5 replies to this topic

[Raycer]

In 'tools' / 'Count trees' you see the 'Start Person' for each tree. How to change this person please?

Not to be confused with the 'root person'. Thanks.

[TomH]

There is no way to change it. The "start" person is the member of the tree with the lowest Record Number (RIN), i.e., the member who was first entered in the database.

[Raycer]

Thanks Tom.  Can you think of any 'workaround'? Eg delete that person?  Could there then be an opportunity to create a new person with the lowest RIN or does then default to the next lowest?  I just have a rather unfortunate situation but a tree of 5300 souls. 

[Renee Zamora]

It would just revert back to the lowest record number.  If you have several unconnected trees you could create a dummy person and link the start person you want from each tree to them as a child. Then you can order them anyway you want as children and use that instead of viewing unconnected trees. The other option is the bookmark feature. 

[TomH]

Could you explain the unfortunate situation you are trying to resolve? 

 

There is often a workaround, sometimes outside of RM, but it helps to understand what the problem is. Renee has suggested two that simply eliminate the concept of the "start" person for your problematic unconnected trees. Here's another that tries it head-on.

 

One approach is to create a new, empty database. Drag from the current and drop to the new the person in the unconnected tree that you would like to be the "start" person. Then drag'n'drop the same person onto the new database but include "everyone in the same tree". Hopefully the merge of the now duplicate person works ok. Now you have a new database of 1 tree where the "start" person is RIN 1. You could repeat the process for every other unconnected tree to build up a new database of multiple trees, each having a "start" person you have chosen. This could be tedious if you have a lot of unconnected trees and drag'n'drop is not without its own foibles.

[Raycer]

Thanks Guys - I will try Tom's approach in a couple of days when I get some free time and report back