If you’ve been doing this long enough, you know the feeling. You have the image of that 1880 census page. You scanned it yourself. It’s attached to your database somewhere. It’s just… not immediately obvious where.
The Record Library in Evidentia 3+ is built for exactly that moment. Think of it as the card catalog for your research files — every image, PDF, audio file, and document, all in one browsable, searchable, filterable view.
What You’re Looking At
When you open the Record Library, you see every attachment in your database laid out in front of you. Each file shows its thumbnail (or a file-type icon for non-image formats), its name, its category, and which source or citation it belongs to.
You can switch between grid view — the default, visual layout — and tree view, which organizes your files the same way your categories are organized: broad on the left, specific on the right. If you’ve spent time building a category structure like census.us.1880 or vital.birth.ma, the tree view makes it feel like a proper filing cabinet rather than a pile of thumbnails.
Five Filters, Working Together
Above the file grid, five independent filters let you narrow things down. You can use any combination:
- Search by name or parent — type any part of a filename, or the name of the source or citation it’s attached to
- Category — narrow down to a specific category or subtree
- File type — images, PDFs, audio, video, or other
- Attachment type — source attachment, citation attachment, or both
- Cloud provider — if you’re using cloud storage, filter by which provider the file lives on
Each filter takes effect immediately. The results update as you type.
What’s Inside a File
Double-click any file in the grid to open the File Detail dialog. This is where the Record Library goes from a browser to a genuinely useful research tool.
- A full-size preview (or a download link for formats that don’t preview)
- The file’s category
- Its caption — which you can add or edit right here
- The source or citation it’s attached to, with a link to open it directly
- The cloud provider badge, if applicable
- An Open in system app button
That last item matters more than it sounds. If you’re working with a multi-page PDF and want to actually read it, or an audio recording from a family interview, one click opens it in the right app without any hunting through your file system.
If You’re Coming from Evidentia 3
In Evidentia 3, the closest equivalent was the Document File Manager tab — the DFM. It showed you a list of file paths. You could confirm a file was attached and see where it lived on disk, but there was no browsing, no thumbnails, no filtering by anything.
The Record Library is a different tool entirely. Where the DFM gave you a location list, the Record Library gives you an interface for actually working with your files.
Getting the Most Out of the Record Librar
The Record Library gets more useful the more consistently you work. A few habits that pay off:
- Write captions when you attach a file. The caption shows in the detail dialog and helps you distinguish between twenty scans that are all named
census-1880.jpg. - Use descriptive category names. The tree view and category filter work best when your taxonomy is specific —
census.us.1880is far more useful thandocuments. - Use “Open in system app” freely. There’s no need to hunt through your folders — let the Record Library hand the file to the right app.
New to Evidentia 3+?
Start with the step-by-step tutorial series before diving into the Record Library — it covers attaching files and setting up categories from scratch.
Ready to try Evidentia 3+?
Evidentia 3+ is available now in the store. If you’re not sure yet, the interest form is a good place to start — I use it to answer questions and send updates before you buy.
— Ed Thompson / Evidentia Software