Family Historian User Group

Would it be possible to fix the above diagram so that it complies with the description of  ' ..is simply the grafting of an Ancestors diagram on top of a Descendants diagram'.
At present in V5 the result achieved is an A&D diagram for the diagram roots parents not the diagram root with a resultant excess of siblings and their offspring etc.
Dagwood

ID:6139

Let me know when it's there and it will get my vote!

I think all you need to do is to untick Auto Display Root siblings and ensure save as default is ticked.

Even if the default at installation is changed existing installs would not be affected.

Where is the auto diplay root siblings option? All I've found is the tick box for auto expanding root siblings branches and that doesn't have the same effect, it still lists the siblings.

Merenwen said:
Where is the auto diplay root siblings option? All I've found is the tick box for auto expanding root siblings branches and that doesn't have the same effect, it still lists the siblings.

...and their spouses; and their offspring,and their offspring's offspring etc
Dagwood

Dagwood said:
and their offspring,and their offspring's offspring etc
Dagwood

You can hide those by not automtically expaning sibling branches, but you'll still get siblings and sibling spouces.

Following Jane's advice re unticking Auto-Display Root's Siblings Branches and changing Spouse Display Options to No Spouse Info has given me almost all I wanted. The fact that the root's siblings are still shown I can live with but it still is not as described and I hope others who come along later will not have to go thro' this process to find a way round the problem.
Dagwood

Dagwood said:
The fact that the root's siblings are still shown I can live with but it still is not as described and I hope others who come along later will not have to go thro' this process to find a way round the problem.

Don't forget you can hide the siblings and their spouses manually by right-clicking on each sibling and selecting 'Hide' or by selecting all the siblings boxes and using Diagram > Hide/Show boxes > Hide selected boxes. I do agree, though, that it shouldn't be necessary to do that in what is supposed to be an ancestors and descendants diagram.

I found an old message in the FH mailing list from 2006 where someone asked why the root's siblings etc were appearing in an Ancestors & Descendants diagram and Jane's reply then was that it was something that had been requested when V2 was current! I don't really understand why the change was made because, as discussed in another thread, all it does is create a diagram showing ancestors and descendants of the root person's parents and that could have been done by basing the diagram on them as a couple.

It's unlikely the change will be reversed but two improvements could be made:

1. The description in 'Getting the Most from FH V5' needs amending to explain that the diagram root's siblings are included and also, optionally, their descendants.

2. The default (installation setting) should be for the siblings branches to be hidden. This produces a less cluttered diagram.

This 'little' issue that has so many workarounds is actually making me seriously consider using something else for books. Am thinking about getting Ancestral Author or The Complete Genealogy Reporter as FH simply still isn't able to create books. It's better than v4, but still nowhere near what other programs offer. Which is a shame, as it's the main reason a lot of people still stick with other programs. And books were the main thing that tempted me to by v5.

WL#502 has been raised for this

Please vote for it here:

http://www.fhug.org.uk/wishlist/wldispl ... lwlref=502