Note Window

The Note Window is a floating window which is used to enter and edit notes of all kinds, including Text from Source, and research notes. You can open the Note Window by double-clicking on a note field (within the Property Box or elsewhere), or by clicking on the button with 3 dots, at the right-hand side of any note. If the Note Window is already open, its existing contents will be replaced by the new note, unless the Note Window has unsaved changes, in which case you will be prompted to save the changes, discard them, or cancel.

Buttons and Controls

Font	The default font is always listed as 'Automatic'. You can use as many fonts as you like for text within a note. If your note subsequently appears within a report or a book (or a web page), you will be able to change the default font (the 'Automatic' font) if you wish to, in that context. You can change the default font used in the Note window, on the Notes tab of Preferences (click Options on the Cog button menu to access this quickly). The default font is shared between the Note Window and the Property Box.
Font Size	You can use as many font sizes as you like, for different bits of text within a note. One font size is shown with "(default)" after it. This is the default font size. You can change the default font size used in the Note window, on the Notes tab of Preferences (see discussion for Font above).
Cut	Cut the selected text to the clipboard
Copy	Copy the selected text to the clipboard
Paste	Paste the current contents of the clipboard at the current insertion point. You can access additional options for pasting by using the right-click context menu (see below).
Undo	Undo the last change
Redo	After undoing a change, you can redo it again if required
Bold	Set the selected text to bold
Italics	Set the selected text to italics
Underline	Set the selected text to be underlined
Strikethrough	Set the selected text to be shown with a line through it - struck out.
Text Colour	Change the colour of selected text
Highlight Colour	Change the highlight (background) colour of selected text
Bullets	Select text in one or more paragraphs to cause the paragraphs to be displayed as bullet points.
Align Left	Make the selected paragraph or table left-aligned.
Centre Text	Make the selected paragraph or table centre-aligned.
Align Right	Make the selected paragraph or table right-aligned.
Justify	Make the selected paragraph justified. Has no effect on tables.
Decrease Indent	Decrease indentation for the selected paragraph or table.
Increase Indent	Increase indentation for the selected paragraph or table.
Insert Table	Insert a table. If you wish to modify an existing table, click within the table, then click on the Cog menu button and choose from the available Modify Table commands.
Insert Link	Insert a link to a record or a web link. You can set the text of the link manually if you wish, or use the default text. Another way to insert record links is to drag-and-drop them directly from the Records Window onto the Note window. If you have selected multiple records in the Records Window, the new record links will be comma-separated. See Drag-and-Drop below.
Insert Source Citation	Insert a source citation. When you insert a source citation, it will be marked in the text with a small superscript number. When you move your mouse over the superscript number, a little popup window will show the citation text. Click on the superscript number to edit the citation in the Citation Window. The actual number used for the Source Citation, is just the number of the citation within this note. If the note appears within a report, or book, or web page, the source citation will be given an appropriate number for that context.
Insert Hashtag	The hashtag mechanism allows you to easily insert a note-within-a-note. These note-within-notes are referred to as 'hashtags' for convenience, even though they typically have 3 elements, of which the hashtag is only one. The elements are: A hashtag (e.g. "#Research), which makes them easy to search for using the Search Tools They are wrapped in doubled square brackets, which means that they are private notes, and are (by default) excluded from reports, books and web pages They have a distinctive highlight colour, which makes them easy to spot Imagine that you are working on some text and an issue occurs to you which you do not want to address immediately, but you do not want to forget about. You can insert a hashtag, and that will serve as a useful reminder. Suppose, for example, you were entering the following text: "John's daughter, Mary, took over the running of the farm after he died" This could be information that you are faithfully recording - perhaps when interviewing someone. Suppose you have the thought: "Was she really his daughter? It doesn't seem likely. The ages don't fit." You might think to yourself that you should check their respective birth dates. The easiest way of handling this, if you don't want to do it right now, is to make a quick note-within-note - and insert a hashtag. To do this, you might position the insertion point after the word 'Mary', click on the Insert Hashtag toolbar button, and click Add #Research (say). At this point, the text will change to look like this: "John's daughter, Mary, [[#Research ]] took over the running of the farm after he died" The I-bar (the text insert point) will be at the right-hand end of the yellow area. Type the text "Really his daughter? Check this!". Now the line looks like this: "John's daughter, Mary, [[#Research Really his daughter? Check this!]] took over the running of the farm after he died" This may look quite garish, but that's the point. It is intended to be easy to spot.Remember that because it's a private note, it won't appear in any reports, books or web pages - unless you want it to. The hashtag is there to make it easy to find. Later you may forget where you put this note-within-a-note. You may even forget if it is still there, or whether or you removed it after you resolved the issue it relates to. But thanks to the hashtag, it will be easy to find using the Find Dialog (e.g. click the Find button on the main application toolbar) and search for '#Research'. By default, Family Historian offers a choice of hashtags, but you can define your own if you want to. You can also insert a link to a Research Note in the same way, with the Add #ResearchLink command.
Cog Menu	When you click the Cog Menu button (the last button on the toolbar), a dropdown menu appears with options to: Change the default text size Search for text in the current note Insert autotext, and save the current note as autotext Locate the current note in the Property Box Modify a table (if the text insertion point is currently within a table) Change options These have all already been discussed, or are self-explanatory - except autotext. See How to Create, Edit and Delete Autotext for a discussion of the uses of autotext, and how to manage it.

Right-Click Context Menu

If you right-click (click with the right mouse button) on text in the Note Window, a context menu will appear, providing you with a number of menu commands - some of which are not available in any other way. The table below lists some of the menu commands that, depending on the context, may be available on the context menu.

Cut	Cut the selected text to the clipboard
Copy	Copies the selected text to the clipboard
Paste	Paste the current contents of the clipboard at the current insertion point.
Paste with Website Link	This command is only available if you have copied text from a website page or similar (that is, anything in HTML format). In that case, if you use this option, as well as pasting the copied text into the Note Window, a link to the website that the text came from will also be inserted (it will appear before the inserted text).
Paste Unformatted Text	Paste the current contents of the clipboard at the current insertion point in plain text format. That is to say, all styling, font information, and paragraph formatting will be removed. If the selection includes a table, the table contents will be inserted in row sequence, but not in the form of a Note Window table.
Ignore Spelling	This menu command appears if you click on a word that is flagged as misspelled. Taking this option will ensure that the spellchecker no longer treats this word as misspelled. You can view and edit the list of words that you have flagged to be ignored by the spellchecker (i.e. not treated as misspelled) by clicking on Options on the Cog menu. Words that you have flagged to be ignored are stored in the file listed against 'Custom Dictionary' (normally just called 'Custom'). Click the Edit button to the right of this field, to view the contents of this file. There should be one word per line. You can edit the file if you wish, to add or delete words; but always ensure that there is one word per line. Blank lines are not allowed.
Suggested Spellings	This submenu appears if you click on a word that is flagged as misspelled. It offers you a number of possible alternative spellings to choose from. Select the one you want to replace the existing spelling.
Add Link	This submenu offers options for adding record links or web links.
Modify Table	This submenu appears if you click in a cell within a table, providing a number of ways of modifying a table. It is the same menu that can appear on the Cog menu.
Lookup (word) in Dictionary	Will do a lookup of the selected word (or clicked-on word) in a website dictionary, displaying the results in a web browser. If you don't like the default website website dictionary, and wish to use another one, you can specify the website dictionary you want to use in the Lookup Templates dialog. To access this dialog, click on Options on the Cog menu, and then click the Advanced button in the Spellcheck, Dictionary and Thesaurus area.
Lookup (word) in Thesaurus	Will do a lookup of the selected word (or clicked-on word) in a website thesaurus, displaying the results in a web browser. If you don't like the default website thesaurus, and wish to use another one, you can specify the website thesaurus you want to use in the Lookup Templates dialog. To access this dialog, click on Options on the Cog menu, and then click the Advanced button in the Spellcheck, Dictionary and Thesaurus area.

Drag-and-Drop

The Note Window supports drag-and-drop, which can be a quick and easy way of adding text and even record links. See Drag-and-Drop to learn more.

Private Notes

To learn about how to use private notes within the Note Window, see Private Notes.