Timeline Report in FTM 2012

[Xenofex2]

Is there any way one can edit what ‘Historical Events’ appearsin the Timeline Report in Family Tree Maker 2012? At the moment only thoseunder the category ‘World Events’ are appearing in my Reports, even thoughthere are quite a variety of Historical Events already pre-entered.
So where I have a family that spent all their life (say) inLondon, only Events that are categorised under World Events appear. If I can sort this out I would love then tomove on and add more a personal Category and add things such as Events or Laws thatwould have made an impact on our Ancestors Lives. Is it possible?
But then at the moment it seems it is World Events ornothing?

[Elaine ..Spain]

But then at the moment it seems it is World Events or nothing?

Sadly, I think you are right.

[Xenofex2]

Many thanks for the feedback.

Although I must have had FTM 2012 for around 2 years, it was only recently when keying in more key facts for my Ancestors that I found the benefits of the Timeline Report. To my mind, quite surprising though is that in these 2 years this apparent bug has not been fixed.

Hopefully, with the promise in the 2014 Version of more and better Reports, this anomaly will have been fixed.

[DavidNewton]

I'm not sure that this is a bug. The rules for timeline events seem to be that if you have an event (birth etc) in the region covered by the event category and at an appropriate time then the event is included. In order for this to work you need to ensure that all places used are recognised. World History events have geographic coverage of everywhere in the world and so are automatically included in all time lines. The only way round this, as far as I can see, is to edit the timeline events and get more explicit about world history events. If you go to the timeline view in the person tag then take the option to manage events you can change the categories (geographic coverage) of events. For example the model-T ford is described as a world history event, change it's category to US history and it will disappear from your timeline unless you have a US place included.

[Elaine ..Spain]

May be not a bug, but more of a design fault.
I think the problem is that you are not able to select a category of events that you want to include - it seems to be World events or nothing at all.
For example, if I am printing out a report from an ancestor who moved between continents, then world events may be of interest, but if my ancestor remained in England then a timeline related just to Great Britain would be more appropriate.
Being able to create timeline categories for different regions - and then having the facility to include them in reports should you want to - would be good.

[DavidNewton]

Yes it is a design fault, the software is making the decision as to what categories to include and offers no opportunity to include/exclude categories for any reason. The only way round it is a fudge and involves removing the worldwide status from World Events, in other words change their Category. Note that World Events is also the only category that cannot be edited so this is not an accidental decision fault.

The second factor here is that in order to use any Category, in addition to World Events, places have to be "recognised" by FTM2012. I don't know how others have dealt with this but I confess that I have not gone through the process of "resolving" locations for all the locations available in my database. The net effect is that any part of the software involved with mapping (and the historical event timeline involves mapping) is of no immediate practical use if you have transferred data from a GEDCOM. The default position within FTM2012 when importing is that a place is "unrecognised" until you go through the process of recognising addresses - individually.

I would have thought that a simple collection of checkboxes, one for each category, which you can select as an include/exclude report option would solve this problem.

[Elaine ..Spain]

I would have thought that a simple collection of checkboxes, one for each category, which you can select as an include/exclude report option would solve this problem.

Sounds simple ... now why didn't the designers come up with that!

[DavidNewton]

Sounds simple ... now why didn't the designers come up with that!

That's a question way beyond my ken

[Xenofex2]

Whilst I would accept that the whole purpose of a TimelineReport is to include Events that occur in a person’s lifetime, disappointingly it seems that inFTM 2012, only those Events that are categorised under World Events appear.
Following on from David’s comments I thought I would doublecheck my own Timeline. Now I have only lived and all my family connections are inthe UK yet only World Events appear in my Timeline. Also all my information hasonly been keyed into the Program and not imported should that make anydifference.

Looking at the ‘Manage Historical Events’ then for myself and what are already inthere, then the Death of Diana (1997), Queen’s Coronation (1953) and LondonBombings (2005) to my mind should at least appear in my own Timeline. Yes I canmanage them and if I change any to World Events then they appear, albeit withthe World Events icon.
I actually go along with both Elaine and David’s thoughts 1)- “Being able to create timeline categories for different regions - and thenhaving the facility to include them in reports should you want to - would be good.”, and, 2) I would have thought that a simple collectionof checkboxes, one for each category, which you can select as aninclude/exclude report option would solve this problem.
To actually bring the Timeline Reports to life, I would also liketo include some of the many social changes that have happened and changed livesfor many of us and our ancestors. Yes they can be added but then of course come up with theWorld Icon.
Remains to be seen what the 2014 Program brings! Let’s hopethat the Designers are reading this thread.

George

[Elaine ..Spain]

George,
It would be nice to think that the FTM Development Team are reading the comments, but I wouldn't be too sure about it!
There is an online feedback form which can be used to suggest enhancements for future development, so might be worth leaving a message there.

http://www.genealogy.com/help/er.html

[DavidNewton]

Hi George

Sorry to keep going on about this but are your places "resolved"? Look for an icon alongside a place; is there a ? in it. Explained in detail below.

http://ftm.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/3070/~/standardizing-locations-in-family-tree-maker-2008-2012

In my own timelines, once I resolve the places (usually in the UK) I get the UK History events as well as World History. It is possible to remove World History events by editing their categories

http://ftm.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/4968/kw/timeline%20historical%20events

For example: RMS Titanic Disaster is categorised as World History and it perhaps should be UK History; Women's Suffrage in New Zealand should perhaps be classified as New Zealand History (a category which you would have to define yourself) and so on. Note, however, that if you change the category of an event then the change sticks and if you want to recover the original category then you have to know what that was.

You also mentioned the icon for an historical event. As far as I know there is only one, a globe independent of category, and the category of the event is described in the Event column.

David.
Below is a part of a timeline report from my tree (I have edited out some of the details)

1750 UK History Bet. 1750–1850 The Industrial Revolution Great Britain
1825 Birth 04 Jul 1825 Great George Street, Westminster, London
1825 Christening 04 Aug 1825 St Margaret, Westminster, London
1833 UK History 1833 Slavery Abolition Act of 1833 Great Britain
1837 UK History Bet. 1837–1901 The Victorian Era Great Britain
1841 1841 Census 06 Jun 1841 Charlton, Kent
1845 UK History Bet. 1845–1852 The Great Irish Famine Ireland
1851 1851 Census 30 Mar 1851 Croydon, Surrey
1853 World History Bet. 1853–1856 Crimean War Crimean Peninsula

[Xenofex2]

Thankyou for that suggestion Elaine.
I did click on the link but when trying to send my Requestit detected that I was in the UK so it directed me to Ancestry UK site. Anyway,I have now submitted my request.
Fingers crossed!
George

[Xenofex2]

David,
Thankyou David for going on about it, and, for showing apart of one of your Timeline Reports. Both of these have helped me.
It is solely because you have gone on about it that thepenny has finally dropped. I must admit that I don’t think I’ve ever noticed that question mark box to the right ofa place name. As soon as I have clicked on that, resolved the issue so that theProgram knows where the place is then UK History appears in the TimelineReport. Brilliant, just what I wanted.
The vast majority of all my Ancestors are in the UK and so far are mainlyin and around London. As a result I hardly ever put even London into theaddress section and just left it as Shoreditch, Holloway, Hoxton etc – so Iguess not surprising the Program did not know what Country.
I would also agree with your comments about some of the Eventsalready included but now I know they appear, I can then move on and edit myWorld Events as to what I want to appear and then also add more relevant Eventsto the UK History.

Many Many Thanks David.

Best Wishes

George

[Xenofex2]

Sorry to come back to this again. I did think I had finally resolved the issue with my Timeline Reports although only now have I discovered it is not fully resolved.

It seems that if I just put an address in as say 'London, England' then it seems that 'UK Facts' do appear. However I like to put down full postal addresses so that I can see where my ancestors actually lived in their lifetime. But if I do that, then it seems that 'UK History Facts' do not appear. I have also clicked on the Icon to 'resolve unrecognised place names' and chosen 'ignore' but still cannot seem to get 'UK Historical Facts to appear. Is there something else I'm not doing?

With your own Timeline Report David (or anyone else that has resolved this), are your addresses just down as say Holloway, London, or are they full postal addresses?

Have also since looked on youtube and discovered an immense number of FTM tutorial videos, but so far, none on the workings of the Timeline Report.


George

[DavidNewton]

Hi George

I have made up a file using just one address: 11 Leighton Road, St Pancras, London. This resolves quite happily after moving the 11 Leighton Road, St Pancras to the top line in the Resolve Place name form and then replacing London by London, England. In the timeline the UK History appears.

[Xenofex2]

David,
Many many thanks once again. And it looks like one only hasto change one of the addresses for each Ancestor to trigger off the UK History Factsappearing in their Timeline Report. Andnow I am getting the full postal address appearing and UK History. Cannot sayhow really pleased I am.
For me there has also been another benefit. It was as aresult of one of your previous Links David that led me to the many interesting FTM tutorials on Youtube for FTM 2012.Definitely worth a visit and an area that I will be revisiting in the nearfuture.
So thankyou again David.

George

[DavidNewton]

Hi George

It's my turn to thank you.

My main choice of software is Legacy 7.5 DeLuxe but I also have FTM2012 and RM6. After this series of posts I wondered if Legacy had similar features, and of course it does! but I didn't know about it. Legacy offers the option adding a timeline and of checking which one(s) to use and of course adding new ones. One feature it lacks, as far as I can see, is the ability to detect which dated portion of the timeline you want - it does allow you to specify it yourself.