PAF II -- Class 3:

REPORTS, CUSTOM REPORTS, WEB PAGES, AND TOOLS

©Copyright 2006 by Donald R. Snow

• Welcome and Summary of Previous Class
• Reports in PAF and PAF Companion
• Custom Reports
• Records Selection (Relationship Filter, Field Filter), Report Format
  
• Generating Web Pages
• Additional Tools in PAF
• Assignment

• Instructors are Donald R. and Diane M. Snow, 801-225-7123 in Provo, Utah and 435-673-1932 in St. George, Utah (snowd@math.byu.edu, dms34@juno.com)
• These notes with active Internet links are posted on the Utah Valley Technology and Genealogy Group website http://uvtagg.org under Class Outlines, Don's Listings.
• Difference between notes and sources -- Important to document your family history -- easiest to do it as you enter the data -- Any questions?

REPORTS IN PAF AND PAF COMPANION

• Many reports and forms are "built-in" in PAF 5.2 -- see Print Menu and tabs
  • Titles of the tabs are types of reports available -- clicking on tab shows picture at lower right of type of report
  • MAJOR HELP:  Put cursor on item and right click to see a description of  it -- true anywhere in PAF
  • Change fonts for reports and report titles by clicking on Fonts at right side of Print Menu -- this only changes font for that report, not for all reports
  • To change fonts for all reports go to Tools/Preferences/Fonts
  • Blank forms -- PAF will print some blank forms, e.g. pedigree charts, family group sheets
  • Many blank forms are in pdf format (portable data file) on the PAF 5.2 CD from the LDS Distribution Centers
• Lists -- many different kinds, different options
• Calendars -- can print a blank calendar for any month from 100 - 2100 AD
• Can include birthdays and/or anniversaries to get a calendar for any group selected, e.g. your descendants
• Narrative books – can generate a written book from your PAF database
  • Ancestors (ahnentafel) charts -- a form of "compressed" pedigree charts -- father's number is twice that of child, mother's is twice that of child plus one
  • Descendants charts -- Modified Register format is based on the New England Historic Genealogical Society Register format
  • Edit Event wording for narrative reports by Edit/Individual Event List, highlight an Event, and click Edit -- can change wording for each way it is used
    
  • PAF 5.2 has two narrative book styles in Print/Books menu
  • PAF Companion (current version is 5.2) has additional reports, views, and searches not in PAF
  • Can download Evaluation Copy from http://www.familysearch.org
  • Buy full version at LDS Church Distribution Centers (1-(800)-537-5971) or on http://www.familysearch.org for $8.25 now
  • Has many additional charts and can customize others
  • Can print charts in pdf (portable document file) format -- very helpful since these can be shown on screen, printed, emailed, etc.
    
  • Examples -- fan charts, bow-tie charts, hourglass reports, kinship reports, Pedigree Resource File reports

• Two parts to make a custom report:  (1) Select individuals to include, and (2) Set up the report format of data to include from the selected records
  
• Be sure your database is uniform and accurate or you won't get all the records you think you are getting
• Part (1) -- RECORDS SELECTION
• Get to Filter Selection screen in several ways, e.g. click on Print/Custom/Select or Search/Advanced
• Can right click on any word or item to get a description of what it does
• Two types of filters for selecting records -- (a)  Relationship Filter, and (b)  Field (data) Filter
• (a)  RELATIONSHIP FILTER -- lower left side of screen
  • Options to select All, All Ancestral Related, Individual, All Descendants, etc.
  • See good explanation of these on the interactive graphic in PAF 5, Lessons 7, Screen 3
  • To get x generations of direct line ancestors and y generations down from each, use Ancestors (not All Ancestral Related), since then you can set how many generations you want to go back (ggg...grandparents) and how many generations you want to go down (cousins) from each of those direct line ancestors
  • Click on Select -- this now selects out the relationship group of people
    
• (b)  FIELD FILTER -- lower right side of screen -- further filter from those selected by relationship
  • Can now set up field filter, e.g. all people born out of USA and dying in USA (would give most of the immigrants in your database); or records containing the event "Census"; or all born in England between 1700 and 1800, but not born in London; or all qualified for baptism, endowment, or sealing to parents
• Can save the filter to use again on that machine (It doesn't transfer nor restore with the database.) -- does not save the resulting list, only the filter itself so when you retrieve and run the filter later it will select from the records that are in the database at that time
• Click OK to form the selection -- you see the mark (French quotation mark)  »  by each name selected
• Toggle "Show Results Only" to show list of only those selected or everyone in database with marks by those selected
• Filtered list stays in the computer, until you rebuilt it or exit from the program, so you can use it later in another custom report or in a GEDCOM
• Part (2) -- CUSTOM REPORT FORMAT
• On Custom Reports screen (Print/Custom) give the report a title, e.g. Immigrants, or BEP Ordinances Needed, and this will print on report
• Select the fields you want in the report and the order you want them in
• Click on Sort Order and select the field you want the records sorted by, e.g. alphabetical by name, chronological, or by RIN
  
• Click on Page Setup to set margins and/or print the report sideways (landscape vs portrait)
• Click Preview to see if it has everything the way you want it
• Click Print to print it to hard copy, or click Save to File /Print to save it as a text file (.rtf = rich text file) which is readable on all word processors
• Can Save the report format if you might want to use it again later (with Open) on that machine  (It doesn't transfer nor restore with the database.)
• Lots of helpful Custom Report formats you can set up, e.g. Qualified for BEP, Qualified for SS, Records with a TO_DO tag in the note, temple code checks (see the notes for Cleaning Up Your Database)
  
  
  

GENERATING WEB PAGES

• Web page report -- another way to view your data -- useful even without posting it to Internet
• Click on Tools/Preferences/Folders to set the folder of where you want to store web pages created
• Click on web icon (top right of tool bar icons)
• Decide ancestors or descendants, how many generations, whether to have notes imbedded or linked -- other options such as background to use
• If going to post on Internet, DO NOT include any data on living people, especially their names -- identity theft is a major problem
• When web page is generated, it will ask Do You Want to View This With Your Browser (Internet Explorer or Netscape) -- click yes and you will see exactly what it would look like if it were posted on the Internet
• Very helpful to see a list of surnames and all people with that surname and to see problems with notes and/or sources
•  For this purpose include all info on "Livings" and don't suppress RIN's and MRIN's -- but don't post this to the Internet if it has any info on "livings"
• You can go back and forth between your browser and PAF and make corrections in PAF, then regenerate the web page periodically
• All the power of your browser is there, e.g. Back, Forward, Reload/Refresh, clicking on underlined links, etc.
• Sources show up as (underlined) linked superscripts and can click on them to see source

• HELPFUL NOTE:  Hold down Alt key to see letters underlined in menus -- means that "Alt-(Letter)" will do the same as clicking on that item with mouse, so you don't have to take your hands off the keyboard -- will illustrate this below
• Click on Tools (or Alt-T) -- the following tools are in middle of Tools menu
• Click on Notepad (Alt-(T-N)) -- is a text-editing program in PAF
• Relationship calculator (Alt-(T-R)) -- select any two people from database and calculate common ancestor and relationships between them
• May be many relationships between the two -- it only shows the first 100 relationships
• Shows common ancestors between them and people in the lines back to common ancestors
• Same generations of descendants down from common ancestor are "1st, 2nd, etc., Cousins" -- if people are not in same generation of descendants down they are "Once, Twice, etc., Removed"
• Date calculator (Alt-(T-D)) -- fill in any two of "Beginning Date", "Ending Date", or "Elapsed Time", then click Calculate and program computes the other
• Starts from 1752 when calendar was changed and will go for next 1000 years
• Soundex calculator (Alt-(T-X)) -- generates the Soundex code for any name you type in
• FamilySearch Internet Service (Alt-(F-S)) -- clicking on it takes you to FSI, but you have to enter the names to search for
• Easy way of searching IIGI is highlight name in PAF, press Alt-(S-F), in that order -- this takes you to IIGI and enters highlighted name in All Resources -- then download the GEDCOM of the ordinance data and import it into your database
  

ASSIGNMENT

1. Preview a narrative book report from your PAF database.
2. Set up a simple custom report and preview it on screen.
3. Create a web page of your PAF database and look at it on screen with Internet Explorer or Netscape.