Addon:BirthOrderTool

This is a Third-party Addon. The Addon/Plugin system is controlled by the Plugin Manager. Please use carefully on data that is backed up, and help make it better by reporting any issues to the bug tracker. Unless otherwise stated on this page, you can download this addon by following these instructions. Please note that some Addons have prerequisites that need to be installed before they can be used.

Sort Children in Birth order - Tool - example window

The Sort Children in Birth order tool searches your family tree for families that have children which are not listed in the order of their births and assists in ordering them. Allows bulk updates of the children order.

Usage

• Select Menu Tools -> Family Tree Processing -> Sort Children in Birth order...

Warning Proceeding with this tool may make unexpected changes to your data. While it is possible to Undo the changes made by this tool, it may be easier to recover from a backup.

• When the tool starts, it scans you data for families that need sorting. A progress bar appears so that with large databases Gramps doesn't seem to be frozen. This does not make any changes to your data, and only performs the search and fills the panes if unsorted families are found. Families with children in birth order are not shown. If some children in a family don't have valid birth dates, but others are in order, the family is not shown.
• When the scan is complete the results will be shown in the Sort Children in Birth order window dialog.

Sort Children in Birth order dialog

The Sort Children in Birth order window dialog shows three main panes and some buttons.

top pane

The top pane will contain a list of the results of the search.

If nothing appears here, then none of your families have unsorted children.

• Selecting a family from this list updates the data in both the lower panes.

It is also possible to sort this list for Family ID, Father, or Mother, using the header of the list.

Current sort pane

The Current sort pane (lower left side) will show the original unmodified list of children with their birth dates, if any. This cannot be changed.

Proposed sort pane

• The Proposed sort pane (lower right side) will show the proposed changes to the children sort for the Selected family in the top pane results. If the user wants to make additional changes, they can be made directly in the Proposed sort pane. Adjusting the sort manually can be done by selecting a child and using either the Up or Down buttons below the pane. When you are satisfied with the changes, if any, you can use the Accept button to save the proposed sort order to the database.
• Many times, the user will not feel a need to make manual changes, the proposed sort order if acceptable. The tool offers two buttons that allow the user to accept some or all of the listed families.
  • The Accept All * button will accept all the families that have a '*' (Asterisk) next to them. In these families all the children have valid birth dates so that sorting can be done unambiguously. When this button is used, a progress bar appears so that with large databases Gramps doesn't seem to be frozen.
  • The Accept All button will accept all the families, even those with some missing or invalid birth dates. In these cases, the sorted results is the same as shown in the lower right 'Proposed sort' pane. That is, children with invalid or missing birth dates will be sorted first, followed by those with valid dates. When this button is used, a progress bar appears so that with large databases Gramps doesn't seem to be frozen.
• If you do not want any changes to be made to your data, or you are done with the tool, you can simply press the Done button.
• The Help button will show this page.

Some Notes

• When changes are accepted, they appear in the 'Undo' list Edit -> Undo History... where they can be undone. They can also be undone individually via Edit -> Undo. Changes from the Accept button are listed individually as Edit Family, those from the Accept All or Accept All * buttons are listed as Edit families in the undo list.

See also

How do I change the order of children?

• Use the Children tab in the Family Editor to change the order of children in the active family.
• Use this third-party addon Sort Children in Birth order tool which allows bulk updates of the children order.

See also:

• This Children gramplet in the People Category views displays all children from all marriages for the active person. Children are displayed as ordered in the family record(s).