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Pedigree Chart Dialog


Pedigree Chart Dialog


A pedigree chart shows ancestors of a given person, displayed in one or more pages.  Pedigree charts can be displayed either as a report in a book or booklet in the Book Window, or (less commonly) they can be displayed as a chart in the Diagram Window. To display a pedigree chart as a standalone report (in its own booklet), click on the Publish button Publish on the main application toolbar, and choose 'Pedigree Chart (as booklet)'.  After specifying the required options for the pedigree chart itself, you will be prompted to specify a name for the booklet.  To add a pedigree chart to an existing book or booklet, open the Edit Book Dialog for the book in question, select "Pedigree Chart" in the list of Available Items on the left-hand side, and click the > button to add it to the book.

To view a pedigree chart as a chart in the Diagram Window, click on the Charts button on the main application toolbar, and choose 'Pedigree Chart (as chart)' from the dropdown menu that appears.  

A Third Way of DisplayING Pedigree Charts in Books

Pedigree charts work very well in reports in books or booklets, as they are designed to display on multiple pages which reference one another.  We have seen above how you can opt to display a pedigree chart in its own booklet, or add a pedigree chart to an existing book or booklet.   There is also a third way of displaying a pedigree chart in a book, which is to first open the pedigree chart as a chart in the Diagram Window, and then save it as a saved chart.  You can then take the option to add this saved chart to your book in the Edit Book Dialog.  It is important, if you intend to use this technique, that you ensure that the pedigree chart layout will be compatible with the intended book when you create it, so that each chart page will fit correctly into a book page.  To learn more about this issue, see the "Book Compatibility" option below.

Why might you want to add a pedigree chart to a book as a saved chart?  The advantage of this approach is that you can add annotations, images, and even trees if you wish, and make changes of other kinds - typically using the functionality of the Shapes toolbar in the Diagram Window.  These changes can be made to the saved chart before adding it to the book.  Or they can be made to the chart after adding it to the book.  When you add a saved chart to a book, it will be listed as one of the book items in the Edit Book Dialog and you can opt to edit it in the Diagram Window, if you wish to.

Although adding a pedigree chart to a book via the indirect 'saved chart' route, does have some advantages, it also has at least one significant disadvantage, which is that even if you select the 'Full Rebuild' option when displaying the book, the number of pages in the pedigree chart will not change, even if since creating the charts you have added more relatives, in ways that require more pages.  This issue does not apply to pedigree charts added 'directly' via the more normal techniques.  When you do a 'full rebuild' of a book, any pedigree charts added directly will be rebuilt using the original pedigree chart options.  If this means that the number of pages needs to change, that will happen.  Pedigree charts which have been added to a book directly as a pedigree chart, are listed as 'Pedigree Chart' in the book items list, in the Edit Book Dialog.  If you choose to edit this item, you will be able to view and modify the options in the Pedigree Chart dialog.  Pedigree charts which have been added to book indirectly via the saved chart route, are just listed as 'Chart' in the book items list.  If you choose the edit option for this item, you will be offered the choice of editing the chart in the Diagram Window, or selecting chart pages.  But you will not be able to view or edit the original pedigree chart options in the Pedigree Chart dialog.

For this reason, you are normally recommeded to always add a pedigree chart to a book 'directly', and only use the indirect saved chart approach if you have a particular reason to do so.

What to Do if the Text is Too Small

If the text seems too small, you may want to untick Fit Chart on Page option (if available) and click the Fonts button to choose a font of the size you require.  This will solve the text size problem, but it may also mean that the chart no longer fits comfortably onto a single sheet of paper when you print it.  If this is an issue, you should probably tick Fit Chart on Page again and find another way of adjusting the text size.  The first thing to try is to reduce the number of generations.  If there is plenty of spare space at the top and bottom, but not much at the sides, this suggests that the chart is too wide to make best use of the available space on each page.  By reducing the Box Width you should be able to change the overall shape of the chart, until it approximates to that of your printed page size.  This will allow Family Historian to make best use of the available space.  Another possibility to consider is reducing the first line indent.  This will have the effect of making the root box in each chart (the leftmost box), jut out less far to the left; which may mean again that Family Historian can make better use of the available space.

If Fit Chart on Page is ticked, Family Historian will re-size the chart to fit on a page - if the chart is too big.  However it won't increase the size of the chart if it is smaller than it needs be.  Increasing the font size will be of no benefit if Fit Chart on Page is ticked, and Family Historian has to shrink the size of each chart.  But if Fit Chart on Page has no effect because the chart is small enough already, then consider increasing the font size to make the chart bigger.

Tips on Customization

Pedigree Charts are created using diagram shapes.  When viewing a pedigree chart in the Diagram Window, you can right-click on a chart and click Format to change aspects.  You can select any chart and click Ctrl-C to copy it to the clipboard, and Ctrl-V to paste it - into the same diagram or any other diagram.  You can even choose the 'root' person for each chart (right-click on a chart, and choose 'Format' from the menu that appears; then select the 'Base Person' on the Data tab).

Each chart is a group object composed of multiple component objects.  This means that if you want to you can ungroup them (right-click and select Grouping and then Ungroup) and manipulate the component parts independently.   Some component parts are themselves also group objects which can be further ungrouped.

FIELDS

Root Person The person whose ancestors will be shown.  Always required unless you opt to display a blank diagram (see Contents below).
Chart Shape Choose the shape of the chart - wide or narrow.
Fonts Choose the fonts, style and sizes to use in the chart.
Generations per Chart The number of generations to display in each chart.
Continuation Charts If your root person has more generations of ancestors that can fit onto a single chart, you can optionally display extra ancestors on additional continuation charts.  Suppose, for example, that you have chosen to display 3 generations in each chart.  This means that parents and grandparents of the root person will be shown. But what happens if you also have a record for the person's great grandmother? If Continuation Charts are set to 1 level or higher, Family Historian will create a second chart showing the ancestors of the great grandmother. And what if the great grandmother herself has one or more recorded great grand parents? In that case, if Continuation Charts are set to 2 levels or higher, Family Historian will create additional charts for each of these great grandparents. And so on.

If you don't want any continuation charts, just set this value to 'none'.
Max Generations This shows the maximum number of generations that could be displayed, for any given root.  You cannot edit this value - it is provided for information only, and is determined by the number of generations per chart you have chosen and the number of continuation chart levels.  If the value seems unintuitive, bear in mind that the root box of every continuation chart is a repeat of a box from an earlier chart; so continuation charts add one fewer additional possible generations than can be displayed on the first chart.
Contents Choose the contents of the boxes in charts.  Choose Custom if you wish to customize the contents yourself.   Choose Blank to display a blank chart.  This can be useful if you want to give other people blank sheets, for them to fill in, recording their ancestors' details.
Ahnentafel Numbers If ticked, Family Historian will display the appropriate ahnentafel number for each person in the chart.
Chart Titles If ticked, a title will appear above each chart.
Always Label If ticked, the labels 'b.', 'm.', and 'd.' (for 'birth', 'marriage' and 'death') will always appear, even in empty boxes and on otherwise blank lines. This option is only available if appropriate Contents are selected.
Record Ids If ticked, names will be displayed with record ids in both the title and boxes (unless boxes are blank or have custom contents).
Continuation Arrows If continuation charts are enabled, Family Historian will show the linking chart number in a little arrow, to the right of the box for each person with ancestors that are displayed in a separate continuation chart.
Box Width The width of each box
First Line Indent The amount of the indent from the left box edge of the root box, to the vertical line going up to the parents.
Normal Line Indent Same as First Line Indent, but for all other boxes.
Horizontal Line Length Most lines connecting a box to a parent's box have only 2 parts - a vertical part and a horizontal part.  This value is the length of the horizontal part of these lines.
Vertical Gap The vertical gap between boxes
Chart Margins This is the size of the gaps that Family Historian leaves around each chart.
Fit Chart on page If ticked, and if each generated chart is larger than the current default printer page size (allowing for Chart Margins), Family Historian will automatically re-size the chart to fit it within a page.  This option is ticked and not editable if you are adding a pedigree chart directly to a new or existing book.
More options Click on this link if you wish to override diagram options for this chart. Some print options will not be available if you adding a pedigree chart to a new or existing book, or if you have specified 'Book Compatibility' (see below).
Book Compatibility This option is not available if you are adding a pedigree chart to an existing book, or editing a pedigree chart in an existing book.  Even if available, it can normally be left blank, unless you plan to add a pedigree chart to a book, via the 'indirect' saved chart route, described in the section A Third Way of Displaying Pedigree Charts in Books above. 

'Book Compatibility' (also known as 'Book Layout Compatibility') is an option on the Diagram menu, which allows existing diagrams to use the same printer details and page layout, as a given book.  Normally this can be done after a diagram has been created.  However, with pedigree charts, the page layout significantly affects the layout of the chart itself, and therefore has to be known in advance.  If you are adding a pedigree chart to an existing book, the page layout details are known.  If you are creating a new pedigree chart as a booklet, default printer and page layout settings, suitable for a booklet, will be used, unless you explicitly opt for compatibility with an existing book.  So in these cases, book compatibility is either not needed or is inessential.  However, when creating a pedigree chart as a saved chart that you later plan to add to a book, it is important to know in advance, the printer and page layout details of the book to which you intend to add it.

Books created since version 8 of Family Historian can be used with the book compatibility option.  If you select a book created earlier than that, you will be prompted to first upgrade it to use the latest book format, if that has not already been done.

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