What Is a Layout?
Defining Your Own Report Layouts
Each Layout Has Settings
Changing Layout Settings
Working With Layouts: Adding, Deleting, Naming, Saving
Common Layout Settings
Layout Setting: Person, Spouse, and Children Fields
Layout Setting: Append to Names
Layout Setting: Sorting Fields
—
Reports
A layout is a collection of important settings that determine the content and "look" of a report or chart. If you're looking for a way to customize reports and charts, layouts are the key.
Layouts are chosen and customized before a chart or report is created.
Reunion offers default layouts for reports and gives you the flexibility of creating and saving your own report layouts. Every type of report has its own set of layouts.
The name of the current layout is shown in the
button, which appears just before you create a report. For example, when you select , you'll see the button.Clicking the
button reveals a pop-up menu of all layouts for the current report type and a powerful item: .Note: only "configured" reports have layouts.
To define your own report layouts, edit an existing layout, or just to see what the heck a layout is, click the
button (in one of Reunion's report panels) and choose Define Layouts.For example...
The Layout window includes a list of layouts on the left side. When you click on a layout, a list of settings appears in the middle list. When you click on a setting, buttons and other items appear on the right side.
The collection of settings depends on the report or chart; however, typical settings include...
To change a report layout, highlight the name of the layout on the left side of the Layout window and then highlight the particular setting you want to change in the middle.
For example, selecting Person Fields in the list of settings will show a list of person fields on the right side. As you click the different settings, the buttons to the right will change. Give it a try!
When you have a Layout window open (such as the one shown above), you can add, delete, duplicate, and rename layouts.
Some layout settings are unique to particular reports. In this manual, unique settings are discussed in the chapters that explain each report. For example, descendant reports have layout settings that only apply to descendant reports and they are explained in the Descendant Report chapter of the manual.
However, many reports and charts share similar layout settings, such as the choice of person fields, spouse fields, family fields, etc. The following is an explanation of layout settings that are common to different reports.
Person Fields, Spouse Fields, and Children Fields are layout settings that determine which fields will appear in a report or chart. In each of these three layout settings, a list of fields will appear on the right. Checking or unchecking the check-box buttons in these lists determines whether or not each field is included in a report or chart.
In many cases, you may want each person and spouse to have matching field selections in reports/charts. To make this easier, click the
button, shown above. This option applies to all reports and charts except family group sheets, ancestor reports/charts, bowtie charts, and relative books.In some reports, the order of fields appearing in the report is set in these lists, and you can drag the fields up and down in the list to specify the field order. In some reports, the field order is set in the Edit Person panel. In those cases, a reminder will appear beneath the list of fields...
The distinction between person, spouse, and children fields is illustrated in the following table:
In this document... |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
are fields for the... |
are fields for the... |
are fields for the... | |
Family Group Sheet |
|
|
|
Person Sheet |
|
|
|
Family Fields is a layout setting which refers to the fields associated with a couple or family, such as marriage, marital status, family ID number, and family notes. By checking or unchecking the check-box buttons in the list, you determine whether or not Reunion will include each field in a report. In addition, by dragging the fields up and down in the list, you have control over the order of family fields in a report.
Note: In the list of person, spouse, children, and family fields, "Contact Info" refers to the choice of contact info fields (such as: address, email, Facebook page, etc.) that are selected to be included in reports in the Report Settings. Learn more.
Name Setup is a layout setting for ancestor, relative and bowtie charts. This refers to the style in which names and dates of people are presented in chart boxes. (Descendant reports and charts also have a Name Setup layout setting, but it's quite different, and is explained here.)
To select one of the three styles, click a button under the Name Setup label.
Dates
When the name setup includes names and dates (b-d), you have the option to include dates in one of two formats...
Select one of the two buttons under the title Dates.
Append to Names is a layout setting that lets you append any or all of the following items to the names of people in reports and charts: relationship, Soundex number, ID number, user ID number, ancestor number, descendant number, relative number, and/or sex. In addition, by dragging the items up and down in the list, you can control the order in which fields are appended.
If
is checked in a layout, a "M," "F" or "?" will be appended to names in reports and charts.Ancestor, descendant, relative, and bowtie charts also have additional options to...
When appending relationship to names in reports, only blood relationships will be reported.
Event Format is a layout setting that includes check-box buttons relating to events in reports and charts. These buttons will vary, depending on the report or chart you're creating:
Flag Format is a layout setting that determines the way flags will be presented in charts.
Sorting Fields is a layout setting that determines the order in which fields are sorted in person sheets and family group sheets.
Select the
button if you want a person's fields to be sorted according to their order in the Edit Person window. If this option is selected, fields will appear grouped according to their type. For example, events will appear together and facts will appear together.Select the Blank forms and Questionnaires always use this option.
button if you want a person's fields to be sorted according to their order in the Person Fields setting in the Layout window. The advantage of selecting this option is that you can intermingle different types of fields. However, note fields will always appear last, regardless of the order in the Person Fields layout setting.Check the
button if you want the note fields for everybody in a person sheet or family group sheet to appear at the end of the document. For example, a person sheet can (optionally) include note fields for the source person, his spouse, and the couple's family note fields. Many feel that the document "flows" better when all of these note fields are gathered together at the end of the report.