Viewing a Family Tree
Anyone can view any Family Tree. A tree can be
browsed or searched.
Browser Windows
The software will launch two extra browser windows:-
- Navigation Window - Which enables you to browse
the Family Tree
- Details Window - Which shows the details of a
person and most of the forms for data entry.
An optional third window may be selected which will
show a search form. This is not necessary as the
same form can be shown in the Navigation Window
Browsing
In the Navigation Window you can see:-
- A list of all the family trees in the system.
- A list of all the people in a family tree.
- A list of all the family names in a family tree.
- A list of all people in a family tree with a family name.
- All the ancestors of a person.
- This is selected from
Details Window once you have selected a person from one of
the previous lists.
- All the descendants of a person
- This is selected from
Details Window once you have selected a person from one of
the previous lists.
- A Search Form and the results of a search
- See below.
With the exception of the ancestor and descendants display,
all of these are selected by links in the left hand part of
the Navigation Window. Some will appear only after some
other selection has been made, in particular after a family
tree has been selected.
All the people in these displays are links, and so clicking
on someone's name will bring up their details in the Details
Window.
The ancestor and descendant displays are more than just
simple lists. Firstly they are indented lists to show
the generations, secondly either side of each name there
may be a '<' or '>' symbol. Clicking on these symbols
will show the ancestors or descendants for that person. If
there are no ancestors or descendants then the symbol doesn't
appear. On the ancestor display the '<' symbol will show
the descendants, and the '>' the ancestors. For the
descendants display the meaning of the symbols is reversed.
It may seem complicated but is quite natural.
Searching
The Search facility is, I think, rather useful. It enables you
to specify your choice of a number of criteria:-
- Family Tree
- Which family tree is to be searched.
- Name Pattern
- Enter a whole or partial name that you
are looking for. For example, 'llen' will look for all people
whose name includes 'llen'.
- Event
- Specify an event that you are interested in.
- After
- Specify that you are interested only in events
after a certain date.
- Before
- Specify that you are interested only in events
before a certain date.
- Status
- Specify that you are only interested in people
who were Unborn, Living or Dead.
- At
- and the date at which they were Unborn, Living or Dead
You can specify any or all of these criteria, and the system
will find the people or events that match all of the criteria
that you have specified.