{"id":722,"date":"2020-02-18T08:28:34","date_gmt":"2020-02-18T08:28:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fhug.org.uk\/kb\/?post_type=kb_article&#038;p=722"},"modified":"2022-09-13T11:56:33","modified_gmt":"2022-09-13T11:56:33","slug":"key-features-for-newcomers","status":"publish","type":"kb_article","link":"https:\/\/www.fhug.org.uk\/kb\/kb-article\/key-features-for-newcomers\/","title":{"rendered":"Key Features for Newcomers"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>Introduction<\/h2>\n<p>If you are new to Family Historian, and especially if new to genealogy, then familiarise yourself with these topics. They provide an insight into how to learn about <span class=\"fh\" style=\"font-size: 17px !important; line-height: 21.4286px !important;\">\u0192<span style=\"color:#73B262; font-weight: bold;\">h<\/span><\/span> and explain many features that newcomers often ask about, or wish they had known before committing so much data to their family tree.<\/p>\n<p>There is advice in the <span class=\"fh\" style=\"font-size: 17px !important; line-height: 21.4286px !important;\">\u0192<span style=\"color:#73B262; font-weight: bold;\">h<\/span><\/span> Help pages, the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.family-historian.co.uk\/\">Family Historian<\/a> website, and our FHUG <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fhug.org.uk\/forum\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Forums<\/a> postings (see <a href=\"https:\/\/fhug.org.uk\/kb\/kb-article\/forum-usage-tips\/\">Forums Usage Tips<\/a> for posting questions, replies, screenshots, etc). This FHUG Knowledge Base cross-refers to them where appropriate, rather than repeat their advice.<\/p>\n<p>For an overview of all the FHUG topics on offer then visit our <a href=\"https:\/\/fhug.org.uk\/kb\/\">Knowledge Base Home<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h3>Documentation and Tutorials<\/h3>\n<p>See <a href=\"https:\/\/fhug.org.uk\/kb\/kb-article\/family-historian-documentation\/\">Family Historian Documentation<\/a> especially the book &#8220;Getting the Most from Family Historian V6&#8221;, available in printed format, from <a href=\"http:\/\/amzn.to\/2awsifT\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Amazon<\/a>. We don&#8217;t know if and when there will be a V7 book.<\/p>\n<h3>Family Historian Sample Project<\/h3>\n<p>Use <a href=\"#!\" class=\"cs_tooltip\" fhugtt=\"This is the menu across the top of the main Family Historian windows. The &gt; denotes a submenu\">File&nbsp&gt;&nbspProject&nbspWindow&nbsp&gt;&nbspMore&nbspTasks&nbsp&gt;&nbspSamples&nbsp&gt;&nbspReset&nbspSample&nbspProject<\/a> to reset the sample Project which is the best place to experiment without risk to your family data, and that can be easily reset, at any time, by repeating the same command.<\/p>\n<h3>Project Structure and Location<\/h3>\n<p>See <a href=\"https:\/\/fhug.org.uk\/kb\/kb-article\/understanding-projects\/\">Understanding Projects<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/fhug.org.uk\/kb\/kb-article\/backup-and-recovery\/\">Backups<\/a> for location, backup &amp; synchronisation advice.<\/p>\n<p>Migrants from other genealogy products should study the <a href=\"https:\/\/fhug.org.uk\/kb\/kb-article\/importing-to-family-historian\/\">Importing to Family Historian<\/a> section.<\/p>\n<p>If unsure how many Projects you need for your family branches see the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fhug.org.uk\/forum\/viewtopic.php?t=16348\">Structuring your project<\/a> thread and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.taubman.org.uk\/family\/wp\/2018\/10\/30\/family-historian-one-project-or-many\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">One Project or Many<\/a> by Jane Taubman.<\/p>\n<h3>Customisations and Preferences<\/h3>\n<span class=\"fh\" style=\"font-size: 17px !important; line-height: 21.4286px !important;\">\u0192<span style=\"color:#73B262; font-weight: bold;\">h<\/span><\/span> can be highly customised and has many preference settings accessed via <a href=\"#!\" class=\"cs_tooltip\" fhugtt=\"This is the menu across the top of the main Family Historian windows. The &gt; denotes a submenu\">Tools&nbsp&gt;&nbspPreferences<\/a>. Many are not stored in the Project Structure but in the <a href=\"https:\/\/fhug.org.uk\/kb\/kb-article\/family-historian-program-data-folder\/\">Family Historian Program Data Folder<\/a> that should be included in your backup regime.<\/p>\n<h3>Backup and Recovery<\/h3>\n<p>See <a href=\"https:\/\/fhug.org.uk\/kb\/kb-article\/backup-and-recovery\/\">Backup and Recovery<\/a> especially the <a href=\"https:\/\/pluginstore.family-historian.co.uk\/page\/plugin\/backup-and-restore-family-historian-settings\">Backup and Restore Family Historian Settings<\/a> plugin for customisations and Windows Registry settings that are not stored in the Project Structure.<\/p>\n<p>Also in V6 and above <a href=\"#!\" class=\"cs_tooltip\" fhugtt=\"This is the menu across the top of the main Family Historian windows. The &gt; denotes a submenu\">File&nbsp&gt;&nbspBackup\/Restore&nbsp&gt;&nbspRevert&nbspto&nbspSnapshot<\/a> can restore just the GEDCOM file.<\/p>\n<h3>Facts<\/h3>\n<p><span class=\"glossary-tooltip glossary-term-9872\" tabindex=\"0\"><span class=\"glossary-link\">Facts <\/span><\/span>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). See <a href=\"https:\/\/fhug.org.uk\/kb\/kb-article\/working-with-facts\/\">Working with Facts for New Users.<\/a><\/p>\n<h3>Places and Addresses<\/h3>\n<p>Most data fields are obvious, but these two often cause confusion, so are explained in <a href=\"https:\/\/fhug.org.uk\/kb\/kb-article\/working-with-places-and-addresses-for-new-users\/\">Places and Addresses<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The automatic geocoding of the Latitude\/Longitude of Places is described in the <span class=\"fh\" style=\"font-size: 17px !important; line-height: 21.4286px !important;\">\u0192<span style=\"color:#73B262; font-weight: bold;\">h<\/span><\/span> V6 book &#8220;Getting the Most From Family Historian&#8221; in Chapter 14 Places, Maps and Timelines. A similar feature is available for V5 or later via the <a href=\"https:\/\/pluginstore.family-historian.co.uk\/page\/plugin\/map-life-facts\">Map Life Facts<\/a> Plugin.<\/p>\n<h3>Sources<\/h3>\n<p>To substantiate your Events and Attributes most users cite Source Records : see <a href=\"https:\/\/fhug.org.uk\/kb\/kb-article\/sources-and-citations-in-version-7-for-new-users\/\">Sources and Citations in Version 7 (for New Users).<\/a><\/p>\n<h3>Ancestral Sources<\/h3>\n<p>The free <a href=\"https:\/\/fhug.org.uk\/kb\/kb-article\/ancestral-sources\/\">Ancestral Sources<\/a> utility makes entering census and other basic records much easier, as do the\u00a0 features in V7 for source-driven data entry.<\/p>\n<h3>Records, Fields and Multimedia<\/h3>\n<p>Open the <a href=\"#!\" class=\"cs_tooltip\" fhugtt=\"This is the menu across the top of the main Family Historian windows. The &gt; denotes a submenu\">Tools&nbsp&gt;&nbspPreferences<\/a> and select the <em>Records Window<\/em> option on the left. Set each <em>Record Type Display Option<\/em> to <em>Always show<\/em> so that the Records Window has a tab for each Record Type, without which some data is partly obscured.<\/p>\n<p>Some data fields are only visible on the All tab of a Property Box or in the Records Window, and accessed via a mouse right-click menu.<\/p>\n<p>Most data is stored in the Project GEDCOM file, but linked Multimedia files are stored within the Project Media folder, and can be summarised using\u00a0 <a href=\"#!\" class=\"cs_tooltip\" fhugtt=\"This is the menu across the top of the main Family Historian windows. The &gt; denotes a submenu\">Tools&nbsp&gt;&nbsp(Work&nbspwith)&nbspExternal&nbspFile&nbspLinks<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>For further details see <a href=\"https:\/\/fhug.org.uk\/kb\/kb-article\/formal-database-structure\/\">Formal Database Structure<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/fhug.org.uk\/kb\/kb-article\/record-identifiers\/\">Record Types and Record Id<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h3>Diagram Root Couples<\/h3>\n<p>Diagrams created by newcomers often show fewer Ancestors than expected and usually the solution is to <a href=\"https:\/\/fhug.org.uk\/kb\/kb-article\/view-both-spouses-ancestors\/\">View Both Spouses\u2019 Ancestors<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h3>Internet Data Matches<\/h3>\n<p>See the <a href=\"https:\/\/fhug.org.uk\/kb\/kb-article\/internet-data-matches\/\">Internet Data Matches<\/a> advice for obtaining &#8216;hints&#8217; from online databases, which is also explained in the V6 book &#8220;Getting the Most From Family Historian&#8221; in Chapter 13 Web Search, Web Hints &amp; Web Clipping.<\/p>\n<h3>Plugins<\/h3>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/fhug.org.uk\/kb\/kb-article\/family-historian-plugins\/\">Family Historian Plugins<\/a> can add significant functionality without the <span class=\"fh\" style=\"font-size: 17px !important; line-height: 21.4286px !important;\">\u0192<span style=\"color:#73B262; font-weight: bold;\">h<\/span><\/span> program being upgraded.<\/p>\n<p>This is the only feature NOT supported by the <span class=\"fh\" style=\"font-size: 17px !important; line-height: 21.4286px !important;\">\u0192<span style=\"color:#73B262; font-weight: bold;\">h<\/span><\/span> 30-Day Free Trial version in Version 6 and below; in the Version 7 trial, you CAN run plugins.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"template":"","fh_version":[15,739],"skill_level":[16],"topic":[68],"class_list":["post-722","kb_article","type-kb_article","status-publish","hentry","fh_version-v6","fh_version-v7","skill_level-newcomer","topic-faqs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fhug.org.uk\/kb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/kb_article\/722","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fhug.org.uk\/kb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/kb_article"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fhug.org.uk\/kb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/kb_article"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fhug.org.uk\/kb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=722"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"fh_version","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fhug.org.uk\/kb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/fh_version?post=722"},{"taxonomy":"skill_level","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fhug.org.uk\/kb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/skill_level?post=722"},{"taxonomy":"topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fhug.org.uk\/kb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/topic?post=722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}