Find your way around the editor
Identify the five areas of the editor and the controls that each one contains, and place the tool rail on the edge of the canvas that suits you.
The editor is divided into five areas. The tool rail holds the drawing tools, and the tool chosen there decides what the next click on the canvas does. The top bar holds the family name and the commands that act on the whole chart. The canvas in the middle holds the genogram itself, and the side panel opens on the right when one or more people are selected. The bottom strip shows the save status, the Auto-save and Clinical switches and the zoom controls, although a narrow window shows only some of them.
The top bar is laid out from left to right. It begins with the family name, which you click to rename the chart, and a list of sample families. It continues with Draw and Describe, which switch between drawing by hand and drafting from notes, and then with View, Key, Arrange and Export. The undo and redo buttons, the Find a person box and the full-screen button follow, and Reset, which restores the sample family that was last opened, appears once the chart has been changed.
The help window opens from Tutorial at the foot of the tool rail. It sits beside the canvas, so the chart can still be edited while an article is open. The tool rail itself can be moved to the top or the bottom edge of the canvas, as the following steps describe.
Procedure
- 1
Drag the dotted grip at the foot of the tool rail towards the top or the bottom edge of the canvas. The edges that can hold the rail are marked while you drag.
- 2
Release the grip near the edge that you want. The rail moves to the nearest of the marked edges.
- 3
If you prefer to choose from a menu, click the grip, and then select Down the left, Along the bottom or Across the top.
The position of the tool rail can also be set from the View menu. Under Toolbar at the foot of the menu, select Left, Bottom or Top.
On a phone, the tools are always in a bar along the bottom of the screen, and their position cannot be changed.
The tools on the rail
| Tool | Effect |
|---|---|
| Select (V) | A click selects a person, a line or a note, and a drag moves it. The small arrow beside the tool offers Box select (B) and Pan (H), and holding Space moves the canvas while any tool is active. |
| Person (A) | A click on the canvas adds a person, and the tool then returns to Select. |
| Connect (C) | Two clicks join two people. After the second click, you choose a family link or an emotional relationship. |
| Lasso (L) | A loop drawn around people groups them as a household, a temporary group or a highlight. |
| Note (N) | A click adds a sticky note. A note placed on a person is pinned to that person. |
| Text (T) | A click adds a title in large bold type, which shows the family name until you edit it. |
| Background (R) | A drag shades an area behind people, and a single click places a shaded area of a standard size. |
| Assistant (I) | The button opens a bar in which a change to the chart is typed as a sentence, such as “Paul and Helen separated in 2023”. |
| Tutorial (? or F1) | The button opens and closes this help window. |
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