Mike, Very well put ! I'm an ex-programmer, and I still haven't got to the bottom of FH. There's nothing to beat it, however. John L ----- Original Message ----- From: "Beryl & Mike Tate" <post@tatewise.co.uk> To: <family-historian-users@rootsweb.com> Sent: Friday, March 02, 2012 8:49 PM Subject: Re: [FHU] Using Family Historian for one place studies Hello Andrew, <<snippet>> Can I really digitise all this information in FH, not per person, but in its entirety? <<snippet>> Yes, I would be extremely surprised if you cannot digitise all the information. Transcripts are only text, and computers as I am sure you know, can hold a lot of text in relatively little space compared to images, audio, and video. There are many FH users with many thousands of Individual Records and Source Records and Multimedia Records. My own small FH data has over 500 Individuals, 650 Sources, and 1,000 Multimedia. <<snippet>> ...nothing in my business life offers the computing challenges of FH. I look at the structure of some of those queries and think what is that all about? <<snippet>> I accept that a weakness of FH is its user interface, and Query language, but it is improving. However, it must be recognised that the genealogy software market is tiny compared to most of the other software you mention. So Calico Pie (Simon Orde) can only devote the effort to FH development that the market can stand. Also, for various reasons, FH is tied closely to the GEDCOM structure, which influences much of the structure of FH. I have found that understanding GEDCOM helps with understanding FH. <<snippet>> ...there are times when I read responses and think a degree in computer science would be a great help unravelling that one! I sense I am not alone? <<snippet>> FH is its own worst enemy here. By offering such a highly customisable product it inevitably involves much technical detail. If you are prepared to tolerate what FH offers out of the box, which is a lot, then much of that technical detail is irrelevant. It's a bit like Windows and Microsoft Office that both have unplumbed depths, that most of us steer clear of, until we need to break through a particular brick-wall. Regards, Mike Tate