More ideas for the future!

Keith Wilson · Post by **Keith Wilson** » Sun Nov 26, 2006 5:00 pm

Originally posted by PaulM

Hi folks,

Firstly, must thank Keith for all the amazing work being done here! iFamily is the third Mac genealogy program I've used and is the first I've really felt totally comfortable with - I switched over in an afternoon after using my last program for about a year!

So.. after a few weeks of use, here's some things I'd like to put up for consideration.. and apologies in advance if I've suggested something that's already tucked away somewhere! (currently using v1.210).

- There is already a right-click option " Display PDF" for PDFs. I'd like to see the same functionality for launching images in Preview or another application. Sometimes I want to zoom in on an image further than the level available within iFamily or I just want to be able to see the whole image full-screen. Obviously you can just find the original image in the Finder and launch it in another application but this would be a handy shortcut!

- Image Names: When you attach an image to an entry, give it a new title and then copy it to another entry it would be nice to have a preference that would allow you to retain the Title used on the entry you're copying the image from rather than the title defaulting back to the file name - as an example, if you attach an image, call it " The Smith family" and then drag it from one family member to another it will change back to image_12878.jpg or whatever. I can see the logic in reverting to the source name but it would be useful to be able to retain an assigned title as an option.

- A Full or Selected Individuals Database report - Just like the Ancestors report but for everyone or a list of selected individuals from the database. The existing reports are superb, exactly what I was looking for but I would also like to be able to pass some non-computer literate relatives a complete set of printed data in report format so they can read about all those distant cousins as well as direct line ancestors.

- Events - the Events Locations option can almost do this I'd like to see an advanced version where you could search by sub-strings so that if you have an event (a birth for example) taking place in " 12 Madeup Street, Dundee" and another event of the same type taking place in " Dundee" you could pull both into one result.

It would be very handy to be able to produce a report from this in rtf/text format that could be taken away to be worked on in a library or wherever. The idea here is to be able to produce queries where you could for example have everyone born in a certain place before a certain year, which could then be used to look up all the likely candidates that might appear in a Town Directory or similar source.

-This one is maybe a bit out there, but I wondered if there might be a way (outwith just having a source) to associate non-image files with an individual in the same visual way as PDFs and Images and launch them in an external application. I have some sources which are large text files, Word documents etc and it would be nice to have a visual link to them - almost a visual 'scrapbook' for non-pictures.

Right, more than enough from me for now!

Thanks,

Paul M

Keith Wilson · Post by **Keith Wilson** » Mon Nov 27, 2006 6:17 am

PaulM wrote:- Image Names: When you attach an image to an entry, give it a new title and then copy it to another entry it would be nice to have a preference that would allow you to retain the Title used on the entry you're copying the image from rather than the title defaulting back to the file name - as an example, if you attach an image, call it " The Smith family" and then drag it from one family member to another it will change back to image_12878.jpg or whatever. I can see the logic in reverting to the source name but it would be useful to be able to retain an assigned title as an option.

Thanks Paul
In V1.212 when you drag a picture from the Pictures panel onto another person then a dialog will pop up asking you for the title of the new picture. It gives you three options for the title:
the file name,
the old title or
the name of the dropped-on person.
Having selected a new title the then Picture Editor will be displayed so you can make the appropriate crop. The logic of the code is built on the assumption that you have a group photo and you want to crop many people from it.
Keith

Keith Wilson · Post by **Keith Wilson** » Mon Nov 27, 2006 8:14 am

PaulM wrote:- There is already a right-click option " Display PDF" for PDFs. I'd like to see the same functionality for launching images in Preview or another application. Sometimes I want to zoom in on an image further than the level available within iFamily or I just want to be able to see the whole image full-screen. Obviously you can just find the original image in the Finder and launch it in another application but this would be a handy shortcut!

Thanks Paul,
In V1.212 there is a new menu option when you Right click on an image that is called 'Open With' so you don't need to invoke Finder.
Keith

Keith Wilson · Post by **Keith Wilson** » Mon Nov 27, 2006 12:18 pm

PaulM wrote:- A Full or Selected Individuals Database report - Just like the Ancestors report but for everyone or a list of selected individuals from the database. The existing reports are superb, exactly what I was looking for but I would also like to be able to pass some non-computer literate relatives a complete set of printed data in report format so they can read about all those distant cousins as well as direct line ancestors.

Agreed but not in V1.212. It's on the todo list.
Keith

Keith Wilson · Post by **Keith Wilson** » Mon Nov 27, 2006 12:28 pm

PaulM wrote:-This one is maybe a bit out there, but I wondered if there might be a way (outwith just having a source) to associate non-image files with an individual in the same visual way as PDFs and Images and launch them in an external application. I have some sources which are large text files, Word documents etc and it would be nice to have a visual link to them - almost a visual 'scrapbook' for non-pictures.

You could save them from your word processor as PDF format files and then drag them into iFamily as a PDF image. If your word processor does not have a Save As PDF option then use the Print function and select PDF as the target. It would be a static file which has its pros and cons. One of the advantages is that it would copied into your iFamily /Pictures directory.
Keith

Keith Wilson · Post by **Keith Wilson** » Mon Nov 27, 2006 11:33 pm

PaulM wrote:- Events - the Events Locations option can almost do this I'd like to see an advanced version where you could search by sub-strings so that if you have an event (a birth for example) taking place in " 12 Madeup Street, Dundee" and another event of the same type taking place in " Dundee" you could pull both into one result.

It would be very handy to be able to produce a report from this in rtf/text format that could be taken away to be worked on in a library or wherever. The idea here is to be able to produce queries where you could for example have everyone born in a certain place before a certain year, which could then be used to look up all the likely candidates that might appear in a Town Directory or similar source.

In V1.212 there is a new search field in the Events - Locations dialog. There is also a new Print button in this dialog - nothing fancy, just plain text.
Keith

Keith Wilson · Post by **Keith Wilson** » Fri Dec 01, 2006 12:44 am

Originally posted by PaulM

" nothing fancy" ? It's fantastic! Many, many thanks for this Keith! Another use I was thinking of for a search like this was that I could plot where my various ancestors lived on a street map (or maybe in Google Earth) and instant lists like this makes doing something like that a whole lot easier. Brilliant!

Cheers,

Paul

Keith Wilson · Post by **Keith Wilson** » Fri Dec 01, 2006 9:50 am

Chris Knight wrote:
Keith Wilson wrote: In V1.212 there is a new search field in the Events - Locations dialog. There is also a new Print button in this dialog - nothing fancy, just plain text.
Keith
Keith, I can't actually see a print button in this dialog in 1.212. Also there appears to be a bug - if I cancel an event entry I cannot then add another - just get the " thud" sound when I click the add button. I also cannot quit iFamily via the red close button and the close and quit dialog, although I can quit via the dock (not a force quit, just quit)
Chris

The bug in the Cancel button was created in V1.212 and has been corrected in V1.213. The get-around is to download and install V1.213.

The Print button referred to is in the Events - Locations dialog which is accessed via the main menu item Events

Keith