1. If you have overlapping, select a branch of your genealogy tree you want to move to a different GenoMap. You may use the mouse or the toolbar buttons. To get started, click on one individual where you see the most overlapping, then click on the toolbar button "Select Ancestor Tree" or "Select Descendent Tree". If you get too much selection, try the same process with another individual. If you still have too much selection, select one individual and click four or five times on the "Select One Generation" toolbar button to select four to five generations around the individual. You are welcome to do any combinations of selection using the various toolbar buttons.
   
2. Right-click to get the context menu and pick "Move to GenoMap" to move the selection to a desired GenoMap. GenoPro will preserve all the pedigree links. Some links may not be visible in either GenoMap but will remain there and all the parent-child hierarchy will remains intact.
   
3. Once you have moved the selection to a new GenoMap, click on the AutoArrange toolbar button. This action will arrange the sub-tree you just moved in the new GenoMap. If you don't like the new layout, click on the Undo button twice and go to step #1.
   
4. Go to your main GenoMap (typically the first GenoMap) and click on the AutoArrange. The AutoArrange will create a different layout since some branches of the genealogy tree have been moved in step #2. If you don't like the new layout, you may click Undo 3 times to roll back to step #1. If you have seen improvement, repeat step #1 until you have no more overlapping.

• Finish the betas (see schedule at http://www.genopro.com/beta/).
• Write the documentation & update the online help at http://www.genopro.com/introduction/.
• Translate in French (my mother tongue). The translation will be an XML/INI file to make it easy for everyone (including myself) to translate GenoPro in other languages. Visit this link for details.
• Take care of the AutoArrange.

I don't have time at the moment.  I will look at all the possibilities when I am re-doing the AutoArrange.

For anyone intrested we have been having a "brain storm" session on ways to make autoarrange better.

Using multiple maps is interesting but there doesn't seem to be any form of connector. eg. if I have family a on 1 and b on 2 then there should be a connector (like on flowcharts) that links the two (->(A) on 1 and then (A)-> on 2) is that a bt confusing, hopefully you get the idea.

When I print, the dotted lines on the main screen bear no resemblance to the preview or final print! Also what about an overlap. If my parents appear at the bottom of page 1 then how about repeating that line at the top of page 2 so you can see where they relate?

I'm also a bit frustrated with opening gedcom files in other apps but I don't think thats a genopro error (family historian, rootsmagic, family tree maker, all moan about the gedcom file).

Great product, well worth it (and as you see I've got a few others).

Have you investigated the options in Page Setup in the File Menu? At present the printing is controlled by the number of horizontal and vertical pages specified (this is due to change in beta18).

You can also increase the Page Clipping Threshold to increase the overlap between adjacent pages.

Hope this helps.

I have been sent several gedcoms recently some of which are  up to 2000 names and when importing them it's spaghetti junction!

This is not helped by duplicate marriage lines or children connected to two sets of parents and other errors in the gedcom!

Would there be a way of sorting the incoming gedcom in a cronological format whereby the families of the same epoch would be at the same hight on the page or some way of reducing the amount of crossed lines and overlapping boxes or even spreading the tree out further to avoid crossovers ?

I realise that this sounds difficult, but would just like to know if it would be possible as the Autoarrange doesn't seem to help.

The beta has a few improvements to import data, however it uses the same core AutoArrange routines as version 1.x.  Since the beta has support for GenoMaps to split a large tree into sub-trees, it extends the usefuleness of the AutoArrange.

Of course, however you don't need the AutoArrange for this.  The AutoArrange is an optional module which is very handy when importing data from another system.

One thing more about autoarrange

All of us want to see the tree in better view.

for the better view we use different genomaps

I read in the previous posts that it would be possible to divide the tree to genomaps

Is it possible to make an ability to make ONE big tree from different Genomaps automatically?

I think it would be useful when we will have Autoarrange which would be able to arrange everything in larger trees

Anyway, I would like to ask you to please consider an auto-arrange option which places family members, regardless of age or date of birth, on the same generational levels. 

For example, all my brothers and sisters and first cousins on a single level, all my parents and their brothers and sisters and first cousins on the next level up, all my grandparents and all their brothers and sisters and first cousins on the next two levels above ... in other words, a generational approach.

Generation 1 === Grandparents and their brothers and sisters and first cousins all on this level ===
Generation 2 === Parents and their brothers and sisters and first cousins all on this level ===
Generation 3 === Children and their first Cousins all on this level ===

You could also include a vertical time-line on the left and right side that these family members could be auto-arranged to line up with based on dates of birth or death or marriage or whatever.

Oh, and my only request with the autoarrange is that when it does cross over, can it show where the two lines cross or where two lines are overlapping.  sometimes it is hard to tell what is happening with 3 families have 20 children, all with different surnames and all on the same line.  it would be good to know what is real and what is overlap/cross.

Otherwise, love the program.

Col...

I have given it a great deal of though and can see no possible way to achieve this on a 2-dimensional plane.  Unless you want the various family lines to cross over all over the place.

I gave this a lot of thought when I first got into doing my tree and no matter how I tried, once you take in a brides/grooms parents the first time, the whole lot hits the proverbial fan.

The only way to make this happen is on a 3-dimensional grid where some form of generational 'fly thru' can move you between families while on a level 'flight plane'.

Picture hanging a bunch of coat hangers on coat hangers on coat hangers, all on your clothes line.  That is the only way to achieve it.

You can not display a 3-dimensional database on a 2 dimensional grid.  It just isnt possible.

It sounds from your post that you haven't gone through the v2.0 beta development process leading to the just released GenoPro 2007 (see www.genopro.com - having purchased GenoPro Gold you have a free upgrade). In this version there are 5 different line thicknesses to help distinguish where lines overlap, as well as the option of colouring the lines.

Not at the moment.  Future versions of GenoPro will be capable to display images in the family tree / genogram.

One more example to see and understand how ugly looks the autoarrange for big trees.

I have seen a lot worse.

It sounds like something I wrote somewhere on the forum...

What I was looking for is a way to :

a) predefine lenght/height of family line... to be arranged/fitted to grid... (I.e. default relationship partner distance 10 horizontal units...).

b) sometimes when moving family members/family line  they get detached... it's nicely depicted with red dots... would it be possible that in such occasions line stretches and connects two points?! (i.e. it occurs mostly when rearranging multiple marriages...)

GenoProSupport (8/18/2005)

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Since I have more than 7000 individuals, I get an ugly diagram everytime someone has more than 2 wives/husbands. Luckily there are not so many of them
Is this problem known by you ?

This will be changed for version 2.1.

I've also written you about this problem in the past; maybe you'll remove here (under suggestions) all my unsolved problems ...

About this very one, I've suggested - as a beginning of the solution - to try and increase the "2 spouses" restriction to 3 ones.

I agree, however this is almost impossible. You should see the code underneath.  It would be like asking to extend the existing telephone system from a one-to-one communication to a many-to-many conference call.  The amount of work is far more than re-compiling the code by increasing the value from "2 spouses" to "3 spouses".

You are welcome to use the Table Layout for your entries.  Some individuals have never used the graphical part because it is too messy.  For instance, after importing a Gedcom file having 50,000 individuals, it is impossible to have a clean graphical pedigree tree.  The Table Layout is very powerful to perform text-based entry.  As you grow your family tree, you can start moving branches of your family trees into different GenoMaps.

The video http://www.genopro.com/tutorials/videos/Importing-a-gedcom-file/ shows how to split your family tree into two GenoMaps.

Press Enter to get the individual's properties.

Whenever I make a change to the tree, I spend a lot of time arranging it so all people of the same generation are aligned horizontally as I (and all my family) find this layout MUCH easier to understand. Could you add an auto arrange option to automatically do this?

In case it's not clear, by 'same generation' I mean, for example, I am on the same horizontal alignment as my brothers and sisters and we are all aligned with my aunt and uncles children and so on. If this isn't clear, let me know and I'll be happy to explain further or provide an example.

Like a lot of users of GenoPro, I'm using the program to build a family tree - every ancestor and all their children - so it's getting to be a bunch of a big genograms. I'm working towards the end result of a website (using your super www generating functionality) where the primary navigation is centered on the genograms, as this is a nice tangible and instantly comprehendable concept to my family.

I arrange the individuals on my genogram so they're a set distance away from one another, and I use the grid to do this. Trouble is that 10 units (ie placing them on the grid intersections) is too far apart - the genogram gets too large to see 3 generations of a family who each have 10-14 children without zooming out to the point where you can't actually read their names. (I know you can move them to different genograms, but it's nice to see several generations together for context, and besides - if you put every generation of a family in a separate genogram you rapidly find yourself with 30+ genograms - I tried this).

So I'd like to put my siblings 8 units apart - trouble is - it's not easy to judge since the grid lines are set 10 apart.

And to come back to topic of auto-arrange... Could you put in configurable options for how the auto arrange will work ? Siblings x units apart, generations x units apart, keep generations horizontally aligned y/n, etc.

GenoPro defaults to the size 'Medium' for entry (perhaps this could be changed in the Options?), but the size is easily changed by selecting the objects and using the highlighted buttons on the toolbar.

I'm sure 'Large' or 'Extra Large' would meet your requirements.

Good job.

Best regards.

I understand that the Autoarrange cannot handle trees with complex structure but I have a suggestion for minor improvement of it without lots of hard solutions.

The main idea is: when Autoarrange has to arrange the complex tree it has rules that lead to the mess when these rules cannot be fulfilled but we can define a variant rule that IF there is a complex tree which will definitely cause a problem - what we can check before beginning of autoarranging - THEN it has only to implement minor variant of autoarrange.

Here are some thoughts of what can be a variant:

1. I am very annoyed of arranging when I do Autoarrange and everything is good except one small part which autoarrange doesn't know where to put - Decision is: to separate this problem part and put its last (youngest) individual to the equal line (level) of equal individual from another part (wife which family causes the problem - to the level of her husband; brothers/sisters - to leave place below all the existing brothers/sisters to have an ability to place there a family of one brother/sister which cause a problem.

2. Next thought is almost the same as first one - I only would like to have Autoarrange when it Does its work correctly to put families of two last spouses on the same level (now husband ancestors are above him and wife's are above husbands at the top right position).

3. One more thought to define an empty place around of the problem part to give a user ability to handle it manually without handling already arranged part of the tree.

4. The most complex task is what to do with the crossing lines and multiple marriages: I think the best way for you to create Rules how Your program is going to handle division by GenoMaps and then taking these Rules into account propose to the user which parts of the big tree (having problems) can be (by his order) splitted to other genomaps with all the individuals that linked to the first individual (which can be assigned in these rules) of the problematic part. These rules can be created and discussed over in this forum before implementing. More than that you can make variants for different cases - for example one option handling is In the "problem marriage" female should be moved to another GenoMap with all the related people or for different nations it is correct to move male... Then you have described in examples how to handle manually complex cases - but almost all of this can be described in Rules. And finally, these Rules can use during Autoarrange not all together but by the Blocks with subrules with choice (what to use and something to skip).

The best way of doing something - not to say all the time that Autoarrange cannot do something but afford an ability for the customers to have at least option of it - all the same it is better way to handle manually only part of big tree then positioning of the large tree completely manually all the time. So, next thought is

p.s. If you want to begin discussion of the Rules you can move this my post as a beginning, I am ready for discussion and I think all the users also.

You are welcome to start a new topic for "AutoArrange rules"

Taking into consideration my messages from Aug.8,2005 and Apr.26,2007,

today, on May 23,2009 I like asking (once in two years) what about 2.1

Sincerely yours,

Alfi 2.0.1.6