* Research Notes Improvements

[laz_gen]

I may occasionally create a Research Note from the records window but in general most of my research thoughts will be had when I am working on an individual in their property box.

The process of actually creating a Research Note is rather convoluted requiring 5 mouse clicks:
Add Note > Shared Research Note > New > Create Research Note > Empty Research Note

That creates a Research Note that shows in the Record Window but the note will contain nothing visible to show from which individual the note was created. I may create dozens of such research notes and will need to interrogate each one individually using View > Record Links to see from where the note was created.

I realise I can manually add some text or a link to show the individual but that seems like something that should be automatic at the time of note creation.

If I later satisfy my research requirement and want to delete the research note then doing so at the place of its creation (the individuals property box) will not delete the note, only a link to it. The actual research note will remain and have to be deleted from the Records window.

The research note can be deleted (note plus its link) from the Records Window but without proper visible links it needs some extra work from the user to check the invisible links before deleting.

This doesn’t feel like it has been designed with a particular workflow to satisfy the needs of a user. It could be so much more useful with just a few improvements but presently feels like a hurried adaption of ordinary notes with little thought as to how they would be used.

I am wondering if there is enough interest among readers to discuss in depth and thrash out some ideas for a wish list entry.

My first thoughts would be:
• Easy creation of a new Research Note within an individual’s property box with just a click or two
• FH to automatically create visible (clickable) links within each research note so a user can properly view and understand the note contents and links when viewed from the Record Window
• The clickable links allow easy navigation in both directions between the Record Window and the Individual’s property box

[AdrianBruce]

interrogate each one individually using View > Record Links to see from where the note was created

Oh. I didn't even realise there was an invisible link back to where it was created from!

I always add the person's name in the text of the note (there might be several people, after all) and Add Link to Individual Record in the Research Note. But confusingly, if I do View / Record Links on the research note, it doesn't show anyone linked via Add Link to Individual Record.

I am now confused / puzzled about how I normally create and link Research Notes. I have a feeling that I usually start from the Research Notes tab, simply because I tend to link multiple people in each note.

I suspect this says something about either me or the FH logic... Just not sure what!

[ColeValleyGirl]

I think the behaviour of links is something that needs to be talked about independent of Research Notes, as it's a more general "issue".

[tatewise]

IMO this problem is not limited to Research Notes but applies to all record links.
e.g. Source record links from Citations, Media record links from Media tabs, Note record links, Place record links...
The View > Record Links... command and View > Citations to Source Record... command are poor substitutes.
The problem prompted the development of the Where Used Record Links plugin.
The one exception is record links between Parents, Spouses and Children which easily navigate both ways.

[tatewise]

Oh. I didn't even realise there was an invisible link back to where it was created from!

There isn't unless you Add the Research Note via the Notes tab of the Property Box.

[laz_gen]

I didn’t start with FH until V6 then upgraded to V7. I previously held my research notes in Evernote but hoped to integrate my research planning into FH when I heard of the new facilities being introduced.

I am still struggling to see how I can properly make it work and suspect most users previous to V7 already had an external system for research notes and have continued with that, ignoring the “new” FH research notes.

Even if a wish list item is created it feels like the improvements needed are beyond that which may come from a minor update. It feels like something for a re-design as part of V8, if CP think it viable.

[tatewise]

I don't think we can judge how easy it is for CP to implement Wish List requests.
IMO the FH internal Project database probably holds all those reverse record links already.
Otherwise, the features that use them such as those listed below may have to search the entire database:
View > Record Links...
View > Citations to Source Record...
Records Window columns for Links
LinksTo(...) function
~SHAR Fact Witness shortcut

[ColeValleyGirl]

IMO this problem is not limited to Research Notes but applies to all record links.

Glad you agree with me, Mike. Would anyone object if we split this into two topics: one to discuss the general problem of record links, and one to talk about Research Planning workflows?

[laz_gen]

Fine by me

[tatewise]

OK