Working in RootsMagic 4 - Post 10: Creating a Box Chart

I downloaded the free RootsMagic 4 beta release in early March, and purchased the program on 30 March. I easily uploaded my Family Tree Maker file to it. In this series, I'm looking at different features of RootsMagic 4. I'm not doing a comprehensive review, just looking at features important to me.

Previous posts in this series include:

* Working in RootsMagic 4 - Post 1: Navigation
* Working in RootsMagic 4 - Post 2: Editing Person Data
* Working in RootsMagic 4 - Post 3: Adding a Child to the Family
* Working in RootsMagic 4 - Post 4A: Creating a Pedigree Chart
* Working in RootsMagic 4 - Post 4B: Creating a Pedigree Chart
* Working in RootsMagic 4 - Post 5: Creating a Family Group Sheet
* Working in RootsMagic 4 - Post 6: Creating a Narrative Ancestors Report
* Working in RootsMagic 4 - Post 7: Creating a Narrative Descendants Report
* Working in RootsMagic 4 - Post 8: Creating a Wall Chart
* Working in RootsMagic 4 - Post 9: Creating a Timeline Chart

In this post, I'm going to create a Box Chart for the family of my grandfather, Frederick Walton Seaver (1876-1942). In the "Family" View, I clicked on the "Report" menu item and highlighted the "Charts" option, and the "Box Chart" item:


After clicking "Box Chart," the "Report Settings" menu opened. The user can select the "Start Person," the "Chart Type" (Ancestors or Descendants, I chose Ancestors), "Number of Generations" (I chose 10), "Format" ( selection shown on next screen, I chose a separate line for each event), a number of check boxes (I chose only to include spouses), Facts to Include (I chose, birth, marriage, death), and the Boxes, Reset, Layout, Fonts, Indexes and Generate Report buttons.



I clicked on the "Boxes" button and was able to change the box line style and colors, and the background color:

When I went back to the "Report Settings" menu, I clicked on the "Generate Report" button and obtained a 67 page report for my 10-generation ancestors report. Here is page 1 (the top):

And here is page 40 - the page showing my Start Person):

And this is page 58, near the bottom:

Somehow they managed to put all 10 generations on one page width. If you request eight generations, my chart is 20 pages, for six generations it is 11 pages, for four generations, it is on two pages, and a three-generation chart is on one page.

These box charts are, of course, another version of an ancestral chart, but without the ahnentafel numbers associated with an ancestral chart. I would love to see this chart, and the wall chart, with an option to add an ahnentafel number from the Start person. It would make it a lot easier to track from one page of a box chart to another.