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Short version of my query: How do I ensure that all the people in a Named List have a golden box fill colour or frame?
Longer explanation, if needed! As part of a local archive project, I've drawn up a big family tree of our local gentry and I'm trying to show the line of succession of the baronetcy which jumps around all over the place. I need to show the 16 baronets more clearly in a different colour so they stand out in the tree. I've created a Named List of the baronets (because I thought that might be easier) but I don't know how to create a rule which will change all their boxes to say a golden or light purple fill colour or a suitable frame? When I right-click on the Named List and select List Properties there seems to be a big empty box waiting for me to give instructions but I don't know how? Sorry ... still learning!
Would spend every waking hour researching my ancestry if my family and friends allowed it!
With the diagram open, use Diagram > Selections and Marks > Set/Clear Marks using Query. Then when prompted for the Query, select the query called Named List Members. Click Run Query and you will be prompted for your list name.
Alternatively, just select all the relevant boxes in the diagram first, then use Diagram > Selections and Marks > Mark/Unmark boxes.
The colour of the marked boxes can be chosen in Diagram > Options General tab > Sundry Colours (near bottom right of General tab).
Jessie, and alternative technique is to use the Box Conditions to customise the Box colour.
With the Diagram open use Diagram > Options > Boxes tab.
Then click << Add Condition > Expresion and enter the following Expression: =IsInList(%INDI%,"<listname>") where <listname> is the Named List name.
Click OK.
Then in Box Features tick Box Fill and click on the box below to choose the Colour.
Click OK several times.
Thereafter, whichever Individuals are listed in that Named List will have that Colour box background.
To preserve that customisation use Diagram > Save Diagram As > Custom Diagram Type and give it a suitable Custom Diagram Name and thereafter use View > Custom Diagram Types and choose that name.
BTW: How do you choose the Individuals listed in that Named List?
If that is done via a Query, then whatever Expression is used in the Query could be used in the Boxes Condition and avoid the Query and Named List altogether.
Is there anything unique about the baronets' Individual records that differentiates them from everyone else?
Do they have a unique Title or something in their Name that makes them unique?
Mike Tate ~ researching the Tate and Scott family history ~ tatewise ancestry
Lorna and Mike, thank you both very much. I've used both of your suggestions!
Just checking, there's no way of saving it without running a query on the diagram each time? I'm guessing not or you would have said!
Mike, I don't use a query to add individuals to the Named List because that's too advanced for me. Baby steps! In the Records Pane, I just click on the person I want to add then click on the green arrow on the ribbon to move it over to the current Named List. Hope that makes sense ... it works for me. As to the baronets' individual records, there is nothing to differentiate them because some of them are Sir ... and others are Rev Sir ... and they often have different or combined surnames. Several of the baronets were childless so the title then had to move to a distant relative who then changed their name ... very helpful to a poor team of volunteer archivists! I'm not there yet but the next thing I have to learn is how to draw arrows on the finished diagram to show the path of the succession. Every day's a school day.
Would spend every waking hour researching my ancestry if my family and friends allowed it!
To preserve that customisation use Diagram > Save Diagram As > Custom Diagram Type and give it a suitable Custom Diagram Name and thereafter use View > Custom Diagram Types and choose that name.
If you use Mike's method, you could tick Save as Default (bottom left) after customising the Boxes tab of the Diagram Options. But be aware that if you keep this as the default setting anyone in the named list will then be marked in any diagram they appear in. (That may be OK of course).
Jessie, if you use my technique there is NO need to run any Query ever.
Just put the baronets in the Named List manually exactly as you described.
If you add a baronet later, then they will automatically get the Colour background.
The saved Custom Diagram Type is all you need, but as Lorna says those settings can also be your Default.
BUT it is critical to keep a saved Custom Diagram Type because the Defaults can easily be disrupted.
That is also the Diagram to which you should add the path of succession.
I suggest you could probably use the Family Connection Mapper to colour those paths.
BTW: Do all the baronets have a Sir in their Name somewhere, and nobody else has Sir in their Name anywhere?
If so, then we can even dispense with the Named List.
Mike Tate ~ researching the Tate and Scott family history ~ tatewise ancestry
I'm sorry but I think my little brain is missing a middle step? I did save the Custom Diagram as Mike suggested ... but not as a default because I thought that would lead to further problems I couldn't solve. What I don't understand is after I've added a few more people to the tree and I've opened a diagram again by clicking on the All Relatives icon, none of the 'new colours' are there? That's what I meant by how do I save it so it opens automatically with those Named List people in the right colours?
(Mike, there are loads of other Sirs in the tree, I'm afraid.)
Would spend every waking hour researching my ancestry if my family and friends allowed it!
I am afraid you have to read all the instructions carefully perhaps several times.
I said "thereafter use View > Custom Diagram Types and choose that name." i.e. the Custom Name you saved it under.
After doing that you can use Diagram > Settings > Save As Default Settings and then the All Relatives icon will display the same Diagram features, but as Lorna says that will apply to EVERY All Relatives diagram in EVERY Project, because it is the Default.
What might be better, once you have finished customising, is to use Diagram > Save Diagram As > Family Historian Chart.
Then you display that using View > Saved Charts and choosing its name.
Mike Tate ~ researching the Tate and Scott family history ~ tatewise ancestry
Thank you, Mike. You are quite right ... your instructions were all complete and clear ... it's just my brain is not as sharp as it used to be after a stroke. I've printed out your instructions so I can keep reading, checking and referring back to them!
Would spend every waking hour researching my ancestry if my family and friends allowed it!
Or Jessie could add a Title attribute with Baronet as the Title and give the Date when inherited.
Then that would also be a unique characteristic that could be used to avoid the Named List.
Mike Tate ~ researching the Tate and Scott family history ~ tatewise ancestry
If you choose to use either of those ideas, then let us know so we can explain how the Diagram > Boxes > Condition > Expression can be modified to avoid the Named List.
Mike Tate ~ researching the Tate and Scott family history ~ tatewise ancestry
Jessie, personally I would stick to a simple solution which won't involve spending time adding titles or any other distinguishing feature, and doesn't involve setting up conditions with expressions in the Boxes tab. (Mike and others, feel free to disagree!!)
As you already have a named list with your existing 16 baronets, I would use the technique I first described (Diagram > Selections and Marks > Set/Clear Marks using Query) then use Diagram > Save Diagram As > Family Historian Chart. (Note that this is different from saving as a Custom Diagram type). The saved Chart is then accessed from View > Saved Charts.
When you add another baronet you can simply select the new one in the Chart and use Diagram> Selections & Marks > Mark/Unmark boxes or (even quicker) just right-click in the new box and choose Mark. This will mark the newly added box without affecting those already marked. This is quite straightforward.
