Preferences Dialog
Preferences Dialog: Property Box
Names and Surnames
When you enter a person's name that consists of more than one word, Family Historian will always assume that the last name is the surname, unless you explicitly indicate otherwise by using slash characters to mark the surname. Suppose, for example, that Elizabeth Powell Smith's surname is 'Powell Smith'. If you entered her name simply as "Elizabeth Powell Smith", Family Historian would assume that 'Smith' was the surname. To mark her surname correctly you would need to put slashes round 'Powell Smith' like this: "Elizabeth /Powell Smith/". If the name had been hyphenated however (as 'Powell-Smith') there would have been no need for slashes as Family Historian would have treated the hyphenated name 'Powell-Smith' as the last name, and hence the surname.
In some languages, the surname may not necessary appear at the end of the name. For example, "Mao Tse-Tung" should be entered as "/Mao/ Tse-Tung" because 'Mao' is the surname. If you only enter only one word as the name (e.g. 'Jane') Family Historian will, by default, assume that it is not the surname and will automatically add two slash characters on the end of the name to reflect this ("Jane //"). If actually 'Jane' was the surname, and that's the only name you had, you would need to enter it as "/Jane/" to make this clear. Of course, the alternative is to use a question mark or something similar, to mark the unknown name part - for example, "Jane ?" or "? Jane".
Why does Family Historian need to know which part of the name is the surname? It needs to know this so that it can provide a number of different services, such as automatic capitalization of surnames, surname-first ordering, search-by-surname, and much more.
When viewing names in Name fields, for editing purposes, Family Historian can, if you wish, always put slashes round the surname, to make it clear which part of the name is the surname. However, for aesthetic reasons, Family Historian by default keeps the use of slashes to a minimum, and only puts slashes round the surname when this is needed for clarity - that is, if the surname is not the last name, or if there is only one word in the name. See Show Surnames Between Slashes below for options relating to this.
Fields
| Show Surnames Between Slashes |
See the discussion of "Names and Surnames" above. Choose Always if you want Family Historian to always mark the surname by slashes in Name fields when names are being edited in the Property Box. If you choose Only When Necessary, Family Historian will only mark the surname by slashes if the surname is not the last word in the name, or if the recorded name consists of one word only. Whatever option is chosen here only affects Name fields in the Property Box. It has no effect on how names appear in reports, books, charts, diagrams, web-pages, or on how they appear elsewhere in the program. It also makes no difference to how you enter names into Name fields. |
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| Fonts |
Choose the fonts you wish to use (including size and style) for the Property Box. The 'Title' font is only used when the Property Box is docked (see next). |
| Preferred Position for Source Pane When Property Box is Docked or Floating |
To display or hide the Source Pane for the Property Box, click
on the yellow scroll button The Source Pane can appear either below the main body of the Property Box, or to the right of it. By default, it will appear below the main body when the Property Box is docked, and to the right of it when the Property Box is undocked. If space is limited, you can also opt to show the Source pane in its own window (this is the Open in New Window option). |
| Thumbnail Size | Configure the size of thumbnails in the Media tab. |
| Colours | Configure colours for Property Box |
| Captions | Configure how captions are displayed in the Property Box. See Property Box Captions. |
| Show Field Helper Buttons When Mouse Over | Some fields in the Property Box - such as date fields - have a Helper dialog that can be used as an aid, to make it easier to enter complex information (such as complex date information). To access this Helper dialog, you can either double-click on the field, or click on the little button with 3 dots at the right end of the field. Only fields which have a Helper dialog associated with them, have this button, and it only appears when you click on the field or when you move your mouse over the field. If you do not wish the button to appear when you move the mouse over the field, uncheck this option (enabled by default). |
on the Property Box
toolbar. The Source Pane shows source citations for the data in
the Property Box. When you click on an item in the Property Box,
the Source Pane updates automatically to show you the sources
for that item of data.