Workspace Windows

The Book Window

To open the Book Window you must first open a book.  If you haven't yet created a book, you will need to create one.  To open an existing book, or create a new one, click Books on the Publish menu.  This opens the Books dialog box which displays a list of books.  On this dialog box, books can be created, edited, cloned, viewed or deleted. Select a book and click the Viewbutton to open the book in the Book window.  You can also access the Book Window by clicking View Book in the Edit Book dialog box.

The Book Window shows you a preview of what your report will look like when printed. From here you can browse through it on- screen, or print it (or a range of pages from it). You can also save a copy of it as a PDF file or as a word-processor document (in Rich Text Format - a format used by many word-processors, including Microsoft Word). If you wish, you can copy individual pages to the clipboard, and paste them into other applications. Click the Edit Book button on the right side to review and change any aspect of the book's content, style or layout.

You are not constrained in any way as to what you can can do while previewing a book. The Book Window is just one more window in Family Historian like any other. You can switch to any other open window (click on any of the window icons in the Navigation Bar on the left side of the window) without having to close the Book Window. By double-clicking on the items shown in the "Page Records" list (in the panel on the right), you can bring up the Property Box to view their details and change them if you wish. The Book Window will update itself immediately to reflect any changes you make.

The Book Window has a panel with buttons down the right-hand side. These buttons provide commands which are also available from the Book menu. Which buttons you see will depend in part on your screen size.

The various commands (button and/or menu) relating to books are described below.

Zoom In	Zoom in. You can also specify that you want the window to display a page width or a full page (see the values in the dropdown list above the 'Zoom In' button).
Zoom Out	Zoom out.
Two Pages	Check this if you wish to view 2 pages at once. Odd-numbered pages display on the right.
Rebuild Book	If you make changes to the underlying data, while viewing a book, the book will update itself immediately to show the changes. But some aspects of the layout cannot be changed immediately, and in these circumstances, you will be asked to click on this button to rebuild the book before you print it, or save it as a file.
Edit Book	Opens the Edit Book Dialog.
Copy Page	Copies the current page to the clipboard.
Go To Page	Enables you to jump straight to a specific page
Print	Prints the book, or some part of it that you specify. You can also print by clicking on the File > Print menu command.
Printer Setup	For changing printer options, including page size and orientation (portrait or landscape).
Save Book As	All books can be saved as a PDF file  or  word-processor document (in Rich Text Format - a format supported by most word-processors, such as Microsoft Word).
Close	Closes the Book Window.
Page Records	This lists all the records for which an entry is being displayed on the current page. You can select any item in this list, and access all the usual functionality for it (e.g. open the Property Box to view its properties or show a diagram for it in the Diagram Window). Double-click on an item in the list as a quick way of opening the Property Box for it.