* Small images in Diagrams

[NigelSomerset]

Hi, I am struggling to find a way to keep the width of pictures which auto insert in eg All relative diagram charts for printing to a reasonable width. Is their a way of doing so?..... I have found the Options setting to restrict height of pictures, but nothing on width?

By way of background I want a chart that shows eg the first picture for each individual in the diagram ( have that set OK); but where eg all I have is a typical wide width old marriage certificate from 1820's but no portrait image, the diagram chart individual person box defaults to an extra width forced by the image on RHside. At moment my chart will be 19 feet wide !

From memory on Ancestry it just used to show the central section of the wide images; eg like a left and right cropped thumbnail.

Any clues or pointer to plugins gratefully received

Thanks

Nigel

[LornaCraig]

Do you really want an image of a certificate to appear in a diagram at all? At that scale it would be unreadable. The simplest solution would be to use the Exclude from diagrams option on such images, to prevent non-portrait images from appearing in diagrams.
(It is generally better to attach images of certificates to source records for the relevant events, rather than linking them directly to the individual, then this kind of problem does not arise.)

[davidm_uk]

Or just use a photo editing program to create a cropped version of the certificate image (or a generic image to represent a certificate - after all, it's not going to be legible on the diagram anyway). There are free programs around that will let you do simple things like that.

Of course you can still leave the full size certificate image as a lower priority attachment, so it won't be displayed in diagrams.

[tatewise]

If you want to adopt the approach of just a central portion of the certificate, then you do not need to use a photo editor.
Just use the Link to Face Fame feature and select the part of the certificate to be shown, and make that Preference 1.

However, as Lorna said, it is quite unusual to add document images directly to the Media tab of Individuals, which is typically reserved for photos.

Documents should be added directly to the appropriate Fact, or to a Citation, or preferably to a Source record.
The concept is that for example a Birth Certificate provides evidence for more facts than just the birth of the person.
It also typically provides evidence of the Father, the Mother, their Names, Occupations, and Residence.
So a single Source record documenting the Birth Certificate would have Citations against all those facts.

[NigelSomerset]

Thanks all for your suggested ways forward and reminder of benefit of attaching media to the relevant facts. I had not thought of the link to face option so will try out that on a couple of individuals as a good way forward.

My main reasons for placing a link to all my media related to a specific individual in the individuals main media file was (a) that is very easy then to scroll visually with keyboard up/down arrow through 20 or so images/documents for one person, rather than have to click individual fact/media icons; and (b) and this was the main reason so that when the kids look at the family tree charts they will visually see an image of a document or face photo of those individuals where there is likely to be more information than just census etc sitting hidden in the software record for that person.

If I get as far as producing a book maybe that would negate the need for chart images... but the kids need the high level chart overview with images to spark there intrigue !

PS. The software does seem really good; Really glad I made the transfer from FTM, and a number of plugins very useful. Sadly I will be away on holiday on 20/21 June when I see there is an event at Dillington... otherwise would have been booking a place to hone my skills and understanding.

Nigel

[tatewise]

Here are some thoughts about your point (b) and kids looking at family tree charts.

These days I would have thought even quite young kids were adept at clicking hyperlinks to follow a data trail.
It is what they do all the time online when browsing the Internet.

In a family tree Chart you can only ever expect to show a tiny subset of key facts and only one image.
But a double-click on any person's box will open their Property Box with many more facts and images.
From there either the Facts tab or the Media tab continues the voyage of discovery.

The Media tab shows all the other photos of the person, whereas the Chart only shows one.
You could include all the Source documents here too, but read on.

The Facts tab shows a complete time-line for the person, including the Birth, Marriage, Death, etc, of close relatives as determined by Tools > Preferences > General > Timeline Facts and governed by the Show Timeline Facts button.
If any Fact has the Media icon in the More column then there are more images attached.
Click on the Show Media button below to reveal them all.
Once that Media for Fact window is open, a click on any Fact will immediately reveal all its images in that window.
Those images may be attached to the Fact itself, or its Citations, or its Source records.

So you could use the conventional methods of documenting Sources via Citations, and still give your kids an interesting way of exploring the details without having to delve into the Source Citations themselves.

With the Chart displayed, plus the Property Box & Media for Fact windows open, there are more tricks.
With a bit of rearranging you should be able see all those three windows at the same time side by side.
Double-click on any box in the Chart or the Go Back/Forward buttons, and the Property Box will immediately update.
To navigate the Chart hold down the space bar and the cursor becomes a grab hand to drag the Chart around.
Let go the space bar and then you can double-click a box of interest.

Isn't that a more interesting and challenging way of delving into your family history than just looking at a static chart?

[NigelSomerset]

Mike
Thanks for the hints. Had not discovered a couple of the tricks.

I agree entirely with the underlying principles of focusing on building a tree with multiple series of corroborating and cross refernced facts and sources with citations, wherever possible with the media attached to the facts.

Am gradually working through the last few generations of tree with 1600 family records in it to increase the cross referencing that can be improved, eg with witnesses, and from baptisms back to parents, weddings to parents.... Where I have the data attached to an individual but not maximised the inter generational cross references.

I agree the chart has its restrictions with a single thumbnail image, and I wouldn't want to display more than one per person. In the longer term when I have the kids hooked with the chart, as you say they will quickly see they need to use the PC/ web / software to browse....

Nigel