| Limit overhang | You can use this feature to specify that a given box must not be overhung except by direct ancestors, for a given number of generations back. This may sometimes help to make complex diagrams clearer. But it will spread boxes out and make diagrams larger. The bigger the number of generations specified, the larger the diagram is likely to be. |
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| Place solitary ancestors close to their parents |
Only applicable to All Relatives trees. If this option is checked, Family Historian will automatically set the Keep Near Parents box state flag for any 'solitary' ancestors (that is, ancestors which either have no recorded spouse, or their spouse, if also an ancestor, has no recorded parents). This can improve the layout in some cases. For more on Box States in general, and the Keep Near Parents box state in particular, see the Diagram menu. |
| Centre diagram root between parents |
Only applicable to the Ancestors and Descendants tree, and the All Relatives tree. Check this option if you want the root always to be centred between his or her parents. If not set, the root's parents will be positioned, by default, roughly in the mid-point between all of the root's siblings. |
| Centre ancestor-to- parents connecting line between the parents |
Only applicable to the All Relatives tree. Check this option if you want parents of ancestor boxes to appear immediately above the ancestor. If this option is not set a given ancestor's parents will be positioned, by default, roughly in the mid-point between all of the ancestor's siblings. If the ancestor has no siblings (or none showing) this option will make little difference. You can override this option and set the Keep Near Parents box state flag on any ancestor or its siblings to position the parents immediately above the box in question - see the Diagram Window for more on the Keep Near Parents box state flag. |
| Straighten descendant branch lines where possible | If this box is checked, spouse boxes will be taken into account when centring children below their parents. This may mean that the line connecting parents to their child has a kink in it. But descendant branches as a whole will be much straighter - especially when displaying a single line of descendants over several generations. |
| Disable Box Autosizing |
Disables the autosize box feature for the current diagram. Ordinarily boxes will automatically adjust their size to fit the text that they contain, subject to the minimum values set in the Dimensions tab. If the text changes, or if the font changes, each box will adjust its size accordingly. You can disable this autosize feature for individual boxes if you wish (see the 'Box States' submenu on the Diagram menu). If you manually resize a box, or if you resize it by using one of the 'Layout & Scaling' submenu commands, the affected boxes will have autosize disabled. By choosing the 'Disable Box Autosizing' option here, however, you are effectively overriding the individual Autosize Box states and disabling box autosizing for the whole diagram. This can be useful if you have added lines and other items which are aligned with boxes in trees and you don't wish the boxes to move. Tip: Font sizes are determined in part by your current printer. If you change printer, the text may get slightly bigger or smaller. If autosize boxes is enabled, this may cause the whole tree (or trees) to change layout perceptibly, and non-tree items (lines, pictures, etc) which previously were aligned with boxes may cease to be correctly aligned. You can prevent this misalignment happening by disabling box autosizing. However, it is possible, if you do this, that the resized text may no longer fit in the boxes. If this is the case, you should consider making font sizes smaller accordingly. Font sizes can be adjusted in the Text tab of Diagram options. |
| Keep First Child Near Parent | If this option is checked, the 'Keep Near Parent' flag will be automatically set for each descendant's first child, in a descendant diagram. This is most often used with left-to-right descendant diagrams, as the descendants are displayed in a convenient 'waterfall' layout. |