 Family Tree Designer Help Contents

The Contents lists Help topics available for Family Tree Designer.  Use the scroll bar to see entries not currently visible in the Help window.

To learn how to use Help, press F1.

About

Edit Family Member

Adding Parents

Adding a Spouse

Adding Children

Menu And Tool Bar

Notes

Design Herald

Locate Family Member

Descendant Tree

Ancestor Tree

Multimedia Album

Family Calendar


About Ancestry
 About Family Tree Designer

Swift Family

Tree Designer

Copyright 1996

Portions Copyright 1999

Cosmi Corporation


 Edit Family member

Entering and editing basic information about an individual

Enter the individual's name, gender and birth date, birth location, date of death and location if known.

Important: In order for the calendar to work properly: When entering an individual's date of birth or date of death, always use the same format (for example: July, 4, 1776 for one person and 1-24-1931 for another). Also, use all four digits for the year: "1962" not "62".

Adding other family members

Adding Parents

Adding a Spouse

Adding Children


 Adding Parents

Add Parents

If the parents of an individual are known, click on the Add Parents button and enter their names in the Add Parents dialog box.

To View Parents

Once the parent's names have been entered, you can click on the Father or Mother buttons to view, enter or edit basic information about them.


 Adding A Spouse

Adding a Spouse

To add a spouse, click on the Add Spouse button and enter the spouses name, marriage date and location.

Selecting and viewing a Spouse

If an individual has more than one spouse, their names will appear on the tabs beneath the Go To Spouse and Add Spouse buttons.  To select a spouse, click on the tab with the desired name.  To view, enter or edit basic information about a spouse, click on the Go To Spouse button.


 Adding Children

Adding a Child

To add a child, click on the "Add Child" button and enter the child's name, gender, date of birth and birth location.  Important: If an individual has more than one spouse, the currently selected spouse is assumed to be the child's other parent. (see Adding a Spouse)

Selecting and viewing a Child

The names of an individual's children will appear on the tabs beneath the Go To Child and Add Child buttons.  To select a child, click on the tab with the desired name.  To view, enter or edit basic information about a child, click on the Go To Child button.


 Menu and Tool Bar

Main Menu

File

New Family

Open Family File

Save Family File

Print Personal Data

Exit

Edit

Delete Individual

Notes on Individual

Design Herald

Locate

Locate Individual

View

Descendant Tree

Ancestor Tree

Multimedia Album

Family Calendar

Tool Bar

New Family

Open Family File

Save Family File

Print Personal Data

Delete Individual

Notes on Individual

Design Herald

Locate Individual

Descendant Tree

Ancestor Tree

Multimedia Album

Family Calendar


 New Family

Start a new family record.


 Open Family File

Load family record from the disk drive.  Family Ancestry uses the GEDCOM (Genealogical Data Communication) standard file format developed by the Family History Department at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  The GEDCOM standard was created so that software developers would have a common file format for data exchange.


 Save Family File

Saves current family record on the disk drive.  Family Ancestry uses the GEDCOM (Genealogical Data Communication) standard file format developed by the Family History Department at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  The GEDCOM standard was created so that software developers would have a common file format for data exchange.


 Print Individual Data

Print basic information about the current individual.


 Exit

Exit quits Ancestry and takes you back to the Windows Program Manager.


 Delete Individual

Deletes the current individual from the family record.


 Notes on individual

Address information

Enter a family member's address and phone number here.

Notes

You can enter additional biographical information about an individual here.


 Design Herald

You may select from banners, crosses, helmets, and other objects. Simply click on these graphics and drag them to the design window. Start by selecting the shield type. All of these objects can be resized. When clicking on the object in the design window you'll see "handles" and can stretch or shrink the object on the screen.

You can add text by clicking on the "T" icon, then pick from the available system fonts. Drag the text in your selected font to the location where you would like it displayed. As other objects, text can be resized.

You can paint selected areas of your design by clicking on your choice of color and then dragging the color to the design window. A small paint can will appear so that you can "pour" your favorite color in the selected area.

You may print, export under any file name or save your work. We recommend saving your work frequently.  To print a coat of arms click on the "Print" icon. (see Print Coat of Arms).

You can also change the color of the outline by clicking on the outline itself and then selecting the color from the palette.

A collection of pre-design shields can be loaded by clicking on the "Open" icon (see Open Coat of Arms).


 Open Coat of Arms

A collection of pre-design shields can previewed and loadedfrom a list of names in the template directory. You can also preview and load any coat of arms files that you have previously saved.


 Print Coat of Arms

When printing a coat of arms, the size and position of the shield can be adjusted. To alter the size, change the value on the "% of original size box". To change the position of the shield, click on the arrow icons.


 Locate Family member

The Locate Individual dialog helps you find an individual in a family record using knowledge about the individual's gender and approximate date and location of birth and/or death.

Gender

Above the Find button is the gender selection. Select He for men, She for women or He or She for both.

Search Criteria

To the right of the gender selection and Find button are two search criteria selection boxes. You can use either or both boxes to limit your search. The choices provided in both boxes are:

None

Born (year)

Born around

Born before

Born after

Born (location)

Died (year)

Died around

Died before

Died after

Died (location)

In the two boxes to the right of the search criteria boxes enter a date or location.  For example, you could search for an individual who was born around 1870 and died after 1930.

Find

Once you have set the search criteria, click on the Find button and any individuals in the family record that match will appear in a list below the Find button.  There may be more than one person or no individuals that meet the selected criteria.  To select an individual click on their name in the list box.


 Descendant Tree

A descendant tree shows an individual, his children and grandchildren, etc.  Individuals are displayed with a red male or blue female icon followed by their name and optionally the years of their birth and death.  Spouses are displayed with a couple icon

Expanding and Collapsing the Tree

To expand a branch the tree click on the "+" box to the left of an individual's name.

To collapse a branch the tree click on the "-" box to the left of an individual's name.

To view all of an individual's descendants, click on the "Full Tree" button.

Selecting an Individual

By clicking on a name, you can go to that person's data screen when the Descendant Tree dialog is closed.


 Ancestor Tree

An ancestor tree shows an individual, his parents, grandparents, etc. Individuals are displayed with a red male or blue female icon followed by their name and optionally the years of their birth and death.

Expanding and Collapsing the Tree

To expand a branch the tree click on the "+" box to the left of an individual's name.

To collapse a branch the tree click on the "-" box to the left of an individual's name.

To view all of an individual's ancestors, click on the "Full Tree" button.

Selecting an Individual

By clicking on a name, you can go to that person's data screen when the Ancestor Tree dialog is closed.


 Multimedia Album

The Multimedia Album provides a place to attach photographs, videos and sound recordings to an individual's family record. Photographs will need to be stored as BMP, PCX, JPG, TIF or PCD files, videos as .AVI or MOV files and sound recordings as .WAV files.

Adding a Multimedia file

To add a file click on the Add button. And select a media file using the Open Dialog. We recommend that prior to adding media files, that they be copied to the same directory that you are saving family information in.

Deleting a file from the Multimedia Album

To remove a file, click on the Delete button.  Note that this does not remove the file from you hard drive, it only detaches the file from the individual's family record.

Browsing the Album

More than one media file can be placed in an individual's album. To view other files use the arrow buttons.


Calendar
 Family Calendar

The Calendar Display shows the calendar for the current month along with family birthdays and/or wedding anniversaries.

Changing the month

To change the month, click on the arrow keys.