An Introduction to Famtree v4 - The Famtree Manual

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Welcome to Famtree! - Famtree is so easy to use, you don't really need to read this manual!!   You won't 'break' the software if you just experiment.  All functions are accessible from the menus, toolbar, or by clicking on names.   The only essential steps to make the functions work are to either start a new file (or open an existing file), and then input data about individuals, and linking individuals into families.   If you do want to know more, however, please read on ....

A Quick Overview - Famtree in One Page ! –

 All you have to do is  -

·       Download Famtree from http://www.famtreesoftware.com/ (or find it on a Magazine Cover CD)

·       Install the software (just 'Open' the download file, or follow the CD instructions) - note Windows Vista users MUST install Famtree using Administrator Mode - see Section 2 below for more details

·       Start Famtree by clicking on its name in your Programs list

·       Fill in a form about each individual in your family

·       Link them into Family Groups with a few mouse clicks

 then you are ready to let Famtree

·       Work out how people are related

·       Display, print and (in most cases) save –

                        ancestry trees for each individual

                        traditional family trees for each individual

                        a compact form of descendant chart for each individual

                        a unique Wide Family Group chart for each individual

                        an information page for each individual

                        photographs for each individual

                        listing of all individuals in your file

                        address information for all individuals in your file

·       Save your data as a Gedcom file –

                        save the whole database into one file

                        save individual branches of your family into separate files

                        save multiple branches into files

                        save your data into a file in which details of living persons are removed

·       Save your data as html files (web pages) –

                 any ancestry chart

                 any compact descendants chart

                 an index of surnames and individuals names

                 an information page for each individual or all individuals

                 a comprehensive web site including names index, and information pages

                 a comprehensive web site including names index, trees, and information pages

Famtree also allow you to load Gedcom files from other sources, to join Gedcom files together, and to customize the output from the program.   Famtree also has a special foreign/religious name option which, if activated, can make use of a different font to the rest of your data.

Getting Help! - Famtree includes a number of Help screens giving advice on most processes, generally in less detail than is shown in this manual, though in some cases giving information not included in the manual!  Help can be accessed in two ways - either by clicking on the Help menu, and then clicking on one of the subjects in the menu which drops down, or by pressing one of the keys in the range F1 onwards. The main help menu is available most of the time, and most of the forms have their own help menus.  The banner immediately below the toolbar keeps you informed about possible choices or actions.  The final source of help is the 'QuickTutor' tutorial.  This is split into three sessions, accessed from the 'QuickTutor' menu, and take you through most of the program actions step by step.

 

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Contents

    1   Introduction

    2   Installation

    3   Getting Started

    4   Starting Off and Entering Data on Individuals

    5   Saving your Data

    6   Linking Individuals into family groups

    7   Editing Existing Families and Dealing with Adoptions

    8   Moving round the Background Window and the Find/Go To Facility

    9   Quitting the Program

   10   Loading a File

   11   Navigating through the File

   12   Searching for Relationships

   13   Program Options and Settings 

   14   Displaying Trees on the Screen and Producing Printed Output 

   15   Displaying, Printing, and Saving Lists and Information Pages

   16   Saving Special Gedcom files

   17   Saving your data as html files and making web pages and sites

   18   Surfing the Internet from within Famtree

 


1  Introduction 

The Famtree program allows you to store family tree data and supplementary notes, including addresses and data sources.  Using Famtree you can produce attractive family trees - two different formats for descendants trees listing an individual and all his or her descendants, and also ancestry charts - listing the subject's parents, grandparents, great-grandparents etc. Famtree also includes a unique 'Wide Family Group' display, showing the subject at the centre of seven generations - back to great grandparents, forward to great grandchildren, and including various aunts, uncles, cousins, nephews and nieces.  The program also allows you to print out a reference page for each individual in your file, listing all that person's information, and data relating to their parents, partners, and children.  You can link Famtree to photographs and display and print them from within the program.  It is also possible to produce address lists, and to print off a summary of all the information in your file. You can also use Famtree to find the relationships linking individuals in the file, and save charts as text, bitmap, or html web page files.   The range of html file which can be saved range from information pages about individuals to names lists, and trees, through to complete web sites which include all the information in your database. 

Famtree is a Windows program written using Microsoft Visual Basic.  Your computer must be a PC with Microsoft Windows – sorry, but there is no ‘Mac’ version of Famtree.  You can either print out this manual or look at it on screen.  On most systems you can view it while Famtree is running, by opening both applications and using the program tabs to move from one to the other, though most of your queries will be answered by the on-line help facility.  There is also a built-in 'QuickTutor' tutorial which quickly teaches you to use the program in three short sessions.

Famtree works with GEDCOM files.  GEDCOM stands for GENealogical Data COMmunications; the file format was developed by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and it is now used by many genealogical programs.  You will thus be able to transfer data to various commercial programs, and read the files produced by a number of other programs. Famtree can read GEDCOM files produced by almost all other programs - please let me know if you find one Famtree won't read!!

Like most Windows programs, Famtree is intuitive to use, instructions being accessed via drop-down menus, or via icons on a toolbar, and there is an online help facility too!

But first the program must be installed, so let's get started....

2  Installation 

The Famtree installation file can be downloaded from the internet (from http://www.famtreesoftware.com/), and it is frequently available of computer magazine cover CDs. 

Start your computer.  If you are upgrading from an earlier release of Famtree v4, your data files should not be harmed, but you should be keeping back-up copies of your data files elsewhere in any case!

If you are starting from scratch, you should download the zipped installation file, famtzi443.exe from the website.

1. Click on 'Save' in the browser download dialog which appears

2. Select and note the name of the folder into which you are downloading, and click on 'Save' (make sure the 'close this dialog box when download completes' box is NOT ticked).

3. When the download is complete - then

o WINDOWS VISTA USERS should click on the 'OPEN FOLDER' button (some browsers have a 'FIND FILE' button instead, or already have the file list on display) and locate file famtzi443.exe; RIGHT click on the file name and select 'Run as Administrator'.

o WINDOWS XP USERS should just click on the 'Run' button to start the installation process.

4. Follow the on-screen instructions to complete the unzipping and installation process - the default settings will install the Famtree program, the Famtree Manual, and some example files in a folder called Program Files/Famtree v4 on your hard drive, and place a Famtree icon in your Programs list.

If you are upgrading from an earlier registered version of Famtree v4, then go to the update page at www.famtreesoftware.com/update.htm, and download the file, and install it as above.

. 

Famtree has been written to operate over a wide range of screen resolutions.   The text size on-screen will be smaller the higher the resolution your screen is set to.   If you would prefer to make the text larger then you can do this through the Windows Control Panel, as follows –

Click on the Windows Start button, then on Control Panel, and then on ‘Appearance and Themes’.   Next, click on ‘Change the Screen Resolution’.   To improve the size of text you can either:

·       actually reduce the screen resolution – by clicking on the ‘Settings’ tab, and dragging the screen resolution slider towards the left; or

·       by clicking on the ‘Settings’ tab, then on the ‘Advanced’ button, then on the down arrow next to DPI settings, and select ‘Custom size’.   In the percentage box overtype the number which is here with a larger number (eg if the box says 100%, try 150%); then click on OK,

then click on ‘Apply’ (and then on OK if necessary).   Windows will need to be restarted for the new size to operate correctly. 

These instructions apply to Windows XP and similar; Windows 98 users need to choose ‘Settings’ in order to reach ‘Control Panel’ and ‘Display’, but the sequence is then similar.

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3  Getting Started 

To start Famtree just select its icon in Windows Programs (or All Programs) menu.  If you are using the introductory version, you will be invited to register your copy of Famtree - please do so if you find the program useful, and please send feedback and suggestions for improvements too! Click on 'OK' or press 'Enter' to close the message box (introductory version only), and you are ready to start.  Note - the introductory version has all functions fully enabled but, until you register, you cannot edit files which include more than 40 names (though you can load larger Gedcom files from other sources).   The purpose of the unregistered version is to allow you to try out Famtree without needing to pay for it in advance.   

You can look at the sample files, or dive straight in and start entering your own data.  The 'Help' menus will answer most of your question - this manual gives additional background information and provides more details. The 'QuickTutor' menu takes you through most of the program's functions, but with limited explanation.

There are a number of ways of accessing the various processes - clicking on the toolbar, clicking on the menus, clicking on a person's name, or using the keyboard. Using the toolbar is the simplest approach, so that's the way described in the main text of this manual.

The banner below the toolbar gives instructions and advice and, as you move the mouse pointer over the toolbar icons, a message appears in the toolbar letting you know what they do.  The program allows you to customise the output by selecting certain options relating to printer setup, page setup, and items to include in various trees.  These are explained later in the manual.

In order to use the various facilities within the program, information needs to be entered about individuals, and the individuals need linking together into Family Groups.   These key activities are the first to be explained in the following sections.

4  Starting Off and Entering Data on Individuals 

Move the mouse cursor over the top left icon (the page with the folded corner - the 'New' icon) and click with the left button.

You will be presented with a form for entering details about an individual (the 'New Individual' form) - so why not start with yourself!  You should type in any information you have in the white boxes - name, address, phone number, date and place of birth etc.  (Note - you should enter individuals' surnames as at birth, or before marriage). The 'also known as' box can be used to record a nickname.

The 'data source' boxes allow you to keep a record of where you obtained the information - for example, 'Birth Certificate from Your Town Registration District', or 'Birth Marriages and Deaths Index Reference WevPk 8d 1166 Mar 1920', or 'letter from Aunt Agnes 17 Mar 1998'.   If, later, you are provided with conflicting information, keeping a record of your sources will help you decide which piece of information is more likely to be correct.   Source boxes are provided for birth, death (or burial), and marriage information (see later).  You can, of course, store any other source information in the notes boxes.

The 'Tree Note' box is for a brief note that can be printed out on trees - longer notes or information should be put in the 'Hidden Note' box; this will only appear when you print out all the information for this person (or save the person's information page as an html or text file, or save your file as a web site - see later!!). (Please note that you must not include '//' (double oblique) in either the tree note or hidden note). Whilst there is not enough space to write a complete book in the hidden notes box, it will scroll if you need to write more than three lines!  You can move from box to box by using the Tab key, or by clicking with the mouse; as well as typing in data, please remember to click either the Male or Female buttons to indicate the gender of the individual!  If you need to use characters not normally available on the keyboard (for example, accented characters) just place the cursor where you need to insert the character, click on the 'Special Characters' menu and choose 'View Characters';  highlight the character you need, then click on 'Insert ..'.  If you need to use the same character again then, with the cursor at the insertion point, click on 'Repeat ...' item in the Special Characters menu.

When you are satisfied with the form click on OK.  The individual's name will appear at the top of the background window, just below the toolbar, and another form for the next individual will appear.  If you wish to edit a person's details (because you got something wrong, or you find out some new information), just click on their name in the background window, and then on 'Show Details', and their 'Full Details' form will appear - that form contains all the information you have entered - and more!! (see later).

Continue to enter information about more individuals - your parents, and your partner or children if you have any.  The program 'remembers' the last information entered into the surname, address and places fields; clicking the 'R' (repeat) button attached to a field recalls the previous entry, avoiding the need to re-type repeated information.

As you press Enter or click on OK, more names will appear in the background window.  You will notice that Famtree allocates each individual an identification 'id' number; these appear in the background window, and at the top of the person's form.  When you have input data on a group of people you can stop more forms appearing by clicking on 'Cancel' (or pressing Escape) when the next blank form appears.  If you later wish to enter data for more individuals, just click on the '+' icon on the toolbar, and the familiar 'New Individual' form will appear yet again!

Please note that if you wish to copy information from one person's form to another, in addition to the 'R' button facility mentioned above, you can highlight the relevant text (by dragging the mouse over it), press 'C' while holding down the 'Control' key (to copy the text).  Then display the destination form and put the text cursor in the place where you wish to insert the copied text; pressing 'V' with 'Control' will paste the text in the new location.  (You can use Ctr/X to cut the original text, rather than Ctr/C to copy, if you wish.)

You can also attach photographs or other graphics which you have included in a jpeg, gif, metafile, or bitmap file to any individual.  The photographs remain in their own file outside Famtree, but can be displayed and printed from within Famtree.  To attach a photo, just display the individual's form (click on a name in the background list, then on 'Show Details) and click on the 'Photos' button, and then 'Attach Photo'.  A file selector will appear - just locate the correct file and click on Open.  Famtree will display the photo (so you can check it is the right one!), and you can type in a caption to describe the photo.  The 'Show Full Size' button does just that, and allows you to print the Photo from the 'Actions' menu.  Close the displays to continue.

5  Saving your Data 

You should save your data at regular intervals.  Just click on the 'disk' icon.  You will be presented with a standard Windows 'Save as' file selector.  Type a suitable name in the file name box, followed by .ged, and click on OK or press Enter.  You will be prompted to enter some header information for the file (your name and address), you can press Enter or click on OK (without entering this information if you prefer), and your file should save.  (If you choose a name which already exists, you will be asked if you want to overwrite the file - if you say 'yes' the previous version of the file will be renamed as a backup file, if you say 'no' you will be invited to enter an alternative name for your file.)  You will see that the banner below the toolbar keeps you informed of what is going on, and suggests actions you can take.  The banner at the bottom of the screen reminds you of the name of the file in memory.

When you save your file, the data remains in the computer's memory, so you can continue to add information without needing to re-load your file.

(The 'save compacted file' option in the File menu will also save your data.  If, for some reason, you have deleted a number of individuals from your file - see later - the sequence of ID numbers will have gaps, using the compacting option removes the gaps and renumbers the individuals while saving the file to disk).

6  Linking Individuals into family groups 

Now you must start to link the individuals in the file to each other - after all that's what this program is about! - and is the essential step to make all the program's other functions work satisfactorily.  You will need to link couples into marriages (or indeed, any form of partnership), and then link children to their parents.  (A 'family group' consists of a marriage/partnership between two people, together with their children - if any).  In order to do this, it is easier if you have already entered information onto a 'New Individual' form for each person in the group - though you can enter new individuals as you link them.

There are two or three ways of making new Family Groups in Famtree; all methods allow you to link a man and a woman and their children (if any) into a group.

If an individual had more than one spouse just repeat the process for each marriage - you can select a person to appear as one of the partners in as many partnerships/marriages as existed - Famtree will assume that the marriages took place in the order in which you input them if the same individual is 'involved' more than once. 

a  The 'normal' method

Click on the Family Group icon (man and woman next to the '+'icon) with the left mouse button.   A 'New Family Group' form will appear.  Click on the 'Add/Select' button next to the husband/male partner box, and a 'Select Individual' form will appear.   This lists all the men whose details have already been input.   Just scroll down the list to find the person you want, click on his name to highlight him, and then on the 'Partner is Individual highlighted in list' button (this button is 'greyed out' until you highlight a name in the list).   Now repeat the process for the wife/female partner - click on the other 'Add/Select' button, and choose the individual from the list of women which appears.  Then do the same for any children in the family - just click on the 'Add Child' button and choose from the list of names which appears.   Just repeat the process for all children in the family.   Sometimes you will know that a person exists (or existed), but not know their name, so instead of trying to complete a 'New Individual' form without sufficient information, you can just click on the 'Name is Unknown' button on the Person Selector form instead.   If you do not want to input details for all individuals before linking them into family groups, you can enter their details as you go along - by clicking on the '.. NOT listed, enter person's details now' button on the Person Selector form - and a 'New Individual' form will appear.    Note - if you have already entered a person's details, you MUST find their name in the list, rather than entering details again - otherwise you will end up duplicating people in the file.

Once you have selected the individuals for the family group, you should click on the buttons to indicate whether they were married or not (or indeed, divorced or not!), completing the white boxes if you have the information.  When everything looks correct, just click on 'OK' to form the new group. 

You must click on the New Family Group icon, and complete a 'New Family Group' form for all family groups which exist.  

b The 'short-cut' approach 

This method works by clicking on the family group icon (with the RIGHT button) and then on the names of the individuals in the background list who make up the group.  The names in the background list can be displayed in alphabetic order or in numeric order (the order in which they were input) by clicking on the A..Z or 1..9 icons.  You can change between the two displays at any time - so choose the display you find most convenient.  For each family group the procedure is as follows:

Click on the 'family group' icon (next to the + icon) with the RIGHT button.  Now click on the name of one of the partners in the background list - the name will then appear in the banner; now click on their spouse/partner (if the spouse/partner's name is not known, you can click on the 'Partner Unknown' button which will have appeared in the toolbar).  If the couple have any children now click on each child's name in the background list, starting with the oldest child.  If you click on a name by mistake, just click on the 'Undo' button which will have appeared on the toolbar to cancel the last click, or on the 'Cancel' button to cancel the whole process.  When you have clicked on all the names in the family group, click on the 'complete' button in the toolbar.  A box asking you to confirm your choices will appear; click on 'OK' if everything is in order, or 'cancel' otherwise.  If you click on OK a 'New family group' form will appear and you can add information on place and date of marriage, and a note; you can also record divorce information if appropriate.  Click on OK to close the form, and then repeat the process from the start of this paragraph for each family group. 

Don't forget to save your work regularly by clicking on the 'disk' icon, clicking on OK in the 'save as' window, click on Yes to overwrite (or change the file name), and OK for the file header information. 

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7   Editing Existing Families and Dealing with Adoptions

Once a family group has been formed, Famtree allows you to edit the group to add more children, add further marriages, amend marriage information, or delete children or marriages, or to show that a child is/was adopted by this family.   The method involves displaying a person's 'Full Details' form - by clicking on their name in the background list and selecting 'Show Details'.   Note - this method can actually also be used for forming New Family Groups, in addition to the two methods described above.  Indeed, with a 'Full Details' form displayed you can link people to their parents and to their brothers and sisters - clicking on the buttons for all of these tasks causes 'New Family Group' and/or 'Select Individual' forms, as described above, to appear.

You have two choices if you make a mistake (or later find out that your information was wrong).  You can amend marriages, or delete them.  If you have married someone to the 'wrong' person you can amend the marriage. 

Please note that the 'amend marriage' facility should only be used if you need to retain the original spouse as a separate person in the file - if you simply had the spouse's name wrong and the original name is no longer relevant to your family, then simply click on the original name in the background list and on 'Show Details'; overtype the incorrect name with the new name, and click on OK.   If, however, the original spouse name is genuinely a different individual whose record needs to be retained, then proceed as follows. 

Firstly, display the 'Full Details' form for the partner whose details are correct (by clicking on the name in the background window and then on 'Show Details'; then click on the 'wrong' name in the marriage list box; then click on 'Amend Marriage'.  The familiar 'Select Individual' form will appear.  Now click on the 'correct' person, and note that the 'Add from List' button has become an 'Exchange' button.  Click on this button and the new name will appear in the marriages box.  (As with adding new marriages, you have the alternative of inputting information on a new individual instead of picking someone from the list).

Alternatively, you may need to delete a marriage - display the individual's 'Full Details' form, click on the spouse to be removed, and then click on 'Delete marriage'.  Note you are not removing the partner as an individual from the file, you are just removing the link between the parties.  Note also that you cannot delete a spouse if children have already been attached - these will need to be detached first (see later).

If an individual has more than one partner, second (and subsequent) marriages are added in the same way as the first marriage - just display the individual's 'Full Details' form and click on 'Add Marriage'.   Additional marriages are assumed to occur later than marriages which have already been entered, but the order of marriages can be corrected with the 'Re-Order Marriages' button - note that this button does not appear until the individual has at least two partners!  If you need to change the order of marriages, simply click on the name of the out-of-order marriage in the list at the top right of the individual's form, THEN on the re-order marriages button, and THEN on the correct place in the list for that marriage.  If you get the sequence wrong, a message will appear clarifying the instructions.

The order of children in a family can be changed in the same way.

If you find that you have incorrectly linked a child to a family, just highlight the child's name in the list towards the bottom right of either of the parent's 'Full Details' forms, and then on Detach Child.  As with the Delete Marriage button, you are only deleting the link between individuals, not the individual's record, so if you accidentally delete a child or marriage you can easily re-form the link by using the Add Child or Add Marriage button and clicking on the individual's name in the list which appears.

The 'Full Details' form also allows you (if you wish) to identify a child as being adopted by the family.   An adopted child should be attached to a family in the same way as a 'blood' child - as described in the previous chapter.  To minimise errors in the file, Famtree will not allow you to add the same child to more than one family - unless the child is flagged as adopted in one of the families.   Display the 'Full Details' form for the adopted person.   If their adoptive parents are actually shown in the birth parents box,  then click on the 'Convert' button in the adoptive parents box to change them into adoptive parents.  The person can now be attached to his/her birth parents (if known) by clicking on the 'Add Birth Parents' button (which displays a 'New Family Group' form).

When descendants charts are produced (see later) the individual will appear as a descendant in both their birth and adoptive families - marked with '(a)' appended to their name in their adoptive family; the individual's ancestry chart will, however, show only their birth parents (if the data has been entered).   If this is not what you want to show, then you should not attach the individual to his/her birth parents - instead you could mention the birth parents (if known) in the individual's hidden notes box.   If a person has been linked only to their adoptive parents (and flagged as adopted), then the ancestry chart will show the adoptive family, with '(a)' appended to the adopted person.  If you do not want the '(a)' to be displayed then do not use the adoption facility - again, just indicate (if you wish) that the person was adopted in their hidden notes box.

It is envisaged that the adoption facility would be used only where there is no (or limited) connection between the birth and adoptive parents.   It is not envisaged that it would be used, for example, where the birth parents divorce and one remarries (and the 'new' partner legally adopts the child) - in these cases using the adoption flag will produce avoidably complicated descendants charts. 

8  Moving round the Background Window and the Find/Go To Facility

While your file is small, the background window will be large enough to display the names of all the individuals in your file.  Eventually, the list will be too big to fit in the window, and you may need to click on an individual whose name is not in view.  There are a number of ways of moving around the window.  The easiest is to use the scroll bar across the bottom of the list - this won't appear until your list is too big for the window!

Click on the right arrow at the right end of the bar and the list will scroll to the right by one column, revealing the next column of names; (guess what happens if you click on the left arrow!).

Alternatively, click on the bar itself, to the right of the square marker - the window scrolls to the right by a whole screen.  The third method is to drag the square marker with the mouse (that is, press and hold down the left button with the pointer over the marker, and drag the square while keeping the button pressed); the list will scroll as you drag - just release the button when you reach the part of the list you need.

The 'Find/Go To...' facility comes into its own, however, when your file gets quite large.   Rather than scrolling through several screens, just click on the 'binoculars' icon.   The Find form appears.   Just type an ID number or a name into the top box and press 'Enter' (or click on 'Find').   Famtree will add all entries which include your search text into the box at the bottom of the form.  Just double click on the entry of interest in the list (or click once and then click on 'Go To') and Famtree will go to that person in the background list.   You can use the facility to simply move around the background list or as part of any of the functions where you would normally click on the background list - checking relationships, for example (see later).  You do not need to enter a complete name in the Find box; part names will do, particularly if you are unsure of the spelling, but you cannot use 'wild' characters.  The text is not case-sensitive.

As mentioned previously, the background list can be displayed in alphabetic order (of surname), or in ID number order (that is, the order in which people were added to the file by clicking on the ‘A..Z’ or ‘1..9’ icons, respectively.

9  Quitting the Program 

When you have done enough work for one session you will need to quit the program.  Just click on the 'STOP' icon.  If you have altered your data since you last saved it you will be given the opportunity to save the changes before you quit.  You will also be asked to confirm that you really do want to quit.  Just click on the Yes or No button (Note - pressing Enter is usually the equivalent of clicking on Yes or OK - in this case pressing return is the same as clicking on No - this stops you quitting by mistake!)

Click here to return to the Famtree Home Page


10  Loading a File 

Next time you use Famtree you will want to continue using the file you started during the previous session.  So, after clearing the start-up message (if necessary), click on the File menu - your file should be listed at the foot of the menu, so just click on its name to open it.  Alternatively, click on the 'Open File' icon.  You will be presented with a standard Windows file selector.  If you are saving your data into the Famtree directory (folder), your file name should be listed in the list box in the left column; just click on your file name and click on OK, and your file will load into the program, and the individual members of your family will be listed in alphabetic order in the background window, ready for you to continue.  (You would, of course, follow these actions if you want to load the sample files which come with the program.  These are 'bloggs2.ged' a mythical family you can use to test out the program's functions, and 'adam.ged' - a genealogy taken from the book of Genesis.   This is also the method to view a Gedcom file obtained from another source.)

Should you ever need to load a backup file, the procedure is just the same, except that when the file selector is displayed, change the file type to 'Gedcom Backup files' to list *.bkg files instead of *.ged files.

Note - it is possible to join two or more Gedcom files together.  With one file already loaded, just click on the 'append file' icon (next to the open folder icon).  Select the file to be appended and click on OK.  Note that Famtree changes the name of the enlarged file in memory to 'untitled.ged' to avoid accidental over-writing of either of the source files - this makes sure that you have to choose a new name for the enlarged file before you can save it.  Please note - Famtree simply adds the two files together - it cannot search for duplicate entries or make links between individuals - you must do this yourself!

11 Navigating through the File 

As well as clicking on names in the background list, you can navigate through the file by clicking on names and/or 'Show Details' buttons on the 'Full Details' form.   With a Full Details form displayed, you can show the full details for spouses, parents, siblings, or children either by clicking on the 'Show Details' buttons next to the names or, more simply, just by double clicking on a name - or even on a Family Number box next to the parents or adoptive parents.

Alternatively, you can scroll through the Full Details forms by clicking on the up/down arrow next to the subject person's name, or even by double clicking on the ID Number box, and typing in a fresh number and pressing enter.

The entries at the bottom of the 'Actions' menu will allow you to display the first Full Details form in the file (and then scroll from there), or to display the first of the Family Group forms.   These forms also have an up/down arrow which allows you to scroll through all the Family Group forms (and you can also type a number into the Family Number box) - just to check everything looks OK, or to amend some of the details.

Just remember that if you change any of a person's or family's details, you must press OK before you move away from that form, or the changes will be ignored.

12 Searching for Relationships

Famtree is able to search for relationships between individuals in the file.  You can use the facility out of curiosity, or to check that you have grouped people into families correctly.  Just click on the search icon (two men and a question mark) and then on the names of the two individuals concerned, in the background list.  Famtree will search for up to 10 generations (if the information exists) looking for a link.  Famtree first checks if the individuals are siblings, then for a direct ancestor-descendant relationship, then for any 'blood' relationship.  It then checks to see if the individuals are married to each other, and then for various relationships through marriage.  Famtree 'remembers' the name of the first individual clicked, so if you want to check relationships between one person and several other people, click on that one person first in the first search.  From then on, double-clicking on the search icon will automatically recall the first person's name, so that you need only click on the second person.

You don't actually need to use the search icon at all - you can click on a name in the background list, then on 'Find relationship', and then on a second person - indeed you can do this using names in tree displays as well as the background lists. 

13 Program Options and Settings 

The group of small icons towards the right end of the toolbar allows the user to access various program options and settings.  The printer icon gives access to the standard Windows Printer Setup dialog which allows printers and paper orientation to be selected, as well as giving access to the various options available to individual printers.

The other three icons give access to various options which affect printed output (some options also affect screen displays too).  The page setup icon (below the printer icon) allows paper size and orientation, and page margins for printed output to be set. (Note - a bug in Visual Basic means that on some computers Famtree is unable to pick up paper size and orientation changes set in the Printer Setup window - so these need to be confirmed in the Page Setup).   Famtree's margins are measured from the edge of your printer's printable area - which may not extend to the edge of the paper.  You can either select from one of the pre-defined margin settings on the left half of the form, or type numbers directly into the boxes on the right hand part of the form.  If using continuous listing paper top and bottom margins should be set to zero to avoid gaps in compact descendants trees printed using portrait orientation.  (Similarly, you should set left and right margins to zero if printing a traditional family tree with landscape orientation on continuous paper).  If using single sheet paper, setting the bottom margin to a non-zero value will automatically number the pages of a compact descendants tree so that it can be kept in order.

The Font/foreign name icon (lower left of the group of four icons) allows printer (and screen) font to be selected, and font sizes and colours for printed output to be chosen, from the left part of the form which appears when the icon is clicked. The centre left part of the form shows how tree titles and the main body of trees will look on printed trees.  On the lowest part of the form you can choose whether to print only in black, or using colours.  If you can print in colour, click on the colour button, and then choose the colours to use by clicking on the blocks of colour to the right - you can choose which colour to use for titles and headings, the colour for the main body text, and the colour to use to highlight particular individuals on the printout.  Click on various font names (top left of form), and change the font sizes (centre left of form) to get the effect you want, then click on OK.  The font selected will be used for some screen displays as well as printed trees, but the screen font size is fixed.  (Note if you make these changes when a tree is actually being displayed, the changes do not affect the display - to re-display the current tree with the new settings just click on the 'Refresh Display' button).

The other half of the form allows you to change the settings for the religious/foreign name facility.   This provides a field for an additional name for each individual.   This facility is normally switched off, but if you choose any of the lower three options an additional box appears on the 'New Individual' and 'Full Details' forms.  If the second option is selected then this additional name box uses the same font/language as the rest of the form.  With the third option selected, the field uses Hebrew characters typing from right to left (this can only be selected if the Hebrew font has been installed - see the 'Read Me' file).  If the fourth option is selected, then you can choose to use any font which is available on your computer - just choose from the drop-down list.   As well as activating the name field on this form, you will also need to select the religious/foreign name options on the chart display options form (see next paragraph) if you want this information displayed on your trees. 

The icon to the left of the printer icon allows you to choose which items to include in printed charts and trees (most, but not all, affect screen displays as well).  Click on the icon to display the item selection screen.  The upper part of the form displays options for both types of descendants trees (ie traditional family trees and compact descendants charts) and the lower part for ancestry charts (see next section of explanation of tree/chart types).  You can vary the number of generations shown on printed trees - limiting the number of generations will shorten descendant trees and make ancestry charts less cluttered.  It is also possible to vary the amount one generation is indented from the previous generation on compact descendants charts - Famtree will automatically calculate a value depending on the number of generations to be shown and paper width, but you can amend it yourself if you wish, using the horizontal slider below the form.  The sliders (below the form, next to the OK and Cancel buttons) also determine how closely spaced individuals are placed on traditional family tree printouts.  The other options are largely self explanatory;  names are always shown on the trees, but if successive generations share a surname it will be shown only for the earlier generation unless 'repeated surnames' is selected.   If cousins have married they, and all their descendants, would appear twice on descendants charts; if you wish to save paper, then you can avoid this happening by ensuring 'show repeated branches' is not ticked - the partners will appear twice, but their descendants will appear only once!

When you save your data, the page setup, font settings, tree item options, and religious name option selection, is saved in a small file which sits alongside the main data file, and it is re-loaded whenever you load your data file, so that your preferred settings will not need to be re-input each time you load the program.

Three other sets of settings are accessible only from the Settings menu. One is the Surname Capitalisation option.  This allows you to vary how surnames are displayed/printed and saved.  Another item in the settings menu relates to location of photographs.  Your photographs are NOT incorporated into your Gedcom file when you save your data - they remain in their separate jpeg or gif files etc.  The Gedcom file merely stores the path (folder/directory) name and file name.  Thus, if you move your photo files, Famtree will not be able to find them.  The photo location box allows you to change the location information for a whole group of photographs at once, rather than having to re-attach the photographs to each individual, one at a time.  When you select the menu item, you need to use the drive and directory/folder boxes to tell Famtree where you have relocated the photo files.  If you click on 'Change', then Famtree will update its records for all photos which were in the 'old' location and store the 'new' folder name instead.

The final item in the Settings menu relates to marriages.  Earlier versions of Famtree did not allow you to explicitly specify whether a couple were married (or assumed to be married) or not.  If you load a Gedcom file produced by a version of Famtree before version 4.40 then, if a partnership includes a date, place, or source of marriage, the current version of Famtree will assume that the couple were married; if no data is available for those fields, Famtree will assume that they were not married.  The Settings menu item allows you to automatically convert all partnerships into marriages, or, the second sub-option displays each partnerships and asks you if you want to 'convert' the partnership into a marriage.

Click here to return to the Famtree Home Page

14 Displaying Trees on the Screen and Producing Printed Output 

At last, you have reached the point where you can display trees and charts on the screen.  Four types of tree/chart display are possible - traditional family trees and compact descendants charts which start with a particular individual and show all his or her descendants - these trees can get very long if you have a lot of data; and ancestry charts - these start with one individual and then show his or her parents, grandparents, great-grandparents etc.

In addition, the program can also display and print a fourth chart - a Wide Family Group - seven generations surrounding an individual.  Just click on a name in the background list, and on 'Show Family Group'.  The individual will appear in the centre of the screen, surrounded by members of all branches of the family - from the same generation, and from the three preceding and three following generations.  The display is closed by clicking on the Close Display item in the Actions menu.  The Wide Family Group display can be printed by selecting Print in the Actions menu.   Note that the chart must fit into a single page width to be printed (although it can extend vertically onto more pages).  If the chart would fit onto a landscape page but not a portrait page, but you have portrait selected, Famtree will automatically (and temporarily) change page orientation to landscape to allow printing to take place.   If your paper is not wide enough (even using landscape orientation), Famtree will let you know how wide the paper would need to be (for the particular font and margin sizes you have selected), so that you can go to the Actions menu and make changes to paper size, or font or margin sizes and try again. 

Whilst displaying trees on the screen is interesting, the screen displays are intended for checking the information prior to printing off trees on the printer.  Because of this, presentational quality of the screen displays (particularly for descendants trees) has been sacrificed in the interests of speedy display.  Printed trees will have a higher standard of presentation (depending on the quality of your printer).  When you choose to print a tree or chart, Famtree will provide a page by page preview of what the printed output will look like, so that you can check it out, and Cancel the process if it does not look as you want it to.

Firstly, let's try the 'traditional' family tree format.  Click on the 'FT tree icon' near the centre of the row of icons.  The banner will now ask you to click on the name of the person whose descendants you wish to show.  Move to the correct part of the list by clicking on the scroll bar or dragging the marker, or clicking on the arrows, and then click on the person's name. (You are likely to want to print trees starting with the earliest known member of each branch of your family.  To make this process easier, Famtree automatically searches through the file and identifies these people - their names appear in the special panel at the bottom of the background list - you can click on these names in the same way as names in the main part of the background list).  The background window will disappear to be replaced by the tree display.  Unless the person has few descendants, the tree is likely to be too big for the screen; a scroll bar will appear at the bottom of the screen if the tree is too wide, and at the right hand edge of the screen if it is too tall.  The person you selected will appear on the top row of the tree, with his or her partner(s) - you may need to scroll the display to find him/her!;  their children appear on the second row (with their partners), with each generation on successive rows.  Because this type of display takes up a lot of room, the screen display will only show names and ID numbers, even if you have selected other options as well.  (If you load the example file bloggs2.ged, try a traditional family tree display for Jim Bloggs or Geoffrey Brown.) 

If you wish to obtain a printed version of the tree, then, while the tree is still displayed on the screen, click on 'Print Tree' button on the toolbar.  In order to keep the listing to a manageable size, Famtree will limit the number of generations printed to the height of your paper;  the program will also 'warn' you as to the number of pages the tree will take up, and you can cancel if printing your tree would destroy a rain forest.  You will be asked to accept a title for the tree (you can type in the box to change the suggested title if you wish); clicking on OK starts the print preview process (and you will be asked if you want to preview successive pages as each one appears).   You can cancel the preview process at any stage, and you will then be asked if you want to actually print the chart.   Once a tree has been displayed and then the display closed, double clicking on the 'FT tree' icon will re-display the last tree. 

When a traditional family tree is displayed on the screen, you can click on any name in the tree to display that person's individual form - just like clicking in the background list - or to display trees and charts for that person.

A traditional family tree with relatively few names can still use up a lot of paper, even though the program attempts to optimise the layout to reduce wasted space.  The program checks which options you have selected (eg whether you have chosen to include dates or places in the printout), and calculates the width needed for each person, and the height needed for each generation.  If you choose fewer options, Famtree will be able to include more generations within the height of the page; if you exclude places and ID numbers, the width required will be reduced.  You can also reduce the width required by selecting a 'narrow' font (such as 'Architecture'), and the width and height required will also be affected by font size selection. 

The two slider controls on the main Settings form allow you to 'fine tune' this process.  You can amend the width which Famtree allocates to each person by sliding the slider left (to narrow the printout) or right (to give more space); similarly, moving the vertical slider up increases the space used by each generation, and sliding it down will squeeze more generations onto the page.  The impact of these changes, and changes in font size, items to be included etc, are shown next to the two sliders in terms of how many generations to the page and how many names per page width your current settings will allow. 

Even after using these techniques to reduce the size of a family tree printout, you may decide that it would still use too much paper.  Because of this, Famtree offers an alternative way of displaying and printing descendants information.  This alternative is referred to as a 'compact descendants' chart, and takes up much less space.  You are recommended to use this format except for small family groups.

Click on the 'CD chart' icon near the centre of the row of icons.  As with the 'FT' icon, the banner will now ask you to click on the name of the person whose descendants you wish to show.  Move to the correct part of the list by clicking on the scroll bar or dragging the marker, or clicking on the arrows, and then click on the person's name. Almost instantly the background window will disappear to be replaced by the chart display.  The person you selected will appear in the top left hand corner, with his or her partners and children below and progressively further to the right with each succeeding generation.  If your tree is longer than will fit on the screen a scroll bar will appear at the right hand side allowing you to scroll up and down the tree. 

If you have a large number of generations some information may disappear off the right edge of your screen; you can inspect this by producing another descendants tree starting with one of the people towards the right edge of your screen.  (Just click on a name, and select 'compact descendants chart' from the menu which appears!)

The tree will show each person's name and other information, then spouse's name, and then equivalent details for succeeding generations.  Vertical lines join brothers and sisters, horizontal lines join parents to their children.  The earliest generation is shown on the left and the latest generation on the right.  (If you load the example file bloggs2.ged, look at descendants trees for Jim Bloggs or Geoffrey Brown.) 

If you wish to obtain a printed version of the tree, then, while the tree is still displayed on the screen, click on the 'Print chart' button at the right end of the toolbar.  You will be asked to accept a title for the tree (you can type in the box to change the suggested title if you wish); clicking on OK starts the print preview process, which can be curtailed at any time.  Next you will be asked to confirm that you do want the chart to be printed - which you can cancel if you are unhappy with the print preview.

Once a tree has been displayed and then closed, double clicking on the 'CD chart' icon will re-display the last tree.  As with other tree displays, you can click on names on the display to access the various functions.

Note - you can highlight particular individuals on printed charts by clicking on their names, and selecting 'highlight individual'; this will highlight these individuals in a different colour (or cause them to be underlined if printing in black only).  You can also hide branches on descendants charts if you wish to simplify a display, by clicking on a name and then on 'hide descendants'.  You can 'un-highlight' and 'un-hide' branches by clicking on names and selecting from the pop-up menu - then main Actions menu also allows you to globally remove highlighting and hiding.

You can also save the compact descendants chart as a text file (which you could load into a word processing package), or as an html file (which you could load into your web site, or examine using a browser program such as Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator) - just click on the relevant button while the chart is displayed on screen.

The layout of each descendants tree will be different depending on the number of marriages and children in each generation, but ancestry charts all have a similar layout, as each person has two parents, four grandparents etc (even if their names are not known).  To display an ancestry chart the sequence is similar.

Click on the 'A-chart' icon and then on the root person's name.  The display will change to show an ancestry chart.  The chart will always fit on a single screen and, due to limitations of space, screen ancestry charts will show five generations if the data is available.  In other words, if you have been able to enter all the names, the chart will show the subject, two parents, four grandparents, eight great grandparents, and 16 great great grandparents - a total of 31 names. (Printed ancestry charts can show more generations depending on the option set, but you will have to use a very small font size to show more than six generations on A4 or letter-size paper).  The subject person is shown in the middle left of the screen with parents in the next column and so on. (Try ancestry trees for John Bloggs or Pauline Green in the bloggs2.ged example file.)  As with descendants trees, clicking on the 'Print chart' button at the right hand end of the toolbar when a tree is displayed on the screen will produce a print preview (giving you the opportunity to change the title or cancel the printing), and double clicking the 'A-chart' icon re-calls the last chart displayed.

Ancestry charts can be saved as bitmap files (which can be loaded into a graphics package for further enhancement), or as html files for loading onto the web, by clicking on the relevant button while the chart is displayed.

Tree displays can be cleared from the screen by clicking on another of the icons (such as 'A..Z'), or the 'close tree/chart' button.

Trees can be displayed without using the tree icons - just click on a person's name in the background window (or on a displayed tree), and then on 'Show traditional family tree', 'Show descendants chart', 'Show Wide Family Group' or 'Show ancestry chart'.  You can repeat this process when trees are displayed - in addition, with an ancestry chart on-screen, further generations back can be displayed (if the data is available) by clicking on the scroll arrows which will appear if further ancestors are known.

Click here to return to the Famtree Home Page

15  Displaying, Printing, and Saving Lists and Information Pages

Address List 

One other screen display is possible - this is the address list.  Clicking on the 'envelope' icon in the central group of icons will cause Famtree to search through your records, identifying those for whom an address or phone number has been entered.  These will be displayed, in alphabetic order of surname, on the screen together with the address and or phone number, as a handy means of retrieving someone's address or phone number!  (If you have not entered any addresses or phone numbers on the individual forms, clicking on the envelope icon will display a warning message!).  The 'Print addresses' button at the right end of the toolbar will send the list to the printer instead.

As with other displays, names in the address list can be clicked for more information. 

Printing and Saving All Information on an Individual 

You can produce a printed page listing all the information you have about an individual. This function can be accessed by clicking on the 'Print Page' button on the individual's 'Full Details' form. 

Click on the individual's name in the background window, and on 'Show Details' to display the individual's 'Full Details' form, and click on the 'Print Page' Button.  The printout produced will include more than just the information shown on the Full Details form.  It will also list his/her parents names and dates, all the information on the individual's form (including the Hidden Note in full), some of the information on the spouses' forms, and the names and dates of all their children.  As with the tree printouts, a 'footer' showing the file name and date will also be included.  As with other printing options, a print preview will be shown first, allowing you to cancel the process if necessary.    (If the bottom margin is set to more than zero and the information spreads onto more than one page, the subsequent pages will be numbered).  If the individual has photos attached, you will be asked if you want to print the photos as well.

Alternatively, you can save the information page as an (unformatted) text file, which can be loaded into a word processing package, by clicking on the 'Save as text file' button.  In addition, the information page can be saved as an html file.   The html file can be read not only by Web Browsers (such as Internet Explorer), but also be word processing programmes; as the file includes proper formatting it may be regarded as a more useable file than the text file, however, as it could also be used to form part of a publicly accessible web site, address and other contact information is not included in the html file.

Printing and Saving Index lists

You can send an alphabetic list of all the individuals in your database to the printer using the A..Z icon  -  just you the right mouse button, instead of the left one to send the list to the printer instead of the screen.

There is one other icon - an 'Index Disc' icon.  This saves an index list of individuals in the current file to a file - the listing is similar to the alphabetic order list in the background window, except that the names are shown in forename surname order, and dates of both birth and death are shown, if known.   If you click with the left button, the list will be saved as a simple text (txt) file, with the fields separated by 'tab' characters.  If you use the right button, the file will be saved as a web page (html format).  The html file not only includes a list of all individuals in the file, but it commences with an index of all surnames in the file (and notes how many individuals have that surname); it contains hyperlinks, so that clicking on a surname in the surname index jumps the cursor to the first individual in the name list who bears that name.   In both cases, Famtree asks you to confirm that you want to save the list before it proceeds.

16  Saving Special Gedcom files

Most of Famtree's file processing makes use of Gedcom files - all your data is saved in a Gedcom file, and Famtree can read Gedcom files from other sources.  As well as saving all of your data as a Gedcom file, Famtree is also able to save parts of your data into Gedcom files, to suit particular purposes.

Your Gedcom file can include information from all branches of your family, but you might wish to produce a file containing information on only a single branch, to give to a member of that branch, for example.  By selecting 'Save branch' in the File menu (or clicking on the icon next to the disk icon) and then on a name in the background list, you can produce a file containing the selected person and all his/her descendants only (ie all the people who would appear on that person's descendants tree).  You have the choice of producing a file which keeps the same ID numbers as the original file (but which will include a lot of unused numbers for people who are not part of the branch), or you can get Famtree to renumber the individuals in the branch consecutively from 1, producing a more compact file (if you use the icon, rather than the menu, the second option is automatically selected).  In either case your original file is not affected, and the complete file remains in memory - you must load the branch file if you then wish to examine it. 

The multiple branch save item in the File menu works is a similar way, except that the descendants of a number of individuals can be saved in a file.  You may want to use this function if you wish to pass a file to a close family member who is related to a number of your family's branches.  Just click on the menu item, and then on each of the root people, and then on 'complete' - all individuals who are descendants of any of the root names will be stored in the new file.

You can also save your data, but excluding individuals who are only members of a particular branch of your family.   This may seem an odd thing to want to do!!   However, you may come across someone else's research and realise that they have a much better version of a particular branch of your family, so you might want to 'cut out' that branch from your file.   The Save excluding branch option actually does something quite complicated, as it needs to ensure that it does not remove people who are members of more than one branch of the family, and it does need using with extreme care - so never discard your original file!  You can only choose to omit individuals from a whole branch - so, having selected the option in the File menu, you can only choose to click on a name from the bottom part of the background list (a 'root' person).

The final Gedcom saving option allow you to hide information about living individuals.   Many web sites which allow you to store your information for public access require you to remove details of living persons so as to protect their privacy and confidentiality.   The Save data hiding living persons option does just that - it maintains the basic structure of your file and trees (including marriages and links to parents and children), but it replaces the forenames of anyone living with the word 'living', and deletes all information (dates, addresses, etc) relating to living persons.   The program assumes that if there is any information in the death date field, then the person is deceased and retains all the information; if there is data in the birth date field but not the death date field, it assumes that the person is living.   If you have individuals with neither birth nor death date information, Famtree attempts to assess whether they are likely to be living by checking which category spouses and parents have been put into, and categorises them accordingly - it can't be fool-proof however, so if your file contains a large proportion of people with no dates information, the resultant file may easily have individuals in the wrong category.   You can help Famtree get the categorisation right by deliberately putting a question mark in the death source box for anyone whom you know or assume to be dead.  (You could, alternatively, put a question mark in the death date box - to indicate that you don't know when a person died - but this would show on your trees, and you may not wish to have them sprinkled with question marks!!)

The following chapter discusses saving and producing html files for web sites - if you are using a site which requires you to avoid disclosing information on living people (or this is what you want to do anyway), then you should save a 'living hidden' Gedcom file and then load that file, and use it in preference to your full information file, when making the html files described below.

17  Saving your data as html files and making web pages and sites

Famtree provides the opportunity to save a number of different elements of your data as html files (web pages).   Indeed it is possible to save the whole of the data as a complete web site.   If you have some web space, you can use the file created by Famtree to display your whole file on the web, so that others can access it.   Famtree does not provide you with any storage space on the web - you need to arrange this yourself - either through your Internet Service Provider, or one of the sites which specifically make space available for family trees.   You will also need some FTP (file transfer protocol) software which allows you to upload files onto the web - again, your ISP may provide a mechanism for doing this, or you can use one of several shareware products which are readily downloaded from the internet for this purpose.  Even if you don't want to upload the files to a web site, html files are a useful way of transferring information between individuals - as they can be read by web browsers or word processors, and the files produced by Famtree provide a useful way of examining and presenting your information.  In particular, all the html files which Famtree can produce using the 'Save as Web site' menu item in the File menu, contain hyperlinks - every name in the files which are produced can be clicked on to take you to other information about that person - so you can navigate around the file just be clicking on various names and links.

In earlier sections of the manual, the method for producing a number of html files has been described - information page files for individuals, compact descendants charts, names list and surname index, and ancestry charts.  The 'Save as web site' item in the File menu provides you with four options which combine and extend these capabilities.   The options have been designed to either provide a complete website for someone who is content to allow Famtree to do all the work, or to provide elements of the web site, which an experienced person can personalise, integrate, and expand to produce a customised web site.

Starting with the fourth of the options available when the 'save as web site' menu item is selected, the choices are -

'Save linked information pages' - this produces a file which combines everyone's information page into a single file - but all the pages are linked together so clicking on any name on any page of the file which is produced takes you to that person's page in the file.  (When you create the file, Famtree gives it a filename which adds 'pages.htm' to the end of your normal Gedcom file name - but you can change this if you prefer.)

The third option in the sub menu saves an html file which contains an index of the surnames included in the file, and a list of every individual included in the file.   (This is the same as the file produced by RIGHT clicking on the index/disc icon) - clicking on a surname in this file takes you to the first individual with this name further down the file.   (The filename for this file defaults to your Gedcom filename with 'names.htm' appended).

The top two options produce complete web sites.    The second option in the list - linked surnames index, names and pages - in effect combines the two options above into a single file in which clicking on a surname transfers you to a person of that surname in the names list, and clicking on a name in the list transfers you to that person's information page.   In the information page, names of spouses, children, siblings, parents and grandparents are all hyperlinked to those people's own information pages.   The default file name for this file is your filename with 'website.htm' appended.   While saving the file a 'Welcome' dialog will appear into which you can enter a name for the family site, the name of the person who has prepared it, and an email address so that anyone viewing the site can contact you if they want further information.   The saved file is made a little more user friendly than the basic files described above - it starts with a 'Welcome' page which uses the information you type into the boxes, and explains to the viewer how to navigate the site.   (Note - if you don't want to say who created the site, or provide an email address - just leave the boxes blank and Famtree will omit the relevant part of the welcome message when the file is saved.

The top option - save linked surname index, names, trees and pages - provides the most comprehensive option - it includes all the information in option 2 above, but also includes a full set of compact descendants charts for each of the 'root' persons listed at the bottom of the background window.  In this file, clicking on a surname in the index takes you to an individual in the names list (as above), but clicking on a name in the list takes you to that person's entry in one of the trees.  Unlike the html file produced when you save a single compact descendant chart as an html file, all names in these trees are hyperlinked to each person's information page - and a link from each information page will take you back to the trees.  This file is ideal, not only for use as a web site, but also if you wish to provide someone with a copy of your research, but they don't have Famtree (or other genealogical software) - as they will be able to read it using a web browser or word processor.

Click here to return to the Famtree Home Page

18  Surfing the Internet from within Famtree

You can surf the Internet while using Famtree.  However, the facility is not intended to replace your normal Internet Browser.  The facility uses a simplified browser, and will ONLY work if you already have Internet Explorer installed on your computer, AND it is configured to dial-up your ISP when started.  From the 'Internet' menu you can directly select the Famtree Homepage, the Update page where you can check that you are using the latest version of Famtree, you can email me with queries, and you can select a page which provides links to a number of genealogical research sites.  Once the Famtree browser is displayed, you can enter other URLs (web addresses) in the text box.  When you have finished, click on the close button or box.  Once you have finished using the browser and closed it, you should make sure that you disconnect from your ISP.  Please note, that if you download an updated version of Famtree, you will need to close Famtree to complete the installation.

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Endpiece 

Famtree is shareware. The introductory version has all the facilities of the registered program, but you cannot edit files including more than forty individuals.  If you are using the introductory version and find Famtree useful, please register your copy by going to www.famtreesoftware.com and clicking on Register Now. 

  The complete installation file containing the introductory version may be freely copied and distributed.  Purchasers of the registered version may make a copy for back-up purposes, but not for distribution.

For more information visit  -  http://www.famtreesoftware.com/

Manual Version 4.43 April 2009

Famtree v4     Copyright Phil Sapiro    1995 - 2009

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