Hi,
first of all, I would like to say that I do not want RM to become a clone of TMG or any other program. And I do not want to "break" what RM users are doing today.
But after some not very extensive testing of RM I have defined a non-exhaustive wishlist of lacking features in RM that I use a lot every day in TMG. This keeps me from migrating to RM today. (I cannot guarantee that I won't find yet other obstacles once some have been removed and I make further testings.)
I think from adding these features to RM also other RM users could benefit from them (nobody would be forced to change his method of working or to use the new features) and probably they will like it once they have tried.
Here is my list:
- Flags
Problem:
Flags in TMG are added automatically to each person, with a default value. Every person in the project has the same flags, if a new flag is created, it is added to all existing persons, if a flag is deleted, it is removed from every person. The flags may be shown when a person is selected.
Request:
Introduce flags. They cannot be replaced by RM custom facts as these are not the same for very person (not handled automatically)
- Dynamic Accenting / Coloring
Problem:
RM has only a predefined limited set of foreground colors, coloring is based on static groups.
Request:
Allow coloring to select foreground and background colors from a palette. Allow coloring to be based also on Flags (dynamic).
- Alternate Names in facts and sentences
Problem:
RM allows only the usage of the primary name in sentences and facts. This does not match the documents or sources.
Example:
The godmother in a church register is reffered by (one of) her married name(s), not by her maiden name. This cannot be represented in RM. The same applies to marriages of a widow (the document refers to her married name of the previous marriage) or death records.
Request:
Allow alternate names in facts and sentences.
- Roles for Principals
Problem:
RM does not allow roles for principals. Therefor it is not possible to assign roles for „equal“ partners in a fact.
Example:
In a sales contract or similar two persons are involved, the vendor and the buyer. None of them has priority to the other.
Request:
Allow roles also for principals.
- Birth facts
Problem:
RM has no way to specifiy an illegitimate birth or stillborn children. If you use a customised fact like BirthIlleg, it is not recognised as a birth, and no infprmation based on the birth date are shown or computed.
Request:
introduce different types of birth, like „standard“, illegitimate, stillborn
- Search person
Problem:
TMG has the possibility to show in its search window also information on the parents and a spouse of each person. This eases very much selecting a specific person out of many with equal name.
Request:
add parents and spouses information to search person
- Reports
Problem:
TMG allows reports to be based also on filters that are interpreted dynamically when a report is launched without the need to create groups or select the persons manually.
Reports may be used to change the value of flags (secondary output).
Request:
Introduce a facility to specify filters / selections to be used by reports or other. Introduce a possibility to change/create flags/facts for persons specified by filters etc.
- Ease of Use
Request:
- in case of a marriage, the married name of the bride should be created automatically (maybe by setting)
- allow drag & drop for media/exhibits in sources and facts. This avoids having to go down all trees and select a spewcific file.
- TMG direct import
Problem:
Married names are imported only as Alternate Name without the indication of a „married“ name. The same applies to baptismal names.
Request:
import them properly, setting also the name type.
