Step 2: Enter Details About Yourself

After you are done filling in your name, click the Events tab button. This displays a section where you can enter dates and places for common events in people's lives. For starters, enter your birth date and birth place. (You can add other events too. This is explained in the user's guide.)

Dates

Reunion will let you enter dates in a variety of formats, but will convert what you type into a particular format that is specified in the Options -> Dates window. You can change the default date format at any time.

Don't Use "I" for 1

Reunion will holler if you try to use the capital letter "I" or lowercase "l" as a substitute for the number "1" in a date entry. They may look similar on the screen, but to the computer, they're worlds apart. Likewise, the capital letter "O" should never be used in place of a zero (0).

If You Don't Know a Date?

If you don't know a date, you can leave the date field blank, or you can approximate by typing something like...

?	Jan 1850	1850	approx 1755
aft 1949	circa 1800	ca 1901	Jan
bef 1912	? 1850	? Jan 1850	1 Jan

Reunion will let you know if you type an entry that it doesn't understand. You'll have the option to make Reunion remember a date entry it can't decipher (these are called custom dates), but it's better to try to enter a "valid" date entry.

If You Don't Know a Place?

If a place is unknown, simply leave the field blank. For example, in the Birth Place field, if you don't know where you were born, just hit the Tab key and skip the Birth Place field.

Likewise, if you are still living (hopefully), you can simply press the Tab key and bypass the Death Date and Death Place fields -- leaving them blank.

Blank Entries

If you begin typing something into a field and then decide you want a blank entry, just clear the field using the Delete key. Then press the Tab key or click the mouse inside the next field to continue entering information.

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