Report Settings

How to Specify Report Settings

Ages

Contact Info

Dividing Line

Index

Preferred Picture Size

Report Numbers
Return Address

RTF
Signature

Word Processor


Settings for Sources in Reports

Reports

How to Specify Report Settings

To specify settings for reports, choose Reunion > Settings and click the Reports button. This opens the Report Settings window.

A list of options will appear on the left. As you click on items in this list, the relevant buttons and fields will appear on the right side.

Ages

In narrative reports, such as the register report or ancestor report, events have a narrative form — meaning they appear as short sentences such as "He was 45 years old." or "She was 76." The age of infants who die before their first birthday is shown as "<1" — whereas no age is shown if a person is still living or the death date is unknown.

In other reports and charts you have the option to include ages with events in a layout setting called Event Format.

When ages are based on an estimated date or a date range (like "aft 1900"), the age calculation becomes meaningless.

To omit the age calculation from reports and charts in cases where date entries are not exact (where they don't include a day, month, and year)...

  1. Choose Reunion > Settings.
  2. Click Reports.
  3. Click Ages in the list of Options.
  4. Check the button called Only include ages with exact dates.

Contact Info

"Contact info" in reports refers to the selection of contact info fields (address, phone, email, Facebook page, etc.) that you would like to be included for each person and/or family in a report.

For example, when you create a batch of person sheets you may want the email addresses of each person included. Or you may want their Facebook page address included. Or you may not want any contact info included (to better protect privacy of people in your report).

The toggle to include/exclude contact info for people and families in a report is a simple check-box button in the report layout.

If the report layout includes contact info, then the selection of fields to be included/excluded in reports is defined as follows...

  1. Choose Reunion > Settings.
  2. Click Reports.
  3. Click Contact Info in the list of Options.
  4. In the list of contact info fields on the right, select any field that you want to be included in reports.

  5. When you are configuring a report, be sure that the report layout includes contact info.

Entering and editing contact information for people and families is explained here.

Note: When you want a reader to contact you — the author of a printed or text report — use the report setting called Return Address. Also, Reunion stores separate contact details for the cover page of a web report.

Dividing Line

You have the option to specify what type of dividing line is used in text reports. The default line is made up of em dashes, but some interesting dividing lines can be created using other characters and spaces such as: (- - - - -) or (*****) or (=+=+=+=+). You can type an em dash by pressing three keys simultaneously: Shift + Option + hyphen.

To change the dividing line...

  1. Choose Reunion > Settings.
  2. Click Reports.
  3. Click Dividing Line in the list of Options.
  4. Insert or delete characters in the Dividing Line field. You may want to trim or lengthen the dividing line to complement your font choice. The maximum dividing line length is 50 characters.

To not have a dividing line in text reports, delete all text characters in the Dividing Line field in the Report settings.

When finished, close the Report Settings window.

Index

To set settings for indexes in reports...

  1. Choose Reunion > Settings.
  2. Click Reports.
  3. Click Index in the list of Options.

The following buttons appear, and are described below.

Sorting Note: the sorting of Reunion's People sidebar, with regard to multiple-word surnames such as Van Halen, also applies to the sorting of report indexes. Learn more.

Show (birth-death) years

This option will append birth and death years to each entry in a report index. If enabled, a typical index entry would look like this:

If the Use full dates button is checked, then the complete birth and death date appears adjacent to names (following your preferred date format). For example:

Indexes at the end of reports (such as a Register report or family history report) are always sorted alphabetically by last name.

Omit index

This option will omit the index that normally appears at the end of reports; however, this option does not apply to reports destined for the web or to books.

Insert "index" codes, Insert "table of contents" codes

The RTF file format supports embedded codes that designate certain words for inclusion in an Index and/or Table of Contents. Reunion can automatically insert the proper codes for you, when you create reports. However, Microsoft Word is the only word processor we know of that supports the embedded codes. In fact, using these embedded codes with word processors that don't support them may cause problems.

When a report is opened in Microsoft Word, a blank page will be created for the Table of Contents and the Index. A bold and centered title will be created for each. However, you are required to tell the word processor to generate the Contents and Index from the codes inserted by Reunion. The Table of Contents should be generated before the Index.

Instructions for generating the Table of Contents in Microsoft Word

These instructions apply to Word 2008, Word 2011, and newer versions.

  1. In the Word document, place the flashing cursor under the word "Contents."
  2. Choose Insert > Index and Tables.
  3. Make sure you are in the Table of Contents tab.
  4. Click the Options button.
  5. Uncheck Styles.
  6. Check Table entry fields.
  7. Click OK in the Table of Contents Options window.
  8. Click OK in the Index and Tables window.

Microsoft Word doesn't remember these settings. Thus, you have to repeat this procedure with every report.

Changes to the Report Index for Microsoft Word

If you check the button Insert "index" codes, Reunion will modify the names of people in the report index to provide compatibility with MS Word's RTF file import...

  1. These characters are removed from surnames in the report index...
  2. Smart quotes (single and double) and dumb double quotes appearing in first and middle names are converted to dumb single quotes in the report index.

The above filtering of characters only affects report indexes when the button Insert "index" codes is enabled. This doesn't affect the People sidebar or indexes in web output.

Preferred Picture Size in Reports

To change the size of preferred pictures that are automatically included in person and family groups sheets with destination Printer, Word Processor, or Text File...

  1. Choose Reunion > Settings.
  2. Click Reports.
  3. Click Preferred Picture Size in the list of Options.
  4. Enter a value into the pixel field. The unit of measurement is 1/72 inch, so use 108 for 1.5 inches, 144 for 2 inches, etc.

Note: This setting is global — it applies to all your family files.

Report Numbers

When a report is destined for your word processor or web browser, Reunion creates and saves a report file (or folder) to disk automatically — you aren't even asked to name the file (or folder). These report files and folders will have a default file name containing the word "Report," a sequential number, the initials of the source person, and the type of document you're saving. While nothing says you must keep the default file names, they can help you to remember the contents of report files on your hard disk.

Report files are numbered sequentially, so you can keep track of the number of reports you create. This number may be useful when you need to delete report files from your hard disk.

The following table shows some sample report files and their default file names.

Source Person
Report
Default File Name
John F. Doe
Person Sheet
Report 001, JFD PersonSheet
John F. Doe
Questionnaire
Report 002, JFD Questionnaire
John F. Doe
Family Group
Report 003, JFD FamilyGroup

To change the current report number...

  1. Choose Reunion > Settings.
  2. Click Reports.
  3. Click Report Numbers in the list of Options.
  4. Type a number into the Next number field.

Note: This setting is global — it applies to all your family files.

The folder designated to store your report files is specified in Folder Settings.

Return Address

Reunion lets you add a return address to the end of some reports. To enter or edit the return address...

  1. Choose Reunion > Settings.
  2. Click Reports.
  3. Click Return Address in the list of Options.
  4. Enter up to five lines of text in the Return Address text field.

When the cursor is in the Return Address text field, the Return key is used to create new lines.

The option to include a return address in reports is turned on or off using the Include check-box button, shown above.

Note: Contact information for web projects is defined in Web Settings.

RTF

To change RTF settings for reports destined for your word processor...

  1. Choose Reunion > Settings.
  2. Click the Reports button.
  3. Click RTF in the list of Options.

You can choose a font by clicking the Font button.

To include/exclude a page number footer in reports destined for your word processor, check the Include page number button.

rtfd files

If you create a report with no images, Reunion builds a single RTF file for the report.

If you're creating a report that includes images, some word processors need to have the pictures embedded in the RTF file. In this case, images are embedded in the text content as a block of binary numbers.

However, some word processors require an RTF file with separate image files enclosed in an rtfd package (examples include Pages and TextEdit). The rtfd file is actually a package (or directory) containing an RTF text file and at least one image file (TIFF format). The RTF file links to the image(s) in the package.

The Create .rtfd files when needed checkbox button is automatically checked/unchecked when the user chooses a word processor — depending on the needs of that word processor.

If pictures don't appear in reports (or appear as a block of weird text), you may need to manually check this button. If pictures are showing up as a file name like "P00001.tiff" this button may need to be unchecked.

Signature

At the bottom of some reports, a "signature" line will appear. The date portion of the signature is preset; however, you can change the rest of the signature. To change the signature...

  1. Choose Reunion > Settings.
  2. Click Reports.
  3. Click Signature in the list of Options.
  4. Enter text in the Signature field.

Sources

Settings for source citations/endnotes in reports are discussed here.

Word Processor

This is the app that will be opened when you create text-based reports. The name of your word processor appears as a destination for the report.

To identify your word processor...

  1. Choose Reunion > Settings.
  2. Click Reports.
  3. Click Word Processor.
  4. Select your word processor using the Word Processor button. To specify a word processor that is not in the pop-up menu, choose Other. This will open a window wherein you can navigate and select your word processor app.

Only one word processor can be selected at a time.

Apple's Pages App

With Apple's release of Pages 6.1 (in March 2017) Apple finally restored support for RTF files. However, keep in mind that Pages 6.1 or newer requires macOS Sierra (version 10.12). Reunion takes advantage of the latest version of Pages (which also happens to be free).

Word Processor Compatibility Issues

Text reports utilize the RTF file format for attractive formatting, compatibility, and flexibility.

Reunion works with popular Mac word processors that support the import of RTF files. Free word processors with this capability include: Pages, LibreOffice, NeoOffice, OpenOffice, and Bean. Or you could use Microsoft Word or Apple's TextEdit app. Once you decide which word processor to use with Reunion, be sure to visit Reunion > Settings > Reports > Word Processor and select your word processor.

Unfortunately, not all word processors import RTF files properly. For example, here are some known issues:

When a word processor has a problem converting an RTF file, the report may not appear at all, or it may be filled with strange phrases such as...

	\par Birth Date:\tab 22 Sep 1923

In such cases, it might mean that you need an update or newer version of your word processor. Sometimes, simply reinstalling the word processor will fix the problem. As a workaround, specifying TextEdit as your word processor will probably solve the problem until you can figure out why your usual word processor is having difficulty importing RTF files.

You may contact us to discuss compatibility issues regarding your word processor or visit this page on our web site in case there is any late-breaking news regarding word processor compatibility.

Please keep this in mind: we can't teach you how to use your word processor. If you are having difficulty using your word processor (or printing a report from your word processor), please consult the word processor's documentation, the developer, or their support group for assistance.

Unicode Issues
Not all applications support Unicode. If you're attempting to use a word processor that does not support Unicode, you may find certain characters in reports missing, such as smart apostrophes, smart quotes, and/or foreign/extended characters.

More information about using a word processor for reports is here.