* Find and Replace Not working

[goodwin2]

I'm having some difficulty getting the find and replace working. I have a family that sometimes appears as Caslin and other times as McCaslin. Most of my input has been with the Caslin version but now I want to change that to the McCaslin version. When I try to use the find and replace, I get the green runner but no action.

I've searched in the Knowledge Base and didn't find anything that I think will help. Does anyone have any idea of what this problem is all about? This is really irritating.

I have FH version 6.2; computer with Windows 8.1 but looks like 7. No computer problems.

Thanks for any help.

[tatewise]

So you set Search for: to Caslin
Then set Replace with: to McCaslin

For Look in presumably you tick Names and untick the others?

What Search Options do you select?

What popup messages do you get?

[goodwin2]

Hi Mike,

I've tried checking or unchecking everything but the names and get the green runner and no result.

I have just tried another "find and replace" with the same result - green runner no result.

I HOPE this is not a bug in my copy of FH. I've had no other problems with this version that I am aware of. Hadn't had a reason to use the find and replace before so it is possible that the feature never worked. Hope I don't have to reinstall - with over 54,000 in the data base - that makes me more than a little nervous. And yes, I do backups every day!

Any assistance most appreciated!

[Jane]

2016-09-19_085418.png (7.22 KiB) Viewed 13245 times

Have you checked you don't have Whole Word or Match Case ticked?

[tatewise]

Try performing just Edit > Find with a sub-string of Name such as Cas or lin with Match Case and Match Whole Word unchecked.

Try a Find and Replace using the Family Historian Sample Project but with a different Name of course.

EXACTLY what popup message do you get when the green progress bar (runner) completes?
With a large database like yours it will take some time to complete.

A completely different approach is to use the Search and Replace Plugin.

BTW: It is very safe to reinstall FH because it has no impact on your Project data.
(In the same way that reinstalling a Photo Editor will have no impact on your photos.)
But anyway you have good backups.

[johnmorrisoniom]

I have not had any problems and have used it just last week. My file has 55000+ individuals. I was doing find and replace on census ref:. But each run completed in about 2-3 minutes

[goodwin2]

Well, the mystery continues. I tried the plug in with the same result. I also tried just the find feature with various name and parts of names - no match case or match whole word checked - just names. For some names, or parts of names, I get a result from the find feature - for others that I am actually looking at in the individual records, I get nothing. The message that I get with both of these failures is "no matching items found".

Just tried another plug in - search and return. Same thing - it finds some names and not others - and again, I'm looking at them????

So, hope there will be a short, easy solution to this. I even "suspected" my anti-virus which does sometime slow input down but even Norton doesn't get this nosy.

[goodwin2]

I just tried the sample project - it would not do a find and replace. I did complete most of the finds and included the media.

[Gowermick]

GSB,
No consolation to you, but Edit/Find works on my FH6.2.2 on Windows 10 without a hitch. I had all boxes ticked except Match case and Match whole word. I even tried a simple number, and it found every occurrence, whether it was part of an address, date, or my custom ID!

You could try exporting file as a GEDCOM, then open it in Notepad and try a search there, to see if that works (see note to Mike below)

Mike T,
Could this be anything to do with encoding being used? (straw clutching at its best)

[tatewise]

It does seem very strange.
Nothing to do with encoding, especially as the Name includes only simple alphabetic characters.

If it's not working in FH Sample Project searching for Names such as Munro then it would appear to be a problem with FH.

If you use Help > About Family Historian what Version is shown - should be 6.2.2

If not, then download & install latest free update: http://www.family-historian.co.uk/downl ... ee-upgrade.

If it is latest, then either try reinstalling latest as above, or contact Calico Pie via http://www.family-historian.co.uk/suppo ... t-overview + Contact Support at bottom of page.

[goodwin2]

Have retried a couple of things. Sample project will NOT do a find and replace. It will "find", then appear to be doing the rest but the green runner just sits there. Obviously with the sample project as small as it is, it would not take much time to complete. The simple "find" works OK and with the speed expected.

With my database the "find" response makes no sense. I have unknown maiden names formatted with the married name in brackets, i.e. [Jones], then the first name. With some it starts the search and runs rapidly and produces results, with other names, nothing happens. When just the any name input, it produces results in some instances and in others nothing appears.

My database: with some "find and replace" inputs, it will find one of the names but then stops the process. In other cases, it finds nothing. Again it doesn't seem to matter what boxes are checked but usually I've had only name in play.

As reported, I have FH 6.2.2. So, will wait for another response here before I [gulp] reinstall FH. Or, do you think this is something that I should report to Calico Pie?

Thanks for all the review and suggestions.

[tatewise]

When the green runner/progress-bar "just sits there" and "nothing happens" how do you proceed?
e.g. Do you have to stop FH with Task Manager or what?

I asked about FH Version because you had only mentioned V6.2 and it could have been V6.2.0 or V6.2.1 or V6.2.2.

While the problem exists, it might be worth contacting Calico Pie, who may wish to remote access your PC to investigate.

Originally you said you use Windows 8.1 but looks like 7.
What exactly what does that mean?
Have you simply installed something like Classic Shell to adjust the Start Menu or what?

It might just be that those changes are the cause of the FH misbehaviour.
It might also be your anti-virus tool upsetting the FH installation.
But we won't know for sure until you re-install FH.

Were you unable to upgrade to Windows 10 for free, which would give you a traditional Start Menu?

[goodwin2]

When the green progress bar "just sits there", I just close the box. It then says "0 replacements have been made".

Yes, I have Classic Shell on Windows 8.1. I decided NOT to do Windows 10 on my pc. I did do the upgrade [?] to 10 for my laptop earlier and decided that it provided no advantages for my computer usage. I use the laptop for other research activities and do not have FH on it. And as you know, I had questions about it possibly causing quirks for FH when making a decision for the PC.

The Classic Shell has been on my PC computer since I bought it in October of 2015 so that probably doesn't factor in.

Unless some recent update to either Windows or Norton has created this situation, nothing else has changed since I started using this PC and at some point did the install of FH 6.2 and then the additional FH upgrades and those were some time ago. All working fine except the problem now with the find and replace. Nor have I installed any other new programs.

So, should I contact Calico Pie before going through a reinstall? Since some folks on FHUG have said they have had no problems with the find and replace, it could be just my computer but the question is why?

Again, I'll wait for a response so I don't get into this with more work than is necessary. I would have no problem with Calico Pie taking a look.

Thanks again.

[tatewise]

My view regarding Windows 10 is NOT whether it provides no advantage, but whether it causes any disadvantage.
But for me there are some advantages.
The Start Menu works fine without any 3rd party add-ons, its support continues longer than Win 7/8.1, it runs faster, boots faster, does everything I used to do before, and has a few neat new features. So why not update?

The only way to find out why FH Find & Replace is not working on your PC is to let Calico Pie have a look.
Whether they solve the problem or not, they will probably perform the FH reinstall safely for you.

[goodwin2]

Mike, thanks again for your review and advise. I'll contact Calico Pie and, since I'm US, see if they can find a time to have them take a look.

Side issue - another reason that I did not go with Windows 10 I may have mentioned before. It controls the computer in a way that unless you read and "uncheck" a myriad of things that it will do automatically, you have left any privacy and choice behind. Yes, I know there are some similar issues elsewhere re this in just using a cell phone or the Internet. However, I did not buy a computer to provide marketing material for Microsoft. Perhaps - down the road there will be others who find this unacceptable also and Microsoft may make some changes re how they offer their operating systems. I'm not holding my breath on that one. Just right me off as a bit "old fashioned".

Regards to all FHUG folks!

[GlennC]

GSB, I'm having a problem that sounds a lot like yours. When I do a FIND for the date modifier "calculated" (without quotes), I get numerous hits. But in FIND AND REPLACE, the same search with the same boxes checked has no hits. I'm running Win7 and get the same results in FH6.2.0 and 6.2.2. Was Calico Pie able to help you?

Glenn

[tatewise]

There are some subtle clues in the two dialogues that you have overlooked.

In the Find dialogue I suspect you are ticking Other Fields that would include a textual representation of Date fields.

In the Find and Replace dialogue that option is reworded to Other Text Fields and Date fields are NOT Text fields, so nothing can be found or replaced in them.

Unfortunately, there is no associated Help for those dialogues, despite many complaints to Calico Pie, so the exact behaviour of those features is not well defined. Perhaps you would like to add your weight, and also complain to Calico Pie.

Nevertheless, Glenn your symptoms are quite different from the foregoing thread, as they are 100% repeatable by you and me, whereas goodwin2's symptoms are less repeatable and virtually unique to his PC.

BTW: If you want to replace Date field components, use the Search and Replace Plugin.

[GlennC]

You're right, Mike -- I overlooked the difference between the two "others". Your "search and replace" plugin does exactly what I need.

Thanks for the help

Glenn

[goodwin2]

Unfortunately up to now I have not had the time to contact Calico Pie re my find and replace problem. Other matters have taken precedence. I will report back here when that happens.

[goodwin2]

I did contact Calico Pie regarding this problem and have had several communications with them. I finally sent them a copy of my gedcom and they responded thusly:

"Thank you for your patience, the developers have reviewed the problem and tracked it down to the tool bar, if you simply leave the program to run it will complete the replaces on your data, but the toolbar is not displayed correctly at this time. On our developers computers it takes around 1 minute to complete the replace, but it may take longer if you don't have a state of the art workstation as used by our developers.

We have logged the problem with the display of the toolbar for fixing in a future release. "

I have just responded to that. I gave them details re the tests that I have done with the find and replace, including the latest "leaving the program to run". That test did FIND the name within 4 minutes and it did show the find; however, after 27 minutes there was still no "replace" appearing. I also gave them details re my computer which has a speed of 3.60 GHz and a 16GB memory. I don't know how that compares to their computers. I also noted in my response that one of the folks here had said he also had a large database and his search and replace might take two to three minutes. So I have asked them to respond again to see if my latest information gives them any additional insight to the problem.

As an aside, I tried the plug-in and got NOTHING - not even the find.

I'll update with any further responses from Calico Pie re possible solutions to this issue.

[tatewise]

It is a step in the right direction that Calico Pie are on the case.

Exactly what options are you setting in the Search and Replace Plugin V2.7?
Perhaps attach a screen-shot here of the two tabs Major Options and Extra Filters.

Calico Pie may find it useful if you report the Plugin problems too, as it gives another perspective.

[goodwin2]

At this time I have still not had a successful completion of the F&R function. In the latest test I did today, the "find" appeared in about 10 minutes; a half an hour or so later there was still no "replace" showing. Perhaps if I walk away for an hour or more there might be a result. I'm going to attempt to attach screenshots of some of these efforts.

As to the plug-in, I get nothing for either a F&R or a simple find. I used only the major options.

Another suggestion from Calico Pie was to make the changes manually. The original reason for my attempting to use the F&R was that I had used an incorrect surname for a small number of individuals and I wanted to make the change. I did make the changes manually.

In Calico Pie looking at the tests that I told them about [no screenshots sent], they did make the comment that names needed to be input EXACTLY as was in the database, including the /name/ marks. Again, having made additional tests as noted, I'm still not getting a result.

I'm somewhat puzzled that Calico Pie could do the F&R with my large database [55,000] in a fairly short period of time and that there was no suggestion that perhaps FH6.2 might need to be reinstalled.

One of the screenshots that I wanted to attach is too large. Both that hopefully attach are Plug in attempts.

Any comments/suggestions are welcome.

[tatewise]

Did you try any variants of the name pheobe ann /sherwood/?
Such as just pheobe or just sherwood?
Double check there is no trailing space in Search box.

It would help to see a screen shot of her actual Name field.
NOT what is listed by default in the Records Window but her Name field shown by expanding her Records Window entry.

[goodwin2]

With the plug in feature, here are the latest tests:

took 18 seconds to search for
pheobe ann /sherwood/ - [slight spelling difference as suggested]
replace with minnie a. /sherwood/

took 18 seconds to search only for
minnie a. /sherwood/
phoebe ann /sherwood/

results for all:
"no matching data items have been reported"

No excess spaces after inserting the name.

Attached is Phoebe Ann Sherwood's property box.

Phoebe Ann Sherwood

Screenshot (19).png (197.8 KiB) Viewed 12745 times

[tatewise]

Yes, that is very strange.
However, it would still be nice to see the actual internal Name field, NOT the one presented in Main tab of Property Box nor the one shown initially in Records Window.
Either display All tab of Property Box or click [+] next to person in Records Window to reveal internal Name field. It should look like Name Phoebe Ann /Sherwood/.

Did you try searching for just parts of name such as phoebe on its own or sherwood on its own?
Also try selecting the Part Words option.

Might it be possible that / character on keyboard is not identical to / character used by FH in Name field?

What happens if you run experiments using both S&R Plugin and Edit > F&R on the Family Historian Sample Project? If that fails, then it is nothing to do with your Project, so I suspect a re-install of FH V6.2.2 is advisable. Use http://www.family-historian.co.uk/downl ... ee-upgrade and install over your existing set-up without un-installing anything.

In Tools > Preferences > File Load/Save what is your setting for Save in UTF-8 format?