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Move people and generations

Drag people to new places on the canvas. When a person moves up or down, the whole generation moves too, so that couple lines remain level.

1 min readChecked 16 October 2026Open in the editor

A genogram is read one generation at a time, and every member of a generation shares a row. For that reason, the editor moves a whole generation when one of its members is dragged up or down. A generation also stops short of the rows above and below it, so a child cannot be placed above a parent.

Demonstration in the editor
This demonstration runs in the editor on a copy of a sample family. It does not change your own chart.

Procedure

  1. 1

    Drag a person sideways to move that person along the row.

  2. 2

    Drag a person up or down to move the whole generation.

  3. 3

    Hold Alt while dragging to place a person freely. Only that person’s partners move up or down as well, and Tidy later leaves the person in place.

  4. 4

    Select one or more people and press an arrow key to nudge them, holding ⇧ for larger steps.

  5. 5

    In View, switch off Snap to grid to place people without aligning them.

Tip

Snap to grid is on by default. While it is on, a dragged person settles onto the nearest row and lines up under the parents, beside a partner or sibling, or over the children.