Workspace Windows
The Map Window
The Map Window is opened by clicking on the Map Window button 
on the main application toolbar. When you click on this button, a
dropdown menu appears with options. All of the options will open a
new Map Window if one isn't open already. If a Map Window is
already open, it will be re-used - unless you have specified in
Preferences (Workspaces tab) that you do not want Map Windows to be
re-used. The options are:
| Map All Places | Creates a marker set (see next section) to map all Place records |
|---|---|
| Map Places for .... | Creates a marker set for the currently selected
Individuals. The marker set will show, for each Individual,
all the places that they are associated with. |
| Map Places for All Individuals |
Creates a marker set for all Individuals in the project. |
| Map Window | Opens the Map Window without creating any marker sets. If
a new Map Window is opened, the List Pane (see below) which
displays the current marker set, will be blank. |
The List Pane and the Map Viewer will be discussed in more detail below. But first, the term marker set is introduced and explained, and then geocoding.
Marker Sets
A marker is a little coloured icon like this 
or this 
(different shapes and colours are supported) that you can place on
a map, to mark a place - such as, the place where an event
occurred. A marker set is a collection of records and
their associated markers. Each Map Window can have, and can
display, as many marker sets as you want. Each marker set uses a
single type of marker only - that is to say, all markers for any given
marker set, look the same. So - suppose you want to mark all
places for events associated with your father using a blue marker, and
all places for events associated with your mother with a red
marker. To do this, you need two marker sets. One marker set
for your father, with a blue marker. And another marker set for
your mother, with a red marker.
Normally, as we have seen above, when you open the Map Window, you will at the same time create a new marker set. If you are re-using an existing Map Window, this new marker set will be added to whatever existing marker sets it already has. You can also add a marker set to a Map Window by clicking on the button in the top-left corner of the Map Window.
Click on the dropdown list labelled 'Marker Set', in the top-left corner of the Map Window, to see a list of all the marker sets associated with the window. If the list is grey and disabled, there are no marker sets. In that case, you can click on the button to create one.
There are 2 types of marker sets: Place Record marker sets and Individual & Places marker sets. Place Record marker sets consist of a simple list of Place records, each of which (normally) has its own marker. Individual & Places marker sets consist of a list of Individual records, and, for each one, the events (or, stricly-speaking, facts generally - but in practice it's usually events) associated with that Individual which have places specified. Any event which has no place specified, is excluded. As some Individual records have no event - or none for which the place has been specified - these Individual records will not have any markers associated with them.
Although two Place records can have the exact same latitude and longitude, the actual place name that they are associated with is guaranteed to be unique. You cannot give exactly the same place name to two Place records. So each Place record always gets its own marker. The same is not true of the event associated with Individuals, however. Any number of events can have happened at the same place. So within an Individual & Places marker set, all events that happened at the same place, will share a single marker.
To view the list of events associated with each Individual (the ones
that have places associated with them), click on the little expansion
button 
to the left of the Individual's name in the list.
Geocoding
Before we can mark a Place record on a map, we must first determine its latitude and longitude - this process is called geocoding. By default, Family Historian will automatically geocode all Place records that are either listed, or referred to, in the current marker set. Automatic geocoding requires an Internet connection, and uses an Internet geocoding service provided by Edina*. While geocoding is in progress, you may see a little clock icon next to each place being geocoded.
You do not need to use automatic geocoding. You can 'manually' set the latitude and longitude for place if you wish. There are 3 different ways you can do this:
- Open the Place record in the Property Box and enter the desired latitude and longitude into the 'Lat.Long.' field. If you have copied a latitude and longitude to the clipboard, you can paste it in here. A wide variety of formats for latitude and longitude are recognised and supported. There is also a Helper dialog for this field, to help you to enter latitude and longitude information if you wish to (to open it, click on the little button with 3 dots at the end of the field, or double-click on the field itself).
- If a given Place has already been geocoded and marked on the map,
and you wish to move the marker, click on the Enable Marker
Dragging button
on the Map
toolbar. When marker dragging is enabled, you can click-and-drag
on any marker to move it. This updates the geocoding (the
latitude and longitude) in the Place record. - Alternatively, click-and-drag on any Place record (or event linked to a place) in the List Pane, and drag it onto the Map Viewer. The Place record will be set at the location where you 'drop' it. Again, this updates the geocoding (the latitude and longitude) in the Place record.
Yet another option is to use a plugin (possibly one downloaded from the Plugin Store) to geocode some or all Place records.
See the Map
Window Legend for an explanation of the meaning of the
icons used to display geocoding status information in the List Pane.
The List Pane
As stated earlier, the Map Window is divided vertically into 2 areas, separated by a dividing line, called the List Pane and the Map Viewer respectively. The List Pane has the following fields and controls:
| Marker Set |
Displays the current marker set. Click on the box to see
the full list of all the marker sets in the current window, as a
dropdown list. The current marker set is not
necessarily the first marker set in the list. |
|---|---|
| Set Tasks |
Shows a dropdown menu with options for to add (create) a new
marker set, edit or delete the current marker set, or re-arrange
(change the position of) the current marker set, by moving it
relative to others in the list (see previous). The order of
marker sets is significant. It determines which markers
appear in front of which other markers on the map. If you
have blue markers appearing behind red markers on the map, and you
wish the blue ones to appear in front, you need to change the
order of their respective marker sets. |
| Check All |
This check box is used both to view, and change, the state of
check boxes in the current marker set. If it is checked, it
means that all the check boxes in the marker set are checked -
i.e. all the markers that can be displayed are being
displayed. If it is unchecked, it it means that all the same
list of check boxes are unchecked. And if it is in an
intermediary state  ,
it means that some are checked and some are not. |
| Expand All/ Collapse All |
Individuals & Places marker sets only.
Expands all branches, or collapses all branches, of the current
Individuals & Places listing, to show or hide the events
(facts) & places associated with each Individual listed. |
| Fact Types |
Individuals & Places marker sets only. Use this option to check (mark) all geocoded events of a particular type, or combination of types. For example, you might be interested to know where your ancestors were born (marked in red, let us say), and where your spouse's ancestors were born (marked in green let us say). To do this, create one marker set for your ancestors and another for your spouse's ancestors. Select each marker set in turn and use the Fact Types option to check 'Birth' events only. |
| Records |
Select and sort the records for the
current marker set (Individual records or Place records, depending
on the marker set type). |
Right-click on any item in the List pane to show a dropdown menu with options that are relevant to the item in question. The meaning of the various menu commands is as explained in the Map Window menu.
The Map Viewer
The Map Viewer is the name for the area on the right side of the Map Window, where the map is displayed. It has the following components:
| Address Bar and 'Go To' button |
If you wish to find a place in the map, enter the place name in
the Address bar (to the right of the 'Location' label) and press
the green 'Go To' button to the right of the list. If
matches are found, a dropdown list of options will be displayed. |
|---|---|
| Address Bar Menu |
This is the menu that appears when you click on the 'gear' or
'cog' button to the right of the address bar. The options
allow you to view the current map in your web browser, using
Google Maps, Bing Maps, or OpenStreetMap. |
| Map |
This is the map component itself. There are numerous ways
of zooming in, out, and around the map. The map has its own
on-screen zoom control, and 'rose' in the top-left corner which
can be used to reposition and zoom the map. You can also use
your mouse wheel, and arrow keys to zoom, or more around - but
first click on the map itself to ensure that the mouse wheel
action, and keyboard presses, are directed to the map, and not to
some other component of the Map Window. When you zoom using
the mouse wheel, the map is sensitive to the current position of
the mouse pointer, which is maintained throughout the zoom. You are recommended to learn how to use the various buttons on the Map Window toolbar that are related to zooming and position the map - especially the View Home Region button  and the View
All Markers button  . |
| Time Slider |
The Time Slider is hidden when you first open the Map
Window. To enable it, click on the Time Slider button 
on the toolbar. The Time Slider is used to hide or show
places associated with Individuals and events at given
dates. To use it, you must have at least one marker set of
the Individuals & Places type. The Time Slider
has no useful role with marker sets which just show the location
of (undated) Place records.When enabled, the Time Slider control is displayed at the bottom of the Map Viewer, below the map. It causes all dated markers to be hidden if they do not fall within the start and end dates of the Time Slider. You can specify in Preferences, whether you wish undated markers to be hidden or not. Click-and-drag on the Time Slider to move the date range. You can also separately move the start and end dates, to extend or shrink the range. |
The Map Viewer has a Popup Marker Window which appears whenever you click on a marker, on the map. This resizable window, shows the name of the place at the top (click on this link to view the Place record in the Property Box), as well as a list of all the events associated with the place (if it's a Place Record marker set), or a list of all the selected events associated with the place (if it's an Individual & Places marker set). Even in the latter case, however, you can opt (see the toolbar menu below the list) to switch to showing all events associated with the place. More options allow you to select all references to the place in the List pane, locate a selected event in the Property Box, or view the Place record for the current place, in the Property Box. Another option is the Centre Place here command. This is especially useful because the map's on-screen zoom control zooms in and out on the central point of the map.
* All features which use Internet services provided by third parties (such as Automatic Geocoding) are subject to the availability of those services.