bookmark.
To move to that person from anywhere in the database, choose
BookmarksGo to bookmarkPerson's name.
You can manage your bookmarks by choosing
BookmarksEdit bookmarks....
This opens the following Edit Bookmarks
dialog with the list of bookmarks and the controls to modify
this list.
Finding records
To find a record in a database, first switch to the
appropriate View that provides the list of the desired
records: People, Sources, Places, or Media. Then start typing
the name of a person or the title of a Source, Place, or Media
object that you are looking for, respectively. You may also
press Ctrl+F to turn on the search mode, but
simply staring to type is also enough.
As you type, the first record in the list that is compatible
with your input will be selected.
Finding People
For more complex people searches you may want to use
filters. Enable filter controls by choosing
ViewFilter,
select the desired filter, and click Apply.
For details, see Generating Reports
Reports are the most common form of the output produced by
genealogical research. The majority of genealogical software
puts a lot of emphasis on developing nice looking reports. &app;
is no exception in this regard, offering a choice of a variety
of reports. &app; can generate reports in a multitude of open
formats, both text based and graphical. &app; can also produce
screen based reports that are convenient for viewing a summary
of your database. Finally, &app; can generate a web site
suitable for immediate posting on the Internet. All of these are
almost infinitely flexible. If you wish to modify or extend the
default format of &app; report, you can design and choose the
style for each of your reports.
All reports can be accessed through the menu by choosing
ReportsReport TypeParticular Report.
Alternatively, you can browse the complete selection of
available reports along with their brief descriptions in a
Report Selection dialog invoked by clicking
the Reports icon on the toolbar.
Substitution Values
Many of the graphical reports allow you to customize the
information on the display. Variable substituions are used
to substitute date for a particular symbol. There are two
styles of variables. The difference between the two styles
is how empty data is handled.
The first style of variables are preceeded by a '$'. If
the variable evaluates to an empty string, the variable is
replaced with the empty string. The second style of
variables are preceeded by a '%'. If the variable evaluates
to an empty string, the line that contains the variable is
removed from the output.
$n/%n
Displays the person's name in the form of FirstName LastName
$N/%N
Displays the person's name in the form of LastName, FirstName
$i/%i
Displays the GRAMPS ID associated with the person.
$b/%b
Displays the person's date of birth
$B/%B
Displays the person's place of birth
$d/%d
Displays the person's date of death
$D/%D
Displays the person's place of death
$s/%s
Displays the name of the person's preferred spouse in
the form of FirstName LastName
$S/%S
Displays the name of the person's preferred spouse in
the form of LastName, FirstName.
$m/%m
Displays the marriage date of the person and the preferred
spouse.
$M/%M
Displays the place assocated with the marriage of the
person and the preferred spouse.
Books
Currently, the only available report under this category is
the Book Report.
The Book Report creates a single document (i.e. a Book)
containing a collection of graphical and textual reports.
Consequently, this allows for a very rich set of documents
that &app; can produce.
When Book Report is selected, the following book configuration
dialog appears:
The Book name text entry field is used to
save the book (a set of configured selections) for future use.
The top pane lists the items available for inclusion in the
book. The bottom pane lists the currently selected items in
the order they will appear in the book.
The horizontal set of buttons by the Book
name field operates on the whole book. Click the
Clear button to clear all items from
the current book. Click the Save button
to save the current book (under the name typed in the
Book name text entry field) for future
use.
Saving the book also saves the configuration for each item.
Click the Open button to load the book
from the list of previously saved books. Finally, click the
Edit books button to invoke the
editable list of available books.
The vertical set of buttons to the right of the bottom pane
operates on the selected book item. Click the
Add button to add selected item from
the available list to the current book. Click the
Remove button to remove an item from
the current book. Use Up and
Down to change the items order in the
current book. Click the Setup button to
configure the options of the selected item of the current
book.
The configuration dialogs invoked by
Setup are item-specific. If you choose
not to configure the item, same defaults will be used for all
needed options. The common option for almost all book items is
the center person: the person on whom the item is
centered. Thanks to this option, you can create a book with
items centered on different people (e.g. your mom's and dad's
ancestors as separate chapters). By default, the center person
is set to the active person.
Almost all items available for inclusion in the book are
textual or graphical reports, and are therefore available in
the form of standalone reports. The exception is the following
items which are only available as book items:
Title Page
This item produces a customized Title page. You can
configure the text of title, subtitle, and the footer of
the page. An image can be optionally placed between the
subtitle and the footer. Because of its
configurability, this item can be used to create title
pages for the whole book, its chapter, or even a single
item.
Custom Text
This item produces a page with three paragraphs, each
containing custom text. The appearance of the text can
be adjusted by using custom styles. This item was meant
to be used for epigraphs, dedications, explanations,
notes, and so forth.
Code Generators
This category contains reports that produce code intended to
be run through the computer, rather than the usual formatted
output for human reading. The only code generator currently
available in &app; is the Relationship Graph producing the
GraphViz description of the graph.
The Relationship Graph creates a complex relationship graph in
GraphViz format. The GraphViz dot tool can
transform the graph into postscript, jpeg, png, vrml, svg, and
other formats. GraphViz tools are freely available from the
GraphViz
site. Specific options for this report include filter
and number of generations considered, as well as several
GraphViz-specific options related to pagination, color, and
details of the graph.
If you are not interested in GraphViz code itself and just
want to generate graphical output, &app; can do it for you
under the hood. Look for Relationship
Graph in the Graphical Reports category, Graphical Reports
Graphical reports represent information in forms of charts and
graphs. Most of the options are common among graphical
reports, therefore they will be described only once, at the
end of this section. The few options which are specific to a
given report will be described directly in that report's
entry.
The following graphical reports are currently available in
&app;:
Ancestor Chart
This report generates the chart of people who are
ancestors of the Active person. Specific options include
the number of generations considered and the format of
the displayed entries.
Ancestor Chart (Wall Chart)
This report is similar to the Ancestor Chart report. It
provides more options which make it useful for
generating huge charts suitable for a poster or a wall
chart. These options include the ability to compress the
report (getting rid of an empty space) and the option to
fit the whole chart on to a single page. In the latter
case, the contents of the chart is scaled down
appropriately.
Descendant Graph
This report generates a graph of people who are
descendants of the Active person. Specific options
include the format of the displayed entries.
Fan Chart
This report produces a chart resembling a fan, with Active
person in the center, parents the the semicircle next to
it, grandparents in the next semicircle, and so on, for a
total of five generations.
Relationship Graph
This report creates a complex relationship graph in
GraphViz format and then converts into graphical output
running it through the the GraphViz
dot tool behind the scene. Specific
options for this report include filter, options for
dates and places for the events, and whether to include
URLs and IDs for individuals and families. There are
also several GraphViz-specific options related to
pagination, color, and details of the graph.
Statistics Chart
This report can collect and display a wealth of
statistical data about your database. Specific options
include filter, sorting methods, and additional birth-
and gender-based limit for inclusion into statistics.
You can also set the minimum number of items to qualify
for the bar chart, so that the charts with fewer items
will generate a pie chart instead. The Chart
Selection tab allows you to check which
charts you want to include in your report.
Timeline Graph
This report outputs the list of people with their
lifetimes represented by intervals on a common
chronological scale. Specific options include filter,
sorting method, and the title of the report.
Common options for graphical reports are the filename of the
output, the format of the output, selected style, page size
and orientation. Optionally, the reports can be immediately
opened with the default application.
The options used in reports are persistent: each report
remembers its options used last time.
Text Reports
Text reports represent the desired information as formatted
text. Most of the options are common among text reports,
therefore they will be described only once, at the end of this
section. The options which are specific to a given report will
be described directly in that report's entry.
The following text reports are currently available in &app;:
Ahnentafel Report
This report lists the active person and his or her
ancestors along with their vital data. The people are
numbered in a special way which is an established
standard called Ahnentafel. The active person is given
number 1. His or her father and mother have numbers 2
and 3, respectively. This rule holds for every person
while going back in generations: father's parents are
numbered 4 and 5, and mother's parents are numbered 6
and 7, fathers always numbered with even and mothers
with odd numbers. Therefore, for any person having
number N in this tree, the numbers of father and mother
are 2N and 2N+1, respectively.
Complete Individual Report
This report provides individual summaries similar to
that of the Individual Summary report. The advantage of
this report is the specific filter option. Depending on
the filter choice (active person only, his or her
descendants, his or her ancestors, or entire database),
the report may contain from one to many individual
summaries. Another option for this report is the
inclusion of source information when listing events.
Comprehensive Ancestors Report
This report produces a comprehensive description of
ancestors of the active person. The highlights of this
report include elaborate layout, images of children,
present and former spouses, and source
citations. Specific options: number of backward
generations to consider, whether to cite sources, and
whether to break pages between generations.
Descendant Report
This report produces a brief description of descendants
of the active person. Specific options: number of
forward generations to consider.
Detailed Ancestral Report
This report covers in detail the ancestors of the active
person. It includes vital data (birth and death) as well
as marriages. Specific options: number of backward
generations to consider, as well as a variety of options
regarding the exact contents to include.
Detailed Descendant Report
This report covers in detail the descendants of the
active person. It includes vital (birth and death)
information as well as marriages. Specific options:
number of forward generations to consider.
FTM Style Ancestral Report
This report creates an ancestral report similar to that
produced by the Family Tree Maker (tm) program. It
covers in detail the active person and his/her ancestors
It includes vital information as well as marriages,
children, and notes. Specific options: number of
backward generations to consider.
FTM Style Descendant Report
This report creates a descendant report similar to that
produced by the Family Tree Maker (tm) program. It
covers in detail the active person and his/her
descendants. It includes vital information as well as
marriages, children, and notes. Specific options: number
of forward generations to consider.
Family Group Report
This creates a family group report, showing information
on a set of parents and their children. Specific
options: the spouse (available only if the active person
has more than one spouse).
Individual Summary
This report produces a detailed summary on the active
person. The report includes all the facts known to the
database about that person.
Common options for text reports are the filename of the
output, the format of the output, selected style, page size
and orientation. For HTML reports, there is no page
information. Instead, HTML options include the choice of the
HTML template, either available in &app; or a custom template
defined by you. Optionally, the reports can be immediately
opened with the default application.
The options used in reports are persistent: each report
remembers its options used last time.
View Reports
View reports are representing overall summaries of the
database information available immediately for on-screen
viewing. The following view reports are currently available
in &app;:
Number of ancestors
This report displays the number of ancestors of the
active person.
Summary of the database
This report displays the overall statistics concerning
number of individuals of each gender, various incomplete
entries statistics, as well as family and media
statistics.
Web PageThe only available report in this category
is the Narrative Web Site report. It generates a
web site (that is, a set of linked web pages), for
a set of selected individuals.
Narrative Web SiteIntroduction
&app; 2.0.6 introduced the Narrative Web generator.
The new tool provides considerably more functionality
than the older web generator. Instead of using HTML
templates to customize the pages, CSS style sheets are used.
More information is now displayed about each person,
along with information about sources, places, and media
objects. Introduction pages can be added to provide additional
information, such as family history.Selecting the output
Genealogy records can generate a lot of files. Many web
servers have a difficult time with many files in a single
directory. The Narrative Web Generator strives to keep the
number of files per directory to a managable level. To do
this, a hierarchy of directores is created. The generated
files names are not intuitive, but are unique per person.
Subsequent runs will geneate identical file names, making
it easy to replace files.
By default, the output files are written to the specified
directory. Because of the number of files and directories
that are created, it may be difficult to transfer the files
to an external web host. To aid in this, you may directly
create a gzip'd tar file to more easily upload the data.
This is the format that should be used if you would like
to take advantage of the free genealogy page hosting at the
GRAMPS web hosting site.To select the gzip'd tar file, select the Store
web pages in .tar.gz archive option.Applying a filter
Like the previous web page generator, and most of the other
&app; reports, you can control what is included in the output
by choosing a filter. Several default filters are provided for
you, but you are free to use the Custom Filter Editor tool to
create your own.Any person matching this filter who is not excluded due
to the privacy rules, will be included in the output. The default
filter includes all people in the database.Applying a style sheetGRAMPS provides six built in style sheets for your web page.
Each of these style sheets produces a unique look for your pages.
The generated style sheet is named narrative.css.
You may edit this file if you wish to further customize your
site.
If you make modifications to your style sheet, you need to be aware
the regenerating the pages with the same output directory will
overwrite your changes to this file. To prevent this from happening,
make sure you choose No style sheet for subsequent
runs.Character set encoding
Because of GRAMPS internationalization ability, the default character
set for the HTML pages is UTF-8. This provides support for virtually
all characters.The Apache web server is sometimes misconfigured to override
the character set specified in an HTML page. This causes problems with
the UTF-8 character set generated by GRAMPS, distorting characters on
the screen.If your web server is misconfigured and you do not have priveledge
to fix the configururation, you may solve this problem by overriding the
default character set to match what your web server may be expecting.Copyright noticeInternational copyright law reserves all rights to your data.
You own the data, and people must get your permission to use it.
In genealogy, however, sharing data is a common ideal. It this case, you
may wish to grant the user more rights.While the default for GRAMPS is to place a notice indicating that
all rights are reserved, we give you the option to place your site under
one of several of the Create Commons licenses. With a Creative Commons
license, you grant user's certain permission to use your data without
requiring them to contact you directly for permission.See the Creative
Commons web site for more information.Controlling page generationThree additional pages can be generated by the web page generator.
The Home page is a page that will display an image and a whatever text
you wish. To enable this page, choose a Media Object
from the Home Media/Note ID menu on the Page
Generation tab. If the Media Object contains an image, the image
is displayed at the top of the page. If the Media Object contains a Note,
the Note's text is used for the text of the page. A second page, the
Introduction page, works similarly. Just choose the Media Object in the
Introduction Media/Note ID menu.If you choose to include a contact page, the researcher information
stored in the database is displayed, along with the information specified
in the Publisher contact/Note ID menu. Please use
this page with caution,
since you may consider your contact information to be private.PrivacyPrivacy of personal information is an important issue on the web
today. &app; tries to give you control over the information that is presented.
&app; provides two options to control the privacy of your information.
If you select the Do not include records marked private
option, any data that is marked as private will not be displayed on the
generated site. If you select Restrict information on living people,
&app; will attempt to determine which people have the potential of still
being alive, and will omit these people from the database. Some countries
have laws that indicate that a certain number of years must pass after
someone's death before information can be published. The Years
to restrict from person's death option allows you to specifiy
how many years a person must be deceased before the information is included.
Please note that it is your responsibility to double check all
information in the pages for any privacy information. &app; cannot be held
responsible for any privacy issues.Adding custom code your pagesIf you are not interested in customizing your pages, you may skip
the section.The previous web generator allowed you to customize your pages
using HTML templates. Your data would be substituted for certain markers
in the code.This method proved to be too cumbersome for most users. The Narrative
Web Page Generator introduces a simpler mechanism. On the Page
Generation tab, you may specify text (including HTML code) that
will be inserted into each page, separately for the header and the
footer.To create this code, you need to create a Media Object marked as an
internal note. To create this, add a new Media Object in the Media View,
and select the internal note option. You may then enter your HTML code.
To insert the code from the internal notes into the web pages,
select the appropriate Media Objects from the HTML user
header and HTML user footer menus.
Two div sections will be added to the pages — userheader and userfooter.
The corresponding HTML code is inserted into the HTML page surrounded by div
markers. You can customize your style sheet to provide additional formatting
and positioning information to control these sections.Running Tools
&app; tools allow you to perform various types of analysis of
your genealogical data. Typically, the tools do not produce
output in form of printouts or files. Instead, they produce
screen output immediately available for the
researcher. However, when appropriate, you can save the
results of running a tool into a file. Tools present one of
the major strengths of &app; compared to the most genealogical
software.
The tools can be accessed through the menu by choosing
ToolsTool SectionParticular Tool.
Alternatively, you can browse the complete selection of
available tools along with their brief descriptions in a
Tool Selection dialog invoked by clicking
the Tools icon on the toolbar.
Analysis and Exploration
This section contains tools which analyze and explore the
database, but do not alter it. The following analysis and exploration
tools are currently available in &app;:
Compare individual events
This tool compares events across the selected group of
people. The people for this comparison are chosen with
the use of custom filters. The custom filters can be
created in the Custom Filter Editor (see ) that can be invoked by
clicking the Custom Filter Editor
button. The resulting table produced by this tool can be
saved as a spreadsheet.
Interactive descendant browser
This tool builds a tree with the active person being the
root. Children branch from their parents in the usual
manner. Use this tool for a quick glance of a person's
descendants.
Double-clicking on tree node will bring up the
Edit Person dialog allowing to
view or modify the personal data.
Database Processing
This section contains tools which may modify your database.
The tools from this section are used mostly for finding and
correcting errors in the data. The following database
processing tools are currently available in &app;:
The modifications will only be performed upon your explicit
consent, except for the automatic fixes performed by
Check and repair database tool.
Check and repair database
This tool checks the database for integrity problems,
fixing the problems it can. Specifically, the tool is
checking for:
Broken family links. These are the cases when a
person's record refers to a family while the
family's record does not refer to that person, and
vice versa.
Missing media objects. The missing media object is
the object whose file is referenced in the database
but does not exist. This can happen when the file is
accidentally deleted, renamed, or moved to another
location.
Empty families. These are the family entries which
have no reference to any person as their member.
Parent relationship. This checks all families to
ensure that father and mother are not mixed up. The
check is also made that parents have different
gender. If they have common gender then their
relationship is renamed to "Partners".
Extract information from names
This tool searches the entire database and attempts to
extract titles and nicknames that may be embedded in a
person's Given name field. If any
information could be extracted, the candidates for
fixing will be presented in the table. You may then
decide which to repair as suggested and which not to.
Find possible duplicate people
This tool searches the entire database, looking for the
entries that may represent the same person.
Fix capitalization of family names
This tool searches the entire database and attempts to
fix the capitalization of family names. The aim is to
have conventional capitalization: capital first letter
and lower case for the rest of the family name. If
deviations from this rule are detected, the candidates
for fixing will be presented in the table. You may then
decide which to repair as suggested and which not to.
Rename personal event types
This tool allows all the events of a certain name
to be renamed to a new name.
Reorder &app; IDs
This tool reorders the &app; IDs according to the
defaults of &app;.
Debug
This section contains debugging tools that are not of general
interest for many of the users of &app;. If you're not
interested in debugging or developing &app; you may safely
skip this section.
Python evaluation window
Enter expression into the Evaluation
Window, get the output in Output
Window. Any errors should end up in the
Error Window.
Reload plugins
Makes an attempt to reload all plugins.
This tool is itself a plugin, but it will not reload itself!
Show uncollected objects
Provides the window listing all uncollected objects.
Depending on the system settings, recently abandoned GUI
objects may still be uncollected.
Utilities
This section contains tools allowing you to perform a simple
operation on a portion of data. The results can be saved in
your database, but they will not modify your existing data.
The following utilities are currently available in &app;:
Custom Filter Editor
The Custom Filter Editor builds custom filters that can be
used to select people included in reports, exports, and
other tools and utilities. This is in fact a very powerful
tool in genealogical analysis.
When you launch it, the User defined
filters dialog appears that lists all the filters
(if any) previously defined by you. Click the
Add... button to define a new filter.
Once you have designed your filters, you can edit, test, and
delete selected filters using the
Edit...,
Test..., and
Delete buttons, respectively. All the
filters displayed in the list will be automatically saved
along with your database and will be available with
subsequent sessions of &app;.
The changes made to the filters only take effect when you
click the Apply and close button.
Clicking the Add... button invokes the
following Define filter dialog:
Type the name for your new filter into the
Name field. Enter any comment that
would help you identify this filter in the future into the
Comment field. Add as many rules to the
Rule list as you would like to your
filter using Add... button. If the
filter has more than one rule, select one of the
Rule operations. This allows you to
choose whether all rules must apply, only one (either) rule
must apply, or exactly one (either) rule must apply, in
order for the filter to generate a match. If your filter has
only one rule, this selection has no effect.
Check Return values that do not match the filter
rules to invert the filter rule. For example,
inverting "has a common ancestor with I1" rule will match
everyone who does not have a common ancestor with that
person).
Clicking the Add... button invokes
the following Add Rule dialog:
The pane on the left-hand side displays available filter
rules arranged by their categories in an expandable
tree. For detailed filter rule reference, see . Click on the arrows to
fold/unfold the appropriate category. Select the rule from
the tree by clicking on its name. The right-hand side
displays the name, the description, and the values for the
currently selected rule. Once you are satisfied with your
rule selection and its values, click
OK to add this rule to the rule list
of the currently edited filter. Clicking
Cancel will abort adding the rule to
the filter.
A filter you have already designed may be used as a rule
for another filter. This gives you nearly infinite
flexibility in custom-tailoring your selection criteria
that can be later used in most of the exports, reports,
and some of the tools (such as comparing individual
events).
Scratch Pad
This tool provides a temporary note pad to store database
records for easy reuse. In short, this is a sort of the
copy-and-paste functionality extended from textual objects
to other types of records used in &app;.
Scratch Pad makes extensive use of drag-and-drop technique.
To invoke Scratch Pad, either choose
ToolsUtilitiesScratch Pad
or click the ScratchPad button on the
toolbar. The following window will appear:
Scratch Pad supports addresses, attributes (both personal
and family), events (both personal and family), names, media
objects references, source references, URLs, and of course
textual information of notes and comments. To store any type
of these records, simply drag the existing record on to the
Scratch Pad from the corresponding editor dialog. To reuse
the record, drag it from the Scratch Pad on to the
corresponding place in the editor, e.g. Address tab,
Attribute tab, etc.
Some objects are showing the link icon on the left. This
indicates that dragging such selection will produce a
reference to an existing object, not copy the object
itself.
For example, the media object file will not be duplicated.
Instead, the reference will be made to an existing media
object, which will result in the local gallery entry.
Scratch Pad storage is persistent within a single &app;
session. Closing the window will not lose the stored
records. However, exiting &app; will.
Other toolsGenerate SoundEx codes
This utility generates SoundEx codes for the names of
people in the database. Please visit the NARA Soundex Indexing page to
learn more about Soundex Indexing System.
Relationship calculator
This utility calculates and displays the relationship
of any person to the active person.
Verify the database
This utility allows you to verify the database based
on the set of criteria specified by you.
Difference between Verify tool and previously
described Check tool
The Check tool detects inconsistencies in the
database structure. The Verify tool, however, is
detecting the records that do not satisfy your
particular criteria.
For example, you may want to make sure that nobody in
your database had children at the age of 98. Based on
common sense, such a record would indicate an
error. However, it is not a consistency error in the
database. Besides, someone might have a child at the
age of 98 (although this rarely happens). The Verify
tool will display everything that violates your
criteria so that you can check whether the record is
erroneous or not. The ultimate decision is yours.