Printing a Tree View Chart

[Bob White]

The Tree View "Preview/Print" command scales your entire selection into one page. This is quite acceptable for looking at on-screen since one can expand and move it around.

Not so much if one wants to print a Tree View chart. (Example: The wife's grandfather with no ancestors and four generations of descendants when compressed into one page and is printed, the text is the equivalent of about 4 or 5 point type. [About 45 boxes on the chart.]) Borderline of needing a magnifying glass!

Anyone know of any trick to expand the resulting Preview document into printing onto to multiple sheets in order to make it readable?

If not, I would ask the this topic then be moved to the Wish List forum. Thanks for listening.

Note: I consider the Tree View the most desirable chart to give to relatives.

[KirkS]

Agreed. I like to print trees in landscape with 4 or 5 generations per page. It would be nice to "cascade" them so that #1 on page 2 is the same as #32 on page 1.

[ttl]

Bob, I think you might get close to what you're asking for by saving the PDF, then File>Place -ing it into a chart. There might be some fiddling required, but that's the basic idea. Once the PDF is in the chart, you can actually delete the original tree you used to create the chart in the first place. Then you can print multipage like a chart (since it is a chart). There are fancier ways to accomplish this, but not in Preview, and this method has the advantage of using an application everyone here already has. One downside is that you won't have any real way to keep boxes off of page breaks.

One small point to clarify is that the Preview app will by default try to scale the PDF to a single page for printing, but the file saved in Document/Reunion Files/Reports will be sized in a manner suitable for human beings.

[ttl]

KirkS - Stupid question: are you aware of the Cascading Pedigree chart in the Charts panel?

[Fred K]

Print the chart and in the Print Window, change the scale to 100% and under Paper Size choose an option that will work to get the equivalent font size to what you desire. My print dialog allows me to choose x pages wide by y pages high. If you don't see those options, you can add them using the Manage Custom Sizes option under Paper Size.

[ttl]

Maybe a good wish list item would be to add one more item to the Tree View share menu—Open as Chart.

[Bob White]

Bob, I think you might get close to what you're asking for by saving the PDF, then File>Place -ing it into a chart. There might be some fiddling required, ..........

Must be another step somewhere???? No such command in either Preview, Reunion or Reunion Charts. So I'm not clear on where you were headed.

[Lawrence E Moore]

Another option: Check out your public library. I created the chart I wanted in Reunion. Then under File > Save graphic file... I saved the chart in some graphic formats on a thumb drive--jpg, tiff, png. (Graphic formats don't have the page breaks.) I took the thumb drive to the nearest branch of the county library where they have a technology lab for the public. I was able to print the chart on a wide-format printer on 24-inch roll paper; the chart was several feet long. The cost was nominal. The printer also handles poster board. If your library doesn't have a wide format printer, the nearest office supply store probably does. Check ahead about what graphic formats are compatible with the printer software.

[ttl]

Must be another step somewhere???? No such command in either Preview, Reunion or Reunion Charts. So I'm not clear on where you were headed.

Near as I can tell, if you click the share button in the Tree View and select anything, a PDF is saved in ~/Documents/Reunion Files/Reports with the same name shown in the top of the window if you've opened it in Preview. If that isn't happening for you, you can choose Preview from the share menu (as you've done) and choose Export as PDF from the File menu and then save it wherever you want with whatever name you want.

Once you have a PDF file to work with (you can verify it's bigger than a page in size by opening in Preview and selecting from the main menu at the top of the display Tools>Show Inspector and looking at the dimensions) you then need to create any kind of chart using the Reunion Charts panel. Once the chart is open, you can place the PDF file into it from inside the Reunion chart editor by choosing File>Place Picture [*** this is the direct answer to your question***] and start the fiddling. If it's a small chart (ideal), the pagination might not immediately catch up to the size of the PDF that's been placed, but moving the graphic around should get it to respond.

Good luck.

[Bob White]

Choosing the share button, selecting Preview/Print has worked as advertised. OK... Created a Descendant chart, used the Place Picture command. The result is the Tree View chart being superimposed over the Descendant chart.. See the screenshot.

Since I need to get this project done, for now I'm going to do screenshots of the Tree View chart (with Snagit) then stich then print and get out the scotch tape (which would be the last step no matter what chart action we are doing) [Of course, unless we hire Heartland. ] Actually, that makes me think of a new question: With your printing operation, are you able to print a Tree View single pager at a larger readable size?

ChartShot0.png

[dwkiefer]

If you open the pdf you've saved with Adobe Acrobat Reader (it's free at: https://get2.adobe.com/reader/) and print the file, one of the page sizing and handling options you'll see is "Poster." I tested those steps without actually printing and it appears the tree-view chart I selected will print on 16 pages. It also lets you make adjustments. That might be worth a try.

Screen Shot 2020-12-02 at 13.41.10.png

[kyuck]

FLASH
I just copied a Tree View and "Paste Special," PDF into Excel. I then said "Print" and Excel broke the file into 8 1/2 x 11 pages!

[ttl]

If you open the pdf you've saved with Adobe Acrobat Reader (it's free at: https://get2.adobe.com/reader/) and print the file, one of the page sizing and handling options you'll see is "Poster." I tested those steps without actually printing and it appears the tree-view chart I selected will print on 16 pages. It also lets you make adjustments. That might be worth a try.

That looks pretty slick. I haven't used Reader for years, so it never even occurred to me.

[ttl]

Choosing the share button, selecting Preview/Print has worked as advertised. OK... Created a Descendant chart, used the Place Picture command. The result is the Tree View chart being superimposed over the Descendant chart.. See the screenshot.

Yeah, you need to delete the tree, which you can do by selecting the source person and deleting him, which should take the rest of the tree with him. Mentioned it in my first reply, but forgot to include in my second, sorry.

Since I need to get this project done, for now I'm going to do screenshots of the Tree View chart (with Snagit) then stich then print and get out the scotch tape (which would be the last step no matter what chart action we are doing) [Of course, unless we hire Heartland. ] Actually, that makes me think of a new question: With your printing operation, are you able to print a Tree View single pager at a larger readable size?

Yep, no problem printing on a single sheet of paper up to 5 ft x 100 ft.

[ttl]

FLASH
I just copied a Tree View and "Paste Special," PDF into Excel. I then said "Print" and Excel broke the file into 8 1/2 x 11 pages!

The knowledge base in this community is awesome.