Project Window

You can view the Project Window, even if you already have a project open. The name of the current open project, if any, will be shown here. If you have a GEDCOM file open, its name will be shown here.

The current autosave settings are shown in the top-right of the Project Window. Click on the text as a link to open the Autosave Options dialog to change the settings.

Alternatively, you can also change Autosave settings by clicking on the More Tasks... button, and then clicking on Autosave Options on the menu that appears.

The list shows all Family Historian projects in the folder specified by the Location field (see next). Each project has its own folder. Usually the project name is the same as the name of the project folder. In this case, the folder name is not mentioned. However, if the name of the project folder is different from the name of the project itself, which it can be, the name of the folder will be given in brackets after the name of the project, preceded by "Folder: " - e.g. "My Project (Folder=Temp)".

When Family Historian is first installed, this will show only one project - "Family Historian Sample Project", which is a sample project, used to illustrate some of the things you can do with the program. Do not enter your family data into this project - create your own one, by clicking on the New Project button.

To open a listed project, double-click on it; or select it and click on Open Project.

Shows the folder in which all the listed Family Historian projects are located. By default, this folder will be "Family Historian Projects" in the default Windows location for user documents. However, you can change this location to whatever you want. To do so, click on the location text as a link. A menu appears with 2 options: Choose Location and Reset Location to Installation Default.

Alternatively, you can also change the location by clicking on the More Tasks... button, and then clicking on Choose Location for Projects on the Project List submenu that appears.

Click on this button to create a new project. A wizard will appear to take you through the steps. You can import an existing GEDCOM file into your new project, or create a new one from scratch.

Select a project in the list of Family Historian projects and click on this button to open it - or just double-click on the project name.

When you click on this button a drop down menu appears - see 'More Tasks' menu below.

Close the application.

Click on this text link to view tips for new users, and also for users upgrading from previous versions.

You don't have to keep Family Historian projects in the same folder. You can keep them anywhere. If you wish to open a project that is not in the current location, it won't be listed. In that case, you can either change the location, or, if you wish to open the project without changing your current location setting, you can use the Browse for Project command. When you click on this command, a file selector dialog will appear. Choose the project file for the project you wish to open, and click Open.

If you have a project or GEDCOM file open at this point, this command closes it.

See the discussion of the Location field above.

If you have changed the location, use this command to reset the location to the installation default.

Refresh the list of Family Historian projects.

When Family Historian is opened, it will automatically load the default project if there is one. If not, it will display the Project Window. You can make any project the default project.

You can use Family Historian to create output of many different kinds - websites, family tree CDs, pictures of diagrams, reports saved as PDF files, and so on. By default, for convenience, Family Historian will save these output files in a special subfolder of your project, called 'public'. This command will open the Public subfolder for the currently selected project to allow you to view, copy or delete the output files contained in it.

Make a copy of the entire project folder for the currently selected project,

Delete the entire project folder for the currently selected project, including all the files contained in it. Use with caution!

Rename the currently selected project.

Do a full back up of the selected project.

Restores a previous backup.

This submenu allows you to browse for, and open, any GEDCOM file - whether it is part of a project or not. It also allows you to create a new GEDCOM file as a standalone GEDCOM file - that is, as a GEDCOM file which is not part of a project. The submenu also lists the most-recently-used GEDCOM files you have opened. Click on any of these, as a quick way of opening them.

Remember that even within the context of a project, Family Historian stores all your data in a GEDCOM file. If you open a GEDCOM file that is storing data for a project, Family Historian will automatically detect this, and will open it as project. So this is, in effect, another way of opening a project.

See the discussion of the Autosave field above.

This submenu contains an option to reset the Family Historian sample project to its initial state, as it was when Family Historian was installed.