Chapter 8: Produce flexible charts

[8.1]

Family Tree SuperTools includes an integrated copy of Visual Chartform, an extremely powerful family tree charting program.

It produces ancestor, descendant, hourglass, and fan charts in a wide variety of configurations.

Box charts can optionally include images that are linked to people in the Exhibit Log.

[8.2]

Charts can be oriented in any direction (top-to-bottom, left-to-right, etc.) to suit your preference.

The hourglass chart shows a focus person in the middle with ancestors in one direction and descendants in another.

[8.3]

Fan charts provide a compact view of ancestors in formats ranging from a small wedge to a full circle.

The fan chart in this screen shot is 270 degrees in what some describe as an "angel wing" configuration.

Among other options, you can specify the number of generations, line color, fonts, and title position.

[8.4]

The Chart Options screen offers dozens of ways to customize your chart.

For instance, the Data tab lets you choose from hundreds of data types for each of the lines in a box. Lines will wrap in order to accommodate long data values. You can even include memos in the boxes.

A different set of data types can be specified for each type of box as indicated by the cursor in the screen shot.

[8.5]

On the Boxes tab, you can specify the size of the box, as well as its characteristics (line type, line width, border, fill color, shadow, and accents).

[8.6]

Among the many options available on other tabs is the ability to suppress details for living people in order to protect their privacy.

This sample chart demonstrates the use of a background color. An image can also be used as the background of a chart.

[8.7]

You can tie the color of boxes to up to 10 different flag characteristics - much like screen Accents as described in an earlier chapter.

This example demonstrates the ability to include the siblings of ancestors in an ancestor chart. In this case, the data was imported from The Master Genealogist and included a MYANCESTOR (Y/N) flag. That flag is used to automatically "accent" direct ancestors in yellow. The siblings of those ancestors are in white boxes.

(Chart accenting relies on the presence of flags. Support for flags varies between data sets and depends on the program from which the data was imported.)

[8.8]

Accenting in this case is based on the Sex flag.

[8.9]

While Visual Chartform produces elaborate charts in a wide variety of configurations, that's just the beginning!

The resulting charts are not simply images. They are "living" documents made up of independent components (boxes, lines, text, etc.) that you can drag around and modify right on the screen.

You can edit the text inside the boxes, move any object, and add additional boxes, lines, text, images, and more.

[8.10]

When you "select" a component with the mouse, you will see small squares or "handles" around its perimeter (one is marked here in red). You can then right click and modify their Properties.

In this screen shot, three boxes have been selected. Here a single change to the Properties will affect all three boxes.

[8.11]

The Component Properties include fonts, colors, patterns, and line characteristics.

Here a change has been applied to the selected boxes.

[8.12]

You can add images from a toolbar button or you can drag-and-drop them directly from the Windows Explorer.

In this screen shot, the image of a family crest has been dropped onto a chart. While the image is selected, it has handles along its edge with which you can move and resize it.

The optional chart grid and rulers are also visible in this screen shot. They provide guides for moving and aligning objects on the screen.

[8.13]

Visual Chartform is complete with a wide variety of professional editing tools, including align, nudge, group/ungroup, distribute, flip, rotate, bring to front, send to back, zoom, pan, etc.

Editing functions are accessible through toolbars which can be moved and "docked" onto any border of the window for easy access.

In this screen shot, the toolbars have been isolated on the screen for your review.

[8.14]

If your completed chart is larger than the paper that is supported by your printer, then you can optionally print cut marks which will help you to splice pages together.

You can also repaginate your chart (so that boxes do not span page breaks) or rescale it (so that it fits onto paper of a specified size).

In this screen shot, the chart has been repaginated to skip page breaks. The page breaks themselves are visible as vertical lines.

The bottom-left corner of the image reflects an optional box which contains the name and address of the researcher and the date on which the chart was generated.

[8.15]

You can have multiple windows open in Visual Chartform at the same time.

They might be different charts between which you can copy-and-paste or drag-and-drop chart components (or entire charts).

Or you can view multiple windows of the same chart at one time. As in this screen shot, for instance, you can zoom in to fine tune the chart while simulataneously watching the effect of those changes on the overall chart design.

[8.16]

In addition to printed output, charts can be saved in a chart file or exported to JPG, BMP, or Enhanced Metafile for posting to the web or pasting into a document.

In fact, you can simply cut-and-paste or drag-and-drop a chart into many other Windows applications. In this screen shot, we grabbed a chart from Visual Chartform (on the left), dragged it across the screen with the mouse, and dropped it directly into a Microsoft Word document (on the right).

(Upon zooming in, this screen shot is larger than others and may require scrolling within your browser.)

[8.17]

For the family reunion or special gift, splicing together many pieces of paper to build a large chart may be impractical (and messy).

Family Tree SuperTools provides an easy and cost-effective solution. After designing a chart, you can select a menu option to transmit that chart directly to Chartform Delivery, a large-format printing service. Your chart will be printed in full color on heavyweight paper and shipped to you in a tube. Chart printing fees start at just 78¢ per square foot (for white backgrounds), less than 10% of the fees normally associated with professional chart printing.

With Family Tree SuperTools, it has never been so easy to be the hit of the family reunion!