One other comment I meant to make in my previous message. FTM 2012 has a new capability that was not present in FTM 2006. Each Fact can now have its own Note. This is where I enter any long commentary or information pertaining to the Fact. BJ On 10/22/2011 11:19 PM, BJ wrote: > I see you have received some excellent suggestions on the types of > information many of us place in the Description field. Perhaps a little > bit of background will further assist you in understanding the field. > > In versions prior to FTM 2008, a fact had two fields allowing the user > to enter information. The date field and the Comment/Location field. > The Comment/Location field actually served two purposes. The primary > purpose was to record "where" the event or fact occurred. This was the > "Location" section of the field. You could also enter any additional > information you wanted to record as a "comment". Both types of > information could be entered into the same field. To distinguish > between the different types of information, you could separate them > using a slash, "/". Anything before the slash was considered a comment > anything after the slash was considered a location or place. Most of us > being rather lazy, only entered a slash if we were entering both a > comment and a location together. If no slash is found, the program > considers everything as a location. Many people found this to be very > confusing and kept demanding the two types of information each have a > separate field. So when the program was rewritten in FTM 2008, the two > fields were separated into Place and Description. > > This separation and the miss use of the slash has caused a number of > people, me included, to experience some rather unusual "unresolved" > place names. FTM 2012 has some tools to assist you in correcting these > errors by exchanging the information into the proper field. You have to > examine the information and determine which field it should be in. > > There is another new feature or concept which may cause you some initial > confusion. All facts can have a Date, Place and Description; however, > certain facts are commonly thought to have only one type of information > - the Description. For example, Occupation, Degree, Education, Caste, > etc. As a result, FTM 2012 has defaulted to only showing the > Description field. If you are like me, you may want to qualify some of > these facts by including the Date and Place. To display these > additional fields, you will need to change the Fact Label Properties. > There are several ways of doing this. > > 1. The more general way is to Click Edit, then select Manage Facts. > Select a fact label and then Click Properties. You will see the options > you have for each fact. Select the option you want. > 2. You can also do this in the People, Person work area. Select a > Fact Label and Click the right mouse button. Select Properties and > again make your choice. > > I hope this helps with your understanding of the new program. While it > does take some time to learn where to do what, I find it very flexible > as there are generally 2 - 4 ways of doing the same thing. It just > takes a little getting used to the flexibility of the program and > cleaning up you data. Take you time. Figure out what you want to do. > If you can't find the technique, feel free to ask and someone will > probably be able to guide you. > > BJ > > On 10/22/2011 8:41 AM, Desmond McDowell wrote: >> My question: the "Description" field below the place name field, what is >> this for.? > ********************************** > List information page > http://lists.rootsweb.com/index/other/Software/FTM-TECH.html > > Online Support for Family Tree Maker > Version 16 and earlier > http://pastftm.custhelp.com/ > > Version 2008 - 2011 > http://ftm.custhelp.com/ > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to FTM-TECH-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message > > > ----- > No virus found in this message. > Checked by AVG - www.avg.com > Version: 2012.0.1831 / Virus Database: 2092/4568 - Release Date: 10/22/11 > >