Will the errors and omissions with respect to Clements family name headings on sightings reports be corrected in Birders Diary v.3.7, e.g. oxpeckers, leaf-warblers, reed-warblers, grassbirds and allies and donacobius? Will world families seen be totaled on ABA report for transcription?

Also, on checklists, a bird will only show as seen if a species is recorded as seen. It will not appear on a checklist if only a subspecies is recorded as seen. Will this be corrected?

I am looking forward to the new version. I am currently on version 3.5.6. Will I have any problem updating?

Thanks for all the good work.

Laura

Hi Laura,

Good questions:

1. Yes - will fix missing family names in 3.7
2. On checklists, bird showing as seen if species is recorded is already fixed. I think that was fixed in 3.6, but it is certainly already fixed in the latest release of beta 3.7.
3. Not sure about world families seen being totaled on ABA report. Checking into what it will take for 3.7.
4. No problems upgrading from 3.5 to 3.7.

Let me know if I can assist further.

Jeff

Hi Laura,

#3 will be in v3.7 also!

Jeff

Hi, Jeff,

Wow! Thanks! Since you granted my first three wishes, I'll try for one more.

How about a family name index for the master sightings report? We now compile one by hand so that we can find birds more easily in our printed list of all world sightings.

Thanks again,

Laura

Would it be used, for example, to tell that Tinamidae are on Page 2 of the list, Trogonidae are on Page 17 and Turdidae are on page 72?

I assume the list would be in Tax sequence, since the index for an Alpha sequence list would be ugly.

Hi, Steve,

Yes, that is what we want. We would like English names instead of scientific names for the families, although there could be a choice of either one. The index itself could just be an option of the report. Yes, we do want it to be in alpha order of family.  Our example is Accentors page 97, Albatrosses page 9, Wrens page 86. We are using Excel to enter the family names with page numbers and then sort the names alphabetically.

Laura

Ok - now I am confused. Laura, what do you mean by "master sightings report" in your original request for this feature?

Are you talking about a Sightings Report (Sightings TAB in the Report window) and that it create an index at the front of the report (or back) that shows you which page to find the Family in question?

Are you sorting your reports Taxonomically (the default)? Are you grouping by Family and making that field a large Bold font?

Jeff

Thanks Laura.

I see you are running version 3.5. In 3.6, you get to set the font/color etc for the group headings.

In 3.5 also, you determine those groupings (such as, in your example) where all sightings are grouped by Family, by clicking on the Output Columns button, and clicking the group by checkbox for the Family column.

But I now understand what you are asking for and will look into getting that into the next release. Thanks.

Jeff