Are there user-friendly PC tools and templates for printing large scale family trees charts?

+3 votes
518 views
I am a new member that started collecting genealogy records for my and my spouse's family about a year ago.  I am now called the Family Historian and feeling flooded with data at this point.  My vision is to organize the data for large ledger or poster size printouts for wall hanging, in addition to online sharing.  I have struggled to make MS Office do this for me after trying templates and my own designs in ppt, word, and excel.  I don't want graphics or frills, just boxes and lines that I can fill with data and pictures over time.  Any recommendations?
in The Tree House by Brian McCormick G2G Rookie (250 points)

3 Answers

+3 votes
 
Best answer
Charting Companion from Progeny Software. It is compatible with a fair number of current and older programs directly, including generating reports and charts from gedcom files. It is not free, but the price is nominal.
by George Fulton G2G6 Pilot (627k points)
selected by Brian McCormick
Thanks.  I took a look at their web page and it seems like the first tool I've seen that I can use to do what I want.  I'm getting frustrated with MS Office.  Each app does some of what I need but gets clumsy if I try to make it do something that's not in the standard process.  I think I'm going to give Charting Companion a try.  I also like the example Timeline charts they show.
+2 votes

Gramps is the one I use for reporting and graphics. Open Source, multi platform.

by Michel Vorenhout G2G6 Pilot (307k points)
Thanks.  I use Gramps as my database tool for collecting information and like it a lot for that function.  But I haven't been able to use their report tools to get the layout I want for a large printable wall chart showing ancestors, descendants, siblings, in-laws, and cousins in several separate but aligned family trees.
+3 votes
If you are familiar with Office, then yeah I was going to suggest Excel and org chart graphs, but they can get kind of unreadable if they are too big.

Honestly, I have struggled with this idea myself and other than printing out the Fan chart app visualizations (or the Htree view of it) I have decided it's time for my family members that want to see it to enter the 21st century and log in online to browse.

Check out zoompast.org, easy browsing of fractal trees, you can upload your gedcom there and share it with family without it being public.
by Jonathan Crawford G2G6 Pilot (275k points)

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