Introduction

It is a common requirement to be able to remember which records you are working on between sessions of using Family Historian. Since ƒh7 there is one automatic mechanism: tick Display the Last-Used Focus Person in the Focus WindowThe Focus Window is the primary workspace window.  It displays information about a chosen person, called the 'Focus Person'. on the Startup tab of Tools > Preferences and the Focus Window opens on whoever it showed when the projectA Project is a Windows folder, created by Family Historian, which contains all your Family Tree information recorded in Family Historian. Normally located in the Documents\Family Historian Projects folder. was last closed (FH8 help). It covers only the focus person, so the techniques described below are still useful, and in some ways better.

Records Window Updated Column

In the Records WindowThe Records Window provides a comprehensive view of all the information stored within a Family Historian project., on the tabs for most record types, there is an Updated column that holds a date-time stamp of when each record was last changed. Click on the Updated column heading to sort by it, then (ƒh8) click again, or (ƒh7 and earlier) hold down the ALT key and click, to list the most recent changes first.

If that is likely to be regularly used, then change the default sort order. Right-click on the Updated column heading and choose Sort Descending.

Records Window Named Lists

In the Records Window use Lists > Named Lists Pane to display the Named ListsNamed Lists are a way in FH to group related items — which can be records of any type(s) — so that you can easily find them to work with. on the right. Any records of any type can be added to any Named List to provide shortcuts to all the records you are working on. See Using Named Lists for details of this extremely powerful technique.

Focus Window File Root

In ƒh Version 6 and below the Focus Window initially displays the File Root. So to remember the Individual you are working on, temporarily make them the File Root. Display them in the Focus Window, then right-click their box and choose Make File Root before closing the session. In the next session it is just as easy to restore your usual File Root.

Create Individual Shortcut Plugin

The Create Individual Shortcut PluginPlugins are small programs that allow new features to be added without upgrading Family Historian itself; some plugins are written by Calico Pie and others are written by users. creates a command file on the PC Desktop that automatically opens ƒh with any chosen Individual in the Focus Window or Records Window. It can even create several such command files for different Individuals in different GEDCOMGEDCOM, an acronym for GEnealogical Data COMmunication, is a specification for exchanging genealogical data between different genealogy software. It is a file format that most genealogical programs and online trees recognise. files.