Preview

7.0.17.0

Summary of Key New Features

  • FH now automatically avoids duplication when adding media to a project
  • Much enhanced keyboard shortcuts in record selection dialogs
  • Two new columns in Media record lists
  • Citations are copied as footnotes when you copy notes into a word processor
  • Help pages, and other improvements, for the Internet Search dialog

Media

  • By default (i.e. for new users), the ‘File’ column in the Media tab of the Records Window, and in the Media List within the Media Window, has been replaced by two new columns: ‘Filename’ and ‘Folder’, which effectively split the ‘File’ information out into two columns, making both parts easier to see, and sort on. Existing will not benefit from this change automatically. To use the new columns, existing users should open the Media tab of the Records Window (or view the Media List in the Media Window), right-click on the column heading, and choose ‘Configure Columns’ from the menu that appears. In the Configure Columns dialog, you can either click the ‘Restore Defaults’ button to benefit from the new defaults, or (if you wish to preserve other changes you may have made) you can manually add the two new columns yourself. The new columns are listed on the left side. If you add these two new columns (to the right side), you will probably wish to remove the ‘File’ column, from the right side list, as there is no benefit in having both.
  • If you add a picture or other media item into a project, Family Historian will now check for duplicates, skip unnecessary file copies, and avoid creating a new Media record if there is already a Media record for the item in question.
  • The column widths for the Media tab of the Records Window are no longer necessarily the same as the column widths for the Media list in the Media Window. The two are stored separately.
  • The “Paste Copied Media” menu command is now immediately visible on the menu that appears when you right-click on the list in the Media tab of the Property Box.
  • If you added or updated a person’s frame link to a picture, thumbnail images using that frame did not update immediately and automatically. They now do.
  • You can now copy fields in the Media Links tab of the Media Window. To do this, you have to expand the link and right-click on the field you want to copy. A menu will be displayed with the Copy command.

Internet Search Dialog

  • The Internet Search dialog did not add a page name, when you added a new bookmark.
  • Bookmarks are now automatically sorted into the correct order, when you add a new one or edit one.
  • You are now also warned before deleting bookmarks.
  • The Internet Search Dialog now has two pages of Help.

Focus Window & Hints

  • Links in the “View Match Details” window did not work when clicked on them. This has been fixed.

Keyboard Shortcuts in Record Selection Dialogs

  • You can now press the Tab key, and Shift-Tab, to move around main controls and buttons, on most record selection dialogs. Previously pressing the Tab key did nothing if a record list had the keyboard focus.
  • Some record lists support filtering, using filter fields that display above the list. You cannot use the Tab or Shift-Tab keys to move the focus to the filtering fields. To do so, using the keyboard, press Ctrl-D (or Shift-Ctrl-D to move the focus to the filtering fields, and sort on the first column at the same time). Pressing F6 will toggle the focus between a record list and its filter fields.
  • Within single record selection dialogs, pressing Enter when a record list has the focus, and one or more rows are selected, acts like a click on the OK button at that point. Pressing Esc acts like Cancel (closes the selection dialog).
  • Within multiple selection dialogs, pressing Enter when the left-side record list has the focus, adds the selected records to the current selection (list on the right side) but does not close the dialog.

Note Window and Rich Text

  • When you copy text from the Note Window into a word processor, web links now work correctly, record links (which have no meaning in the context of a word processor) are converted to plain text, and citations become citations to footnotes (with word processors that support footnotes).
  • Previously, if you made changes to a table in the Note Window by adding or removing rows or columns, or by splitting the table, record and citation links were converted to plain text. This is now fixed.
  • You are now allowed to insert web links into autotext.
  • Tab characters in notes were not being rendered correctly, as tabs, if you saved a report in Rich Text Format (for use with an external word processor). This has been fixed.

Reports and Books

  • Family Historian no longer adds a full stop at the end of sentences in narrative reports, if the sentence already ends in a full stop. This happened most commonly when a place name happens to end in a full stop (as “U.S.A.” does, for example).
  • There is a new template code, {inline-note}, which can be used in sentence templates, if you want to insert a note into a sentence, without treating the note as the start of a new sentence.
  • The template code {note} was treated inconsistently when viewed in the Sentence field of the facts tab of the Property Box, and when the same sentence was viewed in a narrative report. This has been fixed.
  • Previously if you used a template code to insert a note into a sentence, in a narrative report, Family Historian would correctly recognise that the note had been added, and not add it again, even if the report option specified that fact (event/attribute) notes should be included. However, it did not do this if you referenced the note using a data reference. Now it will avoid the duplication, even if you use a data reference to refer to the note.
  • The template codes {spouse/her/him} and {couple} did not work correctly with family facts, in the Advanced template for Fact tab listings. This has been fixed.

Advanced Features for Power Users

  • The module, fhFileUtils, has been updated to fix a problem with copyFile and moveFile. Also, it now allows folder specifications to work with or without a trailing path separator, except in the case of copyFolder and moveFolder where the trailing path separator is mandatory on a destination folder (to distinguish it from a destination file).
  • The built-in function, GetLabelledText, did not always work correctly if the label you are searching for started with the ‘<‘ character, or if the data started with a ‘<‘ character. This has been fixed.
  • A new built-in function “FilenamePart” has been added. This is used to enable the two new columns in the Media tab of the Records Window, and in the Media List within the Media Window (see earlier).

Miscellaneous

  • Some people reported network errors when attempting to login to Family Historian (most commonly from Windows 7 or Windows 8). The most common reason for this has been addressed, so this is now less likely to be a problem.
  • The appearance of menus in Windows 11 has been improved.
  • A problem with customizing the Property Box has been fixed. Some valid expressions could wrongly be reported as invalid. This no longer happens.
  • The separator part of the short date format Preferences option was not being saved if it was dash (-). This has now been fixed.