People Index Enhancement Requests

[Keith Wilson]

Originally posted by jillaine smith

In another topic, on another board, Keith introduced me to the People Index as a way to quickly review the Notes I have for each people. It worked pretty well, and I loved how I could bounce back and forth between the People Index and what I call the Family Page. Well, Keith, you also asked me for suggestions for enhancements. I took you up on that. Here they are:

1. Allow me to sort any column by clicking on its header currently it appears only to allow me to do this on the surname field. I want to do it on any field. -) especially birth year.

2. Also allow me to sort as above, within a given " filter" .

3. Allow me to include and exclude specific fields in the index.

4. Mmm.. something like a check-box/to-do marker column. This would enable me to check off who I need to go back to and do some work on. (Or conversely, who I'm done working on.) I realize you can mark people individually, but it would be great to see that " field" (if it is one) on the People Index, so I could at a glance see who I need to work on. Mmm.. I see you already have a feature for to-dos, including listing all of them, but there's something great about having the option in People Index to check them.

5. I like the " Notes" feature-- you click on the NOTES button, and the notes field very nicely (love the way it flips open so fluidly-- nice touch) opens for editing. How about doing the same thing for SOURCES? Have a SOURCE button for this person, that pulls up all her source info that I can then edit? That would be totally cool.

6. I'd like a filter that allowed me to enter in birth place, and then death place, so for example, I could see all emigres. (I.e., all people born in England and died in the U.S.) (I'm writing a book for my niece called " 130 Founding Fathers and Mothers" that focuses on those who emigrated during the 1600s.) [I realize as I review this, that a custom report might be a better place for this kind of activity vs using the People Index for this.]

7. Create a " Marriage Index" just like the people index (with all the enhancements requested above) that at a minimum has the name of each spouse and the marriage date. Again, sortable. FTM has a pre-coded report for this that is quite nice I used it regularly.

Well, Keith, you ASKED! -)

By the way, the " consanguity relationship with focal person" is VERY nice.
I don't need it because I use ALL CAPS surnames for that purpose, so I can see at a glance who is a direct-liner, but your feature allows the creation of lists based on other individuals (because you can change the focal person). Nice for multi-family databases. (Currently, I have a separate database for my husband's line and one for my own.)

Also, thanks for making the names in the index double-clickable, resulting in their family page coming up behind the index window. FTM has the equivalent, but RootsMagic does not.

-- Jillaine

[Keith Wilson]

Hi Jillaine

In V2.349 I have added a new options dialog for the CSV report. The user can select which columns of data they want included when generating the CSV Report. This allows the user to export selected data to a spreadsheet and do some of the things that you have asked for.

I prefer to keep the user interface pruned to what is needed for quick data entry/review and to put less frequently used " informational" stuff in reports. I have difficulty when people ask for enhancements but do not explain the " business requirement" or " work flow" that they really need. So, for a general request like " 3. Allow me to include and exclude specific fields in the index" I have to ask " which fields and why do you need them, how are you going to use them and how often?"

Keith

[Keith Wilson]

1. Allow me to sort any column by clicking on its header currently it appears only to allow me to do this on the surname field. I want to do it on any field, especially birth year.
2. Also allow me to sort as above, within a given " filter" .

This was omitted from iFamily for Tiger for performance reasons. The performance for these sorts under Leopard is 100 times faster due to enhancements made by Apple.

3. Allow me to include and exclude specific fields in the index.

Please use the CSV Report (in V2.349) to define your needs for a work-flow and let me know what the requirement is. I do not want to unnecessarily bloat the people index - it is supposed to be a floating index panel.

4. Mmm.. something like a check-box/to-do marker column. This would enable me to check off who I need to go back to and do some work on. (Or conversely, who I'm done working on.) I realize you can mark people individually, but it would be great to see that " field" (if it is one) on the People Index, so I could at a glance see who I need to work on. Mmm.. I see you already have a feature for to-dos, including listing all of them, but there's something great about having the option in People Index to check them.

Please use the report in menu option People - ToDo - Review All ToDo Items

5. I like the " Notes" feature-- you click on the NOTES button, and the notes field very nicely (love the way it flips open so fluidly-- nice touch) opens for editing. How about doing the same thing for SOURCES? Have a SOURCE button for this person, that pulls up all her source info that I can then edit? That would be totally cool.

This function is already available in the Sources pane in the main window. What you are requesting is dangerous because the user needs to see the context of the person who is being edited to make sure that the Source Reference is being added to the correct person.

6. I'd like a filter that allowed me to enter in birth place, and then death place, so for example, I could see all emigres. (I.e., all people born in England and died in the U.S.) (I'm writing a book for my niece called " 130 Founding Fathers and Mothers" that focuses on those who emigrated during the 1600s.) - I realize as I review this, that a custom report might be a better place for this kind of activity vs using the People Index for this.

I think what you are asking for is already available in the menu option Events - Places where you can enter a filter such as " England" and generate a report for all events that occurred in England.

7. Create a " Marriage Index" just like the people index (with all the enhancements requested above) that at a minimum has the name of each spouse and the marriage date. Again, sortable. FTM has a pre-coded report for this that is quite nice I used it regularly.

Please try the People Index - CSV Report in V2.349 and see if the spreadsheet provides a suitable way of creating what you want.

Please also click on the pink Help button at the top right of the People Index and read the last few paragraphs of the Help dialog which explain how to use the People Index to search for marriages.

By the way, the " consanguity relationship with focal person" is VERY nice.
I don't need it because I use ALL CAPS surnames for that purpose, so I can see at a glance who is a direct-liner, but your feature allows the creation of lists based on other individuals (because you can change the focal person). Nice for multi-family databases. (Currently, I have a separate database for my husband's line and one for my own.)

My family name is WILSON and I am related by marriage to many other WILSONs with whom I have zero consanguinity. I would have thought that having a name like SMITH would be even more unreliable for determining consanguinity but maybe your maiden name was more distinctive.

Also, thanks for making the names in the index double-clickable, resulting in their family page coming up behind the index window. FTM has the equivalent, but RootsMagic does not.

What other genealogy applications provide does not really interest me so much as working out what is truly useful.

Keith

[Keith Wilson]

Originally posted by jillaine smith

Hi Jillaine

In V2.349 I have added a new options dialog for the CVS report. The user can select which columns of data they want included when generating the CSV Report. This allows the user to export selected data to a spreadsheet and do some of the things that you have asked for.

Well, first off, I completely missed the CSV report option before. I've just taken a peek. Nice...

However, the spouse field is odd I get this:

ID = 1971 Name = Thomas SEYMOUR (1632 - 1712) Date = 05 Jan 1654 Year = 1654 Place = Norwalk, CT?

all in one cell. This is with NUMBERS (the apple program alternative to excel).

The notion of exporting to a spreadsheet in order to do custom reports is, I suppose, one option. It does require that people be familiar with the use of spreadsheets, so that will limit your audience somewhat. But maybe that's less an issue these days than those days.

I think I'd still prefer a variety of in-program reports that don't require mucking about in the spreadsheets and see what I can do.

-- Jillaine

[Keith Wilson]

Originally posted by jillaine smith

The performance for these sorts under Leopard is 100 times faster due to enhancements made by Apple.

Does that mean that ifamily4leopard will bring people index column sorts back? -)

3. Allow me to include and exclude specific fields in the index.

K.W. Please use the CSV Report (in V2.349) to define your needs for a work-flow and let me know what the requirement is. I do not want to unnecessarily bloat the people index - it is supposed to be a floating index panel.

Okay, I initially got excited about the People Index because it looked like I could get a bunch of displays/reports that I thought I was losing when I converted over to iF. Now it looks like the csv report is the closest you've got to custom reports, and if that's a better place to request enhancements then I'm happy to do that.

I like the ability to choose fields, but why just these fields? Why not any field within the database? Let me choose from all of them.

5. I like the " Notes" feature-- you click on the NOTES button, and the notes field very nicely (love the way it flips open so fluidly-- nice touch) opens for editing. How about doing the same thing for SOURCES? Have a SOURCE button for this person, that pulls up all her source info that I can then edit? That would be totally cool.

KW: This function is already available in the Sources pane in the main window. What you are requesting is dangerous because the user needs to see the context of the person who is being edited to make sure that the Source Reference is being added to the correct person.

I think I wasn't clear. I want the person's Source Citations to come up with a similar type of button as what you now have for Notes. So what you'd get when you clicked on Sources from the People Index would be the citations/references for that particular person.

6. I'd like a filter that allowed me to enter in birth place, and then death place, so for example, I could see all emigres. (I.e., all people born in England and died in the U.S.) (I'm writing a book for my niece called " 130 Founding Fathers and Mothers" that focuses on those who emigrated during the 1600s.) - I realize as I review this, that a custom report might be a better place for this kind of activity vs using the People Index for this.

KW: I think what you are asking for is already available in the menu option Events - Places where you can enter a filter such as " England" and generate a report for all events that occurred in England.

Not exactly. I saw the potential of your People Index filters and wanted enhancements to them. The Events- Places filter isn't as powerful.

7. Create a " Marriage Index" just like the people index (with all the enhancements requested above) that at a minimum has the name of each spouse and the marriage date. Again, sortable. FTM has a pre-coded report for this that is quite nice I used it regularly.

KW: Please try the People Index - CSV Report in V2.349 and see if the spreadsheet provides a suitable way of creating what you want.

See my comments in a separate response all the marriage-related facts are smooshed into one field. Not useful that way.

Please also click on the pink Help button at the top right of the People Index and read the last few paragraphs of the Help dialog which explain how to use the People Index to search for marriages.

First off, it's a blue " ?" button. -)
The instructions describe how to search for a specific marriage or set of marriages (i.e., where SMITH is married to JONES). I'm seeking a marriage *report* that lists all marriages in the database ideally:
HusbandName (last, first), WifeName (last, first), MarriageDate

I would have thought that having a name like SMITH would be even more unreliable for determining consanguinity but maybe your maiden name was more distinctive.

SMITH *is* my maiden name. I didn't change it on marriage.

But your question had me take another look at this consanguinity check box. I made Philip the focal person, then selected the consanguity box. I would have expected the index to shift to display only direct-line ancestors or descendants of the focal person. Now I'm not sure what it's for...

Also, thanks for making the names in the index double-clickable, resulting in their family page coming up behind the index window. FTM has the equivalent, but RootsMagic does not.

KW: What other genealogy applications provide does not really interest me so much as working out what is truly useful.

I'll try to remember that. It's just that I've been using both those programs regularly and am used to certain functionality. What's truly useful to me about this double-click feature is the greater ease to editing facts quickly and directly without having to go through so many clicks.

Thanks, Keith!

-- Jillaine

[Keith Wilson]

Maybe some of what you are asking for belongs in Reports - Filtered People

The People Index is bloated enough already.

Keith

[Keith Wilson]

When any person has multiple spouses then you will find that there are columns called Spouse1, Spouse2, Spouae3, ...
So if Henry VIII is in the table then there will be six columns for spouses.

Keith

[Keith Wilson]

Originally posted by jillaine smith

When any person has multiple spouses then you will find that there are columns called Spouse1, Spouse2, Spouae3, ...
So if Henry VIII is in the table then there will be six columns for spouses.

Keith

Alternatively, you could repeat a line for each multiple spouse

Henry VIII, King - Aragon, Catherine - 1509
Henry VIII, King - Boleyn, Anne - 1533
Henry VIII, King - Seymour, Jane - 1536
Henry VIII, King - Cleves, Anne - 1540
Henry VIII, King - Howard, Katherine - 1540
Henry VIII, King - Parr, Catherine - 1543