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. |
| View 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 Family Historian will
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. 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
- 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 facts generally)
associated with that Individual which have places specified.
Any event or fact which has no place specified, is excluded. As
some Individual records have no associated event or fact , or none for
which the place has been specified, these Individual records will not
have any markers associated with them. To view the list of events
or facts 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 to expand the entry.
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.
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*. 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 which allow you 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 other marker sets. 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. Sets which are higher up the
list appear in front of sets which are lower down the list. |
| 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
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 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 'cog' button 
to the right of the address bar. The menu choices are:
The next 3 menu items allow you to view the current map in an external web browser, using Google, Bing or Open Street Map. The last menu item, "Options", takes you to the "Map Window" tab of Preferences, where you can view and edit Map Window options. |
| 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 move 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  , the View All
Markers button  ,
and the View World 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 the Map Window tab of 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). The toolbar below the list has 3 buttons:
- The Find Event In List button
is used with Individual
& Places marker sets only (it is greyed otherwise) and
selects the currently selected event in the current marker set
listing. - The Menu button
displays a small menu (see below). - The Locate In Property Box button
locates the currently
selected event in the Property Box.
| Find Place in List | If the current marker set is a Place Record marker set, this will select the place in the marker set listing on the left-hand side. If the current marker set is an Individual & Places marker set, this will select all the events in the current marker set, associated with this place (expanding entries for Individuals as necessary, if the relevant events are not showing). |
| Show Place in Property Box | This has the same effect as clicking on the place name link at the top of the Popup Marker Window. It causes the Place record to be displayed in the Property Box |
| Centre Map Here | Moves the map so that the current marker is in the centre of the window. |
| List Selected Events at this Location | This option is only available when the current marker set is an Individual. If ticked, only events associated with the current marker set are listed in the Popup Marker Window. |
| List All Events at this Location | If this option is ticked, all events associated with the current marker set are listed in the Popup Marker Window. |
* See Family Historian Map Search and Geocoding for information about service providers. All features which use Internet services provided by third parties (such as automatic geocoding) are subject to the availability of those services.