Family Historian User Group

I've been using the Movement Control Box to change the appearance of some of my diagrams to exactly how I want them - well, almost. I've noticed that in my Ancestor diagrams, when I display spouses in their own box, the male always appears on the left and the female on the right for all couples. I assume this is the default setting in FH. However, I would like some of mine changed so that the female is displayed to the left and the male to the right. I cannot use the Shift Spouse controls to change this - the option is greyed out! I've sucessfully used this before in other diagrams - it works for my descendant diagrams for example. It also works for siblings of ancestors (as opposed to direct line ancestors).

Is this a limitation of the diagrams in v3.1.2? If so, do any of the later releases overcome this please?

Thanks in anticipation of some help.
Chris

ID:5975

Unfortunately, this is a restriction of Ancestor Diagrams.

The Shift Spouse buttons only apply to Spouse Type boxes, and these do not occur in Ancestor Diagrams.

The FH Help for Box Types says:

Spouse boxes only appear when the Spouse Display Option is Spouses in Own Boxes (see the General tab of the Diagram Options dialog). The ‘spouses’ in question are spouses of Descendants and (in the All Relatives tree only) non-ancestral spouses of Ancestors (your grandmother is your grandfather’s spouse, but her details are displayed in an Ancestor box, not a Spouse box; but if your grandfather had other spouses, they would be displayed in Spouse boxes).

Thanks for that clarification. I can now see why trying to shift a spouse worked in some cases but not others.

So, actually, my enquiry should be 'can I reverse the left/right order of married ancestors?' In other words, can I change the default setting whereby the male ALWAYS appears on the left of the female in an ancestral couple?

As your answer states, this is a restriction in Ancestor diagrams in v3.1.2, but does anyone know about later releases please, including the impending v5? Should I post this question in another forum (not this v3 forum)?

Incidentally, I'm hatching a workaround, but this would involve changing the gender of some of my ancestors!! I'd be interested to know if anyone can think of a better solution.

Thanks for your help
Chris

Perhaps I should have said, unfortunately, this is a restriction of Ancestor Diagrams in all versions of FH including V5.

The only options I am aware of are in the Diagram > Options > General tab, and apply to the whole diagram.
Female spouses are always displayed on the right.

Beware that changing the gender of Individuals will affect the Diagram > Options > Boxes > Condition > Sex.
If you have different Features for Male and Female then changing gender will display the wrong Features.