Books

Book Layout Compatibility for Charts

Whereas reports will, in the main, automatically change their layout if you change any settings which affect the available space (such as page size, orientation, and margins), charts do not.  The only exception to that is a pedigree chart which has been inserted by adding the "Pedigree Chart" item in the list of 'Available Items' in the Edit Book Dialog.  A pedigree chart, inserted in that way, will automatically reformat itself to fit appropriately, using the available space when you rebuild the book.  But other charts do not do this.  For this reason, you are usually advised to decide early on, what page size, orientation and margins you want for your book, and avoid changing them later, unless really necessary.  If you do change them, you may have work to do, to ensure that charts look good, and are laid out appropriately, in the resized pages.

Although, in the main, reports automatically adjust to a changed layout, if you change the available space for a book, to make it narrower than previously, you may sometimes want to adjust column indents in the Page Layout tab of book settings, if some columns have insufficient space.

With all books and all charts, you can specify a printer, page size, page orientation (landscape or portrait) and margins.  With books you can also specify a header and footer.  For a multi-page chart to look good when inserted into a book, it is desirable that the page layout of the chart should match the page layout of the book.  That way, the page breaks that you see in the Diagram Window will match the page breaks that you see in the book.  When a chart's layout matches that of a given book, it is said to be book layout compatible.  What this actually means is the following:

• the chart's printer is the same as the book printer 
• the chart's page size (e.g. Letter, A4, etc) is the same as the book's page size
• the chart's page orientation (landscape or portrait) is the same as the book's page orientation
• the chart's left and right margins match those of the book
• the chart's top margin is the same size as the book's top margin and header depth combined
• the chart's bottom margin is the same size as the book's bottom margin and footer depth combined

If any of these don't match, there is a risk that the page boundaries of the chart may change when a saved chart is added to a book, in a way that does not look good.

It may make sense that the various dimensions must match for the chart and book to be compatible.  But you may be wondering - why must the printer itself also match?  In fact, it isn't always essential.  But a simple change in printer, without anything else changing, can affect how diagrams are laid out.  The reason is that family tree dimensions are affected by tree box dimensions.  And tree box dimensions are affected by text size, which is determined by font sizes.  There can be tiny differences in the way different printers may render particular sizes of fonts.  These tiny differences can accumulate and become significant within the context of a large diagram.

Book charts (that is charts that have been added to a book) are always automatically book layout compatible.  But ordinary diagrams and saved charts may not be.  To check whether or not a diagram or chart is book layout compatible, click 'Book Layout Compatibility' on the Diagram menu, and select the book in question.  If the chart or diagram is not book layout compatible with the specified book, you will optionally be able to make it compatible.

Pedigree charts are a special case.  This is because a pedigree chart normally consists of multiple 'sub-charts' each of which is designed to fit on a different printed page.  This means that the required page layout details must be known before the pedigree chart is generated.  For this reason, there is a special option for specifying book layout compatibility when you generate a pedigree chart, using the "Pedigree Chart (as Chart)" option, on the Diagram menu.  Alternatively, you can also add a new pedigree chart directly to any book, from the list of available items in the Edit Book Dialog.  For more on this, see How to Add a Pedigree Chart.