This is a single page chart which will trace descent in a drop-line style from a number of ancestors to a single base individual, allowing up to 6 lines of descent through each generation. An A4 page will accommodate up to 13 generations through 3-5 parallel lines of descent, using the default font, if all children are shown. Note however that including too many lines of descent will result in a cluttered page.
The tree will show up to 2 marriages for each ancestor, male and female, with all children, and permits 2 lines of descent in the case of cousin marriages. It will not, however, accommodate all possible complexities of cousin marriages, and in particular will not show the links in respect of cousin marriages across generations.
A number of options are included, affecting the format of the charts and the data displayed.
Choosing Selective Tree from the Charts menu opens the Tree dialog box. (If a base individual has not been selected, the Select base individual dialog box will be displayed first.)
Pressing List Individuals will open the Select base individual dialog box.
Pressing List Descendants will display a similar listbox listing descendants of the base individual. This option is made available to assist in navigating unfamiliar source files: after first choosing a person to appear at the top of the chart, you can list descendants and choose the base individual from amongst these. You will not normally need to use this option.
Pressing Show Ancestors will cause a selection of ancestors to be displayed in the Ancestors dialog box, with year of birth or baptism. The selection may be changed by typing a search character or string in the edit field above the list. To select an ancestor, from whom descent is to be traced, click on the name to highlight it, and press the Add button. You can repeat the process to produce a list, then close the dialog box, and press Run in the Tree dialog box. The chart may be displayed when the print preview button is enabled.
A message will appear if a chart cannot be produced: this will commonly be because the data cannot be fitted on a single page. Ancestors will be listed up to a maximum of 30 generations.
For each individual selected to show descent, his or her family group will be shown on the chart, and all descendants in a single line to the base individual, with their family groups, subject to the options in force. If any of these descendants and spouses are separately selected to show descent, it should have no effect on the resulting chart.
Where there is more than one line of descent, owing to cousin marriages, the individual will appear twice in the ancestors list, with differing Ahnentafel numbers displayed at the base of the dialog box. In this case, a separate selection is necessary for each line of descent. However, only two lines of descent are permitted from any single family group. Note that descent from an Individual can only be shown where that person appears in a family group within the GEDCOM file.
Control over vertical formatting is available through the options to compress vertical spacing, and to set the top and bottom margins. This also allows space to be kept for the addition of headers. There are no inbuilt facilities for printing headings, or importing embellishments of any kind. However, if you save your chart in RTF format, you will be able to edit it in Word.