Need help understanding use of Primary Checkbox on Events

RootsMagic
1

I think I understand that the use of the “primary” checkbox on event tags is to promote that event over similar event tags in certain reports, but I have two questions related to it.

  1. what reports, besides pedigree, might be affected by this setting?

  2. Other than specifically opening an individual event, is there any way in the person view to tell if an event is marked as Primary (without opening the event)?

With regard to the 2nd question, I’m having the problem that for many of my birth, death, and marriage records, I forgot to check the “primary” box. As a result, certain correct dates and spouses are not showing in my pedigree.

What I’m hoping is, that like my prior genalogy software package TMG, there is a way to show an asterisk (or some other indicator) next to primary events in the people view’s list of events so that it is obvious which is primary. Bolding, underlining or color marking primary tags would also work.

Also, I’m a little surprised the checkbox doesn’t default to checked on the entry of the first event tag of a certain type for a person, and then prompt you on subsequent entries of the tag type as to whether they should be made primary instead. That approach worked pretty effectively in TMG.

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2

With birth, death and marriages the primary fact is the one that will show in the views. On the People List view any fact you have displayed will show the primary fact. All the large format and report charts, plus the Ahnentafel list will use the primary facts.

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3

Thanks @rzamor1 , Any thoughts as to the 2nd part of my question?

4

There is no visual indication other than checking on the fact level which one is marked primary. If there is only one fact of that type then you don’t need to mark it primary.

5

Thanks for the answer, although I was hoping for a way to detect the primary fact without checking in the fact level itself.

6

As long as you first understand that marking Primary accomplishes nothing UNTIL there are more than one of any fact-type for any individual, the only way to narrow down whom to check, is Publish>Fact List>List Type>People w/more than 1>Fact Type

7

Thanks @kbens)n for explaining how to narrow down whom to check for missing primary citations, but that’s still rather inconvenient for something that in my prior genealogy program was blatantly obvious on the person page listing the facts. All it would take is an asterisk column (possibly user enabled/disabled) next to the fact name column in the person view that marked the primary facts with an asterisk.