Click here to return
to the Famtree Home Page
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 !
·
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.
Click here to return
to the Famtree Home Page
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
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.
Click here to return
to the Famtree Home Page
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.
Click here to return
to the Famtree Home Page
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.
Click here to return
to the Famtree Home Page
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
Click here to return
to the Famtree Home Page