All new users are strongly recommended to read the Quick Start Guide which can be viewed on-screen by taking options on the Help menu, or viewed in the Quick Start Guide web page (owners of a boxed copy of the program, will have it as a printed booklet). It is a short, visual guide to the basics of using the program.
If you have just started using Family Historian, then you are probably at the Project Window. If the window you are looking at says "Project Window" in the caption, then that's what it is.
When Family Historian is first installed, you will see only one project in the Projects list. This is . You can open and browse the sample project if you wish. You can also use it to experiment and to try things out and it's a good idea to do so; but do not use it to store your own family tree information. For that you should create your own project.
If you do browse the sample project, you will need to know how to get back to the Project Window. To do that, simply close the sample project - which you do by clicking on the menu. Whenever you close the current project, the Project Window will be re-displayed. You can also view the Project Window at any time, without closing the current project, by clicking on on the menu.
To create your own project, click on the button on the Projects Window, and follow the instructions. If you make your project the default project, you will find that the next time you run Family Historian, it will automatically load that project, and effectively skip past the Projects Window. That means that any information you enter will be added to that project. That's fine. You can use one project to store all the genealogy data that you accumulate. But if you ever need to create any more projects (or to have another look at the sample project) remember that you can always get back to the Project Window by closing the current project, or by clicking on the menu.
To open an existing project from the Projects Window, simply double-click on any listed project, or select it and click on the button.
When you have created your first project, if you need more help, click on Getting Started on the menu.
Users upgrading from an earlier version of Family Historian are
recommended to read Notes
on Upgrading to Version 7.