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KHemmelman

Descendant Indented Chart report

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I find that I still use a (now somewhat) old version of Family Tree Maker to print their 'Outline Descendant' report. (I only use this program specifically for this one report.) The Descendant Indented Chart within TMG is the closest report to this. I have found that the Family Tree Maker report is easily the most requested and desired format that relatives want. This is due to how it looks and the info that I can put in it. Over the years, I've found that I would like to eliminate FTM from my computer due to issues not important to discuss here.

 

So of course I'd love to request a future update within TMG to the Descendant Indented Chart report to give a bit more flexibility.

 

My wish for an enhancement to the TMG Descendant Indented Chart would be this:

 

1. - Add an option (checkbox) to add generation numbers in front of the individual's names on the report. What I'm referring to is that the 'starting' individual would show up as (1) John Doe. Then John Doe's children would show up as (2) Betty Doe, etc. And of course John Doe's grandchildren would have a (3) in front of their name, and so on down the line. The "tree lines" are very nice in this report, but in a 30 page report when you jump from page 4 to page 25, it's easy to get lost when trying to track what generation you're looking at and having a simple number in front of each persons name would make reading things easier. This could be a simple option that I could turn on or off as desired.

 

2. - Word wrap. I like that I can turn off the "Truncate to printer" option to wrap that data because I find that on multiple individuals, either due to the amount of information or level of indentation, that their information wraps at the end of the line and if you don't uncheck this option, it will simply get cutoff. However, when the info is wrapped, the next line actually 'cuts into' the "tree lines" over on the left side of the page and it just doesn't look good with that break in the lines. I find I would prefer that the line gets wrapped to the "indentation level" of that individual instead of having it wrap back to the left hand margin and cause a break in the tree lines.

 

3. - Ability to include "Divorce" information in the report. Currently you can check a box to include Birth, Marriage, Death, and Burial tags in the report, but any divorce tags are not included as part of the marriage tag. I have found on some occassions when giving out a report that if an invidual is divorced from someone and my report shows them as married and I neglect to reflect they are divorced, then this can create a bit of "tension". In some cases it would be very helpful if I could include the Divorce tag too in this report.

 

4. - The FTM report I use actually uses "dot leaders" instead of the tree lines that TMG uses. I actually like both options and I know there are various relatives that would prefer the report one way, and others the other way. I would find it helpful if I had the option to turn off the tree lines and instead use dot leaders going from the left hand margin to the indented invidual.

 

Keith Hemmelman

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........2. - Word wrap. I like that I can turn off the "Truncate to printer" option to wrap that data because I find that on multiple individuals, either due to the amount of information or level of indentation, that their information wraps at the end of the line and if you don't uncheck this option, it will simply get cutoff. However, when the info is wrapped, the next line actually 'cuts into' the "tree lines" over on the left side of the page and it just doesn't look good with that break in the lines. I find I would prefer that the line gets wrapped to the "indentation level" of that individual instead of having it wrap back to the left hand margin and cause a break in the tree lines. ...

 

Keith Hemmelman

 

I was searching the forum for this particular item. I've always thought this was such an obvious flaw in generating the report that surely it was on some list of corrections and never bothered to say anything.

 

Given that this has never been fixed and I can only find one reference to it I must conclude I'm wrong about it being an obvious flaw. Truncating a line to the printer might get us by, but it's no solution. If there's a line wrap it should wrap properly which means indented and the tree lines filled in properly. It's astounding that TMG is on version 7 and this isn't working the way it should. In part, I have myself to blame for not bringing it up earlier.

 

I'd love to be surprised to learn that this is getting fixed in ver 8

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3. - Ability to include "Divorce" information in the report. Currently you can check a box to include Birth, Marriage, Death, and Burial tags in the report, but any divorce tags are not included as part of the marriage tag.

Hi Keith,

 

I understand that your post is a "wish" for enhancements to this specific report. However, others have found the same issue concerning the Divorce tag and various reports that either restrict or group to BMDB types of tags. So "until" (if?) TMG adds your enhancement, you may be interested in a quick "work around". TMG has defined the Divorce (and Divorce Fl) tag types to be in their own separate tag group. One "work around" that some have felt useful is to create a custom tag in the Marriage group (perhaps named something like "DivMarr") and always use that for divorces. If you first define this custom tag type, then you can use the TMG Utility to change all your existing Divorce tags to DivMarr tags in one action. Since that tag is now in the Marriage group, it will be included in any report or grouping where all tags in the Marriage group are output.

 

Hope this gives you ideas,

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Could one of the proponents of the FTM chart post a screen shot showing a portion of the report? Thanks!

 

I don't much care for the characterization of proponents of an FTM chart. But I have a printout of a Legacy chart that I can scan and put up and point out how it differs from what I recall of FTM ... one question .... How the )&&&)_)(*&$ do you post an image. I found a place where I can manage files but I can't find how to upload them ...

 

Jim

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Dang ... I thought I had it ... hit add reply and got an error message that I couldn't put the link in the way I thought they told me to ...

 

Let's try the brute force ... http://tinyurl.com/kmjuqe

 

I guess this will work. ... This is a scan of a descendant indented chart produced by Legacy. It looks quite similar to that produced by TMG or FTM. The question is how do they compare.

 

In TMG and Legacy the lines connection siblings are lines. In FTM they use dots [or periods if you prefer]. Keith who started this back in 2008 seems to like dots or at least the option of dots. I know someone else that likes dots. I like lines.

 

More significantly is the placement of the generation numbers. In TMG, the generation of the indented chart would appear as a superscript before the surname of the individual. In FTM and Legacy, they implemented the generation number before the name. For this particular chart. Look at Lucy E. Chappell. The 3 prior to her name indicates it's the third generation .... she marries Wiliam Sharp and they have a son 4-William Webb Sharp. .... In TMG you would see William Webb 4 Sharp. where the 4 is super scripted and optionally italicized.

 

I find these differences to be a bit personal choice and I'm not inclined to argue one way or another.

 

My beef is as follows .... Look at the line: +Lucy E. Chappell b: May 6 1880 .....

 

notice that the end of the line is wrapped around ... the burial is in Cleveland, Cuyahoga, Ohio

 

But the Ohio wraps around to the next line; indents and a connecting line at the far left is inserted to connect the generations.

 

TMG doesn't do that. Instead, when the Ohio wraps it around it shoves it to the far left, breaking the connecting line and not indenting. Your choice in TMG is to truncate the line in options ... which means Ohio never shows up. ... or do some temporary editing in the fields to produce a proper report. Both options stink in my opinion.

 

The first two differences are personal choice. No one would choose the wrap around the way TMG does it.

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I don't much care for the characterization of proponents of an FTM chart.

I didn't mean to offend. Two previous posters praised the FTM chart and seeing it would help me to understand their comments. Now I am sorry I asked at all... I can't do anything about the TMG chart anyway so all the comments about its shortcomings don't do me any good. I wanted to see the FTM chart because I might consider adding a similar chart to Second Site.

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Then who asked this question that is posted under your name. ....

 

"Could one of the proponents of the FTM chart post a screen shot showing a portion of the report? Thanks! "

 

I gave a link to a Legacy report with a description of how it compared to the FTM report and TMG report.

 

Who was I replying to if it wan't you?

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No one would choose the wrap around the way TMG does it.

This is a well-known issue and a change in design for it was requested a long time ago.

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Who was I replying to if it wan't you?

I don't know. I didn't ask for a Legacy screenshot and a written description of differences between TMG, FTM, and Legacy.

 

The original poster and the first person who replied to that post praised the FTM report. One said its "easily the most requested and desired format that relatives want" and the other said it was "the most useful report in any of the software I use." I was referring to them when I said proponents and I wanted to see what they liked so much. I still haven't seen it. I assume they are not checking the forum and so they haven't see my request.

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No one would choose the wrap around the way TMG does it.

This is a well-known issue and a change in design for it was requested a long time ago.

 

Thanks.

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Hope it gets fixed.

 

In the mean time, you can work around it.

 

1 Output report to a word processor file.

 

2 Insert a hard new-line/enter where ever the wrap problem occurs (or where you want it to occur).

 

3 Select and copy the graphics characters at the begining of the original line.

 

4 Paste the selected characters at the begining of the continuation line (after your hard new-line/enter)

 

5 If needed, rarely, once you practice, insert or delete blanks to line up the graphics characters.

DONE

 

Over 90% of the time, these reports are generated so that I can check my editing or just admire the hard work results of maintaining my data. I only fix the problems two or three times a year when I send a report to others. With practice, it usually takes less than a half-hour to fix the graphics wrap problems in a 20 page descendant report.

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[snip]

 

I wanted to see the FTM chart because I might consider adding a similar chart to Second Site.

 

I would LOVE it if you added an Indented Descendant Chart to Second Site John; it might be an easier type of chart to view on the web than a box chart.

 

beth

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