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-
- PARENTS
- -------
-
- PARENTS is an application that was designed to help make collecting and
- organizing your genealogy easier. With the help of PARENTS, you will be
- able to more easily gather, store, and view information about all of your
- ancestors as well as your children and your children's children.
- PARENTS allows you to enter and store vital information such as names,
- birth, marriage, death dates and places and more. All of this
- information can then be easily organized and related together to form
- your family tree. You will also be able to print the detailed information
- about any one of your ancestors as well as print your immediate tree.
-
- PARENTS is not public domain, nor is it free software. You are
- granted a limited license to use this product on a trial basis. You are
- also granted a license to copy PARENTS, along with the documentation, for
- the trial use by other users. If you wish to continue using the product,
- you must send $25 to:
-
- NickleWare
- c/o Bradley Nicholes
- 15817 130th Place S.E.
- Renton, Wa. 98058
-
- We encourage you to copy PARENTS and share it with anyone who might
- be interested in tracking down their roots and learning where they came
- from.
-
-
- GETTING STARTED
- ---------------
-
- REQUIREMENTS -
- Microsoft Windows 2.1 or higher
- IBM compatible PC 286/386
-
- Before proceeding, make sure that you have Microsoft Windows correctly
- installed. Next create a directory called PARENTS and copy the PARENTS
- software (PARENTS.EXE) into this directory. Then add the following entry
- to the WIN.INI file which is probably in the same directory where windows
- is installed.
-
- [PARENTS]
- DBPath=<drive>:<path>\
-
- This tells PARENTS where to place the data files. The key word
- DBPath is set equal to the <drive> and full <path> including the trailing
- backslash, where the PARENTS data files will reside. For example:
-
- [PARENTS]
- DBPath=C:\PARENTS\
-
- When the above steps have been completed, PARENTS is ready to be
- started. Simply start PARENTS in the same manner as any other windows
- application. PARENTS will then create all of the data files it needs
- to run, and place them on the drive and path that was specified in the
- above entry.
-
-
- GETTING AROUND
- --------------
-
-
- INDIVIDUAL WORKSHEET
- --------------------
-
- The main window for data collection is the INDIVIDUAL WORKSHEET. All
- of the genealogical information about any individual can be entered into
- this worksheet. It contains fields for the individual's name, birth
- date and place, christening date and place, the date and place where
- the individual was married, where and when the individual died and when
- and where the individual was buried. In addition to these fields is a misc.
- notes field that can be used to store any additional information, and a place
- to indicate the sex of the individual. The information that is entered
- into the date and place fields does not have to be in any specific format.
-
- MENU SELECTIONS FOR THE INDIVIDUAL WORKSHEET.
-
- NEW - This selection, from the FILE pull down menu, will display a blank
- INDIVIDUAL WORKSHEET. After all of the informtion has been entered
- into the worksheet, pull down the FILE menu and select SAVE. This will
- add a new record to the data base storing all of the information that was
- entered.
-
- OPEN - This selection, from the FILE pull down menu, will display a list
- of all of the individuals that have been entered into the database. An
- individual can be selected from this list by highlighting it and clicking on
- the SELECT button or by double clicking on the selection. All of the
- information that was previously stored in the database about this
- individual will be displayed in the worksheet. This information can
- be updated or added to, and then saved.
-
- SAVE - This selection, from the FILE pull down menu, will save the
- information that has been entered into the INDIVIDUAL WORKSHEET. If SAVE is
- selected after entering a NEW individual, the information will be added to
- the database. If SAVE is selected after updating the information for an
- already existing individual, the updates will be saved in the database.
-
- DELETE - An already existing individual's information can be deleted
- from the database if that individual is not currently being used in the
- FAMILY TREE. After making this selection, a message prompt will appear
- requesting a comfirmation of the action. If the individual exists in the
- FAMILY TREE, a message prompt will appear indicating that the individual
- cannot be deleted.
-
- PRINT - This selection will print the worksheet information for the
- currently selected individual.
-
- CLOSE - This selection will close the INDIVIDUAL WORKSHEET.
-
-
- IMMEDIATE FAMILY TREE
- ---------------------
-
- The IMMEDIATE FAMILY TREE displays and allows you to update a selected
- individual's family tree. The FAMILY TREE's center box has a thicker border
- than the other boxes in the tree. Any individual that is placed in this box
- will cause the tree to be centered around him or her. In other words, all
- of that individual's immediate family will be displayed in the other boxes
- of the tree.
- An individual can be placed in the FAMILY TREE's center box in one of
- two ways. The first way is by dragging and dropping from the INDIVIDUAL
- LIST. This is done by highlighting an individual with the mouse, and while
- holding the mouse button down, moving the mouse pointer over the center box.
- When the mouse button is released, the selected individual will appear in
- the center box and the rest of the tree will automatically be filled in.
- The second way is by highlighting an individual in the INDIVIDUAL LIST,
- then pulling down the RELATIONS pull down menu and selecting INDIVIDUAL.
- Again, the selected individual will appear in the center box and the rest
- of the tree will be filled in.
- The IMMEDIATE FAMILY TREE can also be used to create a family tree. To
- do this, first make a selection from the INDIVIDUAL LIST and place that
- selection in the center box. Then in the same manner as described above,
- place each member of the immediate family in the appropriate box. As each
- selection is placed in the tree, that selection is related to the
- individual in the center box according to the position in which it is
- placed. To the left of the center box is the Children List. Each child
- of an individual in the center box, should be placed in the Children List.
- Directly below the center box is the Spouse List. The individual's current
- spouse and each previous spouse (if any) should be placed in this list. At
- the top right of the center box is the Father box. The Father of the
- selected individual should be placed in this box. Directly below the
- Father box, is the Mother box. There are also two other boxes the are
- tied to the spouse list. These two boxes are for displaying the parents
- of the currently highlighted spouse in the Spouse List. These two boxes
- cannot be used to relate a Father or a Mother to a Spouse.
- There are several special features of the IMMEDIATE FAMILY TREE. The
- first feature is that the tree can be shifted in any direction to show the
- extended family tree. This can be done by dragging and dropping an
- individual from any of the other family tree boxes to the center box. For
- example, if the individual that is currently placed in the center box is
- John Smith and his father is Jack Smith, by dragging and dropping Jack
- Smith from the Father box to the Center box, the family tree will immediatly
- be reorganized to show Jack Smith's immediate family. In the process of
- doing this, John Smith will be moved from the Center box to the Children box
- which indicates that John Smith is a child of Jack Smith and the individual
- that appears in the Father box is John Smith's Grandfather.
- The second special feature of the family tree is being able to view the
- information about an individual. This can be done by highlighting an
- individual in the INDIVIDUAL LIST and clicking on the VIEW button below the
- list or by double clicking on an individual in the list. The INDIVIDUAL
- WORKSHEET will appear with all of the information that had been previously
- stored in the database. The information on this worksheet cannot be updated
- and saved, it can only be viewed. After viewing the information, select
- CLOSE from the FILE pull down menu to return to the IMMEDIATE FAMILY TREE.
-
- MENU SELECTIONS FOR THE IMMEDIATE FAMILY TREE.
-
- SHOW - This menu selection will show an empty IMMEDIATE FAMILY TREE.
- This tree can be used to display or update an individual's family tree.
-
- HIDE - This menu selection will hide the IMMEDIATE FAMILY TREE,
- INDIVIDUAL LIST (and INDIVIDUAL WORKSHEET if shown).
-
- PRINT - This menu selection will print the currently displayed
- IMMEDIATE FAMILY TREE.
-
- CLEAR - This selection can be found in the EDIT pull down menu. It is
- used to clear the family tree or remove a relation between two individuals.
- This depends on which family tree box is currently selected. A family tree
- box can be selected by clicking on it with the mouse. After doing so, a
- dotted rectangle will appear around the individual's name that is contained
- in the box. If the center box is cleared, the entire family tree will be
- cleared. If the Father or Mother box is selected, the box is cleared and
- the relation is removed. If one of the children or spouses is highlighted,
- that child or spouse is cleared from the list and the relation is removed.
- The two boxes that are tied to the spouse box cannot be cleared.
-
- RELATIONS - This pull down menu is only available when the IMMEDIATE
- FAMILY TREE is shown. It can be used as an alternative way of placing an
- individual in a family tree box. By highlighting an individual in the
- INDIVIDUAL LIST and then choosing one of the selections in the RELATIONS
- pull down menu, that individual will be placed in the corresponding family
- tree box.
-
-
- OTHER FEATURES
- --------------
-
- DRAG AND DROP - Whenever an individual is being transferred from the
- individuals list to the family tree, the individual's name may be dragged and
- dropped. This means that an individual can be selected with the mouse
- pointer, and while still holding the mouse button down, position the mouse
- pointer on top of the destination box. When the mouse button is
- released the selected item will appear in the entry field. For example,
- if you would like to center the family tree around an individual, that
- individual can be dragged and dropped from the individual list to the center
- box.
-
- CLIPBOARD - The clipboard is a convenient way of transferring data
- between PARENTS and other Windows applications. To use the clipboard
- functions, simply highlight any text that is displayed in an entry field,
- pull down the EDIT menu and choose COPY or CUT. The COPY function will
- place a copy of the highlighted text in the Windows clipboard. The CUT
- function also places the highlighted text in the clipboard but also
- removes it from the entry field. To retrieve text from the clipboard,
- place the cursor at the position inside an entry field where the clipboard
- text should be inserted or appended. Then pull down the EDIT menu and
- choose PASTE. The clipboard text will be placed in the entry field at
- the cursor position.
-
-
- EXITING
- -------
-
- When you have finished using PARENTS, you should exit via the EXIT
- selection from the FILE pull down menu. If you forget and turn your
- computer off before exiting, Parents can not guarantee that your ancestors
- have been saved correctly. It is very important that you always exit
- PARENTS via this selection.
-
-
- This documentation must accompany the PARENTS software.
-
- NickleWare
- Copyright (C) 1990 Bradley Nicholes
-