Second Site News #021

Second Site Version 1.8 (Build 7) Released

This is a maintenance release that fixes a couple problems introduced by the Version 1.8 (Build 6) release. Please see the Second Site Change Log for details.

All existing customers should download this free upgrade. If you are a registered Second Site user and the About Second Site window (Help > About command) does not show the same version number and build number as above, I recommend that you download this new version and install it. You will not lose any SDF files or sites you have already made.

Tip: Customized Chart Tables

Update: The information in this section is out of date. In Second Site Version 2, Charts are created via User Items and user item titles can be set without the need for scripting.

By default, Second Site sets the Linked Descendant Chart.Title property to "Descendant Chart for [P]". When Second Site makes the chart, [P] is replaced by the name of the chart's subject.

That's all well and good, but what if you have two people with the same name? What if you would rather a more descriptive title? If you have more than one Linked Descendant Chart, you can't key your preferred title into the Title property because the Title property is used for all subjects.

There is a way to specify a custom Chart Title, but it's documented as part of a facility that supports customizing any chart property. Typical users are not aware of that facility and would probably never find the answer on their own. Sounds like a good reason for a newsletter article to me!

Chart Scripts are used to customize charts for specific individuals. The Subject IDs property of the various chart sections supports chart scripts. Using the "<% ... script ... %> notation, the script can change one or more of the Chart Object properties.

In this case, we want to change the Chart Title. Let's assume that the chart for TMG ID#7 should get the default title produced by the "Descendant Chart for [P]" value, but we want "Dad's Descendants" as the Chart Title for TMG ID#8. Key the following into the Subject IDs textbox:

7; 8 <% Chart.Title="Dad's Descendants" %>

Remember, you can use [F7] to open the edit window when keying the value for a text property. It's a lot easier to edit long text values in the Text Editor window than in the small textbox of the main user interface.

Try it, but watch out! You may become addicted to custom Chart Titles!

Downloads

Second Site is available via download only. See the Downloads page.

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