Why no Waterfall support in Relative Chart?

[reggoboy]

Relative Chart appears to be the only way to get an hourglass of descendants and ancestors. Does anyone know why this report doesn't support the Waterfall feature, including selecting how many generations the waterfall kicks in at?

One of the most important layout features for managing "tree sprawl" and for emphasizing one generation of siblings over the ones that follow them are the above mentioned waterfall settings. Is there a good reason we don't have this in the Relative Chart?

[jmccracken]

I do not have an answer to your question. If I understand it correctly, I agree that I would like to see this kind of chart. For me, I really like the look/feel of the "Hourglass" version of the "Tree View." I understand that Tree View is really a navigation tool, but it is also a great output chart in my mind. If this would only link additional spouses at the center of the hourglass, then it would be perfect for me. I realize that developing graphic output is really hard and everyone wants something a little different. But these are my thoughts and wishes. Janet McCracken

[reggoboy]

Thanks for your reply. I have a number of excellent posts that no one has replied to :-)

While it's the subject of a different post, I do agree that Tree View, which is awesome, could benefit from a few enhancements.

Yes, developing graphical display is challenging. But the request here doesn't involve technology that hasn't already been built and used in other views. I'm just asking for it to be available here. I understand that waterfall takes on a different meaning when going "up". So either you disable waterfall on the top of the hourglass. Or you fully invert it so it falls "up".

Is there more to it?

[jmccracken]

After writing my post...I decided to dig into the other graphing capabilities. I have never played with them very much. I discovered that the relationship hourglass graph did not start with a waterfall, but it could be turned into one. The results look very nice and the options for content in each box are very flexible....it just takes effort. Basically...I can use the current features and accomplish what I need to do. I would be easier on a large iMac display and it is takes a lot of elbow grease on a MacBook....but it is doable. As always...I think every user will want more graphic capability and ease of use and flexibility in every new revision and I already look forward to the next rev of Reunion :-) Janet

[reggoboy]

Would you care to share how you got waterfall behavior in your Relative Hourglass chart?

[jmccracken]

Sorry...I did not mean to be secretive. I did a lot of manual dragging of boxes.I also used the alignment features (left, center, right....). Lots of effort as I said. Lots of time. I also started looking at the other kinds of charts and found them to be very easy and fast to use. They will work for every family I have that has only one marriage for the source person. That is not ideal, but it is so much easier that I might just compromise and combine multiple trees in another ap (OmniGraffle). I really like the hourglass chart and I hope it can be developed a little more in the future.

[reggoboy]

Okay thanks for the reply.

Yes if we we are willing to spend all day dragging boxes around, maybe we’re also willing to draw the whole darn tree by hand. The point of the software is to automate these chores for us.

Whats the right approach here? Should I post this into a feature request list somewhere?

[Mark]

Whats the right approach here? Should I post this into a feature request list somewhere?

If there's a feature you'd like to see added to Reunion, the proper approach is to post a request for that feature to the Wish List forum. We consider any and all requests posted there, though we can't promise to implement them.

HTH