* Reducing the size of the source list in reports

[Salopian1]

Initially, I am concentrating on the Family Group Sheet. Having been rigorous in logging sources, I am finding the list at the end of the report longer than the actual details of the family. I do want to show the sources and have tried to keep them short, showing the minimum detail that is relevant and makes sense. I have looked at the Knowledge Base, but had no luck finding a possible solution, or indeed using the Search facility.

I have looked in Options, at the Format section, but when I reduce the Section Data font size, yes, it reduces the Source text size, but also the family details. Can I split the source details into a different category of data? I guess I could save the report as RTF and try to make changes in a text editor, though this would take me the rest of my life for all the reports I want!

The basic question is, are there any simple ways to reduce the reams of paper that all my Source info is going to require? I regret that I am not one of those users who fiddles about much under the hood of Family Historian. So, I am sorry if the answer is obvious to all but me.

Thanks.

[LornaCraig]

Have you looked at the Sources tab in the Options? There you can choose how much Source information to include. To keep things to a bare minimun you could choose to show the Source Title and nothing else. It really depends how much information about the Source you want to see in the report.

[tatewise]

You say you "want to show the sources and have tried to keep them short, showing the minimum detail that is relevant".
So presumably you have adjusted the Report > Options > Sources tab settings to your satisfaction.

Are you getting the same Source record listed more than once with different Citation details?

Are you predominantly a Method 1 'splitter' or Method 2 'lumper' of Source Citations?

Are you proposing to actually print all your Reports onto paper?

Unfortunately, if you have lots of Citations for each Fact then they are all included.
Unlike Pictures, there is no setting to limit the Report to say just the 1st Citation on each Fact.
But it sounds like you want to include all the Source Citations in the Report anyway.
So it is something of a paradox to include ALL the Source Citations with relevant details, but also reduce their size.

Maybe a screenshot of a sample of your Sources section with an explanation of how the size could be reduced would help.

[dewilkinson]

I felt the same and I have reduced the settings to what I think is the minimum needed, see attached image. You need to be diligent to ensure a single reference used multiple times for a person/family are identical, if not you get multiple entries. I do this using the Copy Citation button. Enabling Automatic Source Citations is also very helpful when a citation has to be entered multiple times for new entries.

Hope this helps you.

Capture.JPG (214.69 KiB) Viewed 5013 times

[tatewise]

That is certainly helpful David, but illustrates how the Source Citation strategy can have an impact on Reports.

Clearly you are a Method 2 'lumper' of Source Citations with for example only one Source record per Census year.
So people in the Report who are recorded on different Census pages all cite the same Source record.
It is not clear whether you always use the Citation field Where within Source to identify the page number, etc.
The 5. Census 1911 does, but the 8. Census 1901 does not, and the other three are obscured by the Report Options.
If Where within Source was always used, and the report was a Family Group Sheet that Salopian1 prefers, or a Descendants/Ancestors report with more than one person, then there would probably be more Source Citations listed.
The same would be true for Method 1 'splitter' Source Citations that have a different Source record for each Census page.

You rarely use Text From Source to record a transcript, but if you did the Text from Source ticked Report Options would produce a much, much larger Sources section in the report.

You don't add Source Media images to your Citations, but if you did the Show Source/Citations Pictures ticked Report Options would dramatically increase the Sources section in the report.

BTW:
Despite your advice to be diligent to use identical Citations to avoid duplicates, the 4. Census 1901 and 8. Census 1901 appear to be duplicates.

[dewilkinson]

Mike,

My database goes back many years and contains many old citations that do not conform to my current standards, and I am slowly tidying them up. The duplicate 1901 census has now gone in this example and I do prefer lumping for things like census, birth index, death index records where you can clearly record the details in the Where Within Source field. I only use the Text Within Source sparingly (usually just for ages and dates of birth) as this creates very long citation texts and repeats what is in the narrative. I have experimented using images for citations but do not do that now for the same reason. I do however have all the images stored in a folder for each person, ~25,000 individuals in my database.

At the end of the day it is down to personal choice, I have set my own standards, developed over many years, which I try to stick to.

[tatewise]

David, that is all fine except that you can have Text From Source transcripts and Media images, and also keep the report Sources section compact. In the Report Options just untick both Text from Source options and Show Source/Citations Pictures options.

I'm not sure why you pick out ages and dates of birth for Text From Source as those details would usually be included in the Facts themselves. Nevertheless, with the options chosen above they would be excluded from the report Sources section.

However, the more important point I was making is that with those settings ticked, if there is much Text From Source and Media then the report Sources section can be quite large, which you confirmed in your reply. If another user followed your settings faithfully, they might be disappointed to still get a much larger Sources section that your screenshot suggests.

[Salopian1]

Apologies for my silence. Afraid the 21st Century intervened - most annoying!

It was a case of having quite large text for an elderly person to see the information clearly but this also transferred to the sources, that they weren't interested in. I wanted the sources shown for my own sake of completeness. Someone else in their family may have taken on the challenge and such info would be useful to them. Sigh.

I'll have to leave it now until I sort out current issues. Thanks for reading and the replies. Much appreciated.