Need help with PAF 5 and Advanced searches
Joe
PAF 5.2.18.0. Does anyone know of a tutoral that can lead me by hand through
the filter rules? I just can't seem to get it right and our local LDS library doesn't
seem to know.,,or I haven't found the right person yet.
Thank you for assistance on this problem,
Joe
Susan Young
If you can tell me what it is you require in an advanced, I can probably
help you.
Sincerely,
Susan D. Young, St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada
County Administrator, Kent OPC www.kent-opc.org
gnea...@vaxxine.com www.ancestrysolutions.com
Joe
In one word: everything! ;-)
For instance under Relationship I've opted for Individual looking for a maiden
name AND; but what do I do from there to find the married person, e.g.,
Barbara JONES? It just makes no sense to me.
If there's a tutorial maybe I could learn more than taking up your time and
that of the NG.
Thanks for the offer,
Joe
singhals
Let's start with --
you're using PAF5 Y/N If NO say which
you have never used PAF 4, or 3 or 2 Y/N If YES say which
You have never used any OTHER genealogy program Y/N If YES
say which.
That will tell us where you are.
As for the specific problem you mention -- in order for
FILTER to find her married name, you have to fill in the
field for Married Name. If you've done that, this is a
piece of cake. And usually works. ;)
Cheryl
singhals
Joe
I've only used Brother's Keeper and Ancestry.com's bloated software for
about one day each.
I'm in Coeur d'Alene, ID. And yes, I've asked at our local FHL without any
success.
Can you give me a keystroke example to find all the "Katherine" first names in
PAF 5? There's a *slight* chance I can take it from there. :-D
Joe
Susan Young
To begin with, there are very few rules involved in creating an advanced
filter search:
A. Learn that the "Matches" function in the "Field Filtering" requires a
perfect match to criteria that you specify right down to whether a name was
originally input by you, or another, with proper capitalization or not. In
other words, 'smith' is not found in the place of 'Smith' (note the
capitalization in the second 'Smith' surname but not in the first). Always
remember, the program treats "Matches" in absolute literal fashion.
B. Once in the "Search" menu, "Advanced Focus/Filter" option: Under
Relationship Filter, from the dropdown list in the filter pick yourself and
then choose "All Related" or whatever other option that best describes your
relationship to the person about whom you are creating the filtered search .
Click on "Select" button. I usually select "All Ancestral Related".
C. In order to employ, to the fullest capacity, any of the "Field
Filtering" options that you will encounter during your filter-defining
stage, you will have had to have fully used the Notes and Notes Tags and
Create user-defined events for every individual in your PAF file. This is
typically not the case for most people. For instance, if you want to search
on a woman's married surname, then you would have had to have defined her
husband's surname in one of the three ways mentioned above. Not to worry,
though, there is always an opportunity to develop creative solutions to
problematic advanced filter searches.
D. You may not be able, given the limitations mentioned above, to define an
absolutely perfect advanced filter search for each set of criteria you are
trying to meet. Perhaps creating a Custom List from the Print Reports menu
would better meet the needs of your search. You can always print to an rtf
file rather than output via a printer.
E. Each search option needs to be delineated by AND, OR or enclosed in
round brackets as if constructing a step-through search similar to the
construction of a mathematical formula. You will see this in action, below.
F. Each "Possible Fields" option from the "Field Filtering" window will
open a new smaller window from which you can select and specify more concise
search parameters.
G. Begin the construction of your advanced filter search from the broadest
point available to you and keep adding more search filters in progressively
smaller data modules, i.e. name, place, date rather than beginning a search
with a date if you are looking for a person.
H. If you select a Place field filter and you choose "Full place" from
amongst the available options, if you intend to only include one of the
place's names you must select "Contains" from the dropdown list. Do to
otherwise will cause your advanced search to fail.
I. Once you have constructed a search formula you can save it, modify it or
move the elements of it around into different orders.
J. When you are done your search, remember to "Clear" your defined filter
and "Deselect" those selected in the Relationship filter.
And, that is pretty much it for the rules. Now for the creation of a
rudimentary advanced filter search.
In order to accomplish an advanced search for any specific person or event
proceed as follows:
1. As noted in the rules above, under Relationship Filter, first pick
yourself and then choose "All Related" from the dropdown list in the
filter. Click on "Select" button.
2. Let's say you are trying to find the maiden surname of a female named
Barbara who married a man surnamed 'Smith'. Remembering the rules, above,
you will need to define the search based on criteria other than the man's
surname. Proceed as follows:
- leave the "Combine filters using" field as "And"
- in "Field Filter" click on the "Define" button
- in the "Field Filtering" window, in the left-hand pane you will see that
the option "Name" should be default and highlighted. Click on the
button to the right of that pane that displays the 'greater than' sign
(first of the group of three buttons).
- you will now have a new window open titled 'Name Field Filter'. Click on
the radio button for "Given names only". In the drop down list at the top
right-hand side of that window choose either "Contains" or "Matches" option.
- type in the text you are trying to locate, in our example "Barbara".
Click
"Okay".
- the pop-up will disappear and you will have in front of your screen the
'Field Filtering' window. Click on the "And" button (middle of the top
group of three buttons).
- in the same window but back under the "Possible Fields" on the left-hand
side of the window, scroll down
to and click on the "Marriage Status" option to choose it. Again, click on
the 'greater than' sign button to add that option to the "Current Filter"
portion in the right-hand pane of the "Field Filtering" window. As soon as
you do that, another new small window will open titled "Marriage Status
Field Filter". Again, select "Matches" from the top dropdown list and
"Married" from the bottom dropdown list. Click "Ok".
At this point, if you have very few Barbara's in your tree who married, you
can probably proceed to click on the "Ok" button at the bottom of the "Field
Filtering" window. As soon as you do that, you will be returned to the
"Find Individual" window. Notice at the bottom right-hand side of that
window under the advanced filtering area there is a section titled "Filtered
List". At the bottom of that list there should be a total number of
individuals found that meet your criteria. Click in the "Show results only"
box and immediately those that meet your criteria will be displayed in the
name list at the top left-hand side of the page.
>From this point, providing there are not too many results returned you will
have to highlight each individual checking the details in the right-hand
side of that window until you find a match for the woman and husband for
whom you are looking. Once you find the correct individual, simply
double-clicking on her name in the left-hand display list will take you to
her entry page.
If, however, you are trying a similar search but with the name of Ann or
Elizabeth - a name where you will receive a lot of results - it is possible
to continue to add criteria to your search to narrow the field of possible
candidates.
Using the above search, but the number of results is too high add the
following additional criteria:
- again, click the "AND" button
- from the "Possible Fields" list scroll down to the option "Number of
Marriages" and add it to the filter list by clicking on it and on the
'greater than' button. "Number of Marriages Field Filter" window now pops
up. Pick the option that best describes the woman from the drop down list
and add the criteria for that option in the text bar below it. Click "Ok".
- again, click the "AND" button
- from the "Possible Fields" list locate the "Marriage Place" option and add
is to the filter list by clicking on it and on the 'greater than' button.
The "Marriage Place Field Filter" now pops open. Make a choice from the
available radio button options, pick your option from the dropdown list to
the right and type in the criteria in the text box below. I tend to keep my
criteria fairly simple matching only on one of the place names. Here is
also where you can sort people who married within a certain town, county,
state, province, et cetera.
Click the "Ok" button.
- add one more option from your "Field Filtering" "Possible Fields" - I
would include "Marriage Date". Again, you will be greeted with a new field
filter window where you can define the type of date you want searched.
"Range is usually a good option to select if you have an event that occurred
at some time with a narrow time span but of which date you are just not
certain.
- Click "Ok"
- You will now be returned to the "Field Filtering" window. Click "Ok" if
you have added all the search options that you think you will need.
Again, you will be returned to the "Find Individual" window and your matches
can be displayed as in the manner noted, above.
I hope this helps.
Joe
Thank you very much for your response, it will take me a while to go through
it, I hope you had this in your files and didn't spend all night creating it
just for me. From the length of it I assume it is a bit either complicated or
complex which is what I'd already concluded. But if I run into any snags I'll
get back for clarification.
Sincerely,
Joe
I give up. There must be something amiss with my installation. Under the Help
tab and the only thing that is responsive is the "Check for Software Updates"
which reports I have the latest version. But the several Help... options are
nulls.
I can follow through your example and find 22 matches as an exercise but in no
way can I view the results. If you have any ideas what's wrong I'd certainly
appreciate it.
Joe
Susan Young wrote:
> Hi Joe,
>
> To begin with, there are very few rules involved in creating an advanced
> filter search:
>
> A. Learn that the "Matches" function in the "Field Filtering" requires
> a perfect match to criteria that you specify right down to whether a
> name was originally input by you, or another, with proper capitalization
>
<snip>
>
>
>
>
singhals
FILTER routine, with a few more options.
SEARCH/Advanced/
immediately beneath the list of names is a selection box,
change the word in the white box to ALL and click "select"
beneath it. Wait until the tic marks appear, then click the
word DEFINE.
highlight the word NAME, and click the ">" immediately
beneath the word "OR".
In the box that opens, click "given names only" and then use
the "v" to change "matches" to "contains" and type Margaret
into the white box beneath. Click OK. Click OK.
To the right of the word DEFINE is a tic box with the words
Show Results Only. tic it.
Scroll down through the names left on the upper left until
you find the Margaret you're looking for.
Cheryl
Susan Young
I have to ask if you are "expecting" to see a fully formatted list of
results from the search.
If this is the case, then I can tell you that is not what is returned by the
program. You will only receive a fully formed list of results from the
program i.e. a list to print, if you create a custom list in the "Print
Reports" window.
Your search results appear only as the person's name, RIN and abbreviated
form of baptism and/or marriage date. All results will appear in the window
at the top of the "Find Individual" screen once you have checked the box
under "Filtered List" at the bottom right-hand portion of that same "Find
Individual" screen. I can send you a screen shot or several, if that would
help demonstrate the listings for you - please write to me direct for this.
You can see the other events connected with your 'results' persons by
looking at them in the display area to the right of the listing. Double
clicking on any of the 'results' will take you directly to their 'family
grouping'. If you simply need to edit an event for the 'result' person you
can click on the "Edit" button at the bottom of the "Find Individual" screen
which will take you to the "Edit Individual" entry screen.
Yes, this little dissertation of mine was derived from my notes and previous
tutorials I have put together for my students and the patrons at our FHC.
Eventually, if I ever get the time to do so, I will be posting PAF search
routines as tutorials to my website. One day....we live in hope!
Write direct if you need some screen shots.
Sincerely,
Susan D. Young, St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada
County Administrator, Kent OPC www.kent-opc.org
gnea...@vaxxine.com www.ancestrysolutions.com
----- Original Message -----
From: "Joe" <us...@example.net>
To: <gen...@rootsweb.com>
Sent: Saturday, June 28, 2008 2:53 PM
Subject: Re: Need help with PAF 5 and Advanced searches
Joe
> Hi Joe,
>
> results from the search.
NO! See my reply of the 29th. I'd like to see ANY list! I.E., I have 27
matches but can't find a list to view. I'd be happy with simply RINs and then
I can search through that listing. I am returned to the Find Individual but
it shows all ~38,000 names!
See you on the Web and/or in private.
Thank you for your help,
Joe
singhals
> NO! See my reply of the 29th. I'd like to see ANY list! I.E., I have 27
> matches but can't find a list to view. I'd be happy with simply RINs and
> then
> I can search through that listing. I am returned to the Find Individual
> but
> it shows all ~38,000 names!
put a check-mark in the little tiny nearly hidden box that
says SHOW RESULTS ONLY.
Joe
Hi Cheryl,
Ah Ha, no wonder I've been confused. After 20 minutes of paying around I
found you MUST click on *show results only* BEFORE clicking on Define! That's
about as illogical as drying off BEFORE you take a shower...but not afterwards!
But I still haven't been able to reliably bring up the results of the search
and see them in the left pane of the Find Individual listing. I did it once
but don't know what I did. Guess I'll play the game of *try this and then try
that* and add a lot of *hope* that I can then remember what I did to view the
final search results.
Thanks...
singhals
Hmmm -- you must be configged quite differently than I. I
can tic that box at any time and see the list of matching
individuals in the pane. Ought not be size, my db is about
the same size as yours.
Sorry --
Cheryl
Susan Young
I have actually thrown together a web page with screen shots which hopefully
will add the need part of the puzzle for you.
It is not necessary to check the "Filtered Results" box before finishing
your query and I think the screen shots will demonstrate that adequately for
you, as it is the last of the shots on the page.
I haven't yet built the link through to the home page so here's the direct
link:
http://www.ancestrysolutions.com/paftutorials/AdvancedFocusFilter.shtml
I hope this will shed some light on the elusive subject for you. If you
need further, just let me know. We're off for Canada Day holiday - taking
extra long until Friday.
Sincerely,
Susan D. Young, St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada
County Administrator, Kent OPC www.kent-opc.org
gnea...@vaxxine.com www.ancestrysolutions.com
----- Original Message -----
From: "Joe" <us...@example.net>
To: <gen...@rootsweb.com>
Sent: Sunday, June 29, 2008 2:12 PM
Subject: Re: Need help with PAF 5 and Advanced searches