What Is the People Sidebar?
Searching for People
Shortcuts for the Fastest Searching
Searching for First Names Only or Last Names Only
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Sharing the People Sidebar (Printing, Emailing, etc.)
Deleting People Using the Sidebar
The People sidebar is a scrolling, alphabetized list of... guess what? People! The list includes every person in a family file; however, it can also be searched and filtered to include only people with certain names.
To see the People sidebar, select People in the Sidebar list.
The People sidebar is a navigational tool — just single-click any name in the sidebar to show a person in the family view.
As you add new records, the names of new people are instantly added to the People sidebar.
By default, names in the People sidebar are grouped by surname. This makes it easier to see longer names without truncation. The subtitled surnames show the number of people having each surname.
Surname grouping can be turned on/off via the button, under the People sidebar.
The People sidebar can also be used to mark and link people, and it's easy to share the list. Clicking in the Mark column of a subtitled surname row will toggle the mark status for each person in the surname group.
To show people in the List window, where you have the ability to set up multiple columns to show more fields, click the button (in the bottom bar, under the People sidebar).
One easy way to find people is to use the search box at the top of the People sidebar. To do this...
Reunion will save your 20 most recent finds. To recall one of your recents finds, click on the
button in the search box and select one of your recent finds from the list of recent finds in the menu. You can also clear the list of most recent finds by selecting .You can also find people using the same search box that appears in...
Note: | If you need a more sophisticated search (for example, a search for something in one particular field or a search for people matching certain criteria or attributes), then use the Advanced Find feature. On the other hand, if you simply want to find all instances where a certain word is used (or you're not sure where to look), then use the regular Find feature. |
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You don't need to type entire names in the search box. Reunion looks for matches that start with the letters you enter in the search box. You could, for example, search for Leroy Brown by typing: "br, le" into the search box.
Another example: the quickest way to find "Francis Scott Key" is to search for "key, fra sco." Or you could search for "key, sco fra." It doesn't matter what order the first/middle names are typed into the search box. The searching methodology is to look for words that begin with the text typed in the search box.
Remember this shortcut if your searches include people with very long names: it's not necessary to type complete names.
There's no need to use capitalization or letters with diacritical marks in the search box. Case and diacritical marks are ignored when searching.
Do not use quotes (single or double), apostrophes, or other punctuation marks in the search box — except for the comma that separates last name from first name.
For example, if you have a person named "d'Orleans" just type "dorleans" in the search box. No apostrophe is needed. If you have a person named "Saké" just type "sake" into the search box.
Searching For First Names Only or Last Names Only
To search for a first name in the People/Results/Bookmarks/Color Tags/Islands sidebar...
Similarly, to search for last name only (surnames)...
To search for somebody by "married name," enter a dash before the surname in the search box. For example...
To search first/mid name & last name fields for one or more names, select the
find format. This format is much more convenient in that it does not require the use of a comma to separate the first name and last name.For example: Searching for john will find all people with first or last names that begin with john - John Smith and Mary Johnson will be found.
Since both name fields are being searched, a search such as peter smith could be entered without the need for a comma.
Learn more about the Married Name field.
The search box could show many different people having the same or similar name. So you can click on the first match and then use the arrow-down key, on your keyboard, to march through all the matches. Or, to speed the process, you could focus the search a little more. One way is to specify a last name and both first and middle names. Another way is to use longer text strings in the search box. For example, instead of searching for "Wil, Rob" you could search for "Williams, Robin."
Search Examples
If you type in Brown, then all surnames beginning with Brown appear (including "Archibald Leroy Brown," "Leroy Brown," and "Lenny Browning").
If you type in Brown, Leroy then any person with a last name starting with "Brown" and a first OR middle name starting with "Leroy" would be included (including "Archibald Leroy Brown" and "Leroy Brown").
If you type in ,Leroy only people with a first or middle name of "Leroy" would be found.
Thus, the more you type (including the more words you type) the more the list is filtered. It's not necessary to type in exact names or full names or complete words.
Working with Huge Family Files
By default, most searchable lists have a "live" search box at the top of the list, where the contents of the list change instantly as you type text into the search box. Examples include the People and Results lists.
However, if a family file has a large number of people, the ability to search in this manner deteriorates as the computer struggles to keep up with your typing.
Reunion lets you disable instant "live" searching and gives you the option to type text into a search box and then press the Return or Enter key to initiate the search.
To set this option...
More information about General Settings is here.
You may also type ID numbers into the search box to locate a person by ID number. Learn more.
You can type Soundex numbers (like L236) or partial Soundex numbers (like L23) into the search box above the People sidebar to show only people whose surnames match a particular Soundex number.
The People sidebar (and People List window) can be filtered by gender.
To show only males in the list of People, type "[males only]" — with the brackets, but without the quotes — into the search box. To show only females, type "[females only]".
To show only males with a certain surname in the list, type "[males only] surname" — with the brackets, but without the quotes — into the search box. Same convention for females.
If your List color mode is set to Color lists by sex, you'll notice color coding (by sex) applied to entries in the People sidebar.