The Starting Person (or Family)
Drilling Down and Moving Up in the Tree View
Buttons in the Bottom Bar of the Tree View
Sharing the Tree View (Printing, Emailing, Copying)
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The tree view is a navigable graphic tree in the form of an hourglass or ancestor chart. It provides an excellent overview tool — a quick way to see lots of people graphically. It's easy to jump, climb, or move around your family tree because each person appears in clickable boxes. And each box includes: name, birth date, death date, and (for couples) marriage date. Boxes can optionally include: pictures, places, relationships, and color tags. (See the tree view settings.) The "canvas" of the tree can be scrolled by clicking and dragging; thus the "virtual" tree can be quite large.
To see the tree view, click
in the navbar. The tree view replaces the family view, in the center of Reunion's window. You'll see the navbar (on the left) highlight change when changing views.Note: the "tree view" is different from a "chart." Reunion creates several different kinds of charts, which are full-featured, editable graphic documents with complete control over box content, captions, lines, graphics, orientation, etc. Learn more about charts.
Tree View Examples: Hourglass and Ancestor
The choice of hourglass or ancestor is made in the Tree View Settings, described below.
This example is an "hourglass" tree view, which begins with a couple and moves both forward and backward in time; so it combines elements of both ancestor and descendant charts.
This example is an "ancestor" tree view, which begins with a person and moves backward in time, much like Reunion's ancestor chart.
If the tree view is set to "hourglass" style, then the chart begins with the couple who appeared in the family view when you switched to the
. This couple will be centered in the tree view.If the tree view is set to "ancestor" style, then the starting person is whoever was last clicked to arrive at the current family view.
Changing The Starting Person or Family: 5 Ways
Single-click any box in the tree view to make that person the starting person and move him to the center of the tree. When you do this, a gold ring will temporarily appear around the new starting box — a temporary visual clue. This is how you "climb" the tree (move backward in time) or "drill down" the tree (move forward in time). Unless your family file has "islands" of unlinked people, you can actually navigate to every single person in your family file using the tree view.
Click a name in any sidebar to change the starting person (assuming the tree view is already showing).
Drag any person button from the family view and drop it on the button in the navbar. (Needless to say, this shortcut only works when the tree view is not showing.)
Drag any name from any sidebar and drop it on the button in the navbar.
Boxes in the tree can be Shift-clicked to show the Quickview.
Control-click (or right-click) any box in the tree view to change the starting person. This will show a modified Person menu, including the clicked person's spouses, children, siblings, and parents. Selecting anybody from this pop-up menu will make that person the starting person and move him to the center of the tree.
As you can see, this special menu has other features (similar to the Person menu in the family view), including...
Finding the Starting Box — In Case You Get Lost
To find or locate the starting box in the tree view (just in case you get so many boxes on screen and you scroll around and get lost) choose
. This will move the starting person/family to the center of the tree and a gold ring will temporarily appear around the starting box.Pressing Command + B is the keyboard shortcut.
Whenever you see branches of the tree moving beyond the borders of the tree view, just click and drag anywhere on the "canvas" of the chart to scroll (except on a box).
Returning to the Family View
To go back to the family view and see the record of the current starting person (in the tree view), just click the button in the navbar. Whoever was the starting person of the tree view will appear in the family view.
To go to anybody else in the tree view, double-click any box and the family view will appear, showing the family record of the double-clicked person or family.
Drilling Down and Moving Up in the Tree View
In the ancestor tree view, a little downward-pointing "v" button will appear just beneath the starting box. Click this button to see a menu of the spouses and children of the starting person. By selecting a spouse or child in the menu, the tree view will start with the selected name. (As explained earlier in this chapter, several other options and features appear in this menu. And, the same menu appears anytime you Control/right-click any box in the tree view.)
Also in the ancestor tree view, right-pointing triangles will appear in the right edge of boxes for people with additional ancestors.
In hourglass tree view, upward pointing triangles appear in boxes for people with additional ancestors; downward pointing triangles appear in boxes for people with additional descendants.
Buttons in the Bottom Bar of the Tree View
When you enter the tree view, several buttons appear in the bottom bar. These are described below.
The buttons, in the bottom bar under the tree view, will scale the chart in 5% increments, between 25% and 100%. Use the buttons to see more of the chart.
Pressing Command +/- are the keyboard shortcuts for zooming in/out.
Tip: When the tree view is zoomed to anything other than 100%, double-clicking the chart canvas (anywhere on a chart, but not on a box) will set the zoom to 100%. Double-clicking again will set the zoom to 75%.
Sharing the Tree View - Printing, Emailing, Copying
To share the tree view (print, copy, email), click the button in the bottom bar, under the tree view. This opens the Share Tree View window with the following options...
In each case, the hi-res image of the tree view includes branches and boxes that are "hidden" beyond the borders of what you can see on-screen.
Note: the tree view is designed primarily to be a navigational tool, although it can certainly make a handy printout or email attachment. However, to see and print full-featured graphic tree charts with complete control over box content, captions, lines, graphics, pagination orientation, etc., be sure to explore the many charts that Reunion offers.
At the bottom of the tree view, click the or buttons to backtrack or retrace your steps. For example, if you've clicked some boxes in the tree view and want to get back to where you started, just click the button (in the bottom bar) repeatedly.
Click the button to make the tree view begin with your current home family (as defined in your Startup Settings).
If the tree view is set to ancestor, then clicking the button will start the tree with the husband of the current home family. Command-clicking the button will start the ancestor tree view with the wife of the current family.
To change settings for the tree view, click the button in the bottom bar. This will open the Tree View Settings window. The tree view will be updated, in real time, as you make changes in this window.
Chart Style - The first choice is the style of chart: ancestor or hourglass.
Generations - In this section, the number of generations is selected.
Box Contents - In this section, there are four check-box buttons for including pictures, places, relationships, color tags, and marking. Relationship text will be colored to match the setting in the current family view.
By default, each box includes: name, birth date, death date, and (for couples) marriage date. Boxes can optionally include: pictures, places, relationships, color tags, and a green check-mark for marking/unmarking people in the tree view. Boxes also reflect the "no children" designation where appropriate.
Missing Pictures in Tree View Boxes
If a red question mark appears inside a box in the Tree view (rather than a picture), it means Reunion can't find the image file. To remedy this problem, repair the multimedia links. Learn more.