Perfect the fan chart

LegacyUser

Newbie_! said: Hello,
I really love the latest fan version! I am not aware of any other provider that offers a graphically so pleasing fan chart as yours! Well done!

Still I would like to add a few ideas for further improvement:
- My ancesters go well beyond 7 generations -> offer more generations, ideally 14.
- offer more colorings options e.g. finer geographical levels than country (State & City). My ancestors most come from one country.
- offer a fan for ancestors or descendants only. Would be nice to use the full space.

Overall, I am very happy with all the features offered by you. Thank you very much!

LegacyUser

Tom Huber said: This was answered in your post of some two months ago. Refer to the https://getsatisfaction.com/familysea... discussion.

LegacyUser

Newbie_! said: Hi Tom,

Let me elaborate on my suggestions:
more generations on the fan:
If the fan is done in vector graphics legability shouldn't be any concern. If one prints it in large size poster e.g 1*2 meters all becomes nicely readable. On the screen the zooming scale should allow for proper reading. -> the limit of the fan should be inherently be defined by the data ie. if I had 15 generations the fan should offer it. Thast does not mean that I would use this all the time.

- unfortunately, I did not find any comparable fan generation tool. e.g treeseek is very old fashioned and very limited as well.

- Your fan is very close to satisfy many additional features and become an ideal tool to execute quality assessments for indepth reseach aids in versatile ways e.g.
a) color ancestors by any attribute: e.g. where do (not) I have proper data (eg. birth/marriage date & location) -> color the persons (green full data, amber parts missing, red all missing). This could be done for essentially any attribute.

b) My ancestors most come from one country. So the current option does not help me. It would be great to color by geographical origin i.e. finer geographical levels than country (State & City). e.g. main color by state (red) & subcoloring by county (shades of red)

c) option to hide decendants. Would be nice to use the full space

Note: Thank you for your hint to explore the galllery. HOwever, the link at the bottom for galllery leads to an empty screen: https://partners.familysearch.org/sol...

Please take my comment as a positive feedback. You are doing so many things great! I simply what to help you becoming even better!

Cheers
Christian

LegacyUser

Tom Huber said: To be readable, your 15 generation fan chart would have to be printed on a device that can print very large charts -- far larger than almost all home printers.

That isn't to say that it is not doable, but first, it would need to generate a PDF that is not bound by paper limitations. Then a user would need to take the PDF to a local shop that can print very large displays, such as banners and have it processed there.

Otherwise, the limitation is and has been based upon readability. Anything beyond 7 generations essentially becomes unreadable, even with today's high dpi printers. At least that was the reason that was given when this has been raised in the past.

LegacyUser

Newbie_! said: That's exactly what I was thinking to do!

LegacyUser

Tom Huber said: Good.

Several of the fully-certified family tree management programs have the ability to produce large charts.

One of them that I was looking at is Roots Magic. The free version does not offer large charts as a printing option, but the cost of the program is under $30 US. But without purchasing a copy, I don't know if they can print large fan charts.

The other two fully certified programs are Legacy and Ancestral Quest. All three provide the means to download into a local database your ancestral lines and their descendants from Family Tree in FamilySearch.

Ancestral Quest, which I use, cannot print to anything larger than tabloid size (11x17) and fan charts are not an option without purchasing the Charting Companion. Both a regular fan chart and a descendant chart are available (see http://www.ancquest.com/aqchartcompan... for examples).

I do not know what Legacy can print.

LegacyUser

Newbie_! said: Hi Tom,
I definitely will look into these other providers. What I have seen so far is not encouraging. So far, I view the family search fa as most promising.

Nevertheless, I would appreciate if you could evaluate the inclusion of my ideas into your fan chart. I believe it would be highly welcome by the community.