Introduction

This summarises some little known tips and tricks with Reports. Remember that with a Report open pressing the F1 key, or clicking the Help button in sub-windows, gives detailed advice. Also work through the tutorials on Reports in the Family Historian Documentation.

Report Content and Style

The summary of Standard Report Types describes their characteristics and Report Content, Media, Format and Layout describes how to customise popular settings.

Use the Family Historian Sample Project to obtain typical examples of each report type.

Additional Customisation Tips

In the popular reports involving Individuals and Families, the way Facts are displayed is affected by the Tools > Fact Types Edit button definitions for each Fact.

• To show Record IDEvery record in Family Historian has a numeric Record ID, which uniquely identifies it within its type of record., add =[RecordID()] via Format tab Heading > Record > Edit > Heading Text, or in the Contents tab Main Section Items select Record Id and Edit to Show if not empty
• Tabulated reports, such as the Individual Summary Report and Family Group Sheet,[\glossary-ignore] show Fact names as defined by the Tools > Fact Types > Edit setting for the Label of each Fact. Those settings also affect the names of FactsFacts are one of the key concepts at the heart of Family Historian; they are how you record the things that happened to, or described, each ancestor (Individual). shown in the Property Box Dialogue: Individuals: Facts Tab and Records Window.
• Narrative reports show Fact sentences as defined by Narrative Report Fact Sentence Templates. These can be extensively customised, but sometimes require advanced techniques.
  • To make the unbroken paragraphs more readable, insert the Formatting Codes for New Line (<br>) or New Paragraph (<para>) at the start or end of some Fact Sentence TemplatesSentences are used in conjunction with Fact Sets to produce Narrative Reports; their templates are highly customisable..
  • To insert natural language components into a Fact sentence, insert the Note ({note}) code into the Sentence Template, and enter the desired wording into the Note box of the chosen Fact.
• Indented reports Ancestor Outline and Descendant Outline show Fact names as defined by the Tools > Fact Types > Edit setting for the Abbreviation of each Fact (or if blank then the Label). Those settings can also affect the names of Facts shown in the Property Box Dialogue: Individuals: Facts Tab and Records Window.
  • To list Facts line by line set Layout Events and Attributes… to on separate lines on the Report Options > Main tab.
  • The Facts can stand out even more by adding a bullet character (●) to the front of each Abbreviation setting mentioned above, e.g. ● Born & ● Died. However, that affects some Facts shown in the Property Box Dialogue: Individuals: Facts Tab but it can be counteracted via the Advanced button and setting the Override Template to the Fact name plus {place} code, e.g. Born {place} & Died {place}.
  • The Descendant Outline report is similar to popular reports produced by other products.

In all Reports the Media are governed by the Pictures tab and the Sources tab. The number of Media images included is chosen by the Max Pics settings.

See Download Type: Reports for some predefined Custom Reports.

Report Navigation

Note that each Report Window has two vertical scroll bars on the right. The inner bar scrolls up & down one page, while the outer bar scrolls through all the pages.

The panel on the right has several navigation aids. Press the F1 key to obtain advice about their use. If you need to change the selection of records included in the report, use the Records button to obtain the Select Records dialogue again. To display the Property BoxThe Property Box is the primary window for data entry and for viewing details of stored records.  It is used with records of all types.   Dialogue for a record, double click its entry under Page Records, and from that dialogue it is easy to navigate to parents, spouse, and children.

• Tabulated reports identify close family relationships via labelled entries such s Father, Mother, Spouse, Husband, Wife & Children.
• Narrative reports have a heading for each Generation, and each person has a unique number.
• Indented reports may have lines connecting the indented generations, and each person has a unique number.

Where SourceSource: "where information was found". This could be anything from an archive in a county records office, a book, or even a relative's recorded recollection. Citing your Sources helps to show how you reached a particular conclusion about an Individual. Citations are included via the Report > Report Options > Sources tab, each has a unique number that is cross-referenced by a superscript on the associated Facts, etc.

An Index to people, placesAccording to GEDCOM, a Place should hold "The jurisdictional name of the place where the event took place…"  , and attributesEvents are things that happened to an Individual and Attributes are things that described them. can be included via the Report > Report Options > Index tab.

Report Formatting

The report style is set via the Report > Report Options > Format tab and Page Layout tab.

Format Tab

This tab sets the character Font, the Hdg Style, and Heading text for each section. Select the item to change and click the Edit button bottom left. It also allows the Format for DatesWhen an Event happened, or an Attrribute was true. to be chosen, and possibly the Empty Section Text and Colours of graphical items.

• The Font options support the usual Font set, Font Style (Regular, Italic, Bold, etc.), point Size, Strikeout, Underline, and Colour characteristics. It may need some experimentation to discover which option affects which category of text.
• The Hdg Style only affects a few top level headings and specifies the Gap and Horizontal Line above and below those headings, and how many subsequent lines to keep with the heading on the same page. If this last setting is significantly increased to say 99 lines it will effectively force a new page for that heading level.
• Each Heading option lets you Hide/Show Heading and define what text is shown. The Heading Text field uses standard Expressions comprising Data ReferencesData references are expressions which are used to provide a way of referring to particular items of data in your project, such as records or particular fields within records. They can be used for advanced customizations of diagrams, websites, family and FunctionsA 'function' is an expression which returns values based on computations. Typically, functions require data to be supplied to them as 'parameters'. A function in Family Historian is similar to a 'function' as used in spreadsheet applications (such as MS plus the special code {default}.

Click the Help button or see Report Options ~ Format Tab for further advice.

Page Layout Tab

This tab adjusts the page style including Orientation (Portrait or Landscape), Margins, Header, Footer, and the size of Indents, Tabs, etc. It may need some experimentation to discover which Indents & Tabs affect which report text.

Click the Help button or see Report Options ~ Page Layout Tab for further advice.