In case you haven’t figured it out, I like to use a narrative report when working with an individual in my family tree. I’m guessing this goes back to my years using The Master Genealogist and John Cardinal’s Second Site to create a web site.
The Master Genealogist (TMG) used memo fields in their sentences. Since one could have more than one memo field, it was possible to build fairly complicated sentences. When I transferred my data to RootsMagic, I elected to have that ‘memo’ information placed in the NOTE field of RootsMagic.
Like TMG, RootsMagic has standard sentences with the ability to customize them. I am still learning how to customize those sentences, especially for shared facts.
I am currently previewing RootsMagic 8 and learning how to use the new features of this software. Fortunately, with sentences, there doesn’t seem to be much of a learning curve.
To view the sentences, I must open the ‘EDIT’ window for an individual. When a person is highlighted on the pedigree view, family view or any of the other ways to view people, their information is found to left side of the screen.
One way to open an individual’s EDIT window is to click on the pencil icon below their name in the column on the left. Another way to open the window is to double click on the individual in the larger main window to the right. Once the EDIT window is open, highlighting a fact will reveal the sentence for the fact. The sentence information will appear at the bottom of the column to the right.
Like in RootsMagic 7, the sentences can be customized. I use this ability to customize sentences in several ways:
- Provide variety in a narrative report
- Create unique sentences for shared facts
Since many of my facts for an individual are residence facts, a narrative report can get boring when the default sentence is always used.
To add variety, I will edit some of the residence sentences to place the date at the first of the sentence.
In RM7 I have a ‘funeral’ fact where the sentence states that the individual sharing the fact attended the funeral.
This fact is shared with 9 people. Their ‘role’ is as a ‘witness.’
When I look at the ‘funeral’ fact type and open the EDIT window, I can see the sentence structure for witnesses to the funeral fact.
When I create a narrative report, the sentence is correctly formatted, indicating that the subject of the report attended the funeral of someone else.
In RM8, the fact shows in the list with a ‘person’ icon and then the words ‘Witness-Funeral’. The sentence is similar to that created in RM7.
When I click to ‘Customize’ the sentence, the Edit Sentence window opens.
However, I need to remember that customizing the sentence for a shared fact affects the sentence for everyone with the same role who share the fact and not just for the person where the sentence was edited.
Another fact that I share is the Marriage fact. I share this fact so that a sentence for the marriage will be created in the narrative report. In RM7, I use the roles of Groom and Bride. The sentence structure is similar for both roles but specific to the role.
- Groom – Sentence template: [Husband:heshe] married [Wife:given] [Wife:surname]< [desc]>< [Date]>< [PlaceDetails]>< [Place]>.
- Bride – Sentence template: [Wife:heshe] married [Husband:given] [Husband:surname]< [desc]>< [Date]>< [PlaceDetails]>< [Place]>.
If the Marriage fact has already been shared in RM7, then the sentences appear as expected when the file is opened in RM8.
However, I haven’t always remembered to share that marriage event. In an attempt to create the marriage sentence for the narrative report in RM8, I tried the process I used in RM7 – the sharing of the marriage fact.
If I click on the > sign to the right of SHARED, it opens a window listing those people in my file and allowing me to use the search window in the upper right corner. When I type in a name, my list of people narrows down to show potential matches to the name I typed. (Note: I’m assuming that there is a character limit for the search function. I will inquire about this on the FB group for the RM8 preview.)
Underneath the list of people is the ‘Role’ window. Using this window, I change the role for Lida Crawford to Bride.
Even though the fact is shared, it does not show in the list of events UNTIL AFTER the EDIT window is closed.
Re-opening the edit window reveals the shared fact in the list of facts.
In learning how to share a fact in RM8, I also learned how NOT to share a fact. When I want to share a fact with another person in my file, I do NOT want to use the “Just Type Name” option. That option is prominently displayed in the upper left corner of the ‘Add (or select) witness’ window.
The ‘Just Type Name’ option is for instances when I want a witness’s name in a sentence but do not want to add the individual to my file. If I type in the name of a person in my file, it does not connect to the individual in my file. Nor, will the witness sentence appear on their narrative report. Since I typically add people to my file if I want to include them in reports, I want to use the search box in the upper right to locate the individual.
Another shared fact that I use in RM7 is a custom fact: ChildParent. I use this fact to not only print a sentence identifying the parents but also to document the parent-child relationship. I create the fact for the child and then share it with the parents.
When I look at the edit screen for a parent, the shared Parent-Child fact is in their list of events. Highlighting that fact reveals the sentence that will appear in the narrative report for the parent.
Figuring out how these sentences work is something that still challenges me. I’m thankful that working with sentences in RM8 will be similar to what I have been doing in Rm7.
For additional information on RootsMagic and sentence templates, check out their video, Sentence and Source Templates.