4 replies to this topic

[kmac]

I feel a little dense here, but I've just starred using RM on my Mac, coming from Reunion and I can't seem to figure out how to mark a group of people and have the Living checkbox checked. Obviously I can go through and mark each one manually, but with almost 9,000 people in my database, that seems a bit much. Is it possible to mark a group of people and then have the Living checkbox automatically be checked for them? I see that I can go to the Roots Magic Explorer and do a Find ....... birth date is after 1900 and death date is blank. I click OK but nothing seems to happen. Am I expecting something that RM will not do automatically or do I just not know how to do it?

Thanks for any help on this.

[Alfred]

There is a selection in the Tools menu, "Set Living" where you can set it to true or false for a selected group of people.

I tried setting it to false for everyone in the database,
then set it to true for people:
born after 1900
And death - exists - is false

You could also colorcode a group of people then do the "Set Living" for everyone except them.

[kmac]

There is a selection in the Tools menu, "Set Living" where you can set it to true or false for a selected group of people.

I tried setting it to false for everyone in the database,
then set it to true for people:
born after 1900
And death - exists - is false

You could also colorcode a group of people then do the "Set Living" for everyone except them.

Thanks for responding, Alfred, but I'm still having trouble. I followed your instructions. This is what I did: Set it to False for everyone in the database. Set it to true and was taken to the Select People Screen. If I click the Find button, and use the search criteria you gave, click OK, but nothing happens. No names get marked. If I click the Mark Group button and choose Select People by Data Fields, and use birth date is after 1900 and death date is ......... there is no choice for "exists is false". If I choose "is blank", RM searches but finds no one to mark.

[Jerry Bryan]

and use birth date is after 1900 and death date is ......... there is no choice for "exists is false". If I choose "is blank", RM searches but finds no one to mark.

The problem that it is not possible to look for "death date exists....". It is necessary to look instead for "death exists.....". Which is to say, the "exists" option is in the same set of options as "date" (which is to say the second column of options). It is not the case that "date" is in the second column and "exists" is in the third column.

That initially may seem a little strange, but you are really not looking to see whether a death date exists or not. You are looking to see whether a death fact exists or not. And indeed, you can sometimes have a death fact without a death date. For example, you might have a death fact with a death place and without a death date if that's all you know. Well, most researchers would specify some sort of estimated death date in this situation, but not everybody does.

Jerry

[kmac]

OK, now I get it! Thanks to both Alfred and Jerry for their help. What do ya know? It worked!!

Kathy