How to move an author from unknown to living or dead

Could someone please tell me how to do this again? (Sorry, it was so long ago when I last did it, I've forgotten.)

Normally, fill the date of birth (and death if applicable) on the author page. If you're unsure about the exact years but know for a fact s/he is alive or not, you can put something like 19??, 1950s etc. in those fields.

>2 SandraArdnas: Also, it doesn't have to be a date or even numbers. For people whose birth info is unknown, I've added "XXth century". Other people have used other words.

The same method also works for the Date of Death field: adding any information will mark the person as dead.

ETA: (I tried this out with John Zorn, a musician who is alive.)

>3 karenb: Yes, I also think any info whatsoever in the date of birth field moves the author from unknown to alive, which becomes dead if there is any info in the date of death. 'Deceased' is sometimes entered for authors of unknown year of death.

I think there is something that moves people to dead if the date of birth is a long, long time ago.

So I just need to add a birthdate for authors that are alive but are currently in unknown? Right?

Right.

>6 mysterymax: Yes and if you can't find the exact year for current authors, inputting anything approximate like 20th century, 19?? or the like will also mark them as alive

>3 karenb: "XXth century"
>8 SandraArdnas: "20th century"

"20th Century" is the most common way of indicating that, and in general it's best to use the same format as others for Common Knowlege entries. (They're linked together when you click on the value, and show up together in the CK clouds.)

Thanks!

>9 r.orrison: Actually - at least in Italian - Roman numerals are considered ordinals in such contexts, so we write William II an not William IInd. As for unknown dates, I don't know the English usage but in Italian we prefer the form with Roman numerals, so "XX secolo" (that is, "XX century")

>11 .mau.: In English CK it's better to use the English forms.

https://forum.wordreference.com/threads/xx-century-xxth-century.2111714/

>12 MarthaJeanne: Of course. But I believe that the English forms do not use Roman numerals, so neither XX century nor XXth century should be present, and 20th century should be used instead.

Just saying that I used "XXth century" because some people were born in centuries other than the 20th. I meant "XX" to be a placeholder for the century's actual number.

Personally, I have used "20th century" a lot; I saw that someone else had used it, and it seemed like a good idea.

>14 karenb: Wow, that's confusing. I think ??the Century or just unknown would have been better

>15 jjwilson61: That's the joy of CK: you can use what you think is best.

This is Talk, though, not CK. So using a placeholder less likely to be confused with a numerical value may have, in this particular context, been clearer.

>17 lorax: Right, yes, of course.