Family Tree Legends Genealogy Charts

[SSMAKER Profile Private message]

I am working with my cousin on a pictorial slideshow of our family. He used the genealogy program Family Tree Legends. He doesn't know how to export the charts for display in a slideshow. I went to the Family Tree Legends forum for help and found that it was shut down due to excessive spam.

Is anyone familiar with this program? If so, can you provide some instructions as to how to export the family tree charts to a format that could be used by PSG?

Thanks

PS - Ben - Nice work on Lost Hero.

[gpsmikey Profile Private message]

See if the following link answers your question -- it indicates you can
export charts in a variety of graphics formats ...
http://www.familytreelegends.com/products/tour/charts/1

A google search with "family tree legends chart export" finds
a number of things.

mikey

[hardsoftware Profile Private message]

Thanks!

Ben

[videogal]

Please keep us posted on how that works on a DVD. I've wanted to do something similar
but was wondering if the names would be hard to read with the interlacing, etc. when you take it from
one of those programs that makes charts.

~videogal

[SSMAKER Profile Private message]

I will. I was hoping to get some detailed instuctions on how to export and what format works the best. Maybe someone will respond over the weekend.

[manley]

The Family Tree Legends site has a pdf of the user's guide at: http://www.familytreelegends.com/support/usersguide

Page 238 of the user's guide has the instructions on how to export a chart as an image.

To Export your Chart as an Image:
• Click on the Export Button at the bottom of the Chart Window. This will bring up the Save As Window.

From the Save as Window, simply type a name for your image and select a type
from the Save As Type Drop-Down Menu. The image types include:
• Bitmap (.bmp)
• JPEG (.jpg)
• PNG (.png)
• TIFF (.tif)
• TGA (.tfa)
• PCX (.pcx)

• When you are satisfied with the name and type of file, click on the Save Button to
save your image to the hard drive.

I don't know the program, but I hope that helps you.

Diane

[SSMAKER Profile Private message]

Thanks.

Is there any preferred file format to display charts in PSG?

Is JPEG better than PNG?

What is PNG?

[hardsoftware Profile Private message]

The Medalians you saw in my Lost Hero show are PNG files...they are photos where the background is ereased in Photoshop to make it transparent. Jpeg and PNG's are commonly used in PSG/PSP.

My explanation stinks so probably someone else will chime in and give the correct meaning.

Ben

[SSMAKER Profile Private message]

Thanks.

Is there any advantage to using a PNG file?

[PhotoMagicCreations Profile Private message]

PNG files usually have transparent backgrounds. You can then place that image on any background you want.

Kelly

[mjd1988]

I've just come across your post. Here's a link to what I've done for my chart in PSP.

http://www.photodex.com/sharing/viewsho ... alb=125022

I saved the entire original chart as .jpg then in photoshop I created layers, changed the fonts and added colors. Save each layer as an individual .png and then each layer was brought in to PSP.

Hope this helps.

[SSMAKER Profile Private message]

Thanks.

Just today, I exported the descendants charts to jpeg files. The Family Tree Legends display features are a little cumbersome - at least given the one-hour introduction I got from my cousin. I exported the whole tree (five generations) which is quite large to view on the screen. I think I will try to export just two generations at a time and let the viewer do the linkage. Or I will do some zooming and panning on the big five-generation chart.

When you created the various PNG layers in Photoshop, how did you isolate the individual boxes?

I still want to report back to videogal once I get the slideshow running.

[mjd1988]

What I did, is opened the entire family tree in .jpg in photoshop

I then edited in quick mask mode 1 box at the time. Inverted the selection and pasted as a new layer. Do this for each box 1 at the time.

Then I removed the "eye" on each layer and only turned it on the layer 1 wanted, saved as .png. This must be done 1 layer at the time until I had all the layers needed for my tree.

As for putting it in PSG, I'm not as savvy as others with KF, so I put the .jpg on each slide, brought in the .png with motion and once I was happy with the slide, I removed the .jpg leaving only the .png on that slide. I repeated this process until my tree was built. Each slide must be a match to the previous, slide 1 - 1 png, slide 2 png of slide 1 plus new etc.

If this is unclear email me and I can try to send you a .pdf document with a step by step. I don't know how to do a tutorial otherwise I would be more than happy to do that for you. Also I don't have a mike attached to my pc. Next on my wish list.

[SSMAKER Profile Private message]

Thanks. I think I follow you.

As for showing the exported standard charts in PSG, I was able to zoom and pan a two-generation jpeg chart but the names were blurry especially when I paused the show to study the chart. I will try to increase the font size and style to see how that works. What worked best for you?

[mjd1988]

Each piece is size at 300 X 300 and the font I used was Arial 18 bold. Send me a 2 generation chart and I'll see what it looks like and see if we come up with the same font.

The charts I did was from my copy of Family Tree Maker v10. I had looked at Legacy and PAF charts and didn't like them compared to FTM.