Selecting a Family of Four for GEDCOM Output

I wanted to export a small GEDCOM file containing a man, his wife, and the wife’s parents.

  • I went into File => Export Data => GEDCOM File.
  • I clicked on Default Folder and selected the desired file name for the GEDCOM file.
  • I set my Data To Export Options the way I wanted them.
  • I went into People To Export => Select From A List.
  • I searched the list for the man’s name. It doesn’t actually “filter” the way many of RM8’s search boxes do. It just positioned the list at the man’s name. It highlighted the man’s name. It did not place the man’s name at the top of the screen, but I found the man anyway and clicked his check box.
  • There is a right panel with tabs to see the man’s wife and parents. But nothing I can do in the right panel seems to select the man’s wife and parents for GEDCOM export.

I could obviously filter the list in turn for the man’s wife and for each of his parents. But that’s a pretty painful process because I would have to write down or remember the names and search for them one at a time. In RM7, I could select all four people by clicking on them in turn in the right panel and then by clicking the selection box in the left panel. It was very easy and natural process to do so.

Is there something I’m missing? It’s like this little piece of RM8 is not yet complete, so I hope I’m missing something.

My next effort will be to try to make a group for the four people. Maybe that will be easier.

I just tried making a group for the four people. I was unsuccessful. The workflow for selecting the four people for the group is identical to the workflow for selecting the four people directly for GEDCOM export. I can’t get it to work.

I have tried both the Webinars and the Wiki Documentation for this issue, and neither one of them seems to address how to select my four people. I obviously could have missed something.

For now, I may color code the four people one at a time by hand from the Family View or something like that, then convert the color coding to a group. Then I can export my GEDCOM based on the group. Or maybe there is an easier way I haven’t though of yet.

Did you look at Mark by Family? Options are “As a parent w spouse”, As a child w parents," Either or both can be chosen. Of course, that would include any siblings of the chosen person that would need to be unmarked.

I share your frustration and mystification, Jerry, having attempted to create such a group or select them in the export dialog. Developers just seem to throw things at walls and hope they stick. I tried @alainemk suggestion and went away shaking my head at all the gotchas I encountered. Can you imagine why unmarking the direct line descendants of a highlighted person should unmark the highlighted person?

And where is Alt+R in RM Explorer. The Search box there accepts only Surname, Given yet the Search box on the People List main view accepts either names or record numbers as search keys.

For now, I color coded the four people manually from Family View which for that number of people went really fast. I used an otherwise unused color and none of the four people were previously color coded. I then made a group based on the color code.

I’m really hoping that this function in RM8 is just not yet completed because they had to get the product out the door and that this is not intended to be the final design. For many things I do, this is an important function in RM7 that is missing in RM8. It needs to be added to the list of RM7 features not in RM8.

This same functionality is what is missing from the fact sharing dialog to share a role with multiple people all at the same time.