Cyber Solutions: Fine Printing

Q. I would like to make a four-or five-generation wall chart with photos for my new grandson. How can I do this to print on an 11×17-inch page?

A. It’s easy to create this type of chart with genealogy software. You’l need to enter dates and places and add a picture, if you have one, for each person to be included in the chart.

In Family Tree Maker, highlight the starting person, then go to View>Tree Charts, then pick Standard Pedigree or Ancestor Tree (Standard or Vertical). Click the Items to Include button to add a picture/object and, optionally, birth date/location and death date/location. Then highlight picture/object on the right, select a picture/object placement option and hit OK twice.

A four-generation chart fits easily on an 11×17 page, but a five-generation chart may be larger. To make the chart smaller, select Tree Format from the Format pull-down menu and select Fishtail box connections and Squished layout in die dialog box that pops up. You could also leave out dates and places of birth and death.

You can print the chart on letter-size pages and tape diem together or, if you have a large-format printer, print it on an 11×17 page. To have your local print shop print the chart on one sheet, display the chart and select Copy Ancestor Tree from the Edit menu. Open Paint (in Windows, go to Start>All Programs>Accessories>Paint) and paste the chart in a new document (Edit>Paste or Control-V). Then save the chart in a graphics file format such as JPG or TIFF (under File>Save As).