Chart Properties

Overview

The properties below are used by one or more chart types. All properties are not available for all chart types, and the exact use of some properties differs by chart type.

On the Edit Chart window, chart properties appear on tabs. Each tab has its own section below.

Chart Content Tab

Subject ID

Specify the TMG ID number of subject of the chart in the Subject ID textbox. You make one chart per User Item, but you can add as many chart User Items as you want.

Title

The Title textbox determines the title of the chart.

Show Title

The Show Title checkbox determines whether the title of the chart is shown on the page. This property is usually only available for Content Item charts, not Page Item charts.

Description

Use the Description textbox to define an optional chart description that is printed near the top of the chart page.

The Description is not displayed if the chart is included on a Custom Page as a Content Item.

Item Class

For certain charts, you have the option of designating the User Item as a Page Item or as a Content Item. If you set Item Class to Page Item, which is the default, the User Item will create a page to contain the chart. If you set Item Class to Content Item, the User Item must be placed on a Custom Page, and the chart will appear on that Custom Page.

When Item Class is set to Content Item, you have the option of combining one or more charts as well as other Content Items on the same page.

If you put a wide chart on a Custom Page, you should change the Page Set property for the Custom Chart to Chart Pages.

Show in Person Entry Chart List

When Show in Person Entry Chart List is checked, which is the default, links to the chart will be included in person entry chart lists (see the Person Entry Chart Membership item). This allows a person to click a link in the person entry to show where a person appears in a particular chart.

Generations

Use the Generations pull-down menu to specify how many generations the chart should contain. The default is 10 generations. The menu choices include "unlimited" as well as 1 generation to 25 generations.

Generation Number

If Generation Number is set to "Before name", "After given", or "After name", the chart entries will include a generation number as a superscript in the indicated position. In most charts, the default is "None", and no generation number is added. In indented charts, the default is "After given". The starting generation number defaults to zero but may be altered by the Generation Offset property.

Generation Offset

If the Generation Number appears in a chart, the Generation Offset property may be used to alter the starting generation number. The default is zero.

Continue Excluded Lines

For an explanation of the Continue Excluded Lines property, please see the Chart Membership page.

Suppress Duplicates

If Suppress Duplicates is checked, Second Site will detect duplicates in the chart and stop processing the lineage for the second and subsequent duplicates. Boxes for all the duplicates are distinctly formatted so that recognizing duplicates in the chart is easy. The default is checked.

Open Collapsed

If the Open Collapsed property is checked, charts that include dynamic controls to open and close subsets of the tree will open with the chart fully collapsed.

If a chart is configured to open fully collapsed, following a link from a person page to a specific person within the chart will open enough of the tree to show that person.

The Open Collapsed functionality depends on the availability of JavaScript when someone visits the page. If JavaScript is disabled, the chart will open fully expanded.

Use Chart Colors

If the Use Chart Colors property is checked, the chart boxes will use the color settings defined in the Stylesheets.Theme.Charts section. (Some chart types have type-specific settings under the Stylesheets.System.Charts section.) Only a subset of chart types support the Use Chart Colors property.

The Duplicate color is not subject to the Use Chart Colors property and is always used for duplicates, if any.

Include On-Chart Links

If Include On-Chart Links is checked, Second Site will add links on the page to scroll the chart from the current location to a parent or a child. This is useful for charts where there is a lot of vertical space between a parent and child due to the size of a sub-tree.

Flag Filter

Some chart types support a flag filter to restrict which descendants or ancestors are included on the chart. The flag filter is applied after all the other inclusion logic is applied, and the flag filter can only be used to reduce the population of the chart, not expand it.

Charts may not have gaps, so if a person is omitted from a chart due to the Flag Filter, his or her descendants (in a descendant chart) or ancestors (in a pedigree chart) are not eligible to be in the chart regardless of the subsequent person's flag value. So, if you used the SEX flag as a Flag Filter for a descendant chart, and you included males only, the chart would include the male descendants of male descendants. A male descendant of a female descendant would not be included because his mother was not included.

Flag Filter Example

If your site includes all the deceased descendants of a particular progenitor, an unfiltered descendant chart would include all the progenitor's descendants. Let's assume that two of the progenitor's four children emigrated to another country and you want a chart that shows the progenitor, the two emigrees, and the descendants of the emigrees. Here's how to do that:

1. Start in TMG.
2. Define a custom flag named "ChartInclude". Set the values to "Y" and "N", with "Y" being the default.
3. Open the Person View for the two children of the progenitor that you want to exclude from the chart. Change the ChartInclude value from "Y" to "N".
4. Close TMG.
5. Open your SDF file in Second Site.
6. Add a Descendant Chart or open an existing one. For a new chart, set the title, subject, etc., as desired.
7. In the Flag Filter section of the Chart Content tab, set the properties as follows:
   • Set the Flag to "ChartInclude".
   • Set the Include/Exclude pull-down menu to "Include".
   • Set the Values text to "Y" (do not key the quotes).

   Those values define a filter where chart members must have the ChartInclude flag set to "Y" or they will not be part of the chart even if they qualify as a descendant of the progenitor.

8. Click [OK] to save the chart User Item and close the window.
9. Make the site. The chart should show the progenitor and the subset of his or her descendants.

This approach minimizes the number of people whose flag values must be edited to construct the chart. Because the default value for the flag is "Y", and "Y" will not exclude someone from the chart, it was not necessary to manually change the flag value for all the descendants of the progenitor who did not emigrate, just the two children of the progenitor. Once a child is filtered out of the chart, the children of that child are not eligible for the chart. There is one exception: if a person descends from both a filtered ancestor and a non-filtered ancestor, that person is eligible to be in the chart.

That's just one example, and more complex filtering is possible. You might want to exclude a complex subset of descendants or ancestors and in such cases it may be necessary to set the flag value for each of the possible members of the chart using TMG's List of People report or other methods in TMG to make bulk changes to flag values.

Chart Appearance Tab

Names

The Name Options pull-down menu has the following choices:

• Full Name
• Name (Middle Initials)
• Surname Only

The default value is "Name (Middle Initials)". If you choose "Surname Only", the user can see the full name by positioning the mouse over the name until a tooltip is displayed. The tooltip will contain the full name.

Full names require more horizontal space than surnames only, but it is easier to find a specific person in the chart.

Lifespans and Dates

The Box Lifespan Option pull-down menu controls the lifespan in the chart box. It has the following choices:

• No lifespan in box
• Lifespan on subject line
• Lifespan on second line
• Dates on separate lines

The first two choices are similar to the Index Lifespan Option property in the Dates section.

If you select No lifespan in box, no lifespan will be visible in the chart. The user can see the lifespan by positioning the mouse over the name until a tooltip is displayed. The tooltip will include the complete birth and death dates.

If you choose Lifespan on subject line, the lifespan will be included after the subject's name. If you choose Lifespan on second line, the lifespan will be included on the line after the subject's name. If you choose Dates on separate lines, each date will appear on a separate line.

You should experiment to see which format suits your fancy.

The Box Lifespan Format pull-down menu controls the lifespan format for the chart box. It has the same choices as the lifespan formats property described in the Dates section.

The Box Date Format pull-down menu controls the format of the dates in the chart boxes. It has the same choices as the date formats property described in the Dates section.

The Tip Date Format pull-down menu controls the format of the dates that appear as tooltips when the user places the mouse over a box in the chart. It has the same choices as the date formats property described in the Dates section.

If you set the Box Lifespan Option to No lifespan in box, the tooltip will contain the lifespan. Otherwise, if the Box Date Format and Tip Date Format are different, the tooltip will contain the lifespan. This feature may be used to show an abbreviated date format in the chart proper and the full date in the tookltip.

The choices you make for the Name Options and Date Options properties have a dramatic effect on the box size requirements. You must experiment to determine how big or small to make the boxes. Box locations and connector locations are determined by the box dimension properties. If you do not set the box dimensions large enough, information will be truncated.

Legend Position

If Legend Position property determines whether a chart legend will be displayed with the chart, and if so, where it will appear:

• None – no legend
• Top – legend on the top only
• Top, Bottom – legend on the top and bottom
• Bottom – legend on the bottom only (default)

Accent Legend

If Accent Legend property determines whether Second Site will display the labels associated with the accent colors with the chart, and if so, where it will appear:

• None – no accent legend
• Top – accent legend on the top only
• Top, Bottom – accent legend on the top and bottom
• Bottom – accent legend on the bottom only (default)

Accent Tab

The Accent tab in the Edit window for Chart User Items controls a feature where custom formatting can be applied to selected boxes in charts. For example, you can use the Accent feature to change the background color for everyone who has the "Adopted" flag set to the value "Y".

The custom formatting is controlled by the Accents subsection in the Stylesheets.System.Charts section.

Flag

To enable the Accent feature, select a flag label from the Flag pull-down menu. The value in that flag field will be used to determine if any custom formatting is applied to a member of the chart.

Values

Beneath the Flag field there are ten rows of input boxes where each row controls an accent group. Any values you key into the Value input boxes will assign people with one of those values to the given Accent group. You may key multiple characters into a Value input box, and people with any of the given values will be assigned to that group.

Labels

There is a label textbox associated with each value textbox. If you assign a label, Second Site will display the label as part of the chart's legend.

Example

Assume that a TMG project has a Custom Flag named "Family" with values ?, A, B, C, and D. If you select the Family flag to control the Accent feature, you might set the Value fields as shown below to highlight people who have the flag set to A, B, C, or D.

Given the configuration above:

• People with Family=? will not be subject to any special formatting because the value "?" is not present in any of the Value input boxes.
• People with Family=A will be subject to the formatting for Accent 1.
• People with Family=B will be subject to the formatting for Accent 2.
• People with Family=C or Family=D will be subject to the formatting for Accent 3.