TMG-L Archives

From: Terry Reigel <>
Subject: Re: [TMG] Box chart
Date: Sun, 1 Jun 2003 10:15:36 -0400
In-Reply-To: <001701c3280d$68a02f00$b786fea9@gaby001>

On Sun, 1 Jun 2003 09:14:14 +0200, Gaby Guri wrote:
>Hi
>
>I am BK6 user. I am using XP on my PC. I need to print a
>box chart on A4 (close to 8 1/2 x 11) or A3 pages. It is a
>big tree so my intention is to split it to separate
>branches and to print each branch on a separate page. I
>read that it is possible to "move" the boxes in TMG and in
>this way to enter more boxes in one page.
>1. Is TMG the right software for this specific need?
>2. Ver 4 or Ver 5?

I haven't used other charting programs recently enough to know if TMG
is the best for this, but it will certainly do it. A couple of
thoughts for you to consider:

1- TMG itself is used to generate the chart. Then, the chart is
opened in a separate program, Visual Chart Form, which is included
with TMG.

2- Within TMG you can set a number of parameters, including who will
be included, what information about them will be included, size and
type of boxes, lines, fonts, etc.

3- Once the chart is completed, within VCF you can further edit the
chart, moving, editing, deleting, or even adding items.

4- The version of VCF shipped with FTST (see below) or TMG5 does have
a function to automatically move the boxes so they will not fall on
the page breaks. However, it does not provide any marks to help track
the lines from one page to the next.

5- Wholly Genes does offer a very nice printing service using paper
up to 36 inches wide, if that would suit your application. But I
gather you are not in the US, so shipping costs might be an issue.

6- There is an article on charting on my website -- at
http://reigelridge.com/tmg/Charts.htm -- that may offer some helpful
clues for your consideration.

7- Either TMG4 or TMG5 would do this for you very nicely -- the main
differences for your purposes I believe are the lack of the automatic
pagination feature mentioned in item 4 above, and the new version
with TMG5 offers fancy box boarders. But if you are not interested in
using TMG as a data entry and editing tool, you might find Family
Tree SuperTools (FTST) will do the job for you at less cost. It's
essentially a "read only" version of TMG5. While it's not fully
up-to-date with the current version of TMG5, it does offer almost all
the same box charting features.

8- I don't believe TMG5 or FTST can directly import from Brother's
Keeper, though I see TMG4 claims to do so up to BK-5. Perhaps someone
more familiar with that can help you there. But if you are only
intending to use it for creating box charts, an import via GEDCOM
should serve well. Typically box charts contain only basic data about
each person, and GEDCOM normally imports that pretty well.

Terry Reigel

This thread:

• [TMG] Box chart by "Gaby Guri" <>