This page updated 28 Sep 2014
Applies to Versions 8 & 9
TMG has powerful chart creation and editing capabilities. You can create a a variety of highly customizable charts, and then further customize them by editing the resulting chart. You can print them on your own printer. Or, much larger charts can be printed by a commercial printing service.
Different users will, of course, have their own favorite chart styles. I like simple Ancestor tree "road maps" to help me keep all the branches of my family straight in my mind, so that's the type of chart I discuss here. An example is shown in the photo on the right. Hopefully the ideas here will be helpful in creating your own favorite chart styles.
Charts are created using Reports menu in TMG. Just select one of the "Box Chart" reports to open the Report Definition Screen for the type of chart you want to make. Once you select the options you like and click the Generate button, the chart will be created.
Your new chart appears in Visual Chart Form, which is actually a separate program supplied with TMG. VCF is a chart editor, which allows you to make changes to the chart as you might desire, including changing, adding, or removing items on the chart, or even cutting and pasting parts of one chart to another. In VCF you can save your chart for use later, and print it with your printer if you like.
If your chart is larger than can be printed on a single sheet by your own printer, instead of printing it in sections and taping them together, you might consider having a printing service print them for you.
Wholly Genes has a printing service that can print directly from your file created by VCF. They do a nice job, using a heavy grade of paper that's 3 feet wide, and ship the chart off promptly. The chart in the photo, which is nearly six feet tall, costs about $30 plus shipping. For details, see the Chart Printing Service website, or use the Reports > Chart Printing menu to open the chart printing screen. I am told that this service will be available until about mid-November, 2014.
You can also use a commerial printing service. Methods for doing that are described in Robin Lamacraft's article on Saving and Printing.
There are two sets of tips on creating and editing charts on this site.
I have written a few articles on the use of charts:
A much more complete set of charting tips has been written by Robin Lamacraft, a long-time user of TMG and from 2000 to 2013 operated a commercial charting service in Adelaide, Australia.
Robin's tips can be accessed from Robin's Visual Chart Form Tips, which are hosted by this site.
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