GETTING THE CHART YOU WANT IF YOU USE PACKAGE X

If you want to get a chart that your current package can't produce then you will need to find a package that will produce that chart. Then you have to work out how to get your data into that package with the least loss of your important data. If you need to produce large charts you can choose to use a charting-only program like TreeDraw, GedMate, Genelines or you get a more sophisticated package to do all the work. Either way, it is likely that you will need to spend some money to make the improvement. And remember, the cost of printing a large chart will be equivalent to or exceed the cost of buying another piece of software.

GEDCOM EXPORT then GEDCOM IMPORT
Most packages export GEDCOM and most packages import GEDCOM. This may look like the best method (rather than reentering the data from scratch). BUT you should be warmed - GEDCOM is a de facto standard with no enforcement of the compliance on software developers of how they choose to export data or how they choose to import data. Because of this it is highly likely that you will lose something on the way over the bridge.

DIRECT INPUT
Some packages can read the native files of another package (and hence avoid the double translation losses). This, however, still will not avoid the losses due to the fact that a feature that you have used in one package is not supported in the second package. For flexible charting in a Windows computing environment, there are really only two packages to choose from Generations and The Master Genealogist. The GenBridge technology developed by and used by Wholly Genes, Inc. within the The Master Genealogist (TMG) is the most extensive of these alternative technologies that aims to reduce this loss. GenBridge supports about 15 native storage formats used by other genealogical software. TMG has the most powerful data storage model in current use in Windows-based genealogical software and hence it can support almost all of the features seen in less capable packages.

LEVELS OF USER CONTROL IN GRAPHICAL CHARTING

Genealogical packages have different levels of user control:

• NO CONTROL before chart generation
  (e.g. FIXED content, style and element format in graphical charts):
  1. Some packages are limited to standard small page sizes.
  2. Some packages can use custom large page sizes.
     
     
• LIMITED CONTROLS before chart generation,
  NO GRAPHICAL EDITING after chart generation and before printing:
  1. Some packages are limited to standard small page sizes.
  2. Some packages can use custom large page sizes.
     
     
• EXTENSIVE CONTROLS before chart generation,
  LIMITED GRAPHICAL EDITING after chart generation and before printing
  CUSTOM PAGE SIZES available
  NO SAVE / RESTORE of edited chart file
  
  
• EXTENSIVE CONTROLS before chart generation,
  FULL GRAPHICAL EDITING after chart generation and before printing
  CUSTOM PAGE SIZES available
  SAVE / RESTORE of edited chart file
1. Some packages can compound several charts into one chart.
2. Some packages have dynamic updating of chart when the data is edited, but it is hard to control the locking of user made edits of an already created chart.

GENEALOGICAL CHARTING SOFTWARE

Some of the most common genealogical charting packages for Windows 95/98/NT4/2000/XP unless indicated. These are listed in rough order of most flexible to least capable (as capable of printing large format charts):

• Edit and save the edited chart file for later printing on large paper
  • The Master Genealogist
  • Gen Box
  • Family Historian
  • Roots Magic
  • Family Tree Maker
  • TreeDraw (and TreeDraw Legacy Edition)
  • Generations
    
    
• Limited edit before print on large paper (no save chart file)
  • Reunion (Macintosh)
  • Genelines
  • Gedmate
  • Heredis
  • Relatively Yours
  • Personal Ancestral File Companion (large format printing disabled!)
    
    
• Fixed output only on standard paper (no save chart file)
  • Legacy (see TreeDraw Legacy Edition above)
  • Personal Ancestral File
  • Brother's Keeper

THE BREADTH AND DEPTH OF CHARTING SOFTWARE

This table gives a rough guide to the charting power of packages for producing large customizable graphical genealogical charts:

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