* Diagrams - moving one box at a time

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Tom Wills Sandford
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Diagrams - moving one box at a time

Post by Tom Wills Sandford »

I have a descendants chart of 10 generations and the most important point in the diagram are the images. Because I do not want to be restricted by the height of the boxes for the size of the image, I have 'inserted the images' into the diagram. They are therefore placed 'logically' at the end of the relevant generation line.

So I have for instance three images at the LH end of one line and one at the RH end and so the diagram looks a bit cumbersome and not intuitive. It is not immediately clear what image refers to what individual.

I would like to be able to move the individual boxes horizontally and place the images immediately to the left of the relevant box. Is that possible?

In summary, I want to move boxes individually (horizontally) and not just lines.

I am on FH 6.2 or whatever the latest version is.

Many thanks for any help you can give me.
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LornaCraig
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Re: Diagrams - moving one box at a time

Post by LornaCraig »

Yes, you need to use the Movement Control Box (click the second icon from the right in the Daigram toolbar). You will need the Fixed Point option, setting one box as the fixed point and dragging another box away. You may have to experiment a bit to get a satisfactory layout because other elements of the diagram will shift at the same time. Click the Help button in the Movement Control Box for further guidance.

Another approach is to use Diagram > Options > Dimensions tab and increase the Maximum Box Height. On the Pictures tab set the position to Left or Right side, and set the Maximum Picture Height to the same as the Maximum Box Height. Any boxes with pictures should then be enlarged, and horizontal spacing will be automatic.
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Re: Diagrams - moving one box at a time

Post by tatewise »

Lorna's advice about the Movement Control Box is fine, although a bit fiddly.

Her advice about Diagram > Options > Dimensions tab Maximum Box Height is misleading, as there is no such setting.
She may mean Standard Box Height but that has little effect as boxes will automatically expand in height as required.
So start on the Diagram > Pictures tab and just increase the Maximum Picture Height. That is all you should need to do.

Essentially, pictures are NOT restricted to the height of the boxes, but only by that Diagram > Pictures tab setting.
The boxes will automatically expand to accommodate the pictures as shown below with setting increased from 19.1 mm to 30 mm.
If you wish, it is easy to get some/all the boxes the same size by using Diagram > Layout & Scaling options.
OR in the Diagram > Options > Dimensions tab set Minimum Box Height to same as Maximum Picture Height.
When just right, use Diagram > Save Diagram As > Custom Diagram Type to preserve those settings.
DiagramPictures30mm.png
DiagramPictures30mm.png (246.58 KiB) Viewed 9269 times
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Re: Diagrams - moving one box at a time

Post by tatewise »

Check my previous posting as I've added a few more tips.

Other customisations may be attractive, especially if you don't want much text in the boxes.

On the Diagram > Pictures tab try setting Picture Position to Within the text and reduce the Picture Margins on right.

If you only want people's names in the boxes, then on the Diagram > Text tab choose Name Only or Name, Dates.

The position of the Text above/below the Picture can also be customised if you wish. Just ask how if needed.

One caveat is that only one Picture per person is allowed in Diagrams.
If you want multiple images, then use a photo editor to combine photos into one image, and make that the preferred Picture.
Mike Tate ~ researching the Tate and Scott family history ~ tatewise ancestry
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LornaCraig
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Re: Diagrams - moving one box at a time

Post by LornaCraig »

Yes, sorry, I misread the dimension options for boxes. The important one is the Maximum Picture Height. I was trying to avoid suggesting increasing the Miminum Box size. As Mike says, that is a way of making all the boxes the same size but it will not be a good idea in your ten generation diagram. Only the more recent generations will have any pictures. Large boxes in the older generations would have a lot of blank space and the overall size of the diagram would increase considerably.
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Tom Wills Sandford
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Re: Diagrams - moving one box at a time

Post by Tom Wills Sandford »

Thank you all for your help and so quickly as well
FHUG is brilliant and so is the system!
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Re: Diagrams - moving one box at a time

Post by tatewise »

Tom, as a matter of interest, and maybe of help to others, what options have you adopted?
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Tom Wills Sandford
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Re: Diagrams - moving one box at a time

Post by Tom Wills Sandford »

Lorna and Mike

I have successfully used Fixed Point! You are quite right, it does shift around lots of the diagram, but once I got used to it, I could anticipate what would happen. Also sometimes a subsequent use of Fixed Point shifted it back.

I assume my use of it is relatively unusual, as I was keen that the images were large enough to see clearly. Can you confirm that, there is no way of automatically including photographs/ images except within a box?

One point of clarification. Mike I think it was you who said the earlier generations would be full of blank space if the boxes were large enough to incorporate large images. Due to a particular set of circumstances I have a lot of portraits and miniatures going back to the 18th century. As an example on line 2 of my diagram I have included 4 images

Does FH have a feature which would allow me to draw straight lines? It did occur to me that one other approach would be to have the images surrounding the diagram and then connect them to the individual with a line. WORD has that facility,

NB I am sure you realize that most of my photographs are actually photographs of painting or miniatures
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Re: Diagrams - moving one box at a time

Post by LornaCraig »

Yes, once you have got used to using the Fixed Point option it is very useful, but it is a bit of a learning curve.

You are right, the only way of automatically including images in a diagram is to include them in the individuals' boxes.

You can indeed insert lines into a diagram. Use Diagram > Insert into Diagram and choose Line or, sometimes more usefully, Multi-Segment Line. (You can also get to the Insert... menu by right-clicking in the background of the diagram.) Once you have drawn the line, right-click on it and choose Format. You can then choose its colour, width, and style (solid or dotted).
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Re: Diagrams - moving one box at a time

Post by tatewise »

There is another way to automatically include photographs/images other than within a box, although it may not be suitable for you.
Although Icons are usually small BMP files, they can actually be any image format such as JPG or PNG, etc.
They are automatically attached to the bottom of a box depending on a Diagram > Options > Boxes tab Condition.
e.g. You could have a custom Flag associated with each image and add that to the Individual record whose box needs the image, or maybe there is some unique Fact associated with the image that could form the basis of the Condition.
The image size can be governed by a Size dpi setting in the Box Features options for Icons.

Boxes will only be full of blank space if you make all boxes the same size by for example increasing Minimum Box Height on the Diagram > Options > Dimensions tab. In general though, you are in charge of box sizes, and they only expand to accommodate what they include.

You can draw all sorts of lines, shapes, arrows, etc, by using Diagram > Insert into Diagram much as you did to insert pictures.

One word of warning about using Fixed Point and inserted Pictures and Lines.
As soon as any data in your Project is updated that is associated with boxes in your Chart/Diagram then the carefully constructed layout can get disrupted as the boxes increase or move to accommodate the changes.
e.g. New Facts or Names or Dates that appear in boxes, or new relatives that add extra boxes can affect the layout.
Pictures and Lines can be Grouped together to reduce the disruption, but they cannot be 'grouped' to boxes.
As an experiment try adding Facts that increase the text inside boxes, or add relatives to add an extra box or two.

That is why we suggested using enlarged Pictures within Boxes, because all the layout is then handled automatically.
Did you experiment with that option, and if so, why was it unsuitable?
Mike Tate ~ researching the Tate and Scott family history ~ tatewise ancestry
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Re: Diagrams - moving one box at a time

Post by LornaCraig »

Mike, I'm sure you're right because you will have tried it, but it hadn't occurred to me that icons could be anything other than .bmp format, because of what it says in the Help files:
If you .... create your own icons, remember to save your image in bitmap (.bmp) format.
Perhaps the Help needs clarifying.

I thought there would be another complication with icons, but perhaps using a different file format avoids this:
Whatever colour appears in the top-left hand corner of the bitmap will be interpreted by Family Historian as transparent. So, for example, if the top-left corner is white, every white pixel in your bitmap will appear to be transparent when the icon is displayed in a diagram.
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Re: Diagrams - moving one box at a time

Post by tatewise »

Yes, I was a little surprised that it worked for image formats other than BMP.
I'd overlooked the transparent pixel effect, but there are ways round that by photo-editing the top-left pixel where necessary.
The biggest drawback is needing a different Condition for every image.
Also the images won't necessarily all be displayed exactly the same size, unless they are all photo-edited to the same size.
But I just wanted to mention it as another automatic method once all the Conditions were setup that would automatically include the images and also adapt the box layout appropriately providing the images are no wider than the boxes.
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Tom Wills Sandford
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Re: Diagrams - moving one box at a time

Post by Tom Wills Sandford »

I posted a reply a week ago and thought I saved it as draft, but I couldnt find it later. Discouraging? As readers of this thread know I am 'inserting' pictures into a diagram, rather than having the photos in the name boxes. It serves my purposes well.

To get the diagram printed I sent the project including the diagram to genealogyprinters.com via we-transfer. When Ron looked at the diagram the pictures had shifted. We had problems saving the diagram as a pdf as well and we had to resort to me sending him a screen grab, so that he could shift the images to the correct place in the diagram. I have now solved the problem with saving as a pdf. However after saving the diagram as a pdf on my PC for easy printing by genealogyprinters, the images are still shifted.

There must be an error in the 'save as a pdf' system for this to happen. Does anyone know why this is happening? I can send a screen grab of the diagram and a screen grab of the pdf of the diagram. They should of course be the same, but are not and the two screen grabs demonstrate the problem
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Re: Diagrams - moving one box at a time

Post by tatewise »

How have you "solved the problem with saving as a pdf"?

By all means post the screenshot and PDF here, but it might be better to send them to Calico Pie for their developers to investigate. See how_to:about#problem_reporting|> Problem Reporting.
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Re: Diagrams - moving one box at a time

Post by Jane »

> However after saving the diagram as a pdf on my PC for easy printing by genealogyprinters, the images are still shifted.

When you used this option had you remembered to set the File>Print options to use the Family Historian PDF, as FH uses the Printer settings to position items small movements are to be expected when the printer changes, so if you are doing fine tuning for a 3rd party printer it's a good idea to install the printer driver for the destination printer and use that when laying out the diagram.
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Re: Diagrams - moving one box at a time

Post by Tom Wills Sandford »

Thanks for that.

I am IT literate (but not very FH literate) and I would not have expected 'small movements are to be expected when the printer changes'. Dont understand why pdf cares about spacing etc. Ron of genealogyprinters.com suggested I download PDF 995. The alternative is for me to send him a screen grab of the diagram and send him the project and he can move the diagram pictures as per my screen grab. Do you recommend PDF 995? The default 'printer' when saving as a pdf is Family Historian PDF, so I am not sure I understand your advice
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Re: Diagrams - moving one box at a time

Post by tatewise »

When the Diagram Chart is displayed, check that File > Print Setup command specifies the Family Historian PDF printer.
Then the screen display is using same printer driver as will be used by Save As PDF.

PDF 995 is unlikely to help as it is essentially the same as the Family Historian PDF pseudo printer driver.
Mike Tate ~ researching the Tate and Scott family history ~ tatewise ancestry
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