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Archiver > TMG > 2002-11 > 1036281682


From: Terry Reigel <>
Subject: Re: [TMG] Descendant Reports with filters and sorting for progenitorsv 4
Date: Sat, 02 Nov 2002 19:01:33 -0500
References: <002e01c2809a$3445be20$3e57d03f@oemcomputer> <007201c28199$c0a4cb40$1691c540@oemcomputer> <003301c282c4$38138740$3a55d03f@oemcomputer>


James P. Colgate wrote:

>Thanks everyone for all the advice. I've just spent 8 hours playing with the different journal narrative reports, changing the options, focuses, etc. I now can finally envision (in my own mind only so far) the type of journal narrative report I think I want, but it's not an ancestor report (which is what I though I wanted) but a descendant report, one that follows the different descendant lines down to my father (but not all the collateral descendants). But I can't seem to make it happen the way I want. I feel my problem is probably not assigning the proper filter and not choosing the right sort order for the multiple progenitors. I'd be grateful if you or someone else can tell me if it's possible in v.4 (or perhaps if it will be possible in 5).
>

I think you can get what you have in mind. You do that with a
descendants report with multiple focus persons. When a later line works
down to the point of connection with a line previously reported that
line will automatically stop, with a cross reference to where it has
already been continued.

You need to control two or three aspects to get it to do what you have
in mind. First, you need to address the focus persons, or starting
points, for each of the lines. You do this with the filter on the Focus
tab. In theory, you can use a filter like Father ID# = 0 and Mother
ID# = 0, which will find all the "end of line" ancestors, or people
with no father or mother in your dataset. But in practice, I find that
doesn't work very well. First, you may have some parents of spouses of
siblings and the like, which you probably don't want. You could exclude
them by adding something like AND is and Ancestor of ID# ___ where you
enter your ID or whoever is the end of the line for your reports. But
there are other problems as well, like you have an end of line couple
where you know nothing but their names -- you don't need them both
starting a line. So the most successful solution is probably to create a
custom flag for your starting points. Then use the filter StartFlag =
Y for the report. You could initially set the flag with the filter
above, and then manually turn if off for those you find don't want.

Next you have to set the report to print the lines in the order you
want. You do this with the Sort tab. It has a number of options for
sorting the lines. But I usually find that none of them work very well
for me. So I use the Reference Field option, since I don't use the
Reference field for anything else. This lets me enter a number in that
field for each of the end of line ancestors in my report and I can get
them to sort exactly as I like. A couple of tips here -- first, the
reference field is an alphanumeric field, not a numeric one, so it sorts
in strict alpha order. That means that you may get, for example, 1, 11,
12, 2, 21, 22, 3, 4, 5 etc. The solution is to start with 2 or 3 digit
numbers, or you could just use alpha characters. Also, when you enter
them use only every other number, or every 5 -- I always miss some and
this way you don't have to renumber all the rest to insert a number.

Finally, you may need to control how many generations print for the
descendants of siblings if your dataset contains more generations on
some lines than you want to include. There is no simple control for
this. The report will want to print all lines to the same number of
generations. Your choices are 1) manually remove the unwanted ones in
you word processor, 2) temporarily make the parent child links
non-primary at the point you want to stop the line, or 3) make a
temporary dataset that excludes those that you don't want to include in
the report. The last is the best if there are many to exclude, or if you
want to be able to run the report again in the future with minimum
effort. The best way to do this is probably to create a second custom
Flag, and use that to export a temporary dataset to be used to make the
report. You can save the flag, and use it again in the future if you
want to run the report again with updated data.

If you need help with details for doing any of this, just ask.

Terry Reigel


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