I’ve actually found spouses to be helpful. When I see a male in a family without a spouse listed, it reminds me to look and see if he married and I just don’t have the information. Turning spouses on or off in a future version? Like you said, each of us is only a single data point.
While working I usually have the sidebar Family tab open. Anyone I highlight in the main view will show how many spouses, children, parents, and siblings they have at a glance. It’s especially helpful going through all the children to see if all they have children entered or not.
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Same here. I suspect the Family tab in the sidebar is an underutilized resource. It’s not the default and a lot of users simply use the default.
I still do use the Index tab in the sidebar occasionally, but I use the People List View so much in the main view that I seldom need the Index tab in the sidebar. About the only time I use the Index tab in the sidebar is if I’m wanting to look at a bunch of different people with the same name. So I’ll set the sidebar to the Index tab, filter the Index tab by the name, and set the main view to Pedigree View. Then I will scroll up and down the Index tab looking at the various people with the same name. And that’s about the only time I use the Pedigree View anymore. For the most part, it’s Family tab in the sidebar and either Descendant View or People List View in the main window.
I do wish I could just pop up the Groups info into a little window of it’s own when I need to create or edit a group. Having to do groups in the sidebar always seems to be upsetting my sidebar setup. I do understand that part of the reason for Groups being in the sidebar is to be able to manually add or delete groups for a person. But my groups are always based on rules and are never based on manual settings.
If you want to go up one generation or down or sideways, just click on the Chevron on the right side of the person’s name
if you want to see all the spouses ( or kids born out of wedlock) for the wife or dau, just click on the box in front of their name
Edit-- suggestion are always good to make as some of those suggestions have made there way into RM eventually.–I also realize it is hard to train yourself to look other places ( the side bar) BUT I learned a long time ago when that company we shall NOT name on here did a major overhaul of their interface that I had 2 options–either deal with it and get use to it or find another program that I like better-- I dealt with it for quite a while then moved several times until ending up with RM…
The chevrons in Descendant View regularly crash for me. This is an old, old problem that has been reported many times and which is still there in RM 10.0.3.0 As a result, I usually avoid the chevrons. For example, I will go to another view, highlight a different person, and then go back to Descendant View.
Getting back the origin of this thread, if RM7-style spouse buttons were added back in, I would want them regardless if there is just one spouse or more than one. Having said that, I’ve been a user since RM3 and have purchased every version since then including 8/9/10. It was only within the last 2-3 months that I finally committed to RM10. The main reason being reusable citations. I’ve found the new version to be very usable and prefer it RM7. Especially navigating with the side panel as it currently is. I find the program to be graphically pleasing as well. I’ve adjusted my monitor resolution and RM font scaling to my needs; six children can be displayed at a time. At first I didn’t think I would like having the children’s spouses on the screen in the Family view, but I find it useful. I would prefer not to have this view cluttered with additional info (i.e. additional spouse boxes).
IMHO
Jeff
Aha. I learned something new. I’ll have to try that. Only problem is I get an error message
I also thought some more about one comment made by Jerry regarding the family view window and the differences in our expectations of what it should look like. The current graphical presentation in the Family Window is somewhat similar to what in my mind’s eye things looked like in the old DOS genealogy program I used to use which I guess is why I gravitated to using that view in RM. The DOS program however was very clear when there were multiple spouses.
Now that I see how to move in the Descendant view and that you can double click on someone to get to their edit window, I’ll have to try that some more. The one downside I"m seeing is similar to that raised about not seeing the female spouse’s other husbands. In my greatgrandparents’ case I knew that each had had a first spouse die, so I knew to look for the 2nd’s wife’s two spouses, but it was a hassle to get there and back and I had to know in advance she had been married before. That’s where my suggestion of a graphical indicator of multiple spouses on the Family window would have helped.
@RWL and @thejerrybryan --yes the problem of crashing still exists but I tried my workaround again and it still works-- instead of going up 1 generation on the first click, I would go to a son/ son in law/ grandchild etc and go down one generation–after that I can go up /down / sideways as much as I want on any line-- usually I don’t get the error message until after I close the database but didn’t get it today— of course I’m not doing it for 2 + hours but at least it doesn’t error out in 3 clicks…
As for seeing the spouses of the daughter/ wives— if she was married 4 times and had kids by 3 of the 4, they will be there but after the kids of hubby 1 etc— what you can do is collapse the children by clicking on the box with a minus sign next to 1st hubbies name and the kids disappear and all 4 hubbies show up–not great but it does work…
Couldn’t we do something similar to what is done with FamilyHistorian 7 with the different spouses and children for each on the family screen?
I’m not familiar with FamilyHistorian 7. That’s where a screen shot or a created image would help if that’s available to show us.
Okay–so is it possible to see all the hubbies and kids for a wife?
Rob, thanks for the image. That system works.
In my proposal it would be depending on which spouse was highlighted.
understand Robert that your proposal is for which spouse is highlighted BUT was trying to ask @RobPettit how FH handled it
Please check your private messages for a screenshot.
Thanks for this, I can’t remember ever using the Family Tab 