Creating charts based on Focus Groups ?

[TMGKev 0]

I currently use manually generated MS Excel descendant charts for different branches of my family tree. I update and re-print a chart whenever I add details to TMG about the individuals contained in this branch of my tree. I therefore have many charts (several dozen or so), one for each section/branch of my tree. Since I manually create these, it is easy to add/delete individuals as I want, but there is the possibility of transcription errors between TMG and Excel, plus it's doubling-up the data entry process. I would therefore now like to reproduce this sytem using VCF. I therefore need to be able to manage which individuals I include in a descendant chart.

 

For example - I would like to create a chart showing 3 generations - parents, children and grandchildren, but would like to exclude certain individuals eg. the spouse of one of the children, and the children of this spouse (these would be included on a different chart).

 

A standard descendant report would not do this, as it would print all the grandchildren. I know I could produce this chart and then go in and delete the individuals I don't want, but this would be a real drag to have to do this every time I want to print an updated version of each chart.

 

Flags are an option I have tried. ie. use a flag to capture which chart an individual should be included on, but I would be limited to ~ 26 conditions/charts (A-Z) which may not be enough. Furthermore, some individuals may be included on more than one chart, and I don't think use of a single flag could make this work.

 

Focus groups are a more useful way of selecting a defined set of individuals, but I don't know how, or if, it's possible to create a chart based on individuals in a focus group. This is my preferred solution if this is possible.

 

Has anyone done something similar and can offer any advice or suggestions?

 

Many thanks

Kevin

[Jim Byram 0]

You can't control the content of a chart by selecting people per se. A chart is based on one person as the subject (the focus person) and the descendants/ancestors of that person as determined in the chart properties.

 

One approach would be to create a focus group with the focus person and those descendants/ancestors (and spouses) that you would like to be in the chart based on that focus group. That would allow excluding certain parts of the tree as long as the relationships for those you wish to include are intact. You then use the focus group to create a temporary data set using the List of People / Options / Secondary Output and generate the chart based on the focus person from the temporary data set. The subject of the List of People report would be the focus group.

 

The effort in my suggestion is building the focus group (which can be saved). Creating the temporary data set with the List of People is a simple and quick operation. And even building the focus group is easy once you understand exactly who you want to include.

[Virginia Blakelock 0]

Kevin -

 

Maybe you could do the flags by chart, not by person, and set the system up as you go along instead of trying to do it all at once. I would label the chart flags Chart 1, Chart 2, etc. and enter in the Flag description field that it is the Desc of person (25) say. Each chart flag would have 2 values: Y, N. By putting the Y value first, that becomes the default flag value for everyone in your project.

 

- For Chart 1 (desc of (25)):

 

With person (25) as the focus person in the Details view - make a focus group of the descendants whom you wish to EXclude (say the unwanted spouse and their descendants). Then use the List of People, Subject(s) Focus Group, Options > Secondary Output > change Chart 1 flag to N for those people.

 

When you run that chart, set it only include people with the flag value Y for Chart 1. The Focus Person of the chart and number of generations will determine who is included.

 

Repeat for each chart.

 

I think it would work, but maybe someone else will see a pitfall here.

 

Virginia

[TMGKev 0]

The effort in my suggestion is building the focus group (which can be saved). Creating the temporary data set with the List of People is a simple and quick operation. And even building the focus group is easy once you understand exactly who you want to include.

 

Thanks Jim. Sounds like this would do exactly what I want to achieve (and allows me to use focus groups, which I've only just "discovered", and strike me as a really neat tool). As you say, I saw the advantage of using Focus groups in that these can be easily modified and saved. I'll certainly give this a try.

Thanks

Kevin

[TMGKev 0]

Kevin -

 

Maybe you could do the flags by chart, not by person,

I think it would work, but maybe someone else will see a pitfall here.

 

Virginia

 

Thanks Virginia. Switching the "focus" of the flags is a very neat solution to the problem of limited characters. I don't see any reason why this wouldn't work, and would give good visibility of which chart(s) a person was assigned to.

 

The problem I now have is deciding which solution to progress - yours or Jim's (above)! They both sound like good methods of doing what I want.

 

Thanks for your help.

Kevin