Latest Release Information for AQ 12.0

The most current release of Ancestral Quest 12.0 is Build 14. All changes made to AQ 12.0 since its initial release are listed below.

There is a newer major release of Ancestral Quest. It is version 16. The current build is 12. For a specially priced upgrade fee, you can upgrade to this new version of the software.

Changes in AQ 12.1 after Build 14 of AQ 12.0, until AQ 12.1 build 14

Enhancements

Backups - AQ now restores PAF 5 backups and creates backup compatible with PAF 5
Narrative Reports and Web Pages - added the Biological sentence for use on a split relationship in a .aq file
Line of Descent Report - Add the Byte Order Mark for Unicode so some word processors that require it would find it.
GEDCOM Import - The Import used to check Custom IDs to see if they "looked" like AFNs, and if they did, it moved the Custom ID to the AFN field. It now leaves this alone in the Custom ID field.
Many, many features dealing with interfacing the new.FamilySearch.org system to enhance research and database checking. Only available to users who or in the pilot program for new.FamilySearch.org (nFS) until it is released to the general public.
Several other enhancements while working on the nFS features that we didn't track. See the list of changes for AQ 12.1 after you download it to find some of these.

Bug Fixes

Open Screen - The "Action" button on the Open/Save dialog used to specify the appropriate action in AQ 11, such as "Backup", "Copy", "Restore", etc. These had reverted to the default of "Open" or "Save". These now show the action text again.
Save As Screen - When using the Save As dialog, if you selected a filename from the list, then altered it, Windows would return the selected name rather than the altered name. AQ now uses the Altered name.
Several other fixes while working on the nFS features that we didn't track. See the list of changes for AQ 12.1 after you download it to find some of these.

Changes in Build 14 (3/19/2008)

Enhancements

Quick Entry - In addition to the Quick Entry that has been available in AQ since version 3, a new "Simple" Quick Entry was added. For some users, this style of Quick Entry may seem easier to use. It only allows for quick entry in the place names. For a user of a PAF database, this is the only quick entry feature which is available.
Relationships - When using a .aq file, you can show a different relationship for the father and mother. Enhancements were made to the Family view and to several reports to show this split.
Relationships - Removed the "Smart" handling of relationships. In the past, if you assigned multiple parents to a person, it would default to "Biological" for the first set of parents, then default to "Adopted" for additional parents. Now the default is always "Biological".
LDS - When working on a PAF file, adjusted the handling of the "Live LDS Baptism" flag.
LDS - Added a column to the Name List view and to the Custom Report that will list the LDS ordinance codes.

Bug Fixes

Modified Register (and Descendant Web Pages) - If a couple was marked as having no children, this didn't show in most cases. A sentence now prints.
Book Reports and Web Pages - If death information for an individual was set to "Dead" or "Deceased", the sentence describing the death event sometimes did not show properly. This has been fixed.
DNA - If you added DNA while initially creating a new person who was female, the DNA screen would allow you to enter Y-DNA without warning. The warning is now given.
Convert from old AQ 2.2 or earlier file (or PAF 2.31 or earlier). If you had used the tags for including contact information in the notes, the notes for that person might not convert correctly. Fixed.

Changes in Build 13 (1/10/2008)

Enhancements

Sources - Added "Death Notice", "Birth Record" and "Marriage Record" as source types.
Individual Summary Report - Added display of DNA test results
Birth Rite - As new databases are created, Bar Mitzvah and Bat Mitzvah are now set as Birth Rite types.
Individual Summary Screen - Clicking on an LDS temple code now brings up a website for that temple.

Bug Fixes

GEDCOM Import - If the option to NOT convert UPPERCASE names to Mixed Case was selected, such names were erroneously converted anyway. Fixed.
Web Pages - In some rare cases, the final word of a note was duplicated. Fixed.
Sources - Adjusted sorting of source types in Source Selection screen so they would sort correctly even after being translated.
Book Reports (Modified Registered) - If you had set a spouse as Confidential, and the relationship to Confidential, and then started the report with an ancestor of the confidential spouse, the program could abort. Fixed.

Changes in Build 12 (11/27/2007)

Enhancements

Web pages - were altered to generate in UTF-8 rather than Unicode-16.
New Fields - Phonetic and Romanized names were added to the "More" individual data screen. These are for use in Asian languages.
Date Ranges - In earlier versions, dates between 3000 BC and 3000 AD were accepted. Now dates between 6000 BC and 3000 AD are accepted.

Bug Fixes

Family Reunion Contact - report was not generating the file. Fixed.
Web Pages - On some pages, if a background was not selected, the header was duplicated. Fixed.
Descendant Charts - If one spouse was set as 'Confidential', that spouse showed up even if the confidential setting was unchecked. Fixed.
Book Reports to RTF file - Some special ANSEL characters were not displaying correctly. Fixed.
Book Reports (Modified Registered) - 'Never Married' was not always working correctly. Fixed.
DNA - If you set the display to Condensed before saving, some of the entries could be lost. Fixed.
Family Group Record - If the option was selected to print empty child boxes, and the youngest child was printed on the first page of the report, and the option to print notes on the 1st page was selected, in some cases the first part of notes would print on the first page before the empty child boxes, then be repeated after the child boxes. Fixed.
Dropline Descendant Chart - If certain items (such as tagged notes) were selected, the program would crash when attempting to print this chart. Fixed.
Custom Report - The report to file is now in Unicode, but the Unicode Byte Order Mark was not being written, causing some other programs to not be able to read the report. Fixed.

Changes in Build 11 (7/17/2007)

Enhancements

Publish Family Book - Added ability to block headers and/or footers from first page of any chapter.
Publish Family Book - Duplicate entries in Index were removed.
Database Compare - The compare sometimes suggested that siblings within the same database should be considered duplicates. Improved for most cases.

Bug Fixes

Quick Entry - In some cases, the quick entry feature did not suggest names as designed. Fixed.
Publish Family Book - If the book had enough chapters to cause the TOC to exceed a single page, only the first page was printed. Now the TOC will span to multiple pages as needed.
Publish Family Book - Sometimes the spouse of the root person on the Pedigree chart was not the right spouse. Fixed.
Publish Family Book - If the Line of Descent chart was selected, the title of that chart was often wrong. Fixed.
Publish Family Book - If the Line of Descent chart was selected, the index entries for that chart often showed the wrong pages. Fixed.
Name List View - When selecting a person using the feature to type part of a name or other data, the selection didn't stay when changing to another view. Fixed.
Research (To Do) Items - If you clicked the "Completed" checkbox, the date did not fill in properly. Fixed.

Changes in Build 10 (6/21/2007)

Enhancements

IGI Search - The FamilySearch site made a change that caused the Internal IGI Search to stop functioning. While this was not caused by a bug in AQ, an adjustment was required to AQ to work again with the newer FamilySearch IGI.
GEDCOM Import - It was discovered that Ancestry.com does not follow the standard when exporting GUIDs. The standard tag of "_UID" was not used, but rather "UID". AQ was adjusted to treat the "UID" from Ancestry.com the same as it treats the "_UID" from all other sources.

Bug Fixes

There were no bug fixes in this version. The IGI Searching adjustment mentioned above was an urgent enhancement for many users, so this build was released primarily to provide that enhancement to users of the IGI Internal Search feature.

Changes in Build 9 (6/6/2007)

Enhancements

Translation - Improved the presentation on some screens while translating.

Bug Fixes

Ancestry.com Links - On June 1, 2007, Ancestry.com changed its affiliate program, causing some links in AQ to Ancestry.com to not operate properly. Fixed.
Individual Screen (LDS) - If LDS options are turned on, and there was a live baptism, the place was not showing. Fixed.
Translation Update - In a very rare case, if updating from one build to a newer build, the conversion of the translation file could cause AQ to crash. Fixed.
Translation Update - When updating from one build to another, the temp file used in converting the language file was not deleted. Fixed.
Change Log - Improved the presentation of some change entries to condense them.
Change Log - Some notes were not showing the changes correctly.
Change Log - The Scrapbook Description was not being properly recorded in the Change Log.

Changes in Build 8 (4/18/2007)

Enhancements

Printing - Added a menu item under the File menu labeled "Print Large Charts". This option will provide guidance for printing the large charts available in AQ, and provide options to use other services to print a wide array of large charts from AQ data.
Open Database - Added a database type indicator. Now when you highlight a database prior to opening it, you can tell whether it is a new AQ 12 database, an older AQ 3-11 database, a PAF 5 database, or an older PAF 3-4 database.
IGI Search - Added a small gap between records in the Results pane for better readability.

Bug Fixes

Merge - If you merged a record that had no sources with a record that had a source, but no repository for the source, a blank repository record could be created. This caused no real problem, but the Database Check/Repair gave a warning in this case. The unneeded repository is no longer created.
Individual Screen - If you had a rather long event title for a custom event, it could cause the display of that custom event to not line up properly. Fixed.
Indiv Summary View - Parents always showed the RIN numbers, even when the preference was set to hide them. Fixed.
Indiv Summary View - In some cases, the DNA markers did not show properly. Fixed.
Web Pages - AQ 12 now creates the HTML pages in Unicode. The Unicode header bytes were not being added to the file, so some software had trouble reading the pages. The Unicode header bytes are now properly added.
Web Pages - If you used a long introduction, there was a chance that some spaces between words in the intro would not be saved between sessions. Fixed.
Folder Preferences - Some improvements were made to the way Folder Preferences are handled.
Folder Preferences - When generating a web site, if the folder preference was a relative path, AQ could have crashed. AQ now converts the relative path to an absolute path and the web site is properly created.
Narrative Reports - If you used the option to edit support sentences for a narrative report or web page, then added a new event type for individuals or marriages, these new event types would instead be marked as support sentences. Fixed.
Book Reports - The Narrative book reports, when printed to an RTF file, would print the title of the report two times in the footer. Fixed.
Collaboration/Book Reports - If you were printing a narrative book report from a collaboration file, some custom events did not show the name of the person properly. Fixed.
Citation Report - The report that lists all citations for a source did not always show all information as designed. Fixed.
DB Conversions - When converting an AQ type of file to another AQ type of file (for example when converting from AQ 11 to AQ 12, or rebuilding the AQ database, or publishing an AQ file for collaboration), one part of a citation could have been lost. This was the "Apply to" indicator for citations which had been used to cite more than one event, and when the "Apply To" was different for the various events cited. In these special cases, all the events which used this citation were assigned the "Apply to" of the first event converted. Fixed.
Search for Individual - If you defined a filter, then clicked on "Show Results only", there was a rare chance that AQ could lock up. Fixed.

Changes in Build 7 (3/12/2007)

Enhancements

IGI Search - Added indicators to help you at a glance determine whether the IGI record you have selected contains Individual or Marriage data.

Bug Fixes

IGI Search - If you changed the level of Source detail, the next time you selected another IGI record, it would be reset. Now you selection stays.
IGI Search - If you set the detail level to the lowest setting, even if there were differences between the IGI record and your record, these would not show. Fixed.
IGI Search - If you entered the IGI search screen by using the "IGI" button in the Marriage screen, and then imported any changes to the Marriage record from the IGI records, these would initially be saved properly. But the Marriage screen was not properly updated, and if you hit "Save" on the Marriage screen, you would undo the merged data from the IGI records. Fixed.

Changes in Build 6 (3/08/2007)

Enhancements

Source Types - Added types of "Death Record", "Eulogy", "Funeral" and "Monument".
Internet Searching - Added a link in the Internet menu to search for an individual on a new online database site, WorldVitalRecords.com.
Printing - In preparing Windows Vista, the Microsoft programmers decided to remove the "Printer" selection button from the Page Setup window. So that Vista users could change their printer, a new "Printer Setup" button has been added.
Help - In Windows Vista, Microsoft decided to no longer support the help system used by Ancestral Quest. AQ now ships with two versions of the Help file. The older system for users of versions of Windows prior to Vista, and a new system for Vista users.

Bug Fixes

Reports, Web Pages - If there was a newline in the "Cause of Death" field, it could cause the report to lock up. Fixed.
Descendant Dropline Report - If you had set the options to print the repeated surnames, and there was no surname for an individual, a blank line was left between the given name and other data, which could cause some data to print outside the box. Fixed.
Generate IDs - If you selected a partial list, then cancelled the selection process, the program would crash. Fixed.
Source Records in a PAF Database - PAF databases cannot store the short title or abbreviated author. The screens looked like this was possible. They have been adjusted to correct this.

Changes in Build 5 (2/26/2007)

Bug Fixes

User Defined Event Types - During Conversion from an .aq file created with AQ 3 through AQ 11, if the user had defined his/her own custom event types, and had set the event type up to include a description, the description flag did not come over to the new AQ 12 file. Fixed -- the description flag now converts properly.
Events of a Type Defined by User - If an event recorded description information, and the Defined Type for that type of Event did not have the description flag set, the description would be lost if the user viewed the event and then saved it. Fixed -- now if there is data for which a flag is not set, the data is not lost.

Note: The problem that was fixed in build 5 will only affect a very few users. Those users should verify whether they need to set the description flag for Event Types that they have created, and if they have viewed and saved any events of that type, they may want to verify that the description information is intact. Such users will fit this usage profile:

The Event Type had to have been created by the user when using an earlier version of AQ. (This problem did not happen for the default Event Types created by AQ itself.)
The Event Type had to have the "Use Description" flag set.
The conversion from AQ 3 - AQ 11 had to have been done with a build of AQ 12 earlier than build 5.

Changes in Build 4 (2/24/2007)

Bug Fixes

Reports in Other Languages - Even if the dates were translated, they would show in the primary language if you selected a different language for a report. Fixed.
Filter Definitions - Saved filter definitions from earlier versions could not be read, and even current definitions were not being properly retrieved. Fixed.
Custom Report Definitions - Saved report definitions from earlier versions could not be read, and even current definitions were not being properly retrieved. Fixed.
Never Married - If you set the Never Married flag for an individual, and the individual had a certain combination of sources for the individual or his/her events, then producing a narrative report or web page could crash. Fixed.
Source Images - If you attached a .pdf file to a source as an image (using the "Sound", "Video", "Document" or "Other" type), you would sometimes get an unecessary warning, and the image may not show. Fixed.
Family Group Sheet - If you chose not to allow an individual's info to span two pages, and you asked for notes on the first page, and the last person on page one needed to shift to page two, then you could get notes on page one before all the children were printed. Fixed.
Family Group Sheet - If you asked for empty child boxes, and you had notes, and an empty child box was the first item to print on a new page, then the notes section might start with the wrong notes. Fixed.
IGI Search - If you used the "Exact Spelling" option, you were likely to get no results back, even when there might have been results. Fixed.
Marriage GUIDs - The Marriage GUID is not a user entered piece of data, but can be an aid in matching marriage records later. Check/Repair was not properly fixing some problems with Marriage GUIDs. Fixed. Also, if an .aq database was converted to something else -- like a Collaboration (.ac) database, or a PAF (.paf) database, then the Marriage GUIDs were not converted properly. Fixed.
Event Types - The default number of descriptions for the Military Service event type should have been 1, but was 0. While build 4 corrects this for new databases created with this build, any database created by earlier builds would need to have the user correct this, if desired, by editing the event type.
Event Types - 4 event types had syntax errors in the default sentences. For new databases created with build 4 or later, these sentences will be correct. For databases created with builds 3 or earlier, if the user intends to use the "Naturalized", "Citizenship", "Confirmation" or "LDS Confirmation" event types, the user should look at the sentence structure, and add a closing angle bracket ">" after the date field ("%<5 %@ %5>").

Changes in Build 3 (2/08/2007)

Enhancements

PAF 5 Database - If you opened AQ from the PAF 5 "Tools" menu, you would receive a notice that you needed to close the file in PAF before you could edit in AQ. The message was not as clear as it could be. Improved.
No Children Indicator - In the Individual Summary screen and merge screens, the flag to indicate that a couple had had no children was causing confusion, so that checkbox is now labeled "Childless" rather than "No Children".

Bug Fixes

Family Screen - In some cases, the birthdates in the Child list would overlap. Fixed.
Custom Events - On the Individual Edit screen, a place name could be just the right size to push other fields to the right, causing the 'X' which indicates sources to move out of view, giving the impression that the source was missing. This was simply a display issue -- no data was lost. Fixed.
Merge Sources - After successfully merging two sources and transferring the citations, AQ would display a message indicating that no citations had been merged, when in fact they had. Bogus message removed.
Source Images - If you had entered a source image with a type of 'D' or 'O' (for Document or Other), you could not view these on screen. Fixed.
Fan Chart - In some cases, if the report tried to display an end-of-line person, the chart would cause the report to abort, and the family view might thereafter exhibit odd behavior. Fixed.
Pedigree Chart - If the primary person of the chart had more than one spouse, the program would hang. Fixed.
Book Reports - If a custom event definitiona allowed for 2 dates or 2 places, and the second date or place was entered, and if there were any citations for the event, then you might see a "<<PCIT>>" or "<<DCIT>>" in the sentence. Fixed.
Place Conversion - If a place to be converted was in a custom event, and AQ required user direction (ie "Is Georgia a US state, or a country in Asia?"), AQ would crash. Fixed.
Collaboration - The "Invite Others" menu option was missing. Re-added.
IGI Updates - If the IGI search was started from the Individual Edit screen, rather than from one of the main views, the screen had trouble redisplaying the data and crashed the program. Typically, the data was already saved by then, so no loss of data. Fixed.
IGI Result Screen - If the IGI record had no indivdiual ordinance data, the individual ordinance section of the screen wouldn't display. This was confusing, so that section always displays now.
IGI Search - If the UserName to log onto FamilySearch had a space in it, the login would fail, and LDS ordinances would not show for LDS users. Fixed.
IGI Results - The checkbox for "No Children" was confusing. Removed.
IGI Merge - In some cases, citations from other Seal to Parent events were being duplicated and added to a different person's Seal to Parent records. Fixed.
IGI Merge - In some cases Seal to Spouse citations were being duplicated and added to a person's Marriage event as well. Fixed.
IGI Merge - In some cases, if a scrapbook item was attached to a source citation, and the merge needed to rewrite the citation, the link to the scrapbook item could be lost. Fixed.
Export to GEDCOM - Some Sealing to Parent sources were not being exported to the GEDCOM file. Fixed.
Import from GEDCOM - In a .paf database, Seal to Parent sources did not always link up properly to the event. Fixed.
Import to PAF DB - AQ cannot change place abbreviations in a .paf file. The import screen improperly allowed the user to select an option to do so. Option removed.
Source Reordering - In a .paf database, if you changed the order of sources, the change was not recorded. Fixed.
Sources Display in .paf DB - Seal to Parent sources did not display properly in the Sources tab of the documentation screen. Fixed.

Changes in Build 2 (1/30/2007)

Bug Fixes

In the IGI Search feature, if you merged information from the IGI, it could cause some information in the parent-to-child record to be lost for the siblings of the person you merge. Fixed.
If you were backing up to a removable disk (like a floppy), a message would simply state, 'Y', and the backup would fail. Fixed.

Changes in Build 1 (1/27/2007)

Bug Fixes

Converting from and older AQ 3-11 database to the new AQ 12 format could cause the program to abort if notes contained certain characters. Fixed.

Changes in Build 0 (1/23/2007)

Build 0 was the first commercially available build.