It would be super useful to have the ability to copy a fact and then paste it to another person, similar to the way sources can be copied and pasted. I don’t share facts, because I want to put each person’s individual info into his or her fact notes (like when using the residence fact for census data). This would also be useful when I have attached a fact to the wrong person.
10 Likes
Other people think this would be super useful also. It has been requested several times over the years, just not yet implemented. No word on whether it will ever be.
2 Likes
I have known of this issue for so long and the lack of progress on a resolution has been so lacking that I pretty much despair of there ever being a solution. So I don’t usually think about the issue very much. But wouldn’t you know it, I have been working on a project all day today where the ability to copy and paste a fact probably would have saved me hours of work.
I hope that the RM developers understand that shared facts are not the solution. Even if a user is willing to use shared facts, sharing facts is not even remotely the same thing as is being able to copy and paste a fact. In case anybody is wondering, I’m aware of SQLite solutions and I use them sometimes. But there really needs to be a solution that’s available in RM itself.
7 Likes
I requested this way back in RM 4 days - and I’m sure it was requested before that. It was a very useful feature in the Legacy Family Tree software and I hoped one day RM would provide it…
I have also requested this several times over the years since I moved over to RM when TMG packed up in 2014. TMG had that feature and I sorely miss it. It would save hours of my time in inputting facts and allow me more time to research. From my point of view, if there is one thing that was implemented in RM to make it a more efficient program, this would be it. Unfortunately, no feedback from the developers is forthcoming on requests. They are either implemented or go into a black hole. I am sure this is entirely doable within the program, but not holding my breath.
4 Likes
It surely is doable within the program, but it is not quite as easy as it sounds. RM’s facts and events are stored in a table called the EventTable. Copying a row from the EventTable to make a new row would be extremely easy. But the code would need to make additional new entries in certain tables.
- The code would need to make new entries in the CitationLinkTable for any citations from the original fact to be linked to the newly copied fact.
- The code would make new entries in the MediaLinkTable for any media files from the original fact to be linked to the newly copied fact.
- The code would make new entries in the URLTable for any Webtags from the original fact to be linked to the newly copied fact.
- The code would need to make new entries in the WitnessTable for any shared roles from the original fact to be linked to the newly copied fact. Well, I would need to think about whether it makes any sense for a newly copied fact to be accompanied by any shared roles from the original fact.
- The code would need to make new entries in the AddressLinkTable for any new addresses from the original fact to be linked to the newly copied fact.
- The code would need to make new entries in the TaskLinkTable for any new tasks from the original fact to be linked to the newly copied fact.
I’m really just sort of assuming that the user would really want all that information included with the newly copied fact. If RM popped up a screen and asked, then surely there would be complaints about the extra clicks. It’s probably better just to copy everything without question and then the user can delete any information from the newly copied fact that is not needed.
I agree; copying everything associated with the fact/event and then letting the user delete what they don’t want would work best for me. Especially with Webtags, which I tend to overlook.
Way back in RM4 days I developed this SQLite procedure in the hope that something like it would be integrated in RM. Alas, not yet. It does give some idea of the complexity, made moreso by the introduction of TreeShare unless it’s ignored.
https://sqlitetoolsforrootsmagic.com/copy-fact-to-group/
At least one of RM’s competitors has the ability to do this at the click or two of your mouse. So, it is possible.
1 Like
We can Memorize/Paste in the Citation Manager so should be doable with Facts, etc.
I will add my vote to the ability to copy/paste facts as we do citations. I compare RM9 with FamilySearch to help confirm or expand my own RM tree and also to correct and expand the corresponding individuals in FamilySearch. I have shared lots of single facts from censuses, but FamilySearch doesn’t recognize those shared facts, so I have to split them up into discrete facts to share them with FS. I would rather just copy and paste identical facts in RM9 in the first place. Then I could transfer them to FS directly.
I am sure it is not so easy as I might have alluded to. However, as an end user with little knowledge of the in’s and out’s of computer programming, I just want something that is valuable to the process and that works. If it is not feasible, the “boffins” at RM should say so and perhaps give an explanation as to why. In my opinion, it is a much needed improvement to the program, which other programs have had. I notice Renee has not (to date) put it forward as a feature request?
Confirming its been reported to development.
1 Like
I don’t think that you’ll get an explanation of why they aren’t going to add an enhancement or even an ETA for items on their list. I don’t think they even let their users know what is on the list. So, the best the users can do is to wait and hope for the best.
RM is a product with a lot of moving parts and inter-relationships, so well-executed enhancements take a lot of planning and testing. With a small programming staff they may not have the time to add enhancements while smashing the bugs.
I know, but I’m just happy that it’s going to development for consideration.
Thank you Renee, appreciated
That’s good news and +1 for this.
I am trying RM10 after being a long-time user of Legacy. Legacy’s copy and paste of an event (fact) took far less time. This was a census record. In Legacy I was able to add a new person and attach the “copied” event. In this particular case I had to add 3 new people, adding dob and place, gender. Once I entered all 3 new people. I then had to go back to the head of the household, copy the fact and then paste using the selection. When I got to mom, I had to find her maiden name (it was on the head’s spouse detail) and the added the census record. But I could only add it once, so I had to go back to mom and changed the fact from census to: Number of children (helps to fill in missing, ie 5 with 4 living meaning that there was a child who died prior to 1910). and then went back to head and added the 1910 census fact. Feels so very clumsy compared to what I am used to, perhaps I it is me, but would appreciate any/all suggestions as to workflow .
In the meantime, I hope that programmers would find a way to have a more traditional Copy/Paste, ie holding the fact in copy and then able to freely paste when ready for the next person (bypassing the selection process – which is very difficult and time-consuming when families have many of the same names).
I just noticed that a new “Like” was added in this old thread. Therefore, I just wanted to be sure that anyone reviewing this thread knew that the ability to copy a fact was added in 10.0.1.0. This was a much needed and much welcomed new feature that had been requested for years. Really, it had been requested for decades. I use the new feature nearly every day for things like copying Census facts from one close family member to another.
However, copying a fact doesn’t work with a copy and paste mechanism. Instead, it works using RM Explorer to select the individuals in your database who are to receive a copy of the fact. This is both better and worse than a copy and paste. For example, if you have some reason to copy a fact to a group of people and if there are thousands of people in the group, then it is very easy and it “just works”. You don’t have to copy and paste thousands of times.
However, I find that using RM Explorer to select people for a copied fact doesn’t work very well for my use case where I copy a Census fact for other close family members. It seems to me that as great as it is, the new feature could benefit by making it easier to copy a fact to a few close family members. For example, perhaps a copy/paste mechanism could be added to go along with the RM Explorer mechanism. Another alternative and the one I would prefer would be to enhance RM Explorer to make it easier to select close family members. The advantage of that approach is that RM Explorer is used everywhere in RM, and the ability to select close family members more easily would be a benefit for everywhere that RM Explorer appears in RM.
1 Like
My 2 cents for Census Fact - add the info for the Head, and add other members of family.
Then when you Copy the fact from the Head, you get the side panel with the tabs for Parents & Spouse.
By selecting either of those it will show the children where you can pick who you want.