I have been experimenting with using the "Share" feature, trying to learn how to properly use it and add individuals to a given fact, such as adding children to a "Residence (family)" fact. I have not met with much success though, or else I am simply misunderstanding the purpose and use of this feature, because when I try to use it to add a child for example, it defaults that child as a "witness" with no option to change it that I can find. What is a "witness," and can anyone explain to this long-time FO & RM user what this feature is used for, if not what I thought? I've gone back to each individual entry as I have always done, but I would like to enter for example a "Residence (family)" entry as just that, a FAMILY including the children (and likewise "Census (family)," if there is a way of doing it. Maybe I am trying to do something the software isn't designed to do though, and am misunderstanding the function of this feature. David E. Cann decann@infionline.net or "david.e.cann" on Skype

Witness is only the default role for the sharee with most of the facts. There is a dropdown arrow at the end of the Role field which allows you to add a new role or choose an established one each time a person is added to share the event. For the Residence, I would probably add something like: Son, Daughter, Mother in-law, Housekeeper etc. When you add these new roles, you can add a sentence template or do it later by editing the fact in the Fact Type List. Alfred =========== David E. Cann wrote: > I have been experimenting with using the "Share" feature, trying to learn > how to properly use it and add individuals to a given fact, such as adding > children to a "Residence (family)" fact. I have not met with much success > though, or else I am simply misunderstanding the purpose and use of this > feature, because when I try to use it to add a child for example, it > defaults that child as a "witness" with no option to change it that I can > find. What is a "witness," and can anyone explain to this long-time FO & RM > user what this feature is used for, if not what I thought? > > I've gone back to each individual entry as I have always done, but I would > like to enter for example a "Residence (family)" entry as just that, a > FAMILY including the children (and likewise "Census (family)," if there is a > way of doing it. Maybe I am trying to do something the software isn't > designed to do though, and am misunderstanding the function of this feature. > > > David E. Cann > decann@infionline.net > or "david.e.cann" on Skype > >

On 25/10/12 19:18, David E. Cann wrote: > I have been experimenting with using the "Share" feature, trying to learn > how to properly use it and add individuals to a given fact, such as adding > children to a "Residence (family)" fact. I have not met with much success > though, or else I am simply misunderstanding the purpose and use of this > feature, because when I try to use it to add a child for example, it > defaults that child as a "witness" with no option to change it that I can > find. What is a "witness," and can anyone explain to this long-time FO & RM > user what this feature is used for, if not what I thought? > You can invent your own roles as well as the standard one supplied, which is the 'witness' role. For example, the first thing I used it for was on the death fact; I invented a 'informant' role'. So the person who was the informant on the death certificate gets this role, and if the death cert has a witness on it, that person gets assigned the standard witness role in the shared fact. Usually these informants are family members, and it may be important later to establish that these informants are still around. Similarly, for the marriage fact, I use the standard witness role for witnesses to the marriage For the christening fact, I invented a 'godparent' role, and I now add god parents to the shared fact. So often mysterious godparents turn out to be uncles or aunts that you didn't know about. > I've gone back to each individual entry as I have always done, but I would > like to enter for example a "Residence (family)" entry as just that, a > FAMILY including the children (and likewise "Census (family)," if there is a > way of doing it. Maybe I am trying to do something the software isn't > designed to do though, and am misunderstanding the function of this feature. The software *is* designed to do just that. Create a new role for the census fact(s) of 'son' or 'daughter' or maybe just 'child', or 'familymember'. You could have 'mother', 'mother in law' etc etc, your imagination and needs are the only limit. It takes a while to set up, especially the sentence structure, but works well once you've put in the effort. Once set up, when you go to the witnesses/godparents/etc, and see the shared facts there in their timeline. -- Regards Dave