avawa 0 Report post Posted October 21, 2013 I tried to print a Descendant Box Chart. The project contains 1900 people. When I look at the chart in VCF I see long blank spaces between some people. I suspect they are mainly caused by multiple marriages. Is that true? and is there a correction possible? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Virginia Blakelock 0 Report post Posted October 21, 2013 If all 1900 people are on one chart, it may just be a result of allocating space to fit everyone in the following generations onto the chart. If you make a smaller chart - say 2 or 3 generations - which includes a family with multiple marriages, are there still long blank spaces? Is this a top-to-bottom or left-to-right chart? Virginia Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
RobinL 0 Report post Posted October 21, 2013 This happens in some situations. It particularly prevalent when using UK marriage style in top-to-bottom charts when showing of multiple spouses. The second, and more spouses (including the "unknown person") can be placed very far to the right creating a gap. This happens when the first marriage has no or a small number of children (with zero descendants) while the second or more marriage has a larger tree of descendants. If you are using the UK-style marriage layout, just try the US-style marriage style to see whether the gaps persist. If they persist then your problem is described below. It can also happen when the compacting section of the layout algorithm fails to recognise an unusual situation and applies a rule that creates the extra space. There is no change of a setting in Chart Options that will help. In both these cases the gaps can be manually reduced by editing the created chart (an option that is not available in many other family history charting programs). Sensibly dealing with gaps in the UK-marriage style takes a lot more skill than removing the gaps that are present in both marriage styles. There are some non-visible objects on the chart that are used to place how the inter-generational lines are placed. To under-stand this, select a rectangular region of a couple and their children. You will find a "connection point" object highlighted near where the lines from each child connect to the line from the parents. To maintain a sensible layout of a chart as you edit, your must also move that object to maintain the interconnection line arrangement. With this understanding you can now select a rectangle of the chart, right-click group it, then drag that to a desired location to remove the gap, then right-click un-group it. There is finesse in the choice in the order of making moves and how much to try to move in one action. TIP: pressing SHIFT while dragging will maintain vertical or horizontal alignment. HINT: It is often difficult to select just the boxes you want move because the selection rectangle (marquee) also selects unwanted boxes. In these circumstances, select the boxes in a small region that you don't want to select for group that you are to move, and right-click-group them. Now those boxes will not be selected in you bigger selection unless your marquee also totally encloses the unwanted grouped selection. Save the .VC2 file and experiment on a copy. Also when doing this re-shaping process save .VC2 files after each major successful move. These intermediate .VC2 files can be deleted once you have completed the task. I hope that this helps. RobinL Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
