Creating Charts and Reports

[Jeanmairet]

I am new to Reunion10 and the learning curve is going slow due to the lack of a User Manual that one can study before jumping into the sandbox. I am in the sandbox anyhow and I have ran into the same problem of not being able to save a chart or report format or specification.

It seems to me that in the case of charts and reports, the system confuses format and data. When one gets to the point of pressing the "Generate Chart" or report, that one should be able to save and name the 'format' or specifications if you wish. Then when you press "Generate Chart" the system reads through the selected family file and populates a Chart for you using the format you built. Saving a populated chart would be good if you wanted to keep or transmit a chart representing the family file at a point in time.

However, it also would be good to be able to save the format or specifications for a chart or report so that one can open it and press generate to populate it at a different point in time. We need to be able to do both and in fact be able to save the 'format' only from a populated chart or report. This is the way both MacFamilyTree and Treemaker2 for Mac work and it works quite well. Some other things not so well, thus I am trying Reunion10.

[Dennis J. Cunniff]

Re: Creating Charts and Reports

I am new to Reunion10 and the learning curve is going slow due to the lack of a User Manual that one can study before jumping into the sandbox.

You can have the User Manual open on screen at the same time you're using the program. (A paper manual would add tremendously to the cost of the software package.)

If you search the manual for the phrase "Defaults for Charts" you should find the information you're looking for. Essentially, most of the changes (colors, orientation, etc.) you make to charts are remembered automatically, and incorporated in charts you later generate. Other changes need to be saved manually from the menu.

[Jeanmairet]

Re: Creating Charts and Reports

Dennis,
Thank you for your reply.

I did not aim to imply a paper user manual. I would much prefer the 'help' info organized into a .pdf that I could say download to my iPad and study the product before starting to use it. Understanding the concepts behind the products architecture and approach helps me greatly.

Chart settings is a good example. I did your suggested search in help and read the related material. The notion of the system having 'automatic defaults' that get changed every time I tweak something on a particular chart, would never have occurred to me. It is so different that at this point in time I don't know if I think it a good idea or a bad idea. I will have to read the help and stumble around the product to find out.

Thanks again for your assistance.

[Terry Medlar]

Re: Creating Charts and Reports

This is an awkward suggestion; however you can "print" sections of the manual to PDF files and study them as you need them.