The Bow-Tie Chart displays one person's ancestry in two directions. The starting person's father and his ancestors extend to the left; the mother and her ancestors extend to the right. Use it to show the paternal and maternal sides of a person's family together. It does not start with a selected couple.
Creating the chart
Open Publish, choose All Reports and Charts, and open Bow-Tie Chart. In Settings, check Starting Person and select the person whose ancestry you want to show. Set Generations to the number of generations to include, and adjust Title if needed. Click Generate Report at the bottom of the settings panel to create the preview.
The chart can be uneven when more ancestry is recorded on one side than the other. For example, a starting person whose father's grandparents are known but whose mother's parents are unknown will have a longer paternal branch. Increasing Generations does not supply missing ancestors.
[[SCREENSHOT: Bow-Tie Chart settings and generated preview. Label the starting person, the father and paternal branch to the left, and the mother and maternal branch to the right. Keep Starting Person, Generations, and Generate Report visible.]]
Spacing and appearance
Box Width controls the width available for each person's text. Box Spacing controls separation between boxes within a generation, while Generation Spacing separates successive generations. Increase spacing if the chart feels crowded; reduce it when you need a more compact layout. Generate the report again after changing settings and inspect names, dates, and connecting lines.
Under Appearance, open Colors, Styles, Boxes and Lines, or Pictures to adjust that part of the design. These settings change the chart, not the underlying people or facts. For a first attempt, use the current settings and review the generated chart before adjusting several options at once.
Page layout
Open Page under Layout. With Fit to Chart enabled, RootsMagic sizes the page for the chart and disables the fixed paper-size controls. Page Layout also contains margins and background choices. If you need a particular paper size instead, turn off Fit to Chart and choose the required size and orientation.
A large chart may be readable on screen but too small when reduced to ordinary paper. Check the intended output size and text legibility before printing. Use the preview's zoom and fit controls to inspect the chart; changing the preview zoom does not change the chart's font sizes.
[[SCREENSHOT: Bow-Tie Chart Page Layout showing Fit to Chart, the disabled fixed-paper controls while it is on, margins, and background settings.]]
