What's in a Tree Chart?
Chart Orientation
Updating Information in Boxes
Going to the Family View From a Chart
Finding the Starting Person/Box in a Chart
Defaults for Charts
Multiple Spouses in Descendant and Relative Charts
Finding Duplicates & Intersection in Tree Charts
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Editing Objects in Charts (Boxes, Colors, Lines, etc.)
Tree charts include the descendant chart, ancestor chart, relative chart, bowtie chart, hourglass chart and everybody chart. Tree charts have boxes and lines, arranged and connected in meaningful ways.
The basic element of a tree chart is a box. A box is a rectangle that encloses text and has a line that connects it to other boxes in the chart. The content of boxes (the fields that are included or excluded) is specified in the chart layout. And the chart layout is chosen and/or configured in the first step when creating a chart, just after selecting...
The collection of boxes in a tree chart depend on the type of chart, the number of generations, and of course, the people and links in your family file.
Tree charts contain objects that you can select, modify, move, add, delete, copy, etc. Learn more.
The orientation of a tree chart refers to the path it flows from beginning to end. One of the most practical reasons to try different orientations is to reduce the physical size of charts. Depending on the collection of boxes in a chart, some orientations will occupy much less space than others. In addition, certain charts are more or less "readable" with different orientations.
When a chart is open, you can change the orientation by choosing
. This opens the Orientation window, shown below.The top part of the Orientation window gives you some general information about your chart...
Below the general information section is the settings section. This is where you can customize your chart orientation to look the best for printing and to use the least amount of space. There are two tabs (
& ) at the top of the settings section. You can select either of these two tab panels to modify the orientation of your chart. The contents of each of the tab panels is described below...In the suggestions panel you will be presented with a list of different chart orientation settings (suggestions) that could be applied to your chart. Each listed suggestion indicates the orientation settings, physical size of the chart, area for that orientation and in some cases a green star to indicate any optimum attributes for that suggestion.
Some suggestions will include a green star followed by an attribute that is optimum or ideal. For example...
Note: Some charts may have multiple suggestions with the same optimum attributes. Other charts may not have some optimum attributes listed.
To apply a suggested orientation to your chart, select the desired suggestion by clicking on it - your chart will be updated in the chart editor window. If you like the selected suggestion, click
. Afterward, the Orientation window will close and you will be back in the chart editor. Otherwise, you may click another suggestion or click to return to your chart.To see the specific settings used for a suggestion, select the suggestion in the list and then select the
tab. The Custom panel will display the specific settings used to create the selected suggestion. You can view and modify these settings within this Custom panel. The next section covers the Custom panel in more detail.The Custom panel allows you to view and modify individual settings for your chart's orientation. The settings that appear in this panel will vary depending on the chart.
Settings are as follows...
Orientation
The Custom panel contains an
button that lets you select from several different orientations. In some cases, you can choose a combination of orientations.Note: Some orientations are not available for all types of charts. For example, the "butterfly" orientation does not apply to ancestor charts. And the orientation can't be changed in Bowtie charts, thus the option doesn't appear in the menu of a bowtie chart.
The table below contains basic descriptions of the orientations. But the best way to learn about different orientations is to create a modest size chart and experiment.
Orientation |
|
---|---|
Top-To-Bottom |
The fashion of a typical organizational chart starting at top-center and moving down — fanning left and right as it moves down the chart. |
Bottom-To-Top |
Opposite of "top-to-bottom." |
Butterfly |
Begins with source box top and center. A vertical line drops from the source box and attached to that line are the children of the source box, moving down chronologically. Each child of the source is a "source" box for a waterfall chart showing the descendants of the original source's children. Children of the source box appearing on the left of the center line have descendants falling to the left. Children of the source on the right have descendants falling to the right. Confused? Then create a chart and take a look. |
Waterfall |
Moves from upper-left to lower-right or vice versa. This usually represents the most efficient use of space for descendant charts, although long, skinny charts are difficult to follow. |
Left-To-Right |
A typical ancestor layout starting at left-center and moving to the right, fanning up and down as it moves. |
Right-To-Left |
Opposite of "left-to-right." |
Combinations |
Combination orientations include: Top-To-Bottom, change to Butterfly, back to Waterfall Top-To-Bottom, change to Waterfall These orientations do exactly what they say: combine different orientations in a chart. Using the number buttons, you can determine at what generation the chart changes. Again, it's best to experiment with a smaller chart to see how this works. |
Using a small chart, you should experiment with different orientations until you understand the appearance, strengths, and weaknesses of each. Here are a few guidelines:
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For the Waterfall orientation, we recommend using chart layouts with a Name Setup that puts names and dates on the same lines. For large charts, the Waterfall orientation redraws the fastest and usually provides the most efficient use of paper. |
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For Top-To-Bottom orientation, we recommend using chart layouts with a Name Setup that puts names and dates on separate lines. This will help to control the width of Top-To-Bottom charts. |
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Depending on the distribution of boxes in each generation, descendant charts will often require the fewest number of pages in Left-To-Right orientation. |
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![]() Depending on the selected orientation, a menu button will appear in the Orientation window for the purpose of positioning boxes for parents in one of three ways...
Depending on the relationships in your family file, you may be able to construct much smaller charts by applying one of these options to very large relative charts. |
When editing the contents of a box, Reunion automatically measures the height of the text and makes the box big enough to accommodate the text. Reunion also measures the width of text in boxes and trims the width of boxes according to the trim style currently in effect.
When choosing
to change the orientation of a chart, a different trim style may be applied to create a different "look" for your chart.There are two primary trim styles:
Charts drawn in the Waterfall style have two additional trim options:
Trimming Boxes Without Redrawing a Chart
When choosing
, as described above, the entire chart is redrawn and the trim style is applied to all boxes. However, if you want to trim one selected box, or a group of selected boxes — without affecting an entire chart — simply select one box (or a group of boxes) and Control-click a selected box.To trim one box, Control-click one box and choose from the pop-up menu that appears. This will make the box only as wide as necessary to show its content.
To trim a group of boxes, select a group of boxes and Control-click one of the selected boxes. Then choose or from the menu that appears. As described above, will make all selected boxes the same width (the width of the widest selected, trimmed box) and will make each box only as wide as necessary to show the content of each box (all boxes are treated independently).
The
button lets you see different orientations applied to your chart as you make changes in the Orientation window.It's a good idea to use the
button to reduce the chart size to 50% or less, to see changes more clearly.The
button will maximize the chart window, behind the Orientation window — letting you see as much as possible as you make changes in the Orientation window.OK and Undo
Click the
button when you're ready to commit to the new orientation.If you uncheck the
button, then the default button ( ) becomes .Shortcut: Hold down the Option key while choosing to redraw the chart using the previous settings in the Orientation window (without opening the Orientation window again). Or, press Option+Command+R.
Default Orientation for New Charts
The choices you make in the Orientation window will become the default settings for new charts. For example, if you open a descendant chart and change its orientation to Top-To-Bottom, then the next descendant chart you create will, by default, appear in the Top-To-Bottom orientation. Likewise with your orientation choices for ancestor charts (not "single page" ancestor charts), ancestor charts with siblings, and relative charts.
It's easy to update the contents of boxes in charts if you make changes to a person's information in the family file. For example, if you've already created and edited a big chart and then discover that Aunt Mary's birth date was entered incorrectly, you can correct her birth date in her record in the family file and then, in the big chart, select her box and choose
Note: this command will update changed information, but it does not...
Another Note: The
command uses the current information in the family file. Here's an example of where you might be surprised by the result...Going to the Family View From a Chart
You can immediately open the family record of anyone in a chart by...
As a shortcut, Control-click the box, bar, or cell (in a fan chart) and choose Go to Family View from the menu that appears.
If the Go to Family View menu item is disabled (gray), and you see an item called Locate Family File instead, it means that Reunion can't find the family file from which the chart was originally drawn. If this happens, choose Locate Family File and "tell" Reunion where the family file is located.
If the Go to Family View menu item is disabled (gray) and you see an item called Open Family File above it, then the family file wasn't closed properly and needs to be opened. Choose Object > Open Family File and Reunion will open the family file and make repairs automatically.
To find somebody in a tree or timeline chart, or to find text in any box, bar, or text object in a chart, choose Edit > Find Text. This opens the Find Text window.
You may search for any text that might appear in a box. For example, first name, middle name, last name, place name, month name, etc.
When you click the
button, Reunion will select the first box, bar, or text object containing the text. (Selected objects will appear with a highlighted border.) To find other instances of the same text, choose Edit > Find Next.Reunion lets you find and select boxes in a tree chart based on one or two conditions, where each condition specifies an attribute. For example, you can find and select all boxes in a tree chart for people...
To use this feature, be sure you're looking at a tree chart and then choose
. This opens the Find Anything in Boxes window, which supports one or two conditions. A condition is defined by two menu buttons and a data field specifying where to look, how to look, and what to look for.When you click the
button, Reunion will find and select all boxes that match the condition(s). If you want everything to be unselected first (i.e., before selecting boxes matching the conditions) check the button before clicking .To mark the people in selected boxes, choose
The same item appears when Control-clicking a chart box.The first menu focuses a search to a particular field or statistic. For example, last name, birth place, death date, number of children, generation number, etc.
The following items look at the primary person in a box, and then the spouse (if there is one): Person ID, First & Mid Name, Last Name, Age, Living, Birth/Death Date/Place.
The second menu lets you specify exactly how to find matches. There are four basic types of searches which are described elsewhere.
The "what to look for" text field in each condition is used to enter text, numbers, places, or dates. When searches are performed, Reunion uses the contents of this box to find matches.
To find or locate the starting person (or box) in the chart (just in case you get so many boxes on screen and you scroll around and get lost) choose
. This will move the box of the starting person/family to the center of the chart window and the starting box will be selected.Pressing Command + B is the keyboard shortcut.
Automatic Defaults
Some default settings for new charts and chart objects are automatically remembered based on your choices. These are called "automatic defaults." For example, if you open the Tree > Colors window, choose some settings such as box colors, shadow colors, gradient enabled, etc., and then close the window, the choices you just made will become the default color settings for new tree charts.
Automatic defaults appear in windows opened by these menu commands...
Locking Defaults (Disabling the Automatic Defaults)
There may be situations where you want to preserve your automatic chart defaults, while making changes that, normally, would alter the automatic chart defaults.
For example...
To lock your automatic defaults (i.e., if you do not want your defaults changed), choose
.If your chart defaults are currently locked, there will be a checkmark next to the
menu item.To make a change to your defaults after they have been locked, simply select the menu command again to remove the check mark, make any changes to the defaults, and, optionally lock the defaults again.
Some defaults can be captured by selecting an object and then deliberately making the attributes of the selected object the "default" attributes the next time the same object is created. These are called "manual defaults."
Manual defaults apply to the following objects...
To make the attributes of a selected object the default attributes for new objects of the same type, choose Object > Save Default [object type] Attributes.
Example: making a default line object...
Similarly, if you create a fabulous chart frame and want to apply the same frame to a new chart, you can make it the "default frame" by selecting the frame (clicking on it) and choosing Object > Save Default Frame Attributes.
Note: The default shadow color of boxes (in tree charts) and bars (in timeline charts) is set in Tree > Colors and Timeline > Colors, respectively.
If a descendant or relative chart includes spouses, people with multiple spouses will appear in a different box for each marriage, and each box will be connected with a special line. To change the attributes of lines that connect multiple spouses, choose
and click the button. The example below shows a multiple marriage in a descendant chart using all three chart orientations: Left-To-Right, Waterfall, and Top-To-Bottom, respectively.Finding Duplication or Intersection in Tree Charts
As explained elsewhere, Reunion can automatically remove duplicate branches in tree charts. When it does this, it appends double asterisks to the names of people who represent the initial points of duplication, and then further duplication is removed. For example, let's assume the husband of a particular couple is a descendant of one line in the chart, and the wife is the descendant of another line. Any of their offspring (and further descendants) would only appear once. And in each of the two boxes where the husband and wife appear, their names would appear with double asterisks. In once case, like this...
Husband**
& Wife
and in the other case, like this...
Wife**
& Husband
To find boxes that represent points of duplication or intersection on a tree chart (where one line of descent/ascent intersects with another)...
This will find and select boxes that represent points of duplication in your tree chart. To visually designate these points of duplication, you can apply formatting options (such as bolder borders, etc) to the selected boxes, using the tool panel. In the example below, the two boxes that intersect have been "reversed" in appearance.
After the bowtie chart is created, it can be edited much like other tree charts (ancestor, descendant, relative). For example, boxes or generations may be selected, edited, moved, pictures may be added, text and colors may be changed, etc.
In addition, special features unique to bowtie charts appear in the Tree menu.
The first two items (
and ) will make it easier for changes on one side of the chart to be "mirrored" on the other side. For example, making the text left-justified on the left side of the chart and automatically making the text right-justified on the right side of the chart.These two “Reverse” items in the menu are "state" settings which will apply to selected boxes on the right side of the chart when the menu item is checked.
For example: let's say you select the outer two generations on both sides of a bowtie chart. If “Reverse Text Alignment” is checked and you left-justify the text, you'll see the text of the generations on the left side of the chart become left-justified, as you would expect. However, text on the right side of the chart will become right-justified. Additionally, when a box with right-justified text on the right side of the chart is selected, the Text Alignment pop-up menu will show left-justified text for that box.
This same mirroring behavior applies to pictures in chart boxes.
and have no effect when text/pictures is center justified. Similarly, these states do not affect pictures when they are top- and bottom-aligned.
The bowtie chart has an option to include/exclude lines from the source couple to their children. Depending on the layout and content of a chart (and, the number of children), you may or may not want these connecting lines. Choose
to toggle this line on/off.Note: to change the line that connects the source husband and wife together (and nothing else), select
.Bowtie charts include two additional features for selecting boxes. These items appear when a box is Control-clicked and will make it easier to select boxes on one side of the chart and automatically select corresponding boxes on the other side of the chart. This, in turn, will facilitate making edits that affect the bowtie chart in a symmetrical way.
If the changes you've made to a bowtie chart are undesired, just choose
from the menu.After the hourglass chart is created, it can be edited much like other tree charts (ancestor, descendant, relative). For example, boxes or generations may be selected, edited, moved, pictures may be added, text and colors may be changed, etc.
Keep in mind that the hourglass chart is actually made up of 3 subcharts: 2 ancestor charts and 1 descendant chart.
If you want to select or move branches of an hourglass chart, you will need to be aware of what kind of branch you're working with. For example if you want to select the ancestors of a box be sure to select ancestors and if you want to select descendants of a box, be sure to select descendants.
If you want to select or move an entire subchart, select
from the main menubar. When is checked, clicking on any box will select the entire subchart to which that box belongs.