FHSWIN - Introduction
The "Family History System" is a software package for:
This Introduction will explain a little about the software.
- creating "Family Files" with information about related individuals;
- viewing that information stored in a Family File;
- and printing reports and charts for sharing that information with others.
FORMS:
The Family History System for Windows (FHSWIN) was written using Visual Basic, a programming environment designed for developing Windows applications. The "user interface", that is the appearance and means of communication between the user and the software, employs rectangular areas of the screen formatted with text and data-entry fields. These rectangular areas are called "FORMs" in this environment. FHSWIN uses more than 29 of these forms in its operation.A FORM can be moved by placing the mouse cursor in the "Title Area" of the FORM, near the top, pressing the mouse button down and "dragging" the form to a preferred area on the screen, then releasing the mouse button. Some forms are also "resizable" by placing the mouse cursor on the boundary of the form (until the cursor changes to double-arrows), then pressing the mouse button down and "dragging" the boundary to change the shape of the rectangular area, then releasing the button.
FHSWIN has been designed so that changes that you make to the location or size of any form will be "remembered" for future working sessions.
System Data Files:
The FHSWIN program folder was described in a previous section. It contains a single PROGRAM file (FHSW2018.exe") but several other files that contain information important to the operation of the software. Although the basic content and format of all FORMs is contained in the program file, the text of all system Messages, formats for all Reports, and many Tables of textual information are stored outside the progam in these "System Files". Although changes that you make to some controls (such as printer-page descriptions and report option settings) are stored in these files, none of your Family File information should be placed in this folder so that the loss or replacement of this program folder will not affect the information that you enter (as long as you remember where you put your Family File folder).
Click to Continue this Introduction or to go back to the Startup Help Menu.