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Customize Options


The Customize window in Legacy is provided to allow the user to customize the program to his/her own preferences. 


The Customize screen is reached by choosing Customize from the Options tab on the Ribbon bar.  The Customize screen is displayed, where you can make many types of changes to the program interface and appearance.  Following is a brief description of each tab.  Click the corresponding link to view a full description of each section.
  
1.  General Settings 
How would you like the program to look when started?  Should the main window be maximized?  Which view would you like to see?  Which family file should open?  Who should be displayed?  How would you like the surnames formatted?  Do you want birth-death years added to names?  How many columns of children should appear?  What kind of pop-up help do you want to see?

2.  Data Entry 
Control how you enter things on the screen.  These include verification of new names and locations, jumping directly to notes after entering information, who is presumed to be dead, text formatting codes, the behavior of the Enter key, field highlighting behavior, and ancestral and descendant interest fields.

3.  Data Format 
Control how things look on the screen.  These include letter case formatting of names and locations, child list indicators, living indicators, christening terms, and potential problem indicators.

4.  Data Defaults 
Set the default behavior when entering information.  These include living defaults, note types, reuse of RINs and MRINs, default latitude and longitude directions, character ribbon settings, units of measurement, and time format.

5.  Dates 
Legacy supports many different formats for both inputting and displaying dates in the program.  You can enter dates in almost any conceivable format and they are reformatted to a consistent format of your selection.  You can also include several prefix modifiers including Before, After, About, Between, Circa, BC, and AD.  Legacy also recognizes several abbreviations of these modifiers.

6.  Locations 
Set or change the default locations of your family files, media files and temporary files.

7.  Sources 
Choose settings for AutoSource, Source Surety, and whether or not to print Master Source and Detail Source text and comments on reports.

8.  View 
Choose options for how things look on the screen.  These include birth-death range at the end of names, RINs, AFNs or IDs at the end of names, showing ancestor colors, short location names, how many columns of children to display, user interface style, master location list style, showing thumbnail pictures on the Family View, headings to use on the Family View, potential problem displays, relationship term variations, how to show that children have spouses and children, and displaying of Hints.

9.  Colors 
You can change the background color of some of the main input forms.  See 
Customizing Colors.

10.  Fonts 
You can change the fonts used for screen forms and printed reports.

11.  Launch 
Legacy offers to start your web browser, word processor, or text editor to view web pages or reports that you have generated.  Normally, the default program for your computer is used.  You can override these settings and use a different program to view the results by filling in one or more of the program fields.

12.  Other Settings 
Miscellaneous settings concerning message boxes, report credits, RIN number warnings, automatic backup at program exit, at what age people should be presumed dead, toolbar location, custom ID # setting, and toolbar picture size.

(Options Index)
There are a lot of customization options in Legacy and sometimes it is hard to find where a particular one is located. Clicking the (Options Index) displays an alphabetized list of all the options and where to find them (in which section).

Saving and Loading Option Settings

When you have all the options set the way you want them, simply click the Save button.  Legacy will remember your choices and return to the main program.

Legacy-Default Settings
Legacy comes with a set of default option settings.  These are settings that the programmers selected as the most common values (or the values they liked the most).  If you ever want to reset any option to the Legacy-default, just right-click on the option heading and choose Reset to Legacy-Defaults.  If you want to reset all of the options to the original Legacy values, click the Options for Default Settings button and choose Reset to Legacy-Defaults. 

User-Defaults Settings
You can change any of the option settings to however you want Legacy to work and look.  Some of the options you set apply only to the current family file you are viewing and have (ff) at the end of the option title.  Others are global options that apply to all family files and the user interface of Legacy and have (gbl) at the end of the option title.

Saving User-Default Settings
You can save all your settings as user-defaults.  This means you can reload them again in the future.  Clicking on the Options for Default Settings button gives you these Save options:

Save ALL current settings as User-Defaults - This saves both global and current family file settings as user-defaults.  
Save current GLOBAL settings as User-Defaults - This saves only the settings associated with all family file and interface settings.
Save current Family File settings as User-Defaults - This saves only the settings associated with the current family file.

You can also save individual options by right-clicking on the option heading and choosing Save settings as User-Defaults.

Loading User-Default Settings
You can reload all of your user-default settings by clicking the Options for Default Settings button and choosing Reset to User-Defaults.  You can reset individual options by right-clicking on the option heading and choosing Reset to User-Defaults.

Where are the Option Settings Stored?
Legacy stores customization settings in two places.  Some are stored in a file called Profile.dbm and others are stored in each individual family file.  All Legacy-defaults (both global and family file) and user-defaults (both global and family file) are stored in Profile.dbm.  This is so that they can be retrieved at any time no matter what family file you are currently working in.  

Whenever you start a new family file, Legacy looks to see if you have saved any user-default family file settings.  Any that are found are saved in the new family file.  If there are no user-defaults, the Legacy-defaults are used.

If you open an existing family file and want to change its settings to your user-defaults, just come here to the Customize Legacy screen and choose Reset to User-Defaults from the Options for Default Settings button.


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