Monday 13th February

Latest on Version 5

Version 5 of Family Historian had been due for release in February, but is now expected to be released in March.

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Family Historian Courses in Somerset, Yorkshire and London, U.K.

Courses in Somerset (Jane Taubman)

• Saturday 31 March, Introduction to Family Historian
  
• Sunday 1st April, Family Historian Intermediate and Advanced
  

Introduction to Family Historian is a full day course covering the basics of Family Historian. Topics covered include use of the common source records such as Birth Certificates and Census information, as well as media handling. For more details, see Introduction to Family Historian.

Family Historian Intermediate and Advanced is a full-day course on Family Historian, for intermediate and advanced users. For more details, see Family Historian Intermediate and Advanced.

Both courses are being run by Jane Taubman, who as well as running the Family Historian User Group website (www.fhug.org.uk) is also moderator on the Family Historian Users Mailing List, and one of the foremost experts on Family Historian.

The courses cost £55.00 each, which includes lunch and refreshments through the day. They are held at a beautiful Elizabethan Manor in the heart of the Somerset countryside.

Courses in Yorkshire (My History)

My History have four "Family Historian for Beginners" half day courses scheduled on the following dates:

• Tuesday 14th February
• Thursday 17th May
• Tuesday 31st July
• Tuesday 30th October

The courses cost £25 each and are presented by Jacqui Depelle.

Additionally My History also have a full day advanced and intermediate course with Jane Taubman on the 12th May for £49.95.

My History courses are held at 4 Mexborough Business Centre, College Road, Mexborough, South Yorkshire, S64 9JP, U.K. For more details, see http://www.my-history.co.uk/acatalog/Family_Historian_Courses.html.

Courses in London (Society of Genealogists)

The Society of Genealogists have several half day courses:

• Saturday 3 March, Family Historian Software for Beginners
• Saturday 26 May, Family Historian Software for Advanced Users
• Saturday 25 August, Family Historian Software Practical
• Wednesday 12 September, Family Historian Software for Beginners

All of these courses are presented by John Hanson. They are held at the Society of Genealogists, 14 Charterhouse Buildings, Goswell Rd, London, EC1M 7BA, U.K. They can be booked by telephone (020 7553 3290) or through the SoG website (http://www.sog.org.uk). Courses cost £17.50 (£14.00 for SoG members). For more details, see http://www.sog.org.uk/events/calendar.shtml

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A Quick Peek at V5

Usually in this section we provide a couple of tips. But this time we thought you might like a very small foretaste of things coming up in version 5, just to whet your appetite. So here are a couple of peeks at new features in the forthcoming release.

Fan Charts

They come in half, quarter or full sizes. And since this is Family Historian, you can of course double-click on any box to view and update that person's details in the Property Box. You have a choice of pre-defined content options, but you can configure fan charts for whatever contents or colours you like. You can add trees to fan chart diagrams and vice versa. If you want, you can even pull them to pieces and design your own complex custom fan charts.

Validation on Data Entry

We've worked hard to improve data entry and data validation. In previous versions, dates were only validated if you pressed the Tab key. Now they are fully validated when the cursor leaves the field - whether you tab away or click away. If Family Historian doesn't recognise a date, you will always get a chance to put it right. As Family Historian now accepts dates in a much wider range of formats, it's much less likely to fail to recognise a date anyway. And if the date is valid but looks inconsistent with other data, a balloon tip will warn you (see example above). To get rid of a balloon tip, click on it anywhere or press the Escape key, or just tab or click back to the field it points to.

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