Accent Definition Setting Not Working

[jwhelbron 0]

I have my accent setting set for a specific color to indicate "Is an Ancestor or Descendant of RN#1". This setting has worked for years. Recently, I added 4 more names who ARE direct ancestors and checked the Ancestor block in the Flags list to "Y" for each the 4. However, none of the 4 names appear with the specific color indicating an ancestor. Please advise as to what I'm missing! Thanks!

 

Bill

[Michael Hannah 0]

Hi Bill,

 

It is not clear from your post which of two ways you have set your Accent color.

 

There is a specific available Accent condition:

 

Is an Ancestor // of ID # // number

 

If this is what you are using then the Accent is being based on TMG's calculation of a Relationship to a person. Normally when TMG changes its focus to a new person it would recalculate the relationship of all people displayed to the ID specified for that Accent. As you say you added some names, then I suspect that for some reason TMG did not refresh its calculation of Relationships, even though it "should" have done so, or (more likely) TMG does not think these people are ancestors.

 

First, double check that the parent/child relationship tags for these new ancestors are Primary down the entire line of relationships which would link them to the identified descendant. Some relationship not being Primary is often the problem with a lack of ancestor linkage.

 

If that is not the issue you might try the following as the only thing I can think of to force TMG to recalculate relationships. In Preferences // Current Project Options // Other select the Focus person to be the same as your Accent and tick the "Automatic "Relation" tag" box. Now click the "Refresh relationships" button. I "think" this will refresh the calculation of all relationships, and might also now update your Accent. You could now untick the box if you do not want the Relation tag to show.

 

As a separate note, many users have noted that the condition you are using is one of the Accent conditions which slow down the performance of TMG. Since it has to (is supposed to) recalculate all relationships every time you change to a new person, this can really slow things down. Most of us highly recommend only using Flag values as conditions for Accents.

 

On the other hand, you might be setting your Accent a second way? Possibly your comment of "checked the Ancestor block in the Flags list to "Y" for each the 4" is trying to imply that you are using the standard "Ancestor Interest" Flag (or some custom Flag?) as the Accent condition? If you are using a Flag and have checked its value, I do not have any idea why the Accent is not working. However, perhaps you are misunderstanding that standard "Ancestor Interest" Flag? That Flag has nothing to do with the calculated ancestor Accent condition mentioned above. It is completely separate and simply provided as a standard way to Flag certain people which you wish to identify as being of some manually entered level of interest to you. An Accent based on this Flag would have a condition of:

 

ANCESTOR INTEREST // = // value

 

Using that, or any Flag value, as the condition of an Accent would give better performance. You might consider setting this standard Flag (or a custom Flag) to some value for all ancestors of the specific ID and using that as the Accent condition.

 

Finally, I highly suggest you review Terry Reigel"s Tips on using Accents on his web page here. You will notice about two-thirds of the way down the page he also suggests "Use Flags Rather than Filters for Better Performance" and specifically suggests not using "Is an Ancestor". Just under that comment is his example "Terry's Favorite Accent Definition" where he describes automatically setting a "Related-by" Flag for Accenting ancestors. Such a Flag can replace the Accent filter condition you are using and give better performance. See also his separate article Creating a "Related-by" Flag here for complete details on how to automatically set the values for this custom Flag.

 

Hope this gives you ideas,