Diagram Window

Family Connection Mapper (Diagram Window)

To open the Family Connection Mapper, click on Family Connection Mapper on the Diagram menu, when viewing a diagram.  Or click on the Family Connection Mapper icon  on the Diagram toolbar.

The Family Connection Mapper is a powerful tool which allows you to perform a range of tasks, involving routes.  A 'route', in Family Historian terms, is a marked line, or series of marked lines, connecting boxes on a chart.  A route can be a single path route, connecting one box to another.  Or it can be a multi-path route, connecting numerous boxes - which could be the boxes in a specific tree branch, or any arbitrary selection of boxes.  There is no limit to the number of routes you can have in a diagram, or the number of boxes on each route.  There is also no limit to the number of routes that any given box can be 'on'.  Here are just some of the things you can do using routes:

• Select any 2 boxes in a diagram and click one button to create a route, marking graphically the family connections that link them together
• Select one box and easily create a route which marks graphically the entire branch of descendants or ancestors leading off from that person
• Select any random set of multiple boxes, and create a route marking the connections between them visually
• Change the appearance, line thickness, colour and style of any route.
• Add specific boxes to an existing route, or remove them from a route.
• Create multiple routes and change their ordering with respect to one another (that is, specify which route is front of, or behind, which other routes)
• Delete an existing route, or clear it, to remove all boxes from the route without deleting it.
• Select all the boxes on a route, so that, for example, you can then format the colour, appearance and style of those particular boxes (see second tip below)
  

You can use the How Related Dialog (available from the Tools menu) to show how any 2 people are related.  The relationship can be displayed graphically by clicking on the Display Graphically button on that dialog.  When you do this, the relationship will be displayed in a diagram, marked using a route.  You can use the Family Connection Mapper to modify the appearance, or any other aspect of any such generated route, or delete it, exactly as you could if you had created it yourself using the Family Connection Mapper.

Each route is listed in the main display area of the Family Connection Mapper window.  If you haven't previously created any routes, a default route will be displayed automatically.  To add a box to a route, select that box and then tick the route you wish to add it to.  Remember that the Family Connection Mapper window will 'float' in front of the Diagram Window, and is designed to be used in conjunction with that window.  You can do anything in the Diagram Window when the Family Connection Mapper is open, that you could do if it was closed.

When you select one box and add it to a route, the outline of the box will take on the colour of that route.  If you select another box that has a direct link to the first box (e.g. if they are spouses, parent and child, or siblings), you will see that not only does the outline of the second box also change, but in addition, the section of lines linking the two boxes is marked the same way.  The connection between the two boxes has been marked.

Try experimenting: add more boxes to your route.  Remember that you can delete a route, or clear it, at any time.  Notice that you can add any boxes at all to a route.  But the route will only mark the lines connecting two boxes if they are directly linked to one another.  In other words, routes can represent 'broken' paths as well as 'complete' paths. 

Tip: If you want to add multiple boxes to a particular route at the same time, simply select all the boxes and tick the route that you want to add them to.  There are numerous ways of selecting multiple boxes.  If you zoom back, you can click-and-drag on the background of the dialog to draw a stretchy box round the boxes you wish to select.  Another technique is to press-and-hold the Ctrl key while clicking on several boxes in turn.  This will select each box without unselecting other boxes.  You can also right-click on a box, and then choose Select Branch Boxes from the dropdown menu that appears, to select the entire branch leading off from it.  More options are described in How to Select Multiple Boxes in Diagrams.

Tip: Suppose you want to change the appearance of the boxes on a route - perhaps to give them a distinctive background colour say.  This is easily done.  Select the route in question in the Family Connection Mapper, and then click on the Select Route Boxes command (it's on the dropdown menu that appears when you click on the Menu command on the Family Connection Mapper's toolbar - see below).  This will select the boxes on the route.  Now click Format on the Diagram menu.  This opens the Override Box Features Dialog allowing you to change and override any aspect of the appearance of the selected boxes.

Fields and Buttons

	Delete the selected route
	Move the selected route up.  Routes that are listed first are drawn over later routes.
	Move the selected route down.
	Connect two boxes using the currently selected route.  In order for this to work, you must first select the route that you wish to use.  You must also have two boxes selected.  To select two boxes, click on the first box to select it.  Then press-and-hold down the Ctrl key while clicking on the second box.  This will select the second box without unselecting the first box. The Connect Two Boxes function will automatically find a path connecting the two boxes and all boxes on this path to the chosen route - giving you the choice of replacing the existing route or adding to it. You can select any two boxes in the same tree, but you cannot connect two boxes in different trees.  All normal diagrams, except the Everyone diagram, create a diagram that consists of only one tree.  For example, an 'All Relatives' diagram, however large, will be a single tree.  Usually a diagram will only have more than one tree if you 'manually' added additional trees yourself.
	Displays a dropdown menu with the following additional commands: Clear route: removes all boxes from the current selected route but does not delete the route Select route boxes: selects all boxes associated with the currently selected route