Version 3 Release Changes

 

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New Features (Comparing Version 2 to Version 3)

  • ADVANCED: Added a relationship calculator that can determine the relationship between two individuals and the common ancestors between the two.  (Currently limited to 10 generations and does not support step/half relationships.)
  •   ADVANCED: Added GPS support - ability to retrieve current coordinates for Addresses / Repositories / Locations (if your desktop program supports coordinates at those levels.)  Allows retrieval of coordinates into a note (all imports) This feature requires a GPS unit that works with the device.
  • BASIC, ADVANCED: Added a new “Add Person” dialog which makes it much easier to add spouses, parents, siblings and children.
  • BASIC, ADVANCED: Added the ability to change the font size for all devices (previously only on VGA capable Pocket PCs).   You can also now select a different font size for the 3-gen display, the Tree Views, Lists and Edit Fields.
  • BASIC, ADVANCED: Added the new “Individual View”.   (Supplements the tree views and the 3-gen screen)

Note: This view will be slow for medium to large databases and therefore is suitable for small databases only.

Note: This feature is not available on Smartphones.  (Non-touch screen devices)

  • BASIC, ADVANCED: Created a "Research Lists" feature.   Research lists can be used to group Individuals, Families, Sources or Repositories into a list of your choosing.  (Such as “Further Research” or “Bookmark” or “To Do”).   This is similar to “Named Lists” in Family Historian.  Similar to “Field Notes”, the information added to the Research Lists is not eligible for GEDCOM export.  (Except for Family Historian)
  • ALL: Added smartphone (non-touch screen) support.   Requires Windows Mobile 5 or Windows Mobile 6.
  • ALL: Complete redesign of the desktop Pocket Genealogist program with emphasis on ease of use for novice users.  The main screen now shows all databases you have created and allows you to select one from the list to do imports/exports/synchronizations, etc.
  • ALL: Redesign of the Event, "Edit Date", Notes (and others) screens to simplify and clarify use.   Minor changes to many other screens and changes for "Square Screen" and PocketPC Landscape screens for better display of data.
  • ALL: The Date Calculator now allows you to determine number of years, months and days between two dates.  You also can still calcualte a 2nd date from a 1st date with the addition/subtraction of years, months and days.
  • ALL: Better support for Windows Mobile 5 devices.
    • Changes made to increase performance over Version 2.
    • Increased the maximum # of records per "Table" from 262144 to 393216.    (although databases of that size may be too cumbersome for daily use)
    • Added new prompt during install for Windows Mobile 5 devices to allow setting of the new ActiveSync (RAPI) security policy which was preventing synchronization.
  • ALL: Much better support for the use of PocketPC's without a stylus.
    • Menus at the bottom of every screen to perform actions that previously required stylus.
    • Support for Windows Mobile 5 and 6 "Soft Key" hardware buttons for use with the menus.
    • Much better support of the 5-way Directional Pad button. (D-Pad)
  • ALL: Better support for Windows Mobile 5 and 6 devices.
    • Support for 320x320 screen resolution.
    • Support for 480x800 screen resolution.
    • Support for 480x272 screen resolution.
    • Support for 176x220 screen resolution.
  • ALL: Better Windows Vista support.
  • ALL: Added the synchronization of Pocket Genealogist device configuration values to the desktop which will allow restoration if the device incurs a hard rest.  (Such as colors)
  • ALL:  Reworked "Language Pack" support, Languages are no longer a separate install.   Use the "Advanced", "Options" screen to select which languages get installed to the device.   Reworked how translations work with the imports and you may find that you don't have as complete of a translation as with the older versions.  (for data related items such as event types)  Please contact Northern Hills Software with your language and type of import so we can define the proper configuration files for that combination.
  • ADVANCED: Added "Soft" and "Hard" reset commands.   (Not supported by all devices, depends on manufacturer implementation of Windows Mobile)
  • ADVANCED: Added "Format" command for storage cards.   (Not supported by all devices, depends on manufacturer implementation of Windows Mobile)

Other Changes and Fixes

  • Change to the Keypad on the "Find By" screen to allow selection of alternate character sets.  (Greek for Example)   Added Scandinavian characters to the "Alt" screen so all languages can search using those values.
  • Database changes to improve performance and functionality.  (Birth/Death information now stored in a manner to improve performance of the “View” screens)
  • Added new "Remove Format Codes" option on the "Edit", "Configuration", "Edit" tab.   This is currently only applicable to Legacy Version 6 and if turned on will remove the format codes (Bold, Italic, Underline and Superscript) from Notes, Event Notes, and Source and Citation fields.  It will also set that field to Read-only if this option is turned on.   This is a compromise to better display those fields until full text formatting can be supported.
  • Better Family Historian Support:
    • Ability to source the Place field for Family Historian Events.
    • Named Lists (although changes made on the device are not yet available for export back to GEDCOM)
    • Better Address/Repository support
    • Better support of non-standard (Freeform) dates
    • Better support for the LDS Status field
    • Support for Event “Sentence”.
    • Better Child Status support.
    • Support for 2nd place field for Emigration/Immigration.
    • Support for Flags.
    • Support for alternate names
    • Support for _PEDI tab
    • Support for Custom name fields
  • Better Genbox Support:
    • Support for Version 3.6.5
    • Better "To Do" support
  • Better Ancestral Quest Support:
    • Support for Version 12
    • Support for citations on secondary (non-primary) events.
    • Support for Phonetic and Romanized Names
    • mtDNA support.
  • Better Legacy Family Tree Support:
    • Support for Version 7 including Married Names
  • Better "The Master Genealogist" Support:
    • Support  for Version 7 including mtDNA.
  • Better Progen support.   Address, Info and Text fields now properly supported.  The “custom” event fields “Church”, “Religion”, “Time” and “Witness” now supported.
  • Better Aldfaer (3.4.1) support.
  • Better Synchronization Support:
    • Allow selection of target (memory or storage card) based on free space.
    • Automatically try the "Use TCP/IP" option if synchronizations fails with "Unable to Communicate with Device".
  • Added "Last Edit Date" to Individual and Family screens ("Main" tab)... only displayed if database is "Locked (View Only)" and the import supports this type of date.
  • Better support of To Do’s.   (Imports that allow you to reference the same To Do for more than one individual such as TMG and Ancestral Quest no longer duplicate the To Do on the device – new “References” tab on the To Do display shows these references.)  Added a new "Find", "To Do", "by Repository".   You can view all To Do's on the device by using the "Find", "To Do", "by Task".
  • For Pre-Windows Mobile 5 devices, ‘Memory (Object Store)’ is now the default synchronization type.  This provides the fastest and smallest database format.   If you wish to make “Memory (Mounted)” the default, you can set that under the “Advanced” tab under “Options” in Pocket Genealogist on the desktop.   Windows Mobile 5 devices don’t natively support Object Store databases so the only option is “Memory” (and storage cards if you have any available).
  • Fix to FTM import to only mark ONE primary event as preferred and also fixes import termination when there are more than one death event along with a "Cause of Death".
  • Fixes to Address screen for VGA devices. (Both Portrait and Landscape).
  • Simplified 2-way Legacy synchronizations by removing “Merge All” screen.
  • “Go To” ID/RIN screens now changed to allow switching between ID and (M)RIN from the screen.
  • Changes to database to decrease size (About 1MB for Windows Mobile 2003 and earlier and 250KB for Windows Mobile 5)
  •  Fixed the output of Calculated dates to GEDCOM.
  •  Fixed the output of double dates to GEDCOM.
  • Fixed import of RootsMagic "Last Work Date" and "Completed" date for To Do's.  (And both dates are now shown on the "main" to do screen.)
  • You can now edit the names for the 2 individuals listed on the “Main” Family tab.
  • The "Search for Baptism" and "Search for Alt. Marriage" options removed from device and are now the default.    (And made some fixes so that Heredis "Religious Marriage" events are eligible for date display on the 3-gen and tree views.)    Not all imports use Baptism dates (for date display on 3-gen)  if Birth and Christening are missing.
  • Fixed PAF Add-on import and the use of Scandinavian characters with the "Find by" lists.
  • Fix to PAF/FTM Add-on to better support Citations and Sources for FTM 2005 and newer.
  • With import customization, added a warning message when "Primary Events Only" is selected.
  • FTM 2006 GEDCOM imports now put "Source Quality" and "Comment" source fields on the "Custom Source" tab.
  • For Note and text fields, if database is locked the SIP (keypad) will be lowered to show more of the data.
  • Don't allow addition of new note "part" if database is locked or unregistered.
  • Hide button "1" on the note screen if ONLY one note part.   (Helps "de-clutter" the screen.)
  • When adding a new event and the event list is shown, the primary events (Birth, Christening, Marriage, Death and Burial) will be displayed at the top of the list for ease of selection.  The rest of the list will be sorted by event name.
  • “LDS” tab will now be displayed/hidden for 2-way Legacy synchronizations based on value set in Legacy.
  • New "Tabs" on the details screen on the device... "Names" (for Individual), "Identifiers" (Individual and Family) and "Relationships" (TMG Individual only)
  • Better "Compiler" support