880: Things that would be nice to have in the next release

[jsmith]

Hi,

First, let me thank you for such a wonderful product. Here are few simple items that can add a lot of value:

1) When doing search, can the father name be displayed in parenthesis? This is very much needed because many people have the same names and the only way to know if whom you are selecting is by having father name and other data.

2) Ability to have an export of "all" persons and all fields to csv or Excel (regardless of branching). Columns would have name, father name, mother name, Birth Date, Death Date, etc.

3) Is the a way to mass edit certain fields? For example, the death date for many persons may be blank, but an indicator there would make statistical reports more accurate. However, navigating to each person and editing is tedious. Rather selecting persons and then adding indicator to certain field for all at the same time is much easier.

4) Can you make the portableapps version more portable? I noticed that if one moves the app folder, double clicking files for app does not work until after a registry entry is edited.

By the way, what is your best guess on the next release?

Thank you.


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#Wunschliste_880_OFFEN

[Imanuel]

Hi,

the second point is already fulfilled, you just have to select "File" -> "Save as" -> "CSV file".
With Excel, you can also mass edit the fields of the file you just have exported.

The fourth one is not possible I think - a portable application can not be started easily by windows if you click on one of the files the application can open.
That's not a question of makin the application "more portable" (in fact, what you describe would be less portable, because the app would have to change windows registry), but telling windows which executable to use to open the file you clicked on.
As far as I know, there's only the possibility of changing windows registry (or going "open with" and browsing for the program (check "always use this program" or something like that), which will change the registry for you).

Having an application open its files when you click on them is not a "portable"-behaviour.

Greeting,
Imanuel

[Marcus]

1) When doing search, can the father name be displayed in parenthesis? This is very much needed because many people have the same names and the only way to know if whom you are selecting is by having father name and other data.

Thanks for your suggestions. This first point (the "Search" and "Go to" dialogs) is one of the features which are discussed very often. Some users suggested (all in german, so it's hard to find) to add dates or other data to be added at fixed positions.
I'll give you three links with pictures which give you an idea of what is wanted and I'll add your wish (as names of both parents to be displayed) to the "Wish-List" for the Developer of the software.
Thanks
Marcus

Solution with fixed fields in another Software
Structured data for the search-list
First idea of Feb 2006
As you can see, it's time that the dialogs get an update in their respective styles Maybe the next version with the inttroduction of new fields will bring a new solution here, but nobody except the developer knows.

[jsmith]

Thank you for your replies. One more thing to pass to the developer:
Can the capability to rearrange children in certain order? This is helpful when the order is known, but dates are not known specially helpful if someone did global sort by mistake which rearranges by date or name and the user did not discover that until many edits later (backups could not help).

[Marcus]

That is an rather old wish which still waits for it's realization: 7 3 in the wish list ... maybe next version will the one
Marcus

[Gast]

What about adding specific fields for email, cell number, home number, URL, and private notes (as opposed to notes) that have researchers notes that may not need to be published?

[Marcus]

Ahnenblatt still has a feature that supports private notes! You just have to start a new row with a double-slash: //
Lines (even multiple-lines) like the next one:
// Her husband blablablabla blablablabla blablablabla blablablabla blablablabla blablablabla blablablabla blablablabla blablablabla blablablabla blablablabla blablablabla

are ignored (till the next 'return') when printing or saving your information as: All Lists (including Person Sheets) and the html-exports! Additional the information is hided in the info-box upper-left frame in the navigator!
Supported tabs are "Sources" and "Notes"!

On the new fields:
I (personally) was always opposed to new fields which take care of volatile information that should be added to your PIM and not to an genealogy-record. No matter what will be changed in the next releases of Ahnenblatt - I won't store such Information in my Ahnenblatt.
But the next release will give us a lot of those possibilities! Here are some pictures of the next version that will have the features to deal with new fields: Ahnenblatt 3.0 Preview
Since all the subroutines in the heart of the software (loading, storing, printing etc.) have to be changed, the new release could be still months away. Maybe just weeks - we just don't know.
Marcus

[Gast]

Thanks. Did not know about the //. Tired it and it works!

I agree about volatile info. However, sometimes you may want to find the contacts as you browse the family tree. The need for this feature is again due to the fact that many people share the same name and it is difficult to differentiate them in current Ahnenblatt without additional info.

Sounds like the are a lot of nice features coming. Personal suggestion is to reduce the release cycle so we can give feedback on changes before they become too overwhelming. I think this is partially due to my inability to read the German user guide and I have to find things be implementation.

Overall though, this is an excellent product as it is stands!!!

Thanks.

[Gast]

I meant find things be experimentation (not implementation).