I have used shared facts and now realize that it is probably a mistake to use them as other people have said in this community. Is there are a way of easily finding out where I have used these shared facts without going through each individual?
I do use shared facts, but very cautiously. The only problem with them is that there is some genealogy software where they can’t be transferred. That might or might not be important to you.
It can be difficult to find where shared facts have been used in general. For example, they are not searchable, you cannot make groups based on them, you cannot color code based on them, you cannot make columns for them in People View, and you cannot access them from Custom Reports. About the only way to go about finding them is to know which which main facts there are for which you have defined roles that you might have shared, and search for people who use those main facts. Then on a case by case basis, see which of those main facts have roles that have been shared. It’s a very manual process.
RM Inc dropped the ball with shared facts, never having delivered all the functionality required for full implementation. Some of the earliest scripts on sqlitetoolsforrootsmagic.com were developed in response to RM4’s shortcomings but nothing equivalent has been added in subsequent RM updates and upgrades.
Just discovered this topic and have a question: What is a good substitute for shared facts?
There are alternatives but “good” really depends on what you aim to accomplish. Conventional, individual unshared facts are the safest for transmission but require more data entry and provide no linkage with other people apart from text you may enter into Description and Note. That lack of non-family linkage is what drove the development of shared events and Association facts.
So if a family of four are in a census, I’ll have to enter the census fact for each one them, correct?
Yes. And tag source and media to each one’s fact as needed…