This tab can be customized using the Customize Property Box dialog. It displays the most important items of information relating to a Place record.
Whenever you enter new place details into a Place field, a Place record is created automatically to represent the new place. Place records are shared between all fields that reference that place. So if you enter a place name that already exists, the existing Place record will be used to represent that place. If you delete all references to a place, the Place record for it will be deleted automatically - unless it has notes, media, latitude and longitude, or other details associated with it, in which case, it will be preserved.
The fields on this tab are:
| Place | Whereas there are no restrictions on editing a place field in other records (a person's place of birth, say), changing the place name for a Place record is more significant for two reasons. First, if you change it, it will effectively also change the place details for all fields that reference that place. Second, the place name cannot be blank, and must be unique amongst all Place records. Place records are effectively identified by the place name; so these must be unique. For these reasons, although you can edit the Place field in a Place record, you have to do so within its 'Helper' dialog. The Helper dialog will prevent you from inadvertently creating a blank or non-unique place name. To open the Helper dialog, double-click on the field or press the button at the right end of the field. When you press to close the dialog, the new place name will be checked and validated to ensure that is not blank and is unique. |
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| Standardized | Auto-geocoding (see the Map Window to learn more about geocoding) is normally based on the Place field (see previous). However, if the Standardized field is not blank, geocoding will be based on it instead. Some historical names may not be recognised, or may be incorrectly geocoded. In this situation, you can either simply specify the correct latitude and longitude yourself; or you can supply a modern, standardized name which will be correctly geocoded. |
| Lat./Long. | When a place is geocoded (see the Map Window), the latitude and longitude are stored in the Lat./Long field in the Place record. You can edit this manually if you wish. You can also copy and paste latitude and longitude values into the box. The field should recognise most formats in which latitude and longitude are represented (all four of them). It has its own 'helper' dialog, the Latitude & Longitude dialog which can also be used to aid data entry. To open the helper dialog, double-click on the field, or or press the button at the right end of the field (normally only visible when you hover the mouse over the field). |
| Note | You can enter a note about the Place record here. |