The Sources Sidebar

What Is the Sources Sidebar?

Showing All the Sources in a Family File

Showing the Sources Cited by a Person or Couple

Sorting the Sources

Searching for Text in Sources

Searching for Text in Specific Fields of Sources

Searching for Sources by Number

Recalling Recent Searches

Adding Source Records Using the Sources Sidebar

The Source Tools

Editing a Source Record

Showing Citations to a Source

Showing People Who Cite a Source

Marking People Whose Record Cites a Source

Marking People Whose Record Cites Any Source in the Source List

Copying the Text of a Source Record

Deleting a Source Record

Duplicating a Source Record

Finding and Deleting Unused Source Records

Finding Citation Detail

Source Usage Report for All Sources

Source Numbering

Sources: An Overview

Sharing the Sources Sidebar (Printing, Emailing, etc.)

Matching & Merging Sources

What Is the Sources Sidebar?

The Sources sidebar provides a list of sources.

You can see all the sources in the entire family file, or just a list of all sources cited by the husband and wife of the current family record.

The Sources sidebar can be used to help you cite information, and also to organize, reconcile, search, and access source records.

Showing All the Sources in a Family File

To see a list of all sources in the family file, click Sources in the Sidebar list. Then click All at the top of the sidebar.

The Sources sidebar can be open anytime and is especially useful when you're entering data and you need to cite an existing source. For example, it's easy to drag a source from the sidebar and drop it onto a data field to cite the source record. Learn more.

The Sources/All sidebar has four columns, showing:

The Sources/Family sidebar has one additional column:

The columns can be resized by dragging the edges of each title header, and can be rearranged by clicking the column titles and dragging to the left or right. To see more overall text, resize the sidebar.

To work with a list of all sources in a separate window, click the List button in the bottom bar (under the Sources sidebar) to see all sources in Reunion's List window. The List window, when showing all sources, provides more room to see longer fields and provides an exclusive field-specific search capability (not available in the Sources sidebar).

Click the Quickview button to see a preview of the source record. (While hovering the mouse over the list of sources, the Quickview button will appear on the right edge.)

Showing the Sources Cited by a Person or Couple

The Sources sidebar can show you the sources cited by a particular person or couple. To see this, click Sources in the Sidebar list. Then click Family at the top of the sidebar.

This will divide the Sources sidebar into 3 sections showing the sources cited by the husband and wife of the current family record, and also any sources cited by their marriage (or "family") data. The total number of citations linked to the current husband, wife, and family appears in the title of the Sources sidebar.

As you navigate to different people and couples in your family file, the sidebar will instantly be updated to reflect sources cited by (or attached to) the current husband, wife, and family. This feature makes it easy to answer these questions...

As described elsewhere in this chapter, the columns can be resized and rearranged, and the sources in the lists can be sorted by any column.

Sorting the Sources

To sort the list in the Sources sidebar, click the title of any column. Click the column title again to change the sort direction to descending, rather than ascending. Look for the little arrowhead in the column heading, pointing up or down, to tell you the direction of the sort.

Sorting your sources by template lets you group sources of the same template together, making it easier to find a source record when you're attempting to cite something. When template is selected, the sub-sort is by data.

The column selected for sorting will appear with an up or down pointing arrow in its title cell.

Searching Sources

To search for text in sources, or to search for sources by template, field, or number first make sure that the Sources > All sidebar is showing. If not, click Sources in the Sidebar list and then click All at the top of the sidebar.

Searching for Text in Source Records

The most basic search is to look for text in any field in sources based on any template. To perform such a search, make sure the Show button is set to "Any." Then, type some text into the search box. The list will show only the source records that contain the search text. To show all sources, click the little "X" button in the search box to clear the search box.

For example, if you wanted to search for any source record that mentions Wilma in any field, you'd show the Sources sidebar and then set up a search like this...

Search Methodology

Reunion offers three methods of searching sources: "starts with," "contains," or "does not contain."

Case and diacritical marks are ignored when searching. There's no need to use capitalization or letters with diacritical marks in the search box.

Searching for Sources by Template

You may also search for source records of a particular template (or any template), using the Show button.

For example, to search for sources based on a "Census" template that contain "1850," show the Sources sidebar and then set up a search like this...


The search below will list all sources using the template "Vital Record." Note that the search box is empty.

Searching for Sources Containing a Specific Field

To search for all source records that contain a specific field, use the key string "field:" in the search box, exactly like this example:

Searching for Sources by Number

If you know the number of a source and you want to see or select it...

First, open the Sources sidebar by clicking Sources in the Sidebar list and, if necessary, clicking All at the top of the sidebar. Then, you can find a source by number in two ways...

  1. If the cursor is blinking inside the search box at the top, type #x into the search box, where x is the number of the source you want to see. Then press the Return or Enter key.
  2. If the cursor is not in the search box (you can take it out of the search box by pressing Tab or by clicking any source in the list), just type the number of the source you want to see. The desired source will be selected in the list.

Note: when using method #1, the Show button will change to "Any" when the Return or Enter key is pressed.

Searching for Text in Specific Fields of Sources

The following searches are only possible in the List window; i.e., when you are showing sources in the List window.

Searching for Sources That Have a Particular Field
This search would list all sources that have a "Film Number" field. Note that the search box is empty.

Searching for Sources With Data In a Particular Field
This search would list all sources with data in the URL field. Note the use of the "not equals" character in the search box. To produce this character, press Option and = together (the = key that sits to the left of the Delete key).

Searching for Sources With No Data in a Particular Field
This search will list all sources with no data in the URL field (sources with empty URL fields). Note the use of the equal sign in the search box.

Searching for Sources of a Particular Template with No Data in a Particular Field
This search will list all Book sources with empty Author fields.

Keep in mind that the characters "=" and "≠" are ignored if the Field button is set to "Any Field."

Recalling Recent Searches

The 20 most recent searches entered into the search box can quickly be recalled in the menu that appears when the search menu button is clicked.

Adding Source Records Using the Sources Sidebar

To add a new source record using the Sources sidebar...

  1. Open the Sources sidebar by clicking Sources in the Sidebar list.
  2. Click All at the top of the sidebar.
  3. Click the Add Source button (in the bottom bar, beneath the list of sources).
  4. Select the template for the source you need. If you don't see the template you need in the Add Source window, select Source Settings. This page explains how to roll your own source templates.

Note: you can also add new source records while you're entering data in the Edit Person or Edit Family panels. It's explained here.

The Source Tools

The Source Tools button is located in the bottom bar, under the Sources/All sidebar. It contains several powerful features described below.

As you can see in the illustration above, the Source Tools window has several Command-key shortcuts. These only apply if a source is selected in the Sources sidebar.

Editing a Source Record

To edit a source record...

  1. Open the Sources sidebar by clicking Sources in the Sidebar list. (Click All if necessary.)
  2. Double-click the desired source in the Sources sidebar.

or...

  1. Select (by single-clicking) the desired source in the list.
  2. Click the Source Tools button in the bottom bar.
  3. Select Edit Source in the Source Tools window.

This will open the Source window. Learn more.

Showing Citations to a Source

To create a list of all citations to a source record...

This will open the Citations list. Learn more.

Note: When the Source window is open, there's a button that provides the same feature. Learn more.

Showing People Who Cite a Source

To create a list of all people whose records cite a particular source...

A list will appear in the Results sidebar with the name of every person who has a data entry field that cites the highlighted source. This is called a Source Usage list.

To display previously created Source Usage lists, use the Results menu. The five most recent Source Usage lists appear in the Results menu.

The Results sidebar is explained here.

Searching for citations in fields is explained here.

Marking People Whose Record Cites a Source

To mark people whose records use (or cite) a source record...

Note: this command does not unmark everybody first.

Marking People Whose Record Cites Any Source In The Source List

To mark people whose records use (or cite) any source record appearing in the Source list...

Note: this command does not unmark everybody first.

Copying the Text of a Source Record

To copy the text of a source to the Clipboard...

Deleting a Source Record

Note 1:
You should rarely, if ever, need to use this feature. Be very careful — it can't be undone.
Note 2:
Before deleting sources and citations you should see if any records cite a particular source by showing usage of a source.

To delete a source record and all citations to the source record...

A warning window will appear...

Clicking the Delete Source button will delete the source record from the family file and all citations to the deleted source record. The source may be cited in many different fields in many different person and/or family records. To find out where the source is cited, click the Usage button. (This button is the same as choosing Show People Citing Source x from the Source Tools, described here.)

Only one source may be deleted at a time, unless you want to find and delete all unused sources.

Duplicating a Source Record

To duplicate a source...

Finding and Deleting Unused Source Records

An "unused" source record is one which is not cited.

To search for unused source records...

A list of unused sources will appear in the Sources sidebar, along with a Delete button in the upper-right corner.

Finding Citation Detail

If you're searching for something in the citation detail field, you can create a list of people whose records contain source citations where the detail field matches a criteria. To do this...

The Find Citation Detail window lets you specify whether you want to search in all citations or only in the selected citation (the one that was highlighted in the Sources sidebar when you chose Find Citation Detail). In addition, you may specify how matches are determined, using the Detail button. In the example above, we're about to search for all citations to source 83 whose detail field contains the string "page 15." This will create a results list of people matching the criteria: people whose records contain one or more fields with citations to source record 83, and the detail field in these citations contain the text "page 15."

To find a list of people whose records cite source record 83 where the detail field in these citations is empty, you would leave the text field empty in the example above.

Source Usage Report for All Sources

To create a source usage report (a list of the sources cited in your family file, together with the contents of the citation detail field)...

This report, which is opened directly in your word processor, saved as a text file, or attached to an email message, includes...

  1. A list of sources used in your family file.
  2. A comma delimited list of person and family records that cite the source records.
  3. Contents of each citation detail field.
  4. Citation detail summary showing all the unique citation details for each source.

Information about matching and merging sources appears here.

source usage report

Source Numbering

When a new source record is created, it will be assigned the first available unused source number. When a source is deleted, Reunion does not renumber the remaining sources. For example, if you have ten sources and you delete source number 4, the next new source you add will become source number 4, and the one after that will be number 11.