All Family Historian diagrams are made up of some combination of the following elements:
There is no limit to the number of trees, shapes and ribbons that a diagram can have. Trees and shapes can be ordered front-to-back, with respect to one another, as required - that is, moved in front of, or behind, one another (the ordering of ribbons is dependent on the trees they connect).
Each type of element is described in turn below.
There are 4 types of tree:
They are called 'smart' trees because they automatically update themselves to reflect changes in the underlying data, and because they will automatically adjust if you hide or expand branches, or if you move boxes or branches. You can even use smart trees to make changes to data in your records, if you wish to. For example, you can click-and-drag to add relatives. You can also change the order of spouses or siblings, by changing the order of boxes in trees, using the main toolbar 'Move Up' and 'Move Down' button commands.
Most basic diagrams typically consist of a single tree. For example, if you open an Ancestor diagram, the Diagram Window will open displaying a single Ancestor tree. if you open an All Relatives diagram, the Diagram Window will open displaying a single All Relatives tree.
Some diagrams however, may consist of more than one tree. When you open the All Relatives + Indirect Relatives diagram, for example, or the Everyone diagram, the Diagram Window will open displaying (typically) numerous trees.
Some diagrams do not use trees at all. When you open a Family Historian Fan Chart diagram, or a Pedigree Chart, the Diagram Window will open displaying the required diagram using shape elements only (see below).
You can always add additional trees to any diagram, using commands on the "Insert into Diagram" submenu of the Diagram menu (first 4 menu commands). The first 4 toolbar buttons on the Shapes toolbar, also allow you to insert trees into the current diagram (but despite their presence on the Shapes toolbar, trees are not shapes).
If you aren't sure what kind of tree a given box in a diagram belongs to, click on it to select it. Assuming the box really is part of a tree (and isn't a shape - see below), the name of its tree type will be displayed in the status bar below.
The word 'shape' is used, within Family Historian, as the collective noun for all items, other than trees, that can be added to a diagram. There are 11 shape types:
You can add as many of these as you like to any diagram. Shapes can be grouped together to form complex objects. These in turn can be grouped with other shapes or complex objects to form even more complex objects - and so on, indefinitely.
The Text Box and Text Pie shapes can contain not only ordinary text, but also sophisticated expressions which reference records and data in your project. Some diagrams, such as the Fan Chart diagram and the Pedigree diagram, consist solely of shapes combined into complex objects.