FHS - Features of the Sept 97 Update

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The following items list some of the features of the new FHS Update:

• A new event record has been added to the family file which allows recording baptismal and burial information;
• (August 98) A new "Long Place Name" record has been added to provide support for place names up to 41 characters long
• The relationship calculator has been enhanced and moved to the file update program where it is more useful;
• You can now page forward and backward in the file update program when displaying search results, children, marriages, comments, etc.
• You can change the ordering of children under a parent when some birth dates are unknown.
• The search routine in the file update program has been enhanced to permit searching on birth/death place names and on the "status fields" for birth/death dates and father/mother ID's (e.g. you can search for adoptive relationships); Simple lists can be printed from the file update program showing the results of searches; Search Results can be saved into a SELECT.WRK file and SELECT.WRK file contents can be Loaded by the Search routine;
• Reports, when printed to the screen, are formatted with 24 lines/page and are paused at the end of each page (eliminating the rapid scrolling that occurs with today's fast PC's);
• In reports, Spouses/marriages can optionally be listed in "Most recent to Least recent" order, as before, or in "chronological sequence" by marriage date;
• The ancestor/descendant/relative summary reports have been moved to the ancestor/descendant/relative report program;
• There is a new Family Group report option...it is similar to the free format merged group report but has features of the "Register" style of report, popular for family booklets;
• The descendant box chart program is now called the "Vertical Box Chart" program and can print charts of that style for either descendants or ancestors; printing of the box boundaries is now optional;
• The standard Ancestor Chart can now be printed in either 4 generation or 5 generation styles;
• The Search/Select/LIST program can now print lists in free format and TimeLine styles in addition to the previous column style; this program can also print Ancestor/Descendant/Relative summary reports for selected records;
• The GEDCOM Export/Import program has been enhanced to allow exporting all types of information from an FHS family file using rules that conform to PAF 2.1 and LDS 5.5 GEDCOM specifications (NOTE: many items of information in an FHS family file (such as the Education, Military and Medical records) require data tags that are not part of the standard GEDCOM dictionary and so are not likely to be importable by other programs)
• The programs now use a Family Definition File for describing Family File Setups. You can switch between family file setups by selecting from a list, making it easier to maintain multiple family files. You can also place the family files in directories apart from the programs;
• Printer Setups provide for longer printer control sequences and more flexible means for entering them. Each printer setup provides a complete set of chart drawing symbols.
• The programs now allow user customization of screen displays and messages
• Headers and Footers for reports are taken from a user modifiable Report Definition File providing you much more control over the appearance of reports.

Enhancements to the Extended Options provided to registered users include:

• The use of a user customizable SORTSEQ table for defining the sort order of text characters yields much better results when sorting text that involves international characters
• A printed report index can now include entries from multiple reports/charts; the program can also print a Table of Contents for the reports which it indexes;
• Index files can be created with birth or death place as the primary sort field, allowing you to print detail lists sorted by place name; You can also sort by soundex;
• The surname summary report is now called an "Indexed summary report" and can summarize information for the primary sort field of any index file...for instance you can print summary reports by birth place;
• A validation routine has been added to help locate duplicate records in a family file;