Display Name Editor: how to bold/underline Call Name

Help
1

Gramps 5.1.3 on Linux OpenSuse 15.1

My ancestors had the habit of giving their children three to four names, but the call name (German: Rufname) is not always the first name, e.g. my father’s call name was actually his first given name, but for my grandfather the last of his four given names was his call name. And the same is the case for many more members of the family.

My intention is to emphasize the call name in any text or graphical report, e.g. either in bold or underlined. I cannot make too much sense of the Gramps documentation on exactly how to use the display name editor to get this to work (if there is such a feature at all). I did fill in the Call Name in the Person Editor form but I am still at a loss on how to get the report printed with the call name emphasized.

Any suggestions are much appreciated

1 Like
2

Welcome

The Display Name Editor has several options already available but you can make your own.

When you “Add” you type in the options from the list above. As you add an option, the Example name will start to fill in.

Since you are most interested in given names there are three basic fields. Given name which would be first and middle names. The Call name can be any of these names and you indicate for your family it is often one of the middle names. Note: Call name expects one of the given names as written. Anything else will display in red. The Nickname is usually a diminutive or something totally unrelated to what is expected. (My father’s name was Clarence. His nickname was Mike.) These are all entered in a person’s record.

So you can set the display to Given "Call" Surname. If the Call name is empty, the quotes (") will not display. The same for “(” “)”.

Or you can use the Common Surname name option. It will use the Call name if it exists as a first option, the Nickname as a second option, and the first of the Given names as the last option to display.

If you type the option in all CAPS, that part of the name will display in all CAPS; ie Given SURNAME would display John SMITH.

An advance course would be needed if you need to break apart the components of the Surname.

Depending on the report, some will allow you to override the default name display. So if you have your default name display Surname, Given "CALL" you can set the report’s name display to Common Surname. Not all reports allow this so you might need to select another display option when running a report.

And lastly, in the Name editor you can override on an individual basis the default name display setting for both display and sort.

When in doubt, you can create and then edit a name display using one option at a time to see what is displayed on your database. Then you can build a display option that meets your needs. Remember, you are only manipulating the display of the name, this is not actually altering the database. So if names do not display to your liking, you can change it.

3

Underlining the call name would be a useful feature, but unfortunately it is not possible at the moment.

4

I think there was a long post about this a few month back…

It was about splitting up German names if I don’t remember wrong,

5

The advanced course

1 Like
6

Thanks for the clarification, that will save me time searching for a solution. Would be a useful feature for future releases.

7

This topic was automatically closed 30 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.