Report layout help please
Can someone with experience with tweaking reports, make a suggestion please?
I've just moved over from Legacy Family Tree to Family Historian - which I love.
I understand that I can't replicate everything and happy to learn new ways of doing things but I'm hoping I can reproduce some items in these reports.
I've uploaded a sample Legacy report and a Family Group Sheet for the same person from Family Historian.
What I don't need - lines between each event
What I do need - the image / media to print with the event. I have 'blank' images for those events with no image so the layout is similar to the Legacy Family Group Sheet - the date / text / image all start in the same position.
I hope I've explained that OK - as they say a picture says a thousand words.
I've uploaded the two report examples - FH and Legacy - in my Google Drive - this link will give you access to those files.
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1lxM6tfHL0AagX_CYQ5G45DlxDLchXPqp?usp=share_link
I didn't want to do these as attachments until I learn all the group rules properly, so thought this was the best option for people to actually see what I'm talking about. Hope that's OK.
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Hi Suzie,
Some things in Reports you may just have to accept but here are some ideas.
“What I don't need - lines between each event”
In general, there are not any bank lines between each fact (event/attribute).
Look further down the report at all the other family members and there are no blank lines between facts.
It is only the inclusion of pictures, which effectively reduces the page width for the text, that causes the 3rd column to wrap over several lines.
In the Legacy report, there are blank lines between facts, also caused by the pictures, but for a different reason.
There are some changes to the Report > Options that might help:
On the Contents tab, bottom right, untick ‘or calculated’ for Ages to reduce the width of the 2nd column of dates.
On the Pictures tab, you could change their Location &/or their Size.
On the Format tab, you can Edit the Section Data font to be a smaller point Size so more text fits in each column.
On the Page Layout tab, you can adjust the Column Indents and Gap top right so that the 1st & 2nd columns are narrower and the 3rd column is wider so the text wrapping is reduced.
Use the Save Report As > Custom Report Type to save those customised settings for reuse in the future.
“What I do need - the image / media to print with the event.”
That is something several users have requested but has not been implemented (yet) in FH. Sorry.
A possible workaround is to use Save Report As > Word-Processor Document (RTF) and then use a word-processor outside FH to adjust the fact line spacing so they align with each picture.
Thanks for those suggestions - I'll look at each option but I fear that for these special ones I may need to run them from Legacy instead.
Basically these are options to showcase someones occupation or skills.
The PURCHAS example I showed - he was an architect - and the Family Group Sheet shows the buildings he designed in chronological order.
A similar one could be for an artist. There are a number of examples that this works for.
As I said I don't expect everything in Family Historian to work like they did in Legacy but this is a really important one and I'll keep my fingers crossed that it may become part of FH in time.
Do you think it would be worth submitting a 'new feature' request for something like this even though you said it has been requested by several users.
I wonder what others do when you have images to include in a Family Group Sheet - for example - an image of a house or houses where some lived.
I know one family member whose passion was cars - chronological images of their different cars.
And of course when the Family Group Sheet is 'printed' as a PDF then it is so easy to enlarge to see the images better.
Thanks once again for your suggestions - always appreciated.
Oh - the 'z' is in my surname - my name is spelt Susie not Suzie. But it's OK - you're in the majority - I'm sure it's the Z in my surname that throws people.
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Sorry Susie, my wife and I use to run a restaurant and prided ourselves on being customer focused with things such as getting names right, remembering birthdays & anniversaries, food allergies, etc.
It is important.
There already is a relevant Wish List entry dating from 2016 that as an FHUG member you can Vote for and add Comments:
Reference: 535 Title: Report Options with more Picture Locations
https://www.fhug.org.uk/wishlist/wldisplay.php?wlwlref=535
If you migrate permanently to using FH but wish to use Legacy for some Reports then there is the Export Gedcom File plugin with options specifically to cater for Legacy and other genealogy products.
I guess I've got so used to people spelling my name wrong - at a guess 80-90% get it wrong and I'm sure that's because of the Z in my surname! I don't hold grudges!
Tank you for the link - I've added a vote and a comment. I noticed that the weblink is classified as 'Closed Wish List Requests' - does that have any significance - i.e. discarded as a legit / useful request?
What other reports do people use to display images such as headstones, homes, certificates, newspaper clippings, etc. etc.? I'm happy to use an alternative report but is there one?
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Hi Susie.
It also doesn’t help that S is immediately above Z on the keyboard so maybe muscle memory comes into play?
“What other reports do people use to display images such as headstones, homes, certificates, newspaper clippings, etc. etc.?”
Most of those images would usually be attached to the Media tab of Source Citations and displayed in the Sources section near the end of Reports with a superscript link for the facts they support.
Headstones would support Death and Burial events.
Certificates would support Birth, Marriage, Death, etc, events and often Names.
Newspaper clippings would support whatever facts are gleaned from the clipping.
i.e. Anything that is considered a source document that supports facts about a people.
Photographs, usually of people, would be attached to the Media tab of Individual or Family records and appear near the top of that person’s section in Reports.
Pictures of Places such as Homes might be attached to Place records and thus automatically associated with every fact linked to that Place.
Finally, pictures can be attached to Facts directly where they related specifically to that one Fact.
I’m pretty sure that most of those methods apply to Legacy and many other genealogy products.
When it comes to headstones on the internet I copy it then go to FH to the person it revers to. I then highlight the burial fact and then prompt media. Once this is open I prompt 'add media for fact followed by 'paste copied image'
The image details are filled in and kept in the media folder. If
I use the image a second time for another person I promt 'add mdia
folder followed by 'link to existing media record'
Victor
Hi Susie.
It also doesn’t help that S is immediately above Z on the keyboard so maybe muscle memory comes into play?
“What other reports do people use to display images such as headstones, homes, certificates, newspaper clippings, etc. etc.?”
Most of those images would usually be attached to the Media tab of Source Citations and displayed in the Sources section near the end of Reports with a superscript link for the facts they support.
Headstones would support Death and Burial events.
Certificates would support Birth, Marriage, Death, etc, events and often Names.
Newspaper clippings would support whatever facts are gleaned from the clipping.
i.e. Anything that is considered a source document that supports facts about a people.
Photographs, usually of people, would be attached to the Media tab of Individual or Family records and appear near the top of that person’s section in Reports.
Pictures of Places such as Homes might be attached to Place records and thus automatically associated with every fact linked to that Place.
Finally, pictures can be attached to Facts directly where they related specifically to that one Fact.
I’m pretty sure that most of those methods apply to Legacy and many other genealogy products.
Victor, as a matter of interest, why not add the headstone image to a Source Citation where you can include a transcript (headstone images are often unreadable) and details such as its cemetery plot reference.
“When it comes to headstones on the internet I copy it then go to FH to the person it refers to. I then highlight the burial fact and then prompt media. Once this is open I prompt 'add media for fact followed by 'paste copied image'.”
Mike
I first fill the burial details before adding the headstone
image. As you say some are unreadable but the description from
where I copied them helps. I copy quite a bit from 'Find a Grave'
I have never bothered with Source Citation for anything
Victor
Victor, as a matter of interest, why not add the headstone image to a Source Citation where you can include a transcript (headstone images are often unreadable) and details such as its cemetery plot reference.
“When it comes to headstones on the internet I copy it then go to FH to the person it refers to. I then highlight the burial fact and then prompt media. Once this is open I prompt 'add media for fact followed by 'paste copied image'.”
I first fill the burial details before adding the headstone image. As you say some are unreadable but the description from where I copied them helps. I copy quite a bit from 'Find a Grave'One of the headstones I obtained from Find a Grave has SEVEN people on it giving the dates they died and their ages. Where would you put the full inscription, on every one of those people?
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I first fill the burial details before adding the headstone image. As you say some are unreadable but the description from where I copied them helps. I copy quite a bit from 'Find a Grave'One of the headstones I obtained from Find a Grave has SEVEN people on it giving the dates they died and their ages. Where would you put the full inscription, on every one of those people?
Victor
AS can be used to record not only the census but also
Birth, marriage and deaths
And also baptisms and burials
And is totally free to use – donations are always a pleasant surprise to Nick
Regards
John Hanson FSG
Sent: 16 December 2022 14:11
To: family-historian@groups.io
Subject: Re: [family-historian] Report layout help please
I am on my phone at the moment so can't check but I wonder if this can be done via AS
Victor
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On 16 Dec 2022, at 13:39, John Elvin <groups.io@elvin.me.uk target=_blank>groups.io@elvin.me.uk> wrote:
I first fill the burial details before adding the headstone image. As you say some are unreadable but the description from where I copied them helps. I copy quite a bit from 'Find a Grave'
One of the headstones I obtained from Find a Grave has SEVEN people on it giving the dates they died and their ages. Where would you put the full inscription, on every one of those people?
One of the issues I have to deal with is that I have two databases - one for research in our region which includes 32,120 individuals with associated families and sources.
The other - my family files - has 4668 individuals.
The other thing I have to be aware of - from the Legacy database I don't have thousands of source - only 126 in my family db - but they are top level sources but there are associated Source Details in the thousands - in fact, 4,652 to be exact. So I have to find a more global solution if tbese events and sources are able to be printed OK.
A lot of checking and learning to happen but I'll get there. I appreciate all of your suggestions.