Frequently Asked Questions

If you have problems accessing the Help or a manual, see Frequently Asked Installation Questions.

Charts and Diagrams

• I have version 3.0 and diagrams aren't working. What should I do?
• Is it possible to create traditional charts without boxes?
• I would like all boxes to be the same size in diagrams. Can I do this?
• When I insert pictures into diagrams they are sometimes much too big. Why is this and what can I do about it?

‘Living’ and ‘Private’ Flags

• I want to be able to set the ‘Living’ flag on everyone who is still alive. What is the best way to do this?
• How can I hide details about ‘Living’ people in diagrams?
• How can I hide references to ‘Private’ people in diagrams?
  

Events and Attributes

• I defined custom events and attributes using version 2, but now with version 3 I can't see them. What's happened to them?

Miscellaneous

• I keep seeing references to GEDCOM. What is GEDCOM?
  
• I want to send a copy of my family tree file to another Family Historian user, but I want them to be able to see all the pictures too. How can I do that?
  
• In Family Historian reports it says that person X has died when they haven't. Why is this and what can I do about it?
  

I have version 3.0 and diagrams aren't working. What should I do?

This problem mainly affects users who do not have an installed printer. The best solution is to download a free upgrade to the most recent version of Family Historian (see Downloads). This problem has been fixed since 3.1. However, you should also be able to fix the problem by unticking 'Cache Printer Settings' in Preferences (clicking on Tools > Preferences, and then click on the 'Advanced' button the General tab to find this option).

Is it possible to create traditional charts without boxes?

Yes. To specify this and other box features you need to use the Box tab in the Diagram Options dialog. If you click on the 'Presets' button on that tab, and then click on 'No Box' you will get a look that has no boxes (and while you're there - why not have a look at the other presets too). Click the Help button on the same tab for more information about how to use this tab to get whatever other kind of look you want.

I would like all boxes to be the same size in diagrams. Can I do this?

This is now supported in version 3.1. Click on the Diagram menu when viewing your diagram. Then click on "Pages, Rows/Columns & Boxes", and finally click on "Make All Boxes the Same Height".

When I insert pictures into diagrams they are sometimes much too big. Why is this and what can I do about it?

Family Historian inserts pictures into diagrams at their 'normal' size (i.e. not zoomed in or out). You may find that when you view the pictures in other applications that they automatically zoom out, or automatically shrink the pictures to fit the available space - which may be why you had not realised before how big they are.

You can resize any picture you have inserted, by selecting the picture and clicking on any of the little white boxes in the sides or corners. From version 3.1, the aspect ratio of the picture will by default be preserved when you do this.

If you want to change the size of the original picture, you need to use another application to do that. If you do not already have an application you can use to do this, you may able to download a free one from the Internet. At time of writing, we understand that Irfanview, for example, is free (http://www.irfanview.com). Mention of this or any other product by us does not constitute a recommendation or endorsement of any kind. We do not take responsibility in any way for third party products even if we mention them. If you choose to use Irfanview, you do so entirely at your own risk.

I want to be able to set the 'Living' flag on everyone who is still alive. What is the best way to do this?

If there are only a small number of records involved, you can set flags on multiple records at the same time by selecting them all (e.g. in the Records Window, or the Diagram Window) and clicking on 'Record Flags' on the Edit menu. When you tick on 'Living' the flag will be set on all the selected Individuals.

If you have a large file you may want to use a query to locate people who either are, or may be, living. There is a query called 'Flag Living' in the Query Store of the Family Historian User Group website (http://www.fhug.org.uk). If you download this file to your desktop and double-click on it, it will be installed as a custom query. You can then run it. It takes 2 dates as parameters which can be left as the defaults. Then, when viewing the results in the Query Window, click on the Query Menu button at the right-hand end of the Query toolbar, and click on "Set Flag on Result Set Records". Choose 'Living' as the flag and press OK. This will set the Living flag on all records returned by the query. You should check the results as the query method is of course by no means infallible.

How can I hide details about 'Living' people in diagrams?

You can edit any text scheme to suppress details of 'Living' people (that is, people who have the 'Living' flag set). Open the Diagram Options dialog and select the Text Scheme you wish to change. Click Edit. Select a line in the text scheme that you do not wish to appear for Living people. Click Edit. In the Edit Text Scheme Item dialog box, tick 'Flag Condition'. Set the 'Record Flag' field to Living and specify that it must be 'not set'. Press OK. Repeat for each item that you can want to be conditioned in this way and then press OK to close the Edit Text Scheme dialog box.

How can I hide references to 'Private' people in diagrams?

If you do not want people flagged as 'Private' to appear at all in a diagram, you can arrange this. Create a custom query called (say) 'Private Individuals' which returns a list of all people who have the Private flag set (see the manual "Getting the Most From Family Historian" for help on creating custom queries). Then open your diagram and click on Diagram > Marks > Set/Clear Marks Using Query. Select 'Private Individuals' and click 'Run Query'. This will mark all the Private individuals in the diagram. Then click Diagrams > Marks > Select Marked Boxes. And finally click Diagram > Hide Selected Boxes. When you hide a box, the branch leading out from it is normally hidden too. The tree root cannot be hidden.

I defined custom events and attributes using version 2, but now with version 3 I can't see them. What's happened to them?

If you open a file that contains custom events and attributes that were defined in version 2, the custom events and attributes will be there. But you won't, by default, see them in most lists of events and attributes. In particular, if you click to add an event or attribute in the Events tab of the Property Dialog, they won't be included in the list. To see them, click on the 'More >>' button and then click on 'Show Hidden'. You should now see the version 2 custom events and attributes. The reason that they were not shown before is because they had no 'fact definition'. Custom events and attributes which occur in a file, but which have no fact definition are labelled as 'undefined', and are hidden in lists by default. You are recommended to provide a fact definition for all custom events and attributes. To do this, click on the item and press the Properties button. A message will say "This event or attribute is currently undefined. Do you wish to create a definition for it?". Click OK and supply all requested details. If in doubt, leave the 'Fact Set' name as 'Custom'. You can always change it later.

Thereafter, your custom event or attribute will have a fact definition and will appear in lists.

I keep seeing references to GEDCOM. What is GEDCOM?

This is the name of the world-wide standard for sharing genealogical data. The latest version is 5.5. Family Historian was designed from the ground up to be 100% GEDCOM-compatible and 100% GEDCOM-complete - that is, it can load all GEDCOM 5.5 fields and can save all of its data to the GEDCOM format. In fact, Family Historian uses GEDCOM as its own 'native' file format. So unlike other applications, you do not have to convert Family Historian files to the GEDCOM format. They already are in the GEDCOM format.

I want to send a copy of my family tree file to another Family Historian user, but I want them to be able to see all the pictures too. How can I do that?

The problem here is that Family Historian recommends that you keep your pictures 'externally' on your hard disk. If you do this, your GEDCOM file - which is your main family tree data file - will only contain links to the external picture files, and not the pictures themselves. If you just send your GEDCOM file to the other person, they won't get any of the pictures. If you send the picture files as well, unless you take special care, the links will be wrong when the other person opens the GEDCOM file and they still won't see the pictures. So what you need to do is to send your GEDCOM file, and all picture files, in such a way that when the other person opens the GEDCOM file, even if they have copied the files you sent to some arbitrary place on their hard disk, the links will still work.

If you already keep all your picture files in the same folder as your GEDCOM file (or in subfolders within that folder) the solution is easy. Just make a copy of the entire folder and give the whole thing to the other person. When they open the GEDCOM file, the picture links will all still work - even if they copy the folder somewhere else.

If you don't keep your pictures files in the same folder as your GEDCOM (or in any kind of subfolder within that folder) then you need to create a temporary folder somewhere in your hard disk, and copy your GEDCOM file into it. Then copy all your picture files into the same folder. If your picture files are stored in a complex structure of sub-folders (folders within folders) don't change that. Just copy the entire structure (or structures) into your new folder. Now open the GEDCOM file in your temporary folder. At first you will probably find that none of the pictures appear. The links are all 'broken'. To mend them you need to click on "Work with External File Links" on the Tools menu. Click on the Help button on this dialog for instructions on mending broken links. When the links are all mended, save changes to the file. Now you can give a copy of this entire temporary folder to the other person, including picture files, and all the picture links should work correctly.

For more help on this, see Chapter 10 of "Getting the Most from Family Historian", and especially the section "Copy Files vs. Copying Directories".

In Family Historian reports it says that person X has died when they haven't. Why is this and what can I do about it?

If a person is said to have died in reports, this must be because there is a death event in their list of events and attributes. To solve the problem, open the Property Dialog for the person in question, select the Events tab, locate the death event and delete it.

That still leaves the question of how the death event got there in the first place. There is some reason to believe that some other genealogy program is creating spurious death events for individuals who have not died. If you imported your data from another program, that may be the explanation. Another possible explanation is that a death date was entered for someone by mistake, in the Main tab of the Property dialog, and then cleared again. When the death date was entered, a death event was automatically created to 'house' the death date. When the death date was cleared, the date was removed, but the death event itself was not deleted.