I’m a longtime user of RM - since version 4! I’ve used version 8 for some months now and whilst I very much value the considerable advantage in being able to have several editing windows open at the same time, I often spend a significant amount of time locating facilities which I have been used to using in earlier versions in the new program.
It may well be just me missing the obvious but there does seem to be various functions that have been cut from the new version.
One such issue relates to attaching media files to an event. This is straightforward enough but I am encountering a real problem when trying to re-order any media items already added. So, for example, I have many examples of land tenure records where I have located 15th century property indentures recording the acquisition of property, deeds of settlement recording payment for the same and subsequent changes or renewals of leases etc.
Clearly, I need to add such media in chronological order. If I have identified the deed of settlement first and added this to my land tenure event, when I later identify the original property grant, adding this to the event puts it out of date order. A solution is, of course to remove the original media, add the later document and re-add the first. Alternatively, I could add a new land tenure event of each transaction but this would be tedious to say the least, particularly if you have potentially hundreds of such instances to amend.
Previously, there was an option to re-order media items. I would be very surprised were this were not carried forward into version 8 - what would be the reason for that? I guess, therefore that it is just me missing the plainly obvious; is anyone able to enlighten me please?
There is provision for sorting in the database structure and the Edit Person view does sort accordingly. What has not been released is the UI to set the sort order.
In the MediaLinkTable is a column named SortOrder. With a SQLite manager, I manually entered the numbers 1 to 4 in the records for 4 tags for a person, reopened the Edit Person screen and the image order was updated accordingly.
Thanks Jerry and Tom -
You confirm my fears that this facility is not carried forward into version 8.
For the life of me I cannot understand why that would be. The essence of genealogy is recording data chronologically, so being able to sort newly added documents/media is an obvious requirement.
Tom identifies that, provided you have the requisite SQL knowledge (not my strong point!) this can be achieved which would suggest that the necessary data structure is present. Indeed, the date field for media items would surely offer a way to sort new media items when they are added.
In fact, I am somewhat puzzled as to what the media date field is intended for since it doesn’t appear to show in any reports etc and does not sort media items within a scrapbook.
So unless the ability to sort the order of media items is added, I guess we will have little option but to delete and then re-add media items in order that they appear in chronological order.
This is an issue that I have just come across with the option to output information in the form of ‘books’.
I agree that it does seem a bit nonsensical to not output media to a scrapbook/report in chronological order, even if there isn’t the facility to change the order to individual preference. All media files I add, at least up to now, are added ‘as found’ and without considering how they need to be used at some point in the future. My assumption was that the date field was there for a reason, but that’s assumptions for you.
It does seem to be a bit of a chore to remove all media and add them all again whenever a new file, or new information on a file is found. Is there any prospect of this being changed in a future update? Or should I just get on and manually remove/add any media I require ordered?