TreeDraw manual - Tutorial - Importing a tree

TreeDraw is designed to import data from other programs which store genealogy data. Specifically Kith and Kin Pro databases and GEDCOM files. Most genealogy programs will export GEDCOM files; please refer to the program's documentation for details. TreeDraw supports GEDCOM up to version 5.5.

There are several stages required to import a tree.

1) Set up the standard import options such as which pieces of data you want, the line styles, fonts, etc. These options remain set until you change them again.

2) Select the type of tree you want; descendant, ancestral or wheel.

3) Select the data source, a Kith and Kin Pro database or GEDCOM file.

4) Select the person who will form the root of the tree, tree layout and other options.

1) Setting up the standard import options

Before importing your first tree you should check, and modify if necessary, the standard options which tell TreeDraw how to import data. The following settings affect an imported chart...

Graphical settings

Click on "Options | Preferences | Import visuals" to open the preferences dialog at the "Import visuals" page. This is where you set the style of text, lines, etc used when a tree is imported.

Fonts

Click on the appropriate Change button to change the font used for person names, person details or marriage details. The chart will look best if you have all of these fonts the same size but you can make them different if you wish. Changing the fonts here does not change the default font in "Format | Font" for manually added text.

Text alignment

Click on "Left", "Centre" or "Right" to change the justification of the imported text. This setting also affects how TreeDraw aligns the individual parts of a person/details block.

Word wrapping

Click on "Word wrap" to change whether TreeDraw should automatically break long lines of text at a space between words. Setting the word wrapping to ON is usually best.

You can also set the maximum width for wrapped text by clicking on "Wrapped text width". Wrapped text elements can always have their width changed later manually by resizing the element but it is useful to be able to limit the width whilst the tree is being import to reduce the overall size of the tree.

Statistics stamp

You can add your own personalised text to the statistics box in an imported tree in "Text to include in statistics box". If you do not want any additional text, delete all the text in the stamp box.

Line styles and colour

TreeDraw uses three types of line when importing a tree. "Normal" lines connect parents to children, "Marriage" lines are only used where a person has more than one marriage and "Probable" lines are used where Kith and Kin Pro has indicated that the parent to child link is only probable not definite. To change the line style, width or colour of a particular type of line, click on the appropriate "Change" button to open the Line style dialog. Changing the line styles here does not change the default line style in "Format | Line style" for manually added lines.

Box style and colour

If you intend to have your drop-line trees "boxed" (ie. with boxes around the text) or if you are importing a wheel chart, you can use the "Box style" settings to choose the style and colour of the boxes. Click on the "Outline" button to change the line style or colour of the box outline. Choose the fill pattern from the "Pattern" list. Note that the bottom pattern in the list is "solid" and the next one up is "clear". To change the colour of the box fill, click on the "Fill colour" button. A sample of the selected settings will be shown in the box above this button.

Date format

You can choose how TreeDraw formats imported dates; it does not matter what format the original date was in. Click on the Dates tab in the Preferences dialog and choose a format from the "Date format" list. You can also change the separator and whether a leading zero should be used for day/month numbers less than 10.

If you want to change the month and weekday descriptions (into another language for instance), just click on each description in turn and type in the new entry.

As you change the date format options, you can see how dates will look in the two samples.

If you are working with dates prior to 1752 you should set the Gregorian calendar adoption date correctly. This is the date on which the Julian calendar was replaced with the Gregorian one; in Great Britain this was in 1752 but other countries changed on different dates. Setting this option will make TreeDraw work out the day-of-the-week correctly.

Replacement text

TreeDraw has the capability to automatically find and replace selected text as it is imported. This is useful, for instance, where you may have recurring, long place names in your tree data which you want to shorten in the TreeDraw chart so as to save space (eg. replacing "Clackmannanshire" with "Clacks.").

Click on the Replace text tab in the Preferences dialog to add replacements. By default there are no replacements set up.

GEDCOM import fields

If you want to import additional fields from a GEDCOM file which do not have corresponding fields in the default TreeDraw temporary database (the one it uses for importing GEDCOM files), then you can add your own fields to import the extra data into; eg. "Occupation".

Click on the GEDCOM tab in the Preferences dialog to add GEDCOM fields. By default there are no GEDCOM fields set up.

This does not affect trees imported from Kith and Kin Pro databases.

Import fields

These settings tell TreeDraw which data fields to put where when importing a tree. You can also define which indicators (b., d., m., etc) to use. Click on the Import fields tab in the Preferences dialog to change these settings.

Snap to grid

The snap-to-grid feature is probably on already but if it is not, click on "Options | Snap to grid" so that the icon beside the menu command is depressed. Turning the grid on before importing a tree makes all the new chart elements snap to the grid and all the lines start and end at a grid intersection. This makes it easier to move the elements around after the tree has been imported.

2) Selecting the tree type

To begin importing a tree you can click on "File | Import | Descendant tree" for a tree which starts from a specified ancestor and moves forwards through his/her descendants; "File | Import | Ancestral tree" for a tree which starts from a specified descendant and moves backwards through his/her ancestors or "File | Import | Wheel chart" for a round chart with a specified person in the centre and his/her ancestors radiating outwards in a wheel. Note that ancestral trees and wheel charts only include the direct ancestors; there are no aunts, uncles, cousins, etc. For this tutorial click on "File | Import | Descendant tree".

3) Selecting the data source

If you have Kith and Kin Pro installed on your PC, you will then be asked for the name of the database you want to import the tree from; for this tutorial we want to import a GEDCOM file instead so click on the GEDCOM button. You will now see (and if you don't have Kith and Kin Pro you will see this first) a dialog which asks you to choose the GEDCOM file you want to import the tree from. Click on "Sample.ged" in the "Files" list and click on the OK button.

After a brief pause you will see a dialog which displays the "File header details" and allows you to choose some additional options specific to GEDCOM files (this dialog does not appear when you are importing a tree from a Kith and Kin Pro database). Check that the "File header details" says "Source system: KITHKIN_PRO" and "File creation date:" is "1 July 2000". Leave all the options as they are and click on the "Continue" button. TreeDraw will now import the rest of the GEDCOM data and then display "GEDCOM import complete". This dialog is again specific to GEDCOM files and shows the submitter information from the GEDCOM file along with some statistics about the file. In this case there should be "0 errors found" and so we don't need to click on the "Errors" button to find out what the errors were. Click on the OK button instead.

4) Selecting the root person, tree layout and options

You will now see a dialog titled "Import descendant tree from Sample.ged". The list at the top shows all the people in the GEDCOM file.

The "Layout" box tells TreeDraw which format to use for the new tree. Practice clicking on "Vertically", "Horizontally", "Left (or Top)" and "Centre". Notice that the little diagram changes to show you what the tree will look like. Set "Extend generations" to "Vertically" and "Align tree" to "Centre".

The "Root person" list at the top of the dialog is currently sorted by surname. If you want to change the sort order, you can click on any of the column headings. The current order is indicated by a bold heading. Practice changing the sort order. When importing data from a Kith and Kin Pro database, the "Code" column shows the person codes (or P codes) used in the database. For GEDCOM files the codes are arbitrary. Some sorted columns allow you to enter a search string at the below the list which will scroll the list automatically to entries beginning with that string. For example, to go straight to all the people whose surnames begin with GO, click on "Surname" at the top of the surname column and then type GO into the "Surname" box at the bottom of the form. We want the descendant tree to start from Thomas GORDON [P7] so type "7" into the "Code" box and click on the OK button.

(Also in this dialog are options which tell TreeDraw what to include in this particular import operation; leave these as they are for this tutorial.)

Because the snap-to-grid feature is switched on, you will now be asked if you want TreeDraw to change the vertical spacing of the grid so that it matches the import names font. Answer Yes. This makes the vertical space between text elements the same as the linespacing of a multi-line text element and so separate elements appear to be continuous.

After a while, TreeDraw displays the new tree in the drawing area. Notice that all the new chart elements have small, grey squares around them. This indicates that the elements are currently selected. TreeDraw always selects all of the newly imported tree and nothing else after an import. This allows you to move the new tree around easily if required.

Next tutorial - Using the drawing area

Tutorial - Importing a tree

See also