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New features in Family Historian 3.1.2
- You can now specify the size of margin to leave around diagrams when saving a whole diagram in Enhanced Metafile Format (EMF). Also, the problems that some users experienced when saving diagrams in Enhanced Metafile Format have now been fixed.
- Now, if you have Windows XP or later, you can access the contents of Family Historian's backup (zip) files using Windows Explorer.
New features in Family Historian 3.1.1
- Some GEDCOM files downloaded from Ancestry have been found to contain bad or missing family relationship links (i.e. the links were incorrectly set up and did not conform to GEDCOM requirements). In the past, Family Historian resolved this problem by simply removing the bad links during validation (i.e. when the file was loaded, or you used the Validate command on the File menu). However, this has meant that users have then had to manually re-enter the missing family relationship information from information provided in a report. Now, in 3.1.1, Family Historian will resolve the problem of the bad links by automatically repairing them, instead of removing them
- Sundry minor enhancements and bug fixes
New features in Family Historian 3.1
1. New Support for 'File Root'
- You can now optionally make any individual a 'File Root'.
- There is a new column 'Relationship to Root' which is listed in the Configure Columns Dialog for the Records Window. This column is enabled by default. It shows how all Individuals in the file are related to the file root, and it is updated instantly and automatically as relationships change.
- When editing diagram text schemes in the 'Edit Text Scheme' dialog, there is a new item 'Relationship to File Root' that can be added to any text scheme.
- The File Root can be set from the File Root submenu, which is accessible from the Edit menu.
Advanced users can make extensive use of the new file root features in numerous contexts - see Advanced Features for Power Users below.
2. New International Features
- You can now choose between UK English and US English in a new 'International' tab in the Preferences dialog.
- The Internet Search tool now lists sites for Australia, Canada, New Zealand and India
3. New Help System
- The old help system has been replaced by a completely new one. The new Help system has a hideable contents pane on the left side which allows much better browsing of topics.
- Topics from the old system have been retained, but have been extensively tidied up and improved, and the data has been re-structured and re-organised. Numerous new sections have been added, in particular a new "Getting Started" section with associated topics, and a new "How To" section (under "Using Family Historian") and associated topics, have been added. The aim is to make it much easier, by just using the Online Help, to find information relating to both getting started (for new users) and finding out how to do things (for all users).
- New sections have been added for each menu, detailing what each menu command does.
- New sections have been added for each toolbar, detailing what each button does.
- The new Help has a much improved Index and a much-improved Search facility, as well as other useful options (e.g. a button on the toolbar to easily let readers adjust the font size to suit them, etc).
4. Diagram Layout Enhancements
The old 'Page Boundaries' sub menu on the 'Diagram' menu has been renamed as 'Pages, Rows/Columns & Boxes'. Using the options on this menu you can do the following
- Make all boxes the same size
- Make all boxes in the same row the same size
- Make selected boxes the same size
- Reset box sizes (i.e. re-enable Autosize for all boxes)
- Make all rows the same size.
- Reset row sizes
- Adjust diagram scaling so that an exact number of rows (or columns, depending on the diagram orientation) will fit within a page. If rows (columns) are not already the same size, this option will force all rows (columns) to be the same size.
- Reset diagram scaling
If you press the Ctrl key while moving page boundaries (using click-and-drag on grid intersections when viewing page boundaries) the boundary will now 'snap' to the nearest row or column boundary. If you use this in conjunction with the ability to make all rows (columns) the same size and fit an exact number within a page, you can get a much-improved layout for diagrams that appear spread vertically over several printed pages.
5. Other Diagram Enhancements
- Performance when displaying very large diagrams has been significantly improved. This is especially true if 'Check for Duplicates' is ticked (see the 'General' tab of the Diagram Options dialog). Any diagrams which display ahnentafel numbers will also be faster.
- There is a new 'Lines' tab in the Diagram Options dialog which allows you to set the colour and thickness for lines connecting boxes. Dotted and solid lines can be set separately. You can control how lines reflect the marital status of couples. For example, by default divorced couples had a line 'crossing-out' their marriage lines; and couples who never married are connected by dotted lines. But you can change these defaults as you wish.
- In the past, you had a fixed choice of 10 line thicknesses to choose from (e.g. for lines surrounding boxes, or for added lines or rectangles). You can now specify any thickness you like (down to the nearest quarter of a point) for all lines. To do this choose 'Other' as the required line thickness and then specify the required line size using a quarter-point decimal (e.g. 5.75).
- There is now a choice of the layout of lines connecting ancestors. The new default is that these lines are 'forked', but you can have the old style with marriage lines if you prefer - there is an option for this on the General tab of the Diagram Options dialog.
- The lines connecting duplicated families can now optionally have 'hooks' that link these lines to the parent boxes. This is set by default. See "Hook boxes to family link lines" in the Duplicate Options dialog (accessible by clicking 'Options' next to 'Check for Duplicates' in the General tab of the Diagram Options dialog).
- There is now a new option to 'straighten' descendant branches. This is most useful when you have a person with a single line of descent. Please note that it is the overall shape of the branch that is straightened by this option. The actual lines connecting each parent to his descendant may have a kink in them in order to achieve the overall straightened shape. This option ("Straighten descendant branch lines where possible") can be accessed by clicking 'More Layout Options' on the General tab of the Diagram Options dialog.
- If you make a change to diagram options coloured red, you normally have to rebuild the diagram. When a diagram is rebuilt, all existing trees are discarded and a single new one is created. In the past, all other diagram elements (including any added pictures, text boxes, rectangles, etc) were also discarded. That is no longer the case. Now it is only trees that are discarded. Non-tree diagram elements are retained.
- Previously if you inserted a picture into a diagram, the aspect ratio of the picture was not automatically maintained. It now is maintained, by default. If you want to change the aspect ratio, click 'Format' and untick 'Lock Aspect Ratio' on the new 'Image' tab.
- You can now insert information from the header or submitter record into Text Boxes in diagrams, using data references. Note: if you wish to insert information from the Submitter Record, the submitter must be specified in the Header record. To specify the submitter in the Header record, click on View > Special Records > Header Record.
- There is a new 'Set Zoom Level' function available in the Zoom submenu of the Diagram menu. This lets you specify an exact zoom level.
- Diagrams now save scaling info, position on page, and row height info, when you save in chart format.
6. Improved Support for File Merging or Appending
- In the past, if you wished to append one file into another without merging any records, you had to do this by opening the Merge/Compare dialog, waiting while Family Historian searched for possible matches, and then unmatching any records which Family Historian had matched. Now when you open the Merge/Compare dialog you are asked if you want any records to be matched. If you answer 'No', the Merge/Compare dialog will open immediately with all records unmatched and you can simply click 'Merge' to append the one file into the other.
- The File Merge/Compare matching process is now much faster in any case.
- You get more detailed feedback while the File Merge/Compare matching process is going on, so you can see what is happening.
- There is now a Cancel button, which you can use to cancel the File Merge/Compare matching process if it still is taking too long.
7. Improved Support for File Splitting/Deleting Data
Using the 'Split Tree Helper' dialog (accessible from the File menu) you can now optionally delete:
- Any events or attributes you select for deletion
- All events or attributes except those you list
- All flags
- All named lists
- All notes within records
- All private notes - that is notes within double square brackets (e.g. [[Secret text]]). Using double square brackets to mark a note as private means that you can optionally exclude the note from reports, etc; but now you can also delete private notes from an entire GEDCOM file.
8. Improved Support for Source Pictures
Source pictures used to have to be displayed to the right of source listings in Reports, and above them in rows in web pages, family tree CDs, or word-processor documents. You now have 4 options:
- To the Right of the Text
- Above All Citations
- Below All Citations
- Below Each Citation
You can now set both a maximum width, and you have the option to enlarge small pictures to this size. You can also set a maximum height.
All options are supported not just for reports, but also for web pages (HTML format) and word-processor documents (Rich Text Format) - except to 'the Right of the Text' which is treated as 'Above All Citations' in HTML and RTF format. All options only ever stack pictures one above the other - you no longer get multiple pictures per line.
Options can be chosen from the 'Sources' tab of the Report Options dialog.
9. New Support for Estimating Birth and Death Dates, and Ages
- A new query 'Estimated Alive At' returns everyone known to be alive at a given date, or who Family Historian estimates may have been alive at the given date.
- There is a new column 'Dates (est.)' which is listed in the Configure Columns Dialog for the Records Window. This column is not enabled by default but you can add it by right-clicking on any column heading in the Records Window and selecting 'Configure Columns'. The new column is in the list of items on the left-hand side. It is similar to the normal 'Dates' column except that for people who have no dates, it will show estimated dates, preceded by a tilda '~' (e.g. ~1920-~2005).
- There is also a new item 'Life Dates (est.)' which allows you to add estimated life dates to any text scheme, to display in diagrams. This item is listed on the left-hand side in the Edit Text Scheme dialog.
- There is a new 'Estimates' tab in the Preferences dialog which shows various assumptions that Family Historian makes which affect these estimates - for example, there are estimates for the minimum and maximum age at which women are likely to have given birth. You can adjust these settings if you wish.
- Advanced users should see Advanced Features for Power Users below to learn more about new technology relating to estimates, and how to use this in various contexts.
10. Extended Support for Customizing Events and Attributes
- You can now customize the listing in the Events tab, and the Record Window, for any event or attribute, using an 'Advanced' dialog when editing the properties for an event or attribute.
11. Improved Support For Keyboard Shortcuts
- Pressing Ctrl+D in the Records Window now switches the keyboard 'focus' to the box at the top of the window that lets you search for a name (the 'find box'). This option works in all contexts in which you have a list of records and a find box - not just in the Records Window.
- Pressing Ctrl+Shift+D in the Records Window does the same as Ctrl+D, except that additionally it also sorts the list in alphbetical order, making records easier to find.
- Pressing F6 in the Records Window now switches the focus between the Find box and the main records list. If the Named List pane is open, it will move the focus between (in order) the Find box, the Records list, and then each of the the 3 panels of the Named List pane.
- Pressing Shift+F6 does the same as F6 but reverses the order.
- Pressing F3 only used to work if the 'focus' was in the Find box, in the Records Window. Now F3 will continue to work even if focus shifts to the Records List.
- There is now a complete list of keyboard and mouse shortcuts in the Online Help. To find it, click on Help > Contents and Index. Then expand 'General Topics' and double click on 'Keyboard and Mouse Shortcuts'.
12. Miscellaneous
- In the past when you copied a source citation, the copy only happened when you pasted the citation. So if you changed the original citation after 'copying' it, the pasted citation would include the changes. Now when you copy a source citation, a snapshot is taken at that point, and changes to the copied citation will not affect pasting. Please note: this only applies to copied citations. Copying all other fields will continue to work as before.
- If you start to enter a place name into a place field, auto-completion will now choose the most-recently-used matching place name as the 'auto-complete' version, for preference, if there is a choice of more than one place name that matches the typed text. If the text does not match the most-recently-used place name, the most-frequently-used matching place name will be chosen, if there is a choice of more than one. The same applies to auto-completion in all other contexts (e.g. religions, etc).
- There is a new 'Check for Updates' command on the Help menu, which will alert you if there are new program updates available.
- If you want to have a column in the Records Window to show whether a person has a given flag or not, this is now easier as each flag is listed as an item that you can add, in the left column of available items in the Configure Columns Dialog.
- The maximum size of any given note in a note field, used to be 30,000 characters. That has been increased to 0.5 million characters.
- A new 'multimedia' button has been added to the toolbar in the Source pane of the Properties dialog that will show you multimedia for the selected source. The button will be greyed if the source has no multimedia.
- There have been numerous minor enhancements to the websites and Family Tree CDs generated by their respective wizards.
- The HTML generated has been made more standard. Alignment of items has been improved.
- Relationship descriptions are now automatically kept correct as relationships change (e.g. see the new 'Relationship to Root' column in the Records Window). There is also an 'Advanced' preferences option to switch this off if preferred (see 'General' tab of Preferences). If not automatically updated, relationship descriptions can be refreshed by clicking 'Refresh' on the Window menu.
- The GRO has been added as a site, to the Internet Search tool.
- As well as the new 'EstimateAliveAt' query (mentioned above) there is also a new 'Has Flag' query. When you run it it prompts you to choose a flag; and then lists all the Individuals who have that flag. In effect this means that wherever you currently can use a query to select a group of people (e.g. in setting marks in diagrams, or in selecting records for deletion in the Split Tree Helper dialog), you also now choose to select individuals by flag settings using this query. The 'Named List Members' query (not new in 3.1) equally allows you to choose individuals by named list membership.
- You can now specify more complex sentence templates for narrative reports (see the Online Help).
- There have been numerous 'tidying-up' changes to queries - for example, all queries now have appropriate titles when printed.
13. Advanced Features for Power Users
Power users are technically sophisticated users who like to explore a program's full capabilities. Family Historian has special power-user features which give tremendous power and flexibility to users who want it. Version 3.1 extends the power-user features considerably with 12 new 'functions' and other related enhancements. These enhancements are described in the section "What's New in Family Historian 3.1" of the online help (in the "Welcome to Family Historian" section).
14. Bug Fixes
There have been numerous bug fixes and/or small usability enhancements. These particularly affect diagrams, website generation (and family tree CD generation), queries, fact sets and the Property Dialog.
New features in Family Historian 3
Website Creation and Other Internet Features
- A new website creation feature allows you to create wonderful websites using Family Historian's powerful report engine and picture-handling functionality, to generate superb web pages
- Extensive configuration options give you an unprecedented level of control over the generated web site - or you can simply accept the Family Historian defaults
- Extensive configuration options give you an unprecedented level of control over the generated web site - or you can simply accept the Family Historian defaults
- Use the 'Private' record flag to exclude some individuals altogether, or use the 'Living' record flag to hide all but the basic details (name, sex, and family relationships)
- A new 'Internet Search' feature allows you to search for information about Individuals across the Internet
'Smart Trees', and Moving and Resizing
- Support 4 different methods for moving boxes & branches.
- New 'Smart Trees'automatically adjust to accommodate box or branch moves, or box resizing, making changes easy that would otherwise be difficult or impossible in practice
- Boxes can be either automatically sized or manually resized - and you can switch between these
- A new method of branch dragging relative to a 'fixed point' makes it easy to move entire branches apart or together. The same technique can used to move spouses and siblings together or further apart
A New Everyone Diagram
- A new Everyone Diagram has been added which shows everyone in your family tree file, and all of their relationships
The All Relatives Diagram has been Re-worked and Much Improved
The All Relatives tree is unique to Family Historian. It shows all relatives of a given person or couple, in a way that looks great and is easy to understand. Please note: all of the listed enhancements apply not just to the All Relatives diagram, but to All Relatives trees too, when these are inserted into other diagrams (see below).
- Half-siblings are now aligned with siblings, and ancestors 'other spouses' are shown next to them. Where ancestral spouses are not in spouse order, an optional spouse number is displayed next to the non-ancestral spouse to show which order they come in
- Diagrams now automatically adjust themselves vertically as well as horizontally to make best use of available space. You no longer get wasted unused rows for relatives you don't have
- You can now simply specify 'All' as the required number of generations for ancestors and descendants. The no. of rows per generation field is gone - you no longer need to specify this
- Layout of All Relatives diagrams has been improved in several ways and you now have more control over it. If you right-click on a box in a diagram there is a 'Keep Near Parents' option which you can use to control layout
- 'Proxy' boxes are boxes which show ancestors in the context of their parents' family. You now have complete control over the display of proxy boxes and can eliminate them altogether if you wish to, or specify conditions for when they will be used
Duplicate-Detection and Duplicate-Linking in Diagrams
Duplicates in diagrams arise when the same person is related to the diagram root in more than one way. Family Historian has pioneered a new strategy for dealing with this scenario, which we believe achieves the best possible clarity, simplicity and elegance - but without in any way compromising on the information that is displayed
- Family Historian will now (optionally) automatically close-off duplicated branches, and use curved, coloured ribbons to link duplicate individuals and duplicate families
- Extensive configuration options allow you to control the colour, shape and width of linking ribbons
Multi-Tree Diagrams, Saved Diagrams and Enhanced Chart Output
- All diagrams can now be saved with all details preserved as files in Family Historian Chart format, so you can create complex charts and keep them, and add to them
- All diagrams now support multiple trees. You can insert an unlimited number of additional trees into any diagram, and position them independently, wherever you want
- As well as trees you can also insert as many pictures, text boxes, lines and rectangles as you wish, and format or order them (front-to-back) as you wish
- Box features are now fully configurable - including the shape, thickness and colour of box frames (if used), the box fill colour, optional box shadow, colour, size and position, and, of course, all text colour, style & layout details
- You can also now add 'B&B-Style' icons in diagrams (think of the icons in Bed-and-Breakfast catalogues which tell you whether the room has a TV or en-suite shower). For example, you could use a 'men-at-work' traffic sign, appearing just below a box, to flag which records you are currently working on, and/or a Stop sign to show which records are flagged as private. There is no limit to the number of icons that are shown next to any box. You can choose from a number of pre-defined icons, or you can design and use your own icons if you wish (e.g. using Windows 'Paint')
- You can specify sets of box features, including any or all of the features just listed, and can choose your preferred conditions for displaying them. For example, you could specify that all or some text items should be coloured based on sex, the fill colour and frame thickness could be conditional upon generation, icons could be determined by specified record flags, and the shadow position could be determined by the box type. You decide how to match features to conditions that you specify
- Although matching features to conditions is easy, it's even easier when it's all been done for you. Which is why Family Historian comes installed with a number of 'presets', allowing you to choose between a number of standard 'looks' for your diagrams - e.g. generation-based colouring, box-type colouring, a 'no-box' version, and so on
Much Improved Control Over Box Contents in Diagrams
- Specifying the text contents of boxes in diagrams is now much easier - just choose the items you want from a list. But you can still 'drill down' to get full control over details if you wish to
- You can now specify font, style, colour & layout features for all text items within boxes
- You can specify not just text margins, but 3 levels of indent for individual text items within boxes. Text items can be left, right, or centre aligned, or justified
- Text can be wrapped round pictures (side only)
- Boxes automatically adjust to the size of the text, and can accommodate all text, including lengthy notes extending over multiple paragraphs
- Display of text items can be conditional upon record flags, and on other conditions
- Text items can be grouped together, to create visually impressive layouts. For example, you could choose to display all of a person's residences, and indent, colour and/or italicize the address and note details for each one
- Although you can use different formatting options for names, dates and places, within text boxes, it is now simple to set these in one place for all text items in your boxes
Diagram Orientations, Box Hiding, 'On-the-fly' Option Changes, and Yet More Enhancements to Diagrams
- Family Historian has always supported 'On-the-fly' changes to diagram options, but this has been greatly extended and made much easier to understand and use
- No more hitting 'diagram limits'. If you see an expansion button you can now always click on it to expand the diagram, and Family Historian will adjust the diagram both vertically and horizontally if it has to (even in All Relatives trees)
- You can now hide any box or tree branch. You can also choose to show hidden boxes, and unhide them again if you want to
- All diagrams now support all orientations (top-down, bottom-up, left-right, and right-left)
- Working simultaneously with multiple diagram windows is now much easier thanks to the new Navigation bar (see next)
- Improved support for scaling diagrams - it has been made much easier and clearer
- Improved support for spouse layout - 3 default schemes are provided for controlling the position of spouses (mainly relevant to individuals who have more than one) but you can override these by positioning spouses (and siblings) in any order you wish
- A new "Find in Diagram" command on the Edit menu let's you find any selected person in the current diagram window (the most recently-viewed one if you have more than one open). This works from any other window
- With a single key press, Family Historian will now automatically avoid both vertical and horizontal page boundaries (and you can configure the margin to leave in each case)
- All dimensions are now given in real world units - inches, centimetres or millimetres, depending on your preference. There are more of them that you can configure, and they are better laid out and easier to understand
- The 'Expand Branch (all levels)' command on the Diagram menu now lets you expand a branch fully, rather than just one level
- A new option allows you to show a line below individuals and couples who have no offspring
- A new 'Limit Overhang' feature gives fine-grained control over layout
- If you open a diagram for a person who has multiple sets of parents, you are now prompted to select which parents you want. Using the 'Insert Tree' feature, you can have both trees in one diagram
Usability Enhancements, including a New Navigation Pane
- The new (optional) Navigation Pane, on the left-hand side of the Main window when you open it, shows all active windows in the program (Records Window, Query Window, Diagram Windows, Multimedia Windows, Reports Windows)
- You can have as many diagram, reports and multimedia windows open as you like. This is not new, but it is much easier to see when you do this and switch between them
- Right-click on any icon in the pane for options to 'Lock' the Window (preventing it being reused if say, it's the Diagram Window and you open another diagram), or Close the window. You can't lock the Records Window or the Query Window - there is only one of each of these in any case
- Locked Windows have a little 'lock' added to the bottom-left corner of their icon to show that they are locked
- You can now hide unused facts (events or attributes) in all lists
- Sundry other usability enhancements (including some mentioned elsewhere - such as much easier ways of specifying the contents of boxes in diagrams)
Installable Fact Sets
Up to now, however, you have only been able to create custom facts (i.e. events or attributes) one at a time. Suppose, however, that you share an interest with others in a particular set of facts that cover some specialised aspect. In that case, you or someone else can define a complete set of facts that are relevant to this. This 'fact set' can be exported, and uploaded to a website (the Family Historian User Group website for example). Then others can download and install it using an Import comand.
Here are some examples of topics that genealogists might wish to define a fact set for:
- Medical History
- Military History
- Religious History and Ordinances
- Specialist Occupation Details (e.g. you could have a specialist fact set for sailors, covering which ships they sailed in, and other details relevant to the lives of sailors)
- Muslims might wish to use an Islamic fact set. Jewish people might want to use a Jewish one, and so on
There is no limit to the number of fact sets you can create and have installed
Unlimited Record Flags
- Record flags are flags that you can add to any Individual record to mark something about that individual (e.g. that they are alive or that they don't want information about them to be made public)
- Flags can be viewed and edited in the new Record Flags dialog on the Edit menu, which lets you view and set flags for multiple records at the same time
- You can define your own custom flags (as many as you like)
- A new "Work with Named Lists and Flags" tool lets you set named list membership based on flags or flags based on named list membership, and do other house-keeping tasks with both
- Set new Query menu commands let you set or clear record flags based on queries
- Record flags can be tested within queries, like any other field or (like any other field) used as a column in a query
- Record flags can be used elsewhere within text schemes to determine whether a line of text should appear. They can also be used to determine any box feature in a diagram - e.g. the 'fill' colour or shape of a box, the frame size or colour, whether the box has a shadow or an icon etc.
- Flags are also used when generating websites to control levels of privacy and exclude people who do not wish to be included
Shareable CD Output
This feature requires a CD writer and CD-burning software. Most CD writers come with their own CD-burning software. CD-burning software is in any case included as part of Windows XP
- Design and create CDs containing your family tree data for sharing with other family members
- Use the same powerful configuration options and features as for Web Site creation, but create a CD instead
New Narrative Reports and Enhancements to Existing Narrative Reports
- 2 new narrative reports
- You can now edit the sentence template for all facts (events or attributes, custom or standard, imported or not) using high-level codes for generating sentences in narrative reports
- You can now easily override the sentence template for individual instances of events or attributes, to fine tune how these appear in narrative reports
Other Enhancements to Reports
- Improvements to the Descendant Outline report
- Sundry other report enhancements - e.g. Cause of Death is now included with other notes about deaths, in reports
New Queries and Query Enhancements
- New standard queries have been added, including the 'Contains Text' query which lets you find any Individual whose record (or linked family records) contain a given word or part-word. So finding anyone who has ever had anything to do with Winchester, say, is now easy
- Query result sets can now be saved in CSV format as well as text. Copying query cells now uses an improved format, and should now always work with all data
- Querying on census data has been made easier
Sundry Other Enhancements
- A new import/export menu that makes exporting and installing custom items, much easier (e.g. queries, custom text schemes, installable fact sets etc).
- You can now specify a copyright message in the header box of a GEDCOM file
- Numerous other minor refinements and improvements
Overview
Click here for reviews of Family Historian (including screenshots).
Family Historian is a new kind of family tree program, with a new and different design philosophy. It was launched at the Society of Genealogists Family History Fair at Westminster, London in May 2002. To find out more about Family Historian read the reviews including that published in Family Tree Magazine (May 2002) by genealogy software expert John Hanson, and discover why he believes that "there is a lot that ... makes this program stand out from the rest".
Family Historian has several unique features that are really powerful and user-friendly. For example, add people to your database by simply clicking and dragging away (up, sideways or down) from an existing person in a tree. That's right, data entry in the trees themselves, just as you would on paper!
Family Historian comes with a 48 page Quick Start Tutorial in the box, to get you started using the program. It also comes with a 141 page User Manual in the form of an Adobe Acrobat document which is installed when you install Family Historian. You can print this yourself if you wish, or read it online. The User Manual is a complete and comprehensive document that takes you through all of Family Historian's extensive functionality. Its philosophy is that the best way to learn is by example, so each chapter can be worked through as a little tutorial in its own right, if you wish. In addition to the Quick Start Tutorial and the User Manual, there is also extensive, context-sensitive Online Help. We, TWR Computing, provide our customers with free unlimited support and advice by telephone and e-mail, normally 8am to 8pm 7 days a week. There is also an excellent e-mail discussion list devoted to Family Historian, including participation from the author of Family Historian himself!
Superb Diagrams
We believe that Family Historian offers the best diagram (or chart) facilities of any family tree application. In Family Historian, diagrams are tightly integrated into the way you work. You use them not just for printing, but also for browsing and editing. As well as Ancestor, Descendant and Hourglass' diagrams, Family Historian also has a unique All Relatives diagram, which really does allow you to view all your relatives (including in-laws) in a way that looks great and is easy to understand. Relatives of the same type (all first cousins, all second cousins, etc) are laid out in the same row; so you can read off how people are related, from the (optional) row labels.
Family Historian Sets a New Standard with its Support for Pictures and Multimedia
In Family Historian, not only can you add as many pictures as you like for each person, you can add a picture once and link it to each person in the picture. You can even link each person to their own face in the picture, and show just faces in diagrams without having to crop' your pictures. We believe that Family Historian is the only family tree application to support this and yet it is really an essential feature if you wish to work with pictures. You can also add sounds, video and any other kind of multimedia. You can even add links to other family tree files.
A Powerful and Sophisticated Query Engine
A query' allows you to extract whatever data you want from your family tree file. For example, you could use a query to get any of the following information:
What were the ages at death of X's ancestors in the 19th Century?
What boys names have been used by the descendants of Y?
Who are your relatives and what are the 5 closest ways that you are related to each of them
(if you are related to them more than once)?
Family Historian comes with a set of standard queries, but you can easily create your own, to get whatever information you want from your own data. Every query can be displayed in a spreadsheet-like grid, printed as a report, output to a file, or copied to the clipboard for easy transfer to other programs (such as a word-process or spreadsheet). Queries can also be used in other ways. For example, if you wished to split a family tree file you could use a query to define the split. You can also run a query to select pictures to view (e.g. show me all pictures of the female descendants of Z).
100% GEDCOM
GEDCOM is the universal standard format for shared genealogical data; but applications vary significantly in how well they support it. Family Historian is, we believe, unique in being 100% GEDCOM compatible, and 100% GEDCOM complete. 100% GEDCOM compatible' means that Family Historian can save all of its data to the GEDCOM (5.5) format. In fact, Family Historian uses GEDCOM as its own native file format. 100% GEDCOM complete' means that Family Historian can load all records and fields (or tags as they are called in GEDCOM) from a GEDCOM (5.5) file including other applications' extensions to GEDCOM. You might think that 100% completeness is the least you should expect; but it is not what you usually get. We know of no other application that comes close. Other family tree applications simply discard records and fields that they cannot load. Some will tell you when they do this. Some won't.
Excellent Support for Sources
Where did you get your information from? It's a very good idea to record not just the facts, but where the information came from your sources. Your data will be much more useful to you, and valuable to others, if you know this. Family Historian makes it very easy both to record source information (with its automatic source citations) and also to view it.
A Unique Merge/Compare Facility
Family Historian allows you to compare any two GEDCOM files side-by-side so that you can see exactly where and how they differ. We know of no other family tree application that offers this facility. Having compared them, you can then if you wish use Family Historian to merge them. Some family tree applications provide no support for merging records at all. Other family tree applications let you merge records, but only one-at-a-time. We consider that this is analogous to being asked to sign a contract one clause at a time. Only Family Historian allows you to do a full file merge; so that you make all the decisions about how the files are to be merged, and can see exactly what the outcome of the merge process will be, before you start any of it. You can if you wish leave everything to Family Historian or you can view how Family Historian proposes to do the merge, and override any aspect of it in any way you like. Or you can do everything yourself manually if you prefer, using the information provided in the compare process.
Events & Attributes
With Family Historian you can record full details of any events in the lives of the individuals or families in your files. Family Historian comes with a large number of pre-defined events for you to select from (birth, death, baptism, marriage, divorce, etc), but you can easily create any new event types that you wish, and use them exactly like standard events. Attributes are facts about a person e.g. their religion, where they lived, what they did. Again, Family Historian comes with a large number of standard attributes, but you can easily add your own. Family Historian has no built-in support for disease history, for example. If that's what you want no problem. Just add whatever attributes and events you need, and quickly see at a glance, who's had what, when, and how old they were at the time.
Reports
Family Historian comes with 28 queries when installed, all of which can be printed as reports. As discussed in the 'Query Engine' section above, users can create their own custom queries, and thereby (because all queries can be printed as reports) create their own custom reports.
In reports based on queries, the data is laid out in rows and columns, and you get one row for each record returned by the query. Traditional genealogy reports, such as the Family Group Sheet or Individual Summary Report, cannot be generated in this way, and are not included in the current release, 2.0.7, of Family Historian. However, they will be included in the next release, 2.1, which will be available as a free download from the Internet, to purchasers of 2.0.7.
Notes & Documents
You can have as many notes as you like about each individual in your family tree file (this is in addition to notes relating to specific events or attributes). Often, in practice, when an individual marries, you will wish to make notes that apply both to them and to their spouse. Sometimes you will wish to write notes that apply to a number of individuals. Family Historian supports all of these scenarios. It also allows you to see at a glance, and read, all the notes that are relevant to a given individual and, of course, provide source citations for all of them. But if a note is not enough, you can also link your records to entire documents, written using your preferred word-processor, which you can store separately or embed in your family tree file.
No Limits
Each user can have an unlimited number of spouses, children, sets of parents, pictures, multimedia, notes, source citations, and so on. You can store multiple, possibly conflicting versions of most items of data, such as names, dates, places, etc.; and you can assess the reliability of each version.
Ease of Use
Family Historian is very easy to use. It incorporates many recent advances in user-interface design.
Unlimited numbers of
- People
- Spouses
- Children
- Parents
- Names
- Events
- Attributes
- Notes
- Sources
- Citations
- Pictures
- Photographs
- Images of documents
- Multimedia objects
NEW FEATURES INTRODUCED IN VERSION 2.1.6
(1) A New Reports Menu, a New Reports Window and 17 New Reports
The new reports include
- Individual Summary Report
- Family Group Sheet
- Ancestor Outline
- Descendant Outline
- Source Summary Report
- Individual Census Report
- List Report
- ...and many more, including record detail reports which include all the data in a given record. All reports can be saved in HTML (World Wide Web) format, RTF (Rich Text Format - supported by word-processors such as MS Word), or plain text. The reports are fully configurable. You can create custom reports, using any existing report as a template.
The Reports Window allows you to preview any report and browse it online. While doing so, you can switch back to any other Family Historian window without having to close the Reports Window. You can even have multiple Report Windows open at the same time if you want to. You can change almost every aspect of report 'on the fly'. For example, you can change the style, format, page layout and the content (which fields are displayed, etc.) within the Report Options dialog, while viewing the report, and watch the report update immediately to reflect your changes when you click 'Apply'. You can change which records are selected for the report, and even change the actual data upon which the report is based (e.g. if you spot a mistake) - all without having to close the Reports Window. If the underlying data is changed, the window will update immediately to display the new changed data. You will be required to refresh the report by clicking on 'Rebuild Report' once, before you actually print it, however.
Reports have very flexible support for pictures and sources. You can, for example, display a picture of a family at the top of a family report, and then print pictures of faces taken from the family picture down the side, next to each family member in the detailed sections below. You can also print pictures of sources, and even of source citations, alongside the source listings if you wish to.
Most Family Historian reports can display information for multiple records. There is a new Record Selector Dialog to help you select records for reports. The Record Selector Dialog lets you select records from a normal records list or from Named Lists (see next section). It also lets you use queries to select the records you want ('queries' are stored instructions for retrieving data - you can create your own or use standard ones).
(2) A New Facility for Creating Named Lists
It is frequently useful to be able to create lists of records for various purposes. For example, you might want a list of bookmarks, a list of work-in-progress records, a list of key people or famous people, a ToDo list - or even specifically, a ToDo list for a given planned trip to a particular record office. Family Historian now lets you create as many lists of records as you like. Support for Named Lists (so-called because you give each one a unique name), is integrated into the Records Window, which now supports multiple selection, making it very easy to add records to lists, or to find records from a Named List (you just double-click on the list item).
You can add a note to every item in a Named List. For example, if the list was a ToDo list, you could add a note to say what you wanted to do with the record in question. All lists can hold records of any type - not just Individual records. You can keep lists in any order you like. A new List Report will print off lists, including the list note (if any) and list item notes (if any). Support for Named Lists is integrated into the program generally. For example, as mentioned in the previous section, you can access them when selecting records for reports in the Record Selector Dialog. You can also add to them from the same dialog. You can add any record to a Named List from anywhere within the program. Named Lists are designed to work well with queries. You can use Named Lists as filters within queries, or use the output of a query to modify a Named List.
(3) A New Tools Menu Facility to allow you to Re-order out of Sequence Data
Using this facility you can re-order any out-of-sequence events/attributes, children, spouses, and LDS ordinances within your file. You can either let Family Historian do them all in one go, or ask for confirmation before each record is re-ordered. You can also manually re-order events/attributes in the Events tab of the Property Dialog (new button on toolbar to support this). Previous restrictions on the order in which events and attributes could be stored have been removed. You can request that updated records be added to a Named List.
(4) New Backup/Restore Facility
Backups are stored in a standard Winzip format. You get prompted to backup at the end of every session (unless you choose not to be).
(5) Fast-find Edit Controls for Name and/or Record Id in the Records Window
These controls are also available in most contexts where you need to select/find a record. To find an individual, "John Smith", in an Individual records list, for example, you type "Smith, John". If there are multiple John Smiths, press F3 to move forward through each of them.
(6) A Number of New Preferences Options
- An Auto-Save facility
- You can specify a default file to open when Family Historian is started.
- You can specify a default folder to look in when using File/Open to locate Family Historian/ GEDCOM files.
- You can specify a default backup folder to save backups to.
- Option to Auto-add Father's Surname when adding child (doesn't apply to 'low-level' editing in the Records Window, but works in the Property Dialog and the Diagram Window).
- Option to store Family records ahead of Individual records in the GEDCOM file (default now is Individuals first). Some 3rd-party applications will not work if the records are not in the order they expect.
- Option to say if you want surnames in capitals or not (if yes, you get them everywhere; if no, nowhere - much simpler than old system).
- Ability to specify which Named Lists are 'auto-create' - ie. should be created in any file, even if not already there.
- Option to stop Family Historian automatically registering itself as the default GEDCOM application.
- Option to stop the Family Historian splash panel appearing. The 'Splash panel' is the box containing the product name that appears when the application starts up.
(7) Improved Support for Dates
You now have a choice of 6 different formats in which dates can be displayed in diagrams, reports and queries. It has also been made easier to copy Family Historian date information into other programs. The problem before was that Family Historian supports more complex date information than spreadsheets or database programs can usually deal with. Family Historian now allows you to effectively split a Family Historian date into 3 separate items of information which you can output from a query and copy into, for example, 3 columns in a spreadsheet..
(8) Sundry Other Enhancements
- New 'Unlink' menu command on the Edit Menu
- Mouse Wheel support with most record lists
- Added Address field to the Events tab
- Added Birth/Baptism/Christening/Death/Burial fields to Details tab, plus other fields
- 'Email' and 'Web' fields now added to the Property Dialog for Repositories
- New qualifiers make it easy to display different parts of names in Diagrams, Queries and Reports
- Improvements to the Exception Report
- The Records Window now shows dates for Individual records in an improved format
- You can use Ctrl-K and Ctrl-L as alternative 'hot keys' to zoom diagrams in and out (alternatives that is to + and - on the numeric keypad). Useful for laptops which don't have numeric keypads.
System Requirements
Family Historian version 2 is a 32-bit Windows application. That means it will run under Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows ME, Windows 2000, Windows NT4, Windows XP.
Family Historian version 3 will run under Windows 98, Windows ME, Windows 2000, Windows XP and Windows Vista. Version 3 will not run under Windows 95 or Windows NT4.
Family Historian will not run under Windows 3.1 or earlier versions of Windows. Family Historian will also not run under any Windows NT 3.51 or earlier versions of Windows NT.
A CD-ROM drive is required to read the CD-ROM that Family Historian is installed from and approximately 15Mb of hard disk space to store the program and accompanying files.
Family Historian will run quite happily on any PC that meets the minimum requirements of Windows itself. However, it is designed to make the best use of your PC's capabilities and a low-spec PC may struggle if you work with large files, or if you wish to work with large diagrams displaying large numbers of pictures (especially if the pictures used are large).
Ordering
Family Historian v3 evaluation CD is £2.95 with free delivery
Buy
Family Historian upgrade to v3.1.2 is £23.25 with free delivery
Buy
Family Historian v3.1.2 retail box is £36.75 with free delivery
Buy
Or order by telephone from TWR Computing on 01709 873747 (international +44 1709 873747)
Or send a cheque in British pounds sterling drawn on a UK bank to the address below
All prices include VAT and UK first-class postage (or airmail to anywhere in the world)
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TWR Computing
Suppliers of Software for Family Historians
Formerly of: Clapstile Farm, Suffolk
New Address:
53 The Brampton Centre, Brampton Road, ROTHERHAM, South Yorkshire, S63 6BB, United Kingdom
telephone 01709 873747 international +44 1709 873747
sales@twrcomputing.co.uk
support@twrcomputing.co.uk
http://www.twrcomputing.co.uk