Kith and Kin Pro V3 in development

The old version of our genealogy database program.

Moderator: Nick Hunter

jeremyhoj
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Joined: Sat Feb 04, 2006 4:01 pm

Network drives

Post by jeremyhoj » Fri Apr 03, 2009 1:35 pm

Would it be possible, when browsing for the drive where data is stored, for the software to recognise networked drives as well? Sometimes I want to bring up a tree on my laptop when the data is on my desktop. It applies to Tree Draw as well.

Jeremy

Nick Hunter
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Post by Nick Hunter » Fri Apr 03, 2009 2:14 pm

Yes. This has been built in.

Richard Johnston
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multiple date entry for events (not just one possible)

Post by Richard Johnston » Sat Apr 04, 2009 11:09 pm

Hi All,

another suggestion for an improvement is... (if possible)

a way of listing 2 (or more) dates for the same event. I sometimes get conflicting information regarding event dates, both appear legitimate, so I usually have to list one of them with the reference, then a possible alternate date in the notes with its reference. ..

maybe addressed by a spot next to the date for an Astrix to show the discrepancy?

or a "most likely", then a "possibly" category area...?

thanks

Richard

Richard Johnston
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RE: In response to specific suggestions:

Post by Richard Johnston » Mon Apr 06, 2009 4:18 pm

Hi Nick,

thanks for the response to my (several) suggestions.

I appreciate your follow up to pretty much all of them.

I unfortunately don't have any specific suggestions regarding how to actually implement my photos idea. I just didn't want to have another duplicate photo database, if that is how it was intended to work.
Is there a way to draw from an existing directory with links ..maybe with a way to label the picture.


That might address what I was thinking of..and a better way of properly using K&K with my collected family pictures

thanks again.

Richard

Nick Hunter
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Post by Nick Hunter » Fri Apr 10, 2009 2:43 pm

Hi Richard,

I don't think we can implement a "possible date", it would mean duplicating every date item (which already takes up 4 fields per date).

We wanted to keep all the picture files within the database folder so that the database folder contains the entire data. What we have done is allow user-defined subfolders inside the "Pictures" folder to make it easier to manage the files. Picture files no longer have to have a filename which matches the record code in K&KPro - the filename can be anything, which will also make the files easier to manage.

We have also implemented drag-and-drop for picture files, and if these are dragged from outside the database\pictures folder, the files will be copied into the correct folder.

There are 3 other changes which affect pictures:
1) The ability to change the order that pictures appear in Web exports and reports.
2) The ability to link more than one picture record to the same image file.
3) You can now add pictures to people, families, source documents and source references.

There should be a beta version available for testing soon.

Nick Hunter
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Post by Nick Hunter » Sun Apr 19, 2009 11:52 am

A beta-test version of the new V3 is now available.

You can download the beta (Beta V9 ) from http://www.spansoft.org/downloads/kithk ... hkinp3.msi (7Mb) if you would like to try it out.

Kith and Kin Pro V3 can be installed alongside your existing V1 or V2 software and your old databases will not be overwritten.

Please note that there is no guarantee that databases created with this beta version will be compatible with the final release.

Some features of the software (including old database conversion) require that it is registered, so please email support@spansoft.org if you would like a temporary registration key.

Please let me know if you come across any bugs or incompatibilities.
Last edited by Nick Hunter on Thu May 07, 2009 7:16 pm, edited 9 times in total.

davep
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Post by davep » Fri Apr 24, 2009 4:26 pm

I've had a tinker with the beta version and not found any problems. However the implementation of Layers is not quite as I had envisaged...

Imagine I am creating a new chart, working backwards from the present-day and including aunts, cousins and their descendants at each generation. Under V2 the chart quickly becomes very 'wide' with near-horizontal lines needed to link between family branches.

With Layers I might decide to put the male line from my root family on one layer and the female line on another. I then proceed to lay each layer out as if it were a chart in its own right, without needing to worry about the other layer. Each layer has only half the number of people on it and is only half the width. If that is still too complicated I could put each of the grandparents families on a layer and so on.

In the present implementation if one layer is selected, all of the other layers are shown faintly. That means I still have to worry about all other layers when working with one, otherwise I'll see a jumble.

Perhaps a simple fix is to provide the option not to display all layers when only one is selected.

Dave

Nick Hunter
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Post by Nick Hunter » Fri Apr 24, 2009 5:08 pm

Hi Dave,

Thanks for the feedback - much appreciated.

You can make the unselected layers invisible if you want - just make "Options | Preferences | Appearance | Background layer contrast" = 1.

davep
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Post by davep » Sat Apr 25, 2009 12:19 pm

You can make the unselected layers invisible if you want - just make "Options | Preferences | Appearance | Background layer contrast" = 1.
Indeed so, thanks!

Would it be possible for a family to be shown on more than one layer? On your sample tree, for example, I would have expected the "Hunter = Sharp" family to appear on both the "Hunter" and "Sharp" layers.

Dave

Nick Hunter
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Post by Nick Hunter » Sun Apr 26, 2009 7:29 am

Hi Dave,

I'm afraid not - it's one layer per family. People can appear on more than one layer, because they can appear in more than one family.

laschapas
Posts: 74
Joined: Tue Jan 24, 2006 9:48 am
Location: Derbyshire, UK

Post by laschapas » Thu Apr 30, 2009 2:11 pm

Hi Nick,

Just back from holiday and have started playing with Version 3. Here are my initial thoughts.

1. I like the layers feature but am still working out how best to use it. So far I have simply selected all ancestors on one specific layer. I will be interested how other users use the layers option. If each family has to be on only one layer is it possible to display multiple layers?

2. I Particularly like the option to "Display marriage year in family rectangles" as I try to keep all marriages in the same decade on the same level.

3. When searching for all people born in a particular place I enter the place in the Person search "Birth place" field. The results are displayed as two columns, "Description" & "Birth Place". If I wish to also display the "Birth date" column without searching for a specific date period I enter an all embracing date eg, 0001.3000. This feature is not covered by the help file. What is the wild card that will display a text fields?

4. I notice that on the "Edit Person" view the "Occupation" & "Cause of death" fields have small source icon at the right hand side to supplement the group source icon. Is this just to show which fields have a source, or is there more to it than that? Would it be possible to show the number of sources with this icon?

5. I use the privacy level for notes extensively and try to keep the notes in privacy level order. It would be nice to be able to sort the notes by clicking the column header in the "Organize notes" box.

6. I am pleased to note that the "Select Family" & "Select Person" boxes retain their size and column spacing between sessions". The edit notes box does not remember its size however, can this be changed?

7. The report control box looks the same as V2 plus a PDF option. Is that the only change? I use Foxit Reader 3 instead of the Adobe reader. A quick test shows it works OK. but I have not yet tried all the PDF options.

That's all so far,

John Wood

Nick Hunter
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Post by Nick Hunter » Thu Apr 30, 2009 2:30 pm

Hi John,

Thanks for the feedback.

It was not intended that the Simple Searches would display fields that you had not entered search criteria for. I suggest using the SQL search for that.

The source icons in the user-defined fields list are merely there to indicate that a source exists (or not) for each field without having to click on them.

I agree that the Notes Editor window should maintain its size between sessions. We will fix that.

Apart from the addition of PDF, the only other change to the reports is that the Tree Layout will try to select a font size which will fit into the family rectangles automatically.

laschapas
Posts: 74
Joined: Tue Jan 24, 2006 9:48 am
Location: Derbyshire, UK

Post by laschapas » Thu Apr 30, 2009 5:28 pm

Hi Nick,

I have been playing again, here are more thoughts of the day:-

8. I like the fact that you can see the effect of the "Background layer contrast" adjustment dynamically. The choice of colours is also critical.

9. Why does the help page not retain its size & position between sessions, is this a windows feature?

10. There does not appear to be a facility to save previous queries, I used this facility all the time. I even copy & paste queries to a text file to save them permanently. From V2 help:-

Kith and Kin Pro stores the last 20 queries which were applied. You can scroll through these old query statements by clicking on the Previous query and the Next query buttons.

11. I have just realized that the "Select family to edit" window only shows the families on the active layer, this is an extra feature of layers that makes the correct use of layers more important. Also the "Select families" option has Descendants, Ancestors, & Direct Line, or Select all. Select all only selects the families in the active layer, another advantage to the correct use of layers.

12. Warning messages now have a sound icon in the corner that can be pushed in. In either position there is no sound output. There is no information on the use of this feature in the help file.

13. WEB pages look prettier even if the data is the same, but the start page has always looked incomplete. A photo or even the Kith&Kin logo would make it look more complete, particularly as the background feature has now disappeared. I don't add it to an existing web site but use it as a report that can be sent on a CD so the impact of the start page is important.

The comments just keep coming,

John Wood

Nick Hunter
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Post by Nick Hunter » Thu Apr 30, 2009 6:32 pm

Hi John,

Yes, I'm afraid that HTMLHelp is a Windows program and it does not store its previous position.

The SQL queries are still saved as before and there is an additional feature to store the current query as a text file.

That's right, all the functions in K&KPro which affect Tree Area selection only apply to the current layer.

Some of the message types have no sound (Information for example) but if you don't get a sound on a "warning" message then there may be something wrong with your Windows setup - see "Control Panel | Sounds".

We find that most people build on the "Genealogy Start Page" to match their own needs. In V3 it is possible to add a global header and footer which can include your own HTML code.

laschapas
Posts: 74
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Location: Derbyshire, UK

Post by laschapas » Sat May 02, 2009 11:26 am

Hi Nick,

More research has added to note 12 and introduced a new problem.

12 Warning Messages - trying to open the Options -> Preferences window with an Edit Family window open results in a "Confirm" warning with the following message :-

You must close all the open forms before you can do this.

Do you want to close them now?

I have checked that my Control Panel | Sounds setting is set to Windows default and on "Master Volume" there are no "Mute" options checked but I still get no audio out. The little icon displays "Sounds" if hovered over. Should the icon be in or out?

14 The size of a picture that can be added appears to be limited to 5774 pixels wide by 4121 pixels high. If the image is wider or higher when double clicked to display the picture you get a small blue line in the centre of the screen. This is sometimes wide enough to be the top corner of the display window with the [X] to close the window visible. It is possible to close the window by clicking on the blue strip but the fault then applies to all pictures, even ones that had previously displayed correctly. Restarting version 3 clears the problem. I cannot get it to fail consistently at this size limit but a picture 6000 pixels wide always fails.

15 Another observation on the pictures display is that if you do not enter the width and hight, these values are calculated from the input picture size at 600dpi. This information is not in the help file.

I hope you can reproduce the picture size problem.

John Wood

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