Workspace Windows
The Media Window
The Media Window (marked in red)
The Media Window is opened by clicking on the Media button 
on the main application
toolbar. When you click on this button, a dropdown menu appears
with choices, determined in part by which record or records are
currently selected, as to which media records you wish to display (each
picture, or other media item, is represented by a Media record within
Family Historian). Typically, you may opt to display all media
records, or perhaps just pictures (and other media) that are
pictures of a given person or persons. But you may also
choose to see pictures (and other media) which are instead merely linked
(in various ways that you can choose) to a given person or persons.
The Media Window has its own menu and toolbar, both of which are only available when the Media Window is active (see Media menu and Media toolbar). The window is divided vertically into 2 areas, separated by a vertical dividing line. The area on the left is called the List Pane. The area on the right is called the Display Pane. You can choose to view both (the default), or just the List Pane, or just the Display Pane (see the Media menu and Media toolbar). When displaying both, you can click-and-drag on the dividing line separating them, to reposition it to suit your needs.
The List Pane
When first installed, the List Pane has one tab only: 'Media List'. However, when the Media Link Tool is enabled, it has two - the second tab being 'Media Link Tool'. Each tab is discussed in turn:
List Pane Tab 1: The Media List
The Media List tab contains a list of Media records. Whichever Media record is selected in the list, is displayed in the Display Pane (if in Picture mode), or is shown selected (if in Thumbnail mode). The Media List supports multiple selection.
Tip: you can add a keyword to any number of Media records in one go, by selecting them all and then clicking 'Keywords' on the Media menu. You can also add simple links to any number of Media records at a time, by selecting them all, and then clicking 'Add Simple Link' on the Media menu.
Initially the Media List tab displays the list of media records you
chose to view when you opened the Media Window; but you can change the
list displayed at any time, using the following fields (at the top of
the tab):
| Media List |
Displays 'Selected Media' if you have chosen a specific
selection of Media records. You can also select various
standard collections from the dropdown list. Click the button to the right, to display a
menu with extensive further options for selecting Media records,
using search expressions, queries, and other methods. |
|---|---|
| Keyword Filter |
Each Media record can be associated with any number of
keywords. Use the keyword filter to restrict the list to
Media records that match the filter. This can be one
keyword, or several. |
List Pane Tab 2: The Media Link Tool
To open the Media Link tool, click on the Media Link Tool button
on the Media toolbar. This button adds or removes a second tab to
the List Pane: the 'Media Link Tool' tab (not shown in the image above).
The Media Link Tool is a powerful tool that makes it very easy to quickly add links from records of all kinds, to pictures (or other media). It is, however, particularly useful if you want to add frame links to pictures. The most common example of a frame link is a face link - that is a link from an Individual record to that person's face in a picture. Frame links can however be used with other record types - and not just with faces.
To use the Media Link tool, both the List Pane and the Display Pane must be enabled, and the Display Pane must be in Picture mode (see below). Choose the type of record you wish to link to the Media record, using the Selector at the top of the tab. You can also opt to view Named Lists, if you wish.
Whatever type of record you are listing, as long as it is a kind of record that can be linked to a Media record, you can add a link from that record to the picture/media item by selecting the record and clicking one of the 2 buttons at the bottom of the tab (the button or the button). Alternatively, you can simply click-and-drag on the record, and drop it onto the picture/media item. When you do so, you will be asked if you wish to create a simple link or a frame link.
If you are viewing a list of Individual records or Family records, and you wish to add a link to an event (or other fact) associated with a particular Individual or Family, you can do this too. Click on the little box to the left of the record to expand it. You will see all the fields that belong to that record. Click on the field for the event (fact) in question, and then either drag-and-drop it onto the picture/media item, or click the button, to create a simple link.
When you are viewing a list of Individual records in the Media Link Tool, an additional panel, called the Close Relatives Panel, is displayed in the bottom-half of the tab. You can click-and-drag on the dividing line that separates the Close Relatives Panel from the list in the top-half of the tab to increase or decrease the amount of space allocated to this panel.
The Close Relatives Panel shows close relatives of whoever is selected in the list of Individual records in the top-half of the tab. This is useful, and can save much searching, because frequently pictures contain people who are closely related to one another. You can add links to records in the Close Relatives Panel in exactly the same way that you add links to records in the top-half of the tab - that is, by using the button or the button, or by using drag-and-drop.
You can use the Close Relatives Panel to find any relative -
not just close relatives. Suppose, for example, that you are
viewing a picture of John Smith and his aunt, Mary Jones, who, let us
say, is the sister of his mother, Ann Jones. First select John
Smith in the list, and add a link to him. At this point, the Close
Relatives Pane will be showing a list of close relatives of John Smith,
which includes his mother. Select Ann Jones and click on the Show
Relatives Of button 
which is just to the right of
the 'Relatives of' field. This will cause the Close Relatives
Panel to display close relatives of Ann Jones, including her sister Mary
Jones. You can now link Mary Jones to the picture in the usual
way.
Using this technique, to 'navigate' from one relative to another, you can find any relative of the starting person. You can also 'go back' to a previous person, whose relatives you have viewed previously, by selecting them from the dropdown list that appears if you click on the down arrow, at the right end of the 'Relatives Of' field.
The Display Pane
The Display Pane, on the right side of the Media Window, has two modes: Thumbnail Mode and Picture Mode.
Thumbnail Mode
In Thumbnail mode, the Display Pane shows one thumbnail image for each of the Media records listed in the Media List tab of the List Pane. Selecting Media records in the Media List will cause their thumbnail images to be selected in the Display pane. But equally, selecting thumbnail images in the Display Pane, causes the same Media records to be selected in the Media List.
Only one picture, or Media record, can be viewed at any one time, in
Picture Mode. To switch to Picture Mode, simply double-click on
any thumbnail, or click on the Toggle Picture/Thumbnail View
button 
on the Media toolbar.
Picture Mode
In Picture Mode, the full picture (if the Media Record is a picture) is displayed. In this mode, the Display Pane is divided into two parts - and as usual, you can click-and-drag on the dividing line if you wish. The top part is the Form Panel, and the bottom part is the Viewer. The picture is displayed in the Viewer.
The Form Panel has 2 tabs: 'Media Record' and 'Links'. These tabs are very similar to the information that is displayed when you view a Media record in the Property Box.
Form Panel Tab 1: Media Record
The Media Record tab is used to enter basic information about a Media record - its title, date, keywords and a note.
| Title |
The title of the Media record. This can be whatever you
like. |
|---|---|
| Date |
The date the Media item was created. In the case of
photos, this is the date that the photo was taken. It is a
good idea to provide this if possible, as it may be used later to
calculate other information - such as the ages of the Individuals
in the picture. |
| Keywords |
Every Media record can have as many keywords as you like.
You can type them in to this field as a comma-separated list, or
you can click on the button with 3 dots, to the right side of the
Keywords field (when you move the mouse over the Keywords field or
click on it). When you do this, a Helper dialog appears and
you can choose Keywords from a list. It is a good idea to associate keywords with Media records as you can then use these keywords for filtering - see the Filter Pane section above. |
| Note | This is a note that applies to the picture as a whole (not to be
confused with 'Link Notes' on the Links tab). |
Tip: There are 2 useful links at the bottom of the Media Record tab, labelled 'File' and 'Location' respectively. Clicking on the first link opens the media file (the file on your hard disk containing the media item) in an external viewer, and is the equivalent of clicking on the Open Editor/Player button on the toolbar. Clicking on the second link, the Location link, opens File Explorer to display the media file in its location on your hard disk. If the media file cannot be found on the hard disk, the first link will display in red, prefixed by 'File not found - '. In that case, clicking on the link will open a File Not Found dialog box, with options for locating the missing media file - which includes letting Family Historian search for the file for you.
FOrm Panel Tab 2: Links
The second tab of the Form Panel is the Links Tab. This displays all records that are linked to the current Media record. If a picture is linked to an event (or fact), the record that the event belongs to will be listed in the first column, and the event will be listed in the 'Detail' column.
You can add a note for each link. You can also view more details about each link in the 'Flags' column. The icons in the Flags column have the following meanings:
 |
The link is a frame link. If not show, the link is a simple link. You can convert a simple link to a frame link by clicking on the 'Add Frame Only' button on the toolbar (see below). |
|---|---|
 |
Exclude from diagrams and the Focus Window. |
 |
Exclude from reports, books and web-pages. |
 |
Do not let Family Historian generate a caption automatically for this picture (or other media) when it is displayed in a report or web-page. Instead use the associated annotation (if any) as the caption. |