Can I save the Heredis installation file which I have downloaded in case I need it again?

You may either write the installation file which you have downloaded to a CD-ROM or save it to your hard disk, and then unzip and re-install should you ever have a problem with your computer.

Can I work from an external drive where I have copied my file?

No. You must first copy the file to your hard disk before opening it. The external drive is not a work space, only a storage area. If you work from the external drive, you will be taking a certain risk.
If you cannot open the file once you have transferred it to your hard disk, this means that the file is incomplete (probably because there was not enough space on the external drive).

How can I be sure that I have the latest available version of Heredis?

- Choose from the Help > Update menu.
- Follow the instructions which appear on the screen.

What do the symbols mean which appear on the toolbar at the bottom of the navigation screen?

In order from the left, they indicate for the Primary person displayed, that you have ticked the No descendants, Marked or Confidential options. The paper-clip symbol shows that there is at least one source concerning the Primary person for an event. The following symbols indicate that the Primary person has x sons, x daughters or x children of undetermined sex. Finally the different genealogical numbers relating to the Primary person are displayed: the user number which you may have attributed, plus his or her Ahnentafel number if this exists.

How do I «mark» individuals?

There are several ways to mark individuals:

On the Personal data screen of the Primary person, by ticking the Marked box at the top right.Choose from the menu Data > Mark/Unmark Primary person.
In the Multi-criteria search option, after making your selection, click on Mark individuals to mark all the selected individuals at one go.

How can I get a list of all witnesses in the life of an individual?

This information is clearly shown all the time in the Links work sheet. This list is updated with every session of the genealogy file and you know instantly to which individuals the Primary person is linked, for what event and in what role.

Do I have to create a new individual in order to display him or her as a witness?

The advantage of creating a link between an individual and an event for which he or she was a witness is their inclusion in the Links work sheet list, thereby giving you an effective overview of all persons concerned with any event and immediate access to any one of them.
However, you may simply mention the name and role of any witness in the event note. The information will be recorded but not used as a link.

Are sources attributed to one individual only or to several individuals?

A source is attributed to an event concerning an individual. For example, the copy of the birth certificate of Alice Rucastle is attributed to the event Birth of Alice Rucastle.
First, you must create the source birth certificate of Alice Rucastle to be able to make use of it. Once this has been done, the source may be attributed to any number of other events.
If the birth certificate of Alice Rucastle contains the information that her father was called Gilbert and that he was 34 years old at the time, you can then create an event Birth for Gilbert, her father, indicate an approximate date and attribute a source, birth certificate of Alice Rucastle. Each event may have several sources of information and it is this that makes your research so worthwhile.
Once you have found the birth certificate of Gilbert Rucastle, father of Alice, you can now create a second source for the event Birth: birth certificate of Gilbert Rucastle. Etc...
If you delete an event to which a source is attributed, the source itself is not deleted and you will find it again in the Dictionary of Sources, where it can be attributed to other events.

Some of my photos display a red cross with the words “Not found”. What should I do?

Heredis knows which image you have linked to the person or couple displayed but it cannot find the image on your hard disk. Either you have moved the photo or deleted it from your hard disk.
You should reattribute the correct path to the image for it to be displayed again correctly. To do this, choose from the menu Tools > Media manager.
Select Not found in the In use menu.
Then select the Not found image and click on the Find the media button. You may then search your hard disk for the new folder or the new name of the image and then select it so that Heredis will be able to find the right path to the image.

EXCHANGES & GEDCOM

Given names do not appear, only surnames are imported

Certain Gedcom files created with The Master Genealogist® program have this anomaly when imported to Heredis. This problem will be very rapidly corrected and will be sent to all users in the form of an update. In the meantime, TMG users may export their data in Gedcom format by ticking the "Primary only" option for names and with this done, Heredis will import the data correctly.

After importing a Gedcom file produced with Heredis to another genealogy program, I have found an important number of errors.

Heredis has been developed to handle all types of information and this is what makes your genealogical data so rich. However not all other programs can handle so many different types of information. Furthermore, the Gedcom norm cannot handle certain types of information present in Heredis, which are of considerable interest to genealogists. For example, witnesses handled by the Gedcom norm are recorded solely as witness to a person without stating what event they witnessed.

Heredis will indicate if a witness assisted at the birth or at the death of the person, which is a precise piece of information. However, this detailed information is ignored by the Gedcom file and is therefore classed as an error by programs which do not have exactly the same structure as Heredis. The same thing applies to the distinction between a civil and a religious marriage. The information which has been ignored either by the Gedcom norm or by the program to which you have exported the data, may sometimes be grouped in the notes.

How can I export an individual’s ancestors (or descendants), for example, for someone called Alice Rucastle?

First place Alice Rucastle as Primary person on the Immediate family screen and then open the File menu. Choose the option Export.
Tick on the type of export required (Gedcom, Heredis). Then tick the option Export a branch. Then select Ascendant, Descendant or Ascendant and Descendant of Alice Rucastle. Select the number of generations and whether or not you wish to include collaterals for each generation.

How can I make changes to the CD-ROM generated by Heredis?

You may make as many changes as you wish to the pages created by Heredis before writing them to a CD-ROM: you can alter or add to the text or even add or delete images.

To do this, open the HTML pages created by Heredis with any HTML publishing program (Dreamweaver, FrontPage…) or even with a word processor which can read HTML pages (such as Word, for example). Save the changes to the pages and then write the contents of the directory created by Heredis to the CD-ROM with your normal CD-ROM writing program.

When I want to visualize my 3D family tree included on my Internet site or on a CD-ROM, I get a message asking me to download Shockwave. What must I do?

For visualizing the 3D family tree, Heredis uses a plug-in called Shockwave® which is normally installed with the computer system. However, if this extension has not been preinstalled on your computer, you may download it from the following address: http://www.macromedia.com/fr/downloads. Click on Macromedia Shockwave Player®. Once you have installed it, you may launch the 3D family tree.

In a search for an individual by name, when two persons have the same name and given name, but not the same birth or death dates, how can I distinguish between them?

The panel below the work sheets will display a Summary of all information recorded concerning the individual whose surname and given name have been selected in the Search by name window.
You should then control what information is displayed in the panel for each of the two given names (relations, unions…) to find out who is who.

Should you have hidden the work sheets, you will have to renew their display to be able to use this control function.

FAMILY TREES

I would like to include all the members of my family on one tree chart. Which one should I choose?

When you build a family tree in two dimensions, that is a chart which may be printed on paper, you cannot show every person in the family, because on one layout, you can only show the ascendants and descendants of the primary person on the screen, and not the ascendants or descendants of the collaterals in the genealogy file.

However, if you build a Complete 3D tree, you will be able to visualize all your collaterals: uncles, aunts, cousins, relations of spouses.… The 3D family tree is a tree chart built for navigation which allows you a total view of your entire genealogy, showing all the branches and all alliances. You may publish it on the Internet or integrate it into your genealogy CD-ROM.

Can changes be made to the 3D family tree once it has been published on the Internet or written to a CD-ROM?

As yet, it is not possible to alter the parameters (colors, photos, pictograms…) of 3D family trees already published. However this facility is being developed for a future version of Heredis.