RootsMagic File Description and or Notes

RootsMagic
1

Feature request :

I would like to store notes which are not directly linked to a specific individual or place or media item or source. This sort of thing has been discussed here before e.g. Jan 2024 – RootsMagic File Description and or Notes – but I don’t think it generated a response from RootsMagic.

Nevertheless I wasn’t the only one who wants to have somewhere to store general notes, whether it’s a description of the project; the research methodology adopted; a Group in the database; or indeed any other non-specific information. So, I’m putting this request forward again in the hope that RM will take it up this time.

A good place to initially access this functionality would be from the Home screen, where it would be easily visible, in the Help and Support area – something like this :

My Database Notes
My project description, guidelines and notes

Clicking on this new item would take the user to a note editor where you could :
• Create a new note
• Name it and date it
• Save it in the database
• See a list of saved notes
• Edit a saved note
• Delete a note

The icing on the cake would be to :
• Organise notes into folders, and
• Print these notes in a report

It seems to me that all this could be delivered using already established RM program concepts, such as Notes and Tasks. It is a reasonable ask I think.

My Database Notes could be used to keep track of a huge variety things, recording many different types of information. A few examples of the general notes I want to keep are :
• A description of the database, what is it about?
• Why I use modern place names, rather than the original historical name
• How to calculate today’s equivalent value of old monetary sums in Wills
• Social history background relevant to whole Groups, Trees, etc in the database

At the moment, these things are either hidden from sight if they’re just recorded once against a single person/fact/place; or they have to be repeatedly copied and tagged to many individuals. Far from ideal. What’s needed is a database-wide, and readily accessible, space to store information without it unnecessarily bloating the database, and I think this would do that.

Over to you Renee . . . . please!

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Have you tried using Tasks to record items like this? I have a task folder specific to database details. I have also attached each general task to the root person in the database.

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I create dummy people and add notes to the dummy people. I give the dummy people names that are obvious and which sort to the top of my list of people. It’s pretty hokey, but it means that the data can be transferred to software other than RootsMagic. It also means that the data can be managed with RM tools such as Advanced Search, Search Everywhere, Groups, and Color Coding.

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THIS IS A GREAT SUGGESTION !!

The note should be easily visible on the home screen. Other suggestions make a new user hunt for it.

And it’s s simple to implement- throw the note in the ConfigTable.

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Yes I have done that in the past, but it’s not very satisfactory. That’s a workaround, and I don’t want to have to search through Tasks, or folders within Tasks, to find general information about my database project, the methodolgy I’ve adopted or the social history background of my family.

What are the ‘rules’ I’ve settled on to organise my research? Why did rural families move enmasse into the cities in the 1800s? Why am I doing this research? Etc etc. The answers enable me to properly understand the story of my ancestors, and they deserve to be upfront and accessible in RM. What I’m suggesting, Renee, really is ‘Help and Support’ in the widest sense and I think that’s where these important explanations should be - not buried away somewhere else where they don’t really belong.

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I have reported the request to development. It will need to survive GEDCOM if the plan is to share it with others, otherwise the database notes become meaningless. Though I’m not sure how other programs would use it.

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Thank you Renee for reporting the request. I wasn’t expecting it to be GEDCOM compliant, or to share it with others via that or any other route. It is just a resource to be available within RM itself.

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I think this feature is useful whether or not it survives GEDCOM v5.x

Does the latest GEDCOM have any file-level notes or description?

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I use a dummy person name at top of people list.
I Keep general notes there and what needs to be done ( and when done )
In a persons event note I also add a date when I added or changed part of event.
EG birth year approx from average of census ages. Entered on date MONTH year.
Then I find birth certificate record and add all that new data and new date.
Note also I put family names ( females should always have birth name, not married ) in CAPITALS and dates in UK order ( as recommended by experts in USA ) and month in capitals to ensure no confusion with US dates found.
eg 10 MAY 1945 rather than 10/05/1945 ( not to be confused with 5th Oct 1945 )
Richard in calm cloudy England