14 replies to this topic

[jimcat]

Hello out there in Forum land. Is there a quick way to see all the folks that may have incomplete data? Such as a death fact, it may be blank, What I am hoping for is a way to see all of those in the database that may be missing information..

 

Also, when I do add a death date, from some one that was liiving, why does roots version 6, not auto uncheck the living box?

 

Thanks

 

JIm C

[Nettie]

From Lists/Fact Types/   choose Death and check the print button. If groups decide which group and print.  Will give you who has the death date or death place.  I found many a empty space in either death or place. 

[Laura]

I use the Missing Information List report for a printed report.

Or, I can create a Group and use the Group as a filter in the People view.

Death, Date, is blank
OR, Death, Place, is blank

[Renee Zamora]

If you go to Reports > Lists > Fact List > Click Create Report > Under Create List of > Choose "People missing this fact > next to it choose Death > Under People to include keep it at everyone > Click Generate Report

 

You can select any fact type from there to generate reports on who is missing what.

 

When you add a person the living box will not immediately become uncheck. It is only after the person is added that it will determine by their age or death fact if they are not living.  If you have a person born in the last 105 years and no death date, but you know they are deceased, then you do want to manually uncheck the living box on the add person screen. 
 

[jimcat]

If you go to Reports > Lists > Fact List > Click Create Report > Under Create List of > Choose "People missing this fact > next to it choose Death > Under People to include keep it at everyone > Click Generate Report

 

You can select any fact type from there to generate reports on who is missing what.

 

When you add a person the living box will not immediately become uncheck. It is only after the person is added that it will determine by their age or death fact if they are not living.  If you have a person born in the last 105 years and no death date, but you know they are deceased, then you do want to manually uncheck the living box on the add person screen. 
 

 

renee: Anyway then to exclude the Living Folks?

[Laura]

On reports that have a People to include menu, you can choose to Select from list from the menu.

Choosing this brings up the Select People screen.

Choose Mark Group

Choose Everyone in database.

Choose Unmark group

Clear people by data fields.

You can create a search filter for whether the living flag is checked or unchecked on the Edit person screen.

Choose Living flag is True = Living flag is checked. [Living]

Or, you could use other search filters or combination of search filters to unmark people from the report, such as, Birth date is after 1940.

[jimcat]

Laura I did as you mentioned.. I created a custom report.. gave it a name..then chose the select folks.. marked the group.. then took everyone in the database, then unmarked and had it uncheck the living.. printed and all that rendered back were blank sheets

[Jerry Bryan]

A rather different approach for the "missing data problem" is People View. Simply go to People View and customize the columns to show and sort on the data of interest and the missing data will be blank. For example, if you are looking for missing death facts you can sort on death date or death place. Depending on what you are looking for, you might also want to create a Named Group and filter on the Named Group. For example, not every one might be expected to have a death date, so you might make a group of everyone who was born more than 105 years ago (or 100 or 110 or whatever), and then sort the People View on death date. For birth date, you should expect everyone to have a birth date so no Named Group filter should be necessary. Used to its maximum benefit, People View is a wonderful tool to help organize your data.

 

Jerry

 

[Vyger]

I agree with Jerry and that is how I currently handle such missing data problems.

 

One of the current problems with this type of question is that the List>Fact Type problem report is a flat report and not interactive (linked) so pretty useless in reconciling these problems. The closest thing Rootsmagic has produced to an interactive report is the People View when combined with a Named Group and it is very welcome, that is accepting Find Everywhere but the criteria for this report cannot be precisely defined.

 

I would hope for more interactive reporting functionality like Find Everywhere which would finally put to bed these repeated discussions of "how to....." report this and that.

 

It would also seem to be a simple add to include the opotion on Lists>Fact Types problems to Create a Named Groupo rather than printing and I have suggested this before.

 

Finding and rectifying problems in ever growing databases is a challenging problem for the Rootsmagician and one I hopes he solves in version 7.

[Laura]

I can't tell from your post what steps or search filters you entered.

The Custom report is different from the Missing information list report or the Fact list report. In those reports, the fact part of the search criteria is already narrowed to persons linked to the Death fact. For the Custom report, you have to do that yourself as you need to do with a Named Group.

Create Custom report with Name, Record number, Death date and Death Place as fields. I would add Death [description] and Death note to the fields to show more data. And if you use Place details, add that to the fields.


Now, we need to narrow it down to who.we want in the report.

Choosing Everyone from the People to include menu will print those fields for everyone in the database.

Say, I am wanting only people with the Death fact linked and either the Death date or Death place blank. The same as the other reports give you without having to enter a search criteria for it.

Choose Select from list.

Mark:

Select people by data fields.

Death, date, is blank
OR, Death, place, is blank

Unmark:

Clear people by data fields:

Death, exists, is False

Generate the report to make sure the search criteria you entered worked as you expected.

If you then want to check the Living flags, click on settings.

Unmark Group

Clear the search filters.

Enter Living flag, is False.

This will give you the people who match your other criteria who also have the Living flag checked.

The living flag is unchecked on the Edit person screen whenever a Death fact is linked, So unmarking the Death fact for Living flag is False may give you an empty report. as this unmarks anyone with the Living flag unchecked

If you have somehow checked the Living flag for people with a Death fact, you may get people in the report as I just did somewhat to my surprise. So, I am going to create a Group and check all the people with a Death fact.

Selecting Everyone in the database on the Mark group screen marks all the people in the database. Selecting Everyone in the database on the Unmark group screen, clears all the people in the database including the people you just marked.

I would use a Group instead of a report also.

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I have created a Research log for Search criteria with different searches like this one as Research items. This is being very helpful as I then don't have to think about how to do that search every time I want to use it.

[Vyger]

I have created a Research log for Search criteria with different searches like this one as Research items. This is being very helpful as I then don't have to think about how to do that search every time I want to use it.

 

You touch on a very good point Laura, the dynamic versus static Groups and the point I would like to add is there is no reason why a search criteria cannot be saved for re-use.

[TomH]

Legacy has saved criteria for searches.

[jimcat]

Laura, that almost worked.. looking at the results. it Still shows a few with a death date and a death place.. the most part is blank. Perhaps I am just missing the steps all together.. or, but see your expertise is hindinering my lack of understanding  statci groups etc.. I am not a writer of software whereas I have a unparalled knowledge of the jargon needed to understand some of the explanations.. pretend your working with some one that knews nothing or very little about computers

[Laura]

I don't know how to make the search criteria any clearer.

I checked over a 100 pages and spot checked a few more and didn't have any records in the report with both the Death date and place entered.

I entered the search filters as I have posted above. What I got were people with either the Death date or place blank or with both the date and place blank.

Try this.

Unmark:
Death, Date, is not blank
AND, Death, Place, is not blank

That would unmark any people that have the Death date and Death place both entered.

Watch the Webinar on searching on.the RootsMagic website. Access the Webinars from the Learn menu.

If you don't understand the posts about what the posters wish RM did instead of what it does right now, don't worry about it. Don't let it confuse you.

[Laura]

I can't tell from your post what steps or search filters you entered.

The Custom report is different from the Missing information list report or the Fact list report. In those reports, the fact part of the search criteria is already narrowed to persons linked to the Death fact. For the Custom report, you have to do that yourself as you need to do with a Named Group.

Create Custom report with Name, Record number, Death date and Death Place as fields. I would add Death [description] and Death note to the fields to show more data. And if you use Place details, add that to the fields.


Now, we need to narrow it down to who.we want in the report.

Choosing Everyone from the People to include menu will print those fields for everyone in the database.

Say, I am wanting only people with the Death fact linked and either the Death date or Death place blank. The same as the other reports give you without having to enter a search criteria for it.

Choose Select from list.

Mark:

Select people by data fields.

Death, date, is blank
OR, Death, place, is blank

Unmark:

Clear people by data fields:

Death, exists, is False

Generate the report to make sure the search criteria you entered worked as you expected.

If you then want to check the Living flags, click on settings.

Unmark Group

Clear the search filters.

Enter Living flag, is False.

This will give you the people who match your other criteria who also have the Living flag checked.

The living flag is unchecked on the Edit person screen whenever a Death fact is linked, So unmarking the Death fact for Living flag is False may give you an empty report. as this unmarks anyone with the Living flag unchecked

If you have somehow checked the Living flag for people with a Death fact, you may get people in the report as I just did somewhat to my surprise. So, I am going to correct these 5 people and than do a search on all the people with the Death fact to see if there are more of them.

Selecting Everyone in the database on the Mark group screen marks all the people in the database. Selecting Everyone in the database on the Unmark group screen, clears all the people in the database including the people you just marked.