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Virginia Blakelock

Descendant Indented Chart - Variations on a Theme

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On the TMG Rootsweb mailing list a user asked if the Divorce tag could be added to a descendant indented chart. It cannot in TMG - but another user suggested as a workaround using a waterfall descendant box chart without the box lines, including the divorce tag in the chart data. The result is Chart 1. Charts 2 and 3 are variations on that chart - an accented waterfall chart with box lines and the same chart in the left-to-right orientation, without spousal connector lines and compacted.

 

BWdivorceDIC.jpg Descendants_of_John_Alexander.jpg LtoR_Descendants_of_John_Alexander.jpg

 

INSTRUCTIONS FOR CREATING THE THREE CHARTS:

- Chart 1: DICwaterfall

The basic chart configuration is DICwaterfall. Download the DICwaterfall.rpt file (zip file attachment below) and copy to your TMG Configurations files folder. This report will appear in the dropdown list of Descendant Box chart reports.

DICwaterfall.zip

 

- Chart 2: DICwaterfallAccents

Note that VCF only accepts accents that are based on Flags, including the current screen accent settings. Select the DICwaterfall report in the Descendant Box chart options. Click Add under the configuration name to add a new report configuration; give it the name DICwaterfallAccents.

Settings to change:

- Box border / select solid line

- Color / black

- Boxes / Box Fill / Use Accents / Define

- If using Screen accents, at the lower left click on Reset to set accents based on the screen accents. Click OK.

- Optionally add more space between generations and within same generations: Options / Gap between boxes: set both to 8 or 9. Click OK.

- Create report.

 

- Chart 3: DICcompactAccents

- Open DICwaterfallAccents.rpt

- Click Add and give new configuration the name DICcompactAccents

- Change report configuration from Waterfall to Lines / Standard.

-- Create the chart and edit to compact:

- To move a spousal box:

--- Delete the connector line between the boxes. If there are NO children, you can move either box - the upper one down or the lower one up - aligning the boxes on the left side. To move a box, select the box and use the up/down, right/left arrow keys to position the box. *If there are children* always move the upper box down so as not to disturb the connector lines to those children!

- Once you have all the spouse boxes moved, note that you now have neat columns of generations, easy to move horizontally to compact the chart. Draw a box around a generation to select it. Again, use arrow keys to move the selected area.

- At this point you may want to tweak the chart - move a box or group of boxes up or down to visually equalize the spacing, for example.

 

In each chart, I moved the title (click title box and drag) to an open area. In the compact chart I changed the title font to Lucida Handwriting, adding a space between each word. To change the font, rightclick on the title box, select Properties / Font.

 

The pinned message 'One-page Charts' at the top of the forum includes links to videos (no sound) demonstrating some of the techniques for moving and coloring chart boxes, as well as defining screen accents. Custom colors are used throughout - and that subject is also covered in the pinned One-page Chart topic.

 

Virginia

 

Note: To download or print this message, see the icons at bottom left of topic window.

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Suggestion from a user:

 

"I would suggest having the divorce data line only for the Spouses of Descendants to eliminate the duplicate lines, i.e., drop the line from the Descendants and the Focus Person Data Types. "

 

To remove the Divorce line from Descendants and Focus person: Chart Options / Data Types / Box contents. Selecting each of those Box types in turn, click on the '3' button for Descendants and the '4' button for Focus Person and choose '(delete)' to remove the Divorce entry.

 

Divorce.jpg

 

Good idea. Thank you, Lee -

 

Virginia

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