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• • April 22, 2010 at 11:51 pm #52562
    Easybourne

    Participant

    I just picked up a job to design a large family tree.

    The client has already roughly drawn it all out by hand and it is tiled over several large (A1) sheets.

    I'm think of setting up various object styles for the various types of info entry and don't really have a problem with designing the individual parts. Where I'm getting quite worried is how to connect all the parts together without driving myself insane if (most likely WHEN!) I have to move it all around.

    What I'm after is a way for InDesign to automatically 'shuffle' elements on the page to accommodate new ones being inserted.

    Any advise before I get started?

  • April 23, 2010 at 1:57 am #52563
    Theunis De Jong

    Member

    However unwillingly, I would advise against trying to do this in InDesign …

    The key features of geneological trees are the frames with the names and their interconnecting lines. These need to be positioned very carefully, because neither the frames nor (ideally) the lines may overlap. It would be necesasry to start at the topmost, widest level, then work your way down the ancestry line — and if you need to insert a late-discovered third-degree removed cousin, you'd have to start again at the top.

    There is no real easy way to move a frame and have a line “connected” to it moving along — it would need some serious scripting (which you'd need to run after each edit), or a dedicated plugin specially written for this.

    I have zero experience with geneological programs, but it sure sounds like you should do this in one of these and produce a PDF when you're done — then you can place this into ID and finish off the book. If the tree changes, change the data in the program, export a new PDF and have ID update it.

  • April 23, 2010 at 2:19 am #52564
    David Blatner

    Keymaster

    Agreed. Family tree software (such as Reunion on the Mac) is far better. If you need to get it into ID later, you could save the tree as a PDF and import it into your layout, or open that in Illustrator to tweak vectors there first.

    Or use a flow-chart program. I wonder if Vizio lets you do family trees?!

  • May 11, 2010 at 8:32 pm #52565
    Easybourne

    Participant

    Thanks Jongware and David.

    Somehow, I feared that was going to be the outcome…

    Anyway, I've got the job and have started making some headway in InDesign with it. I thought I'd share my progress with you and scare the bejesus out of you! I've attached two screen shots.

    One shows the document size that I am working to – a staggering 4A0!

    

    The other screen shot shows part of the first section that I have built.

    

    For this, I elected to make object styles for 'Male' and 'Female' entries with placeholder text using various stylesheets and the very handy 'apply next style'. I then grouped these objects with a leader line coming from the top and popped the resulting groups into a library.

    Fortunately, the client has requested that all children in one generation run from right to left in a neatly aligned row. This means that I can easily join the entries onto a blood line. Marriages, rather unusually have been stacked vertically so they have a tint behind to help show the union. Where there are re-marriages, the offspring are labelled with a number that corresponds to the relevant spouse – hence the green circles above some of the entries.

    I've got a lot more to do as my client has really done his research and this stretches back to the 1400s! Ultimately the family tree will fill the 4A0 sized area, and to give you an idea just how much info there is, the blank 'Male' and 'Female' entries measure 34mm x 20 mm.

    Naturally, the client wants it yesterday…. and for not very much money!

  • May 11, 2010 at 8:37 pm #52566
    Anonymous

    Inactive

    Freemind is quite good and I think a lot better than Vizio

    https://freemind.sourceforge.ne…../Main_Page

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