Thursday, July 18, 2013

New RootsMagic 6 Feature - Problem Alerts

The RootsMagic Blog announced a new feature yesterday - Problem Alerts.  You can see examples and watch a short video about Problem Alerts on the blog post.  To use this feature, the user has to have the latest RootsMagic 6 version, 6.3.0.0 (and later).

I decided to see what I might find in my RootsMagic 6 database.  Sure enough, I looked on my "Pedigree View" (it works also on the "Family View" and "Descendants View") and found several instances of problems.  Here's a "Pedigree View" for one of my ancestors:


A Problem Alert icon (a red triangle with an exclamation mark in it) shows for Jonathan White (1806-1850, the father of Henry Arnold White) on the line with the person's name, next to the FamilySearch icon.  I clicked on the Problem Alert icon and saw:


The "Problem List" window opened, and told me that the problem was "Census after Death."

On the "Family View" for Jonathan White, the Problem Alert icon appears on the person's name line, next to the FamilySearch icon:


I double-clicked on Jonathan White's name, and the "Edit Person" screen opened:


Yep, I have an 1850 U.S. Census record there for Jonathan after his death on 29 April 1850.  That's because I put all of the family census records in Jonathan's Notes.  I should have put the 1850 Census Event in the Profile for his wife, Miranda (Wade) White, and his tow sons.

The fix is to add the 1850 Census Event to his wife and sons, and delete it from Jonathan White (1806-1850).  I did that!


The list of Problem Alerts, and choosing which ones to find, can be found in the Tools > File Options menu in RootsMagic.


The Problem list used includes:

*  Individuals without sex entered
*  Proper order of events
*  Birth before parents marriage
*  Birth before parent's birth
*  Birth after father's death
*  Birth after mother's death
*  Age at death should be less than 100 (default)
*  Age at marriage should be between 14 (default) and 70 (default)
*  Father's age should be between 14 (default) and 70 (default)
*  Mother's age should be between 14 (default) and 50 (default).

The user can change the default items.

That's strange, there is no "Event After Death" feature listed - that was my problem for Jonathan White.  The Probate Event and the Burial Event did not show up on the "Problem Alert" list either, and they are after the death date.  Perhaps the "Proper order of events" error covers the Census Event, and there is an exception for the Probate Event and the Burial Event.

This is a very useful feature, I think.  The Problem Alert icon is visible on the Views most often used by users, and the user can easily determine the problem.  The user can choose "Not a Problem" or "Add to To-Do list" on the Problem Alert screen if they wish.

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2013/07/new-rootsmagic-6-feature-problem-alerts.html

Copyright (c) 2013, Randall J. Seaver

1 comment:

George said...

Its great to see Rootsmagic really follow up on Tamura Jones innovation.
Legacy just blogged they're going to do it too!