Hard to Find Marriage Info for Highlighted Person

RootsMagic
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1

I’m now trying to run RM9 and RM7 in full parallel mode, entering new information and changes first in RM9 and then in RM7. So I’m noticing even more than usual those things that seem hard in RM9 and that shouldn’t be. For example, in RM7 you can highlight a person in any view and immediately be able to see their full Birth, Marriage, and Death data in an information box at the top of the screen. The same Marriage information is hard to see in RM9.

In the example below, I need to see the Marriage information for Dean Christine (Tina) Richard when she is highlighted. The information is readily available in her information box in RM7. To see the same information in RM9, I have to scroll the information box at the top of the left side panel, or else I have to open the Edit Person screen.

The information box at the top of the left side panel does not provide the ease of use as the old information box at the top of the screen. Granted, the RM9 information panel contains more information than the RM7 information panel. Namely, it contains information about all a person’s facts. But it’s a tiny space and most of my people have lots of facts which means lots of scrolling. The information is very hard to use. If I really want to see all the person’s facts in RM9, it’s much better just to open the Edit Person screen. And if all I want to see is basic BMD information, the RM7 information panel is a much better design.

The reason the marriage information is so important in this case is that I am transcribing the 1940 census record for Tina Richard onto my Web site, an activity that takes place completely outside of RM. Except that when I transcribe a census record onto my Web page, I include a little narrative about the person that in this case includes the information that Tina Richard married Denver Ailey who was my second cousin. I include the date and place of the marriage in my little narrative. So I need the marriage information to do my transcription, and I look in RM to get the marriage information. Looking in RM7 is just fine. Looking in RM9 is not so fine. This is just a small thing, but there are many such small things that make RM9 harder to use than it should be.

By the way, after getting the Marriage information I needed by looking at RM7, I realized that I could have gotten the same information by looking at Denver Ailey in RM9. But that only worked because I was in Family View. It doesn’t work in any other view. And it only worked because Denver Ailey was in the father’s position in Family View, which is the only position which shows Marriage information.

rm7_marriages
rm7_marriages1366×768 223 KB

rm9_marriages
rm9_marriages1366×768 232 KB

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It’s just a matter of training your eyes where to look and see. The marriage date between this couple is clearly visible in the spouse’s box above.

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I pointed that out. But that’s a very special case. It doesn’t work if the highlighted person is in a child’s position or parent’s position in Family View It doesn’t work at all in Pedigree View, Descendant View, or People List View.

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These screen shots are probably better examples of the same problem for the same person.

rm7_marriages2
rm7_marriages21366×768 237 KB

rm9_marriages2
rm9_marriages21366×768 251 KB

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Right. The rm7 b/d/m summary has been replaced in rm9 by the full list of events as shown in the top left panel of your screenshot. The example you provided highlights that change. Assuming that’s not going away, the only work-around is to resize that top left rm9 pane enough to display the marriage fact (or any other fact that you want to see without editing the person). I think there’s only 2 options: either increase the vertical size of the program window or resize the left pane sub-panels to show less of the bottom (Family view in your screenshot). I realize that both options have a downside when working on a laptop screen as your primary display. (I do the same.)

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Or scroll the top left RM9 pane.

Many of my people have lots of facts, and the Marriage fact can be a long ways down the list. For example, they are likely to have a Birth fact, a Parents fact, and at least two Census facts before you get to the Marriage fact. And I have other fact types that often proceed the Marriage fact type.

The design may have been assuming that the Marriage fact is always near the top of the list, second only to the Birth fact. But that assumption is not true for my database.

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