Organise your records using File Amigo

Once the Fileamigo setup file has downloaded, double-click the FileAmigo7Setup.exe file on the desktop to start the installation. Click Run followed by Continue if prompted, then follow the setup wizard through, accepting the default choices each time. Once complete, click Finish.

Launch the program by clicking the Start button and selecting All Programs followed by File Amigo 7 and then File Amigo 7. Close the Help window when it appears, and click No to prevent the Help window from popping up in future (help can be accessed at any time by pressing the F1 key). The Start dialogue box gives the option of creating a new database from an existing template, but we are going to create our own, so select ‘Create a new file from scratch’ and click Next.

Type in a name for the new database and add a suitable description. Next, create the fields that will make up each record. Start by typing ‘Surname’ into the Field Name box and press Enter, and it will appear in the right-hand window. Next, type ‘Forenames’ into the Field Name box and press Enter. Now create the following fields using the same process: ‘Gender’, ‘Birth date’, ‘Birth place’, ‘Death date’, ‘Marriage date’, ‘Relationship to me’ and ‘Portrait’. Click Next to continue when these fields are in place.

Each field needs to be assigned a type, such as text, memo, currency or file. Roll the mouse pointer over a type for a fuller description or press F1 to bring up the Help menu. Each field is assigned in turn, so start by leaving Text selected for Surname and click Next. Do the same for Forenames and Gender, but change the length to 1 character for Gender (as it will need to signify only ‘M’ for male or ‘F’ for female). Select Date for Birth date, Text (length 100 characters) for Birth place, Date for both Death date and Marriage date, Text for Relationship to me, and finally File for Portrait (because this will be a digital photo).

After setting the Portrait field to a file, click Finish followed by OK. The database will now open. Before entering the first record, edit the ‘Relationship to me’ field so it presents a choice of options from a dropdown menu. To do this, open the Data Record menu and select Design Data Record. Select ‘Relationship to me’ from the Field List and click Edit. Click the Rule & Value dropdown menu and select List, then click the ‘…’ button. Click Add, type ‘Spouse’ and click OK.

Click Add again and add another relationship, such as Child, Parent, Great grandparent or Uncle/Aunt. While you can add separate entries for different sexes (Grandmother and Grandfather, for example), it’s probably easier to use a generic term to cover both sexes (such as Grandparent) to keep things simple. Once a number of relationships have been defined, click OK followed by Save and then Close. This list can be added to or edited at any time from the Design Data Record option on the Data Record menu.

It’s time to add the first record. Click the pencil icon just under the Surname column to open the Add a Record window. Enter your own surname and forenames into the appropriate boxes. Type ‘M’ for male or ‘F’ for female into Gender. Enter your birth date and, if applicable, marriage date into the appropriate boxes using the format dd/mm/yyyy, or by clicking the Calendar button next to the appropriate field. Type in your birth place, but leave both the Death date and ‘Relationship to me’ fields blank. Now, click the Get File button next to Portrait.

Click the Browse button to select a portrait photo of yourself from the hard dis­k – a head-and-shoulders shot is best. Click the View button to preview the chosen photo and tick the Link checkbox so that future changes to the file are shown in the database. When you are happy with the choice of photo click Save to return to the main record entry screen. That’s all the information that needs to be entered about yourself now, so click the Save button.

The database is saved automatically and the first record will appear on screen, complete with the thumbnail portrait of yourself. Click the pencil icon underneath this first record to enter a second record. Fill in the details for the next person in your family tree. This time, click the dropdown arrow in the ‘Relationship to me’ field to select from the options you created earlier. If you have a portrait photo of the individual in question, click Get File as before to add it to their record. When finished, click the Save/New button to create another record, or Save to finish.

By default, records are displayed in alphabetical order based on the Surname field. To sort the list by any other field, click once on the column heading (such as Birth date) to sort it by that field in ascending order, or twice to sort it in descending order. To sort by more than one field (for example, by Birth date, then Gender and finally Surname) select Sort from the Tools menu. Choose up to three fields to sort by, plus what order (ascending or descending) to sort in. Click OK to see the results.

View or edit individual records by right-clicking one and choosing either Edit this Record or Display this Record. As the database grows, the records shown can be filtered by various criteria, such as people born after a certain date or those who have a specific relationship to you. Click the Find Fast button to filter the records based on a keyword ­ all records with any field containing that keyword will be displayed. To filter records using a specific field, click Find Field instead. Click the All button to remove any filters and display all the records in the database.

To create more complicated filters, such as showing all people born after a certain date or all the male members of a family with a specific surname, create a report. Click the Reports button to get started, then click Add to create a new report from scratch. Enter a suitable name and description, and then click the Columns button to select which fields are to be displayed in the report, and in what order they will be displayed in the report. Once the fields have been selected, click the Save button.

Next, click the Filters button. Tick the field or fields that will be used to determine which records appear in the report, then select each field in turn to set its criteria. The Condition box decides what condition must be met (for example, to show a list of all records that don’t contain a specific word or number, choose Not Equal), while the Compare box is used to either specify a word, number or date, or to allow the criteria to be chosen when the report is run (choose Value Entered By User). Click Save when you are done.

Click Save followed by the red X button to save the report and close the window. From here, click Display to view the filtered records in a web browser, or Export to save them for use in another program. Click Close to return to the main window, then click By Report to filter the records in the list based on the report you created. Select the report from the dropdown list and click OK. If prompted, enter the search terms (such as a date or name) and click Next to filter the list in File Amigo itself.