Fan chart (Descendant) displays a starting person and spreads out to their descendants in a fan (circular) format. You can customize the layout, style and many other aspects of the chart.

RootsMagic also includes additional Fan chart layouts:

•Fan Chart (Ancestor) for displaying ancestors of the starting person.

•Fan Chart (Hourglass) for displaying both ancestors and descendants of the starting person.

 

 

•Starting Person - Select the starting person for the chart

•Generations - Enter the number of generations for the chart

•Shape - Select the shape of the fan chart

o1/4 circle

o1/3 circle

o1/2 circle

oFan

oFull circle

•Orientation - Choose the direction the chart moves from the starting person

oLeft to right

oRight to left

oTop to bottom

oBottom to top

•Size Wedges by Descendants - Turn on to size each person's wedge according to how many descendants they have.

•Show Spouses - turn on to include a generation band for the descendant's spouse

•Generation widths - Enter the center value and widths for the surrounding generations. Use these to adjust the space for text in the center and the generation bands. Larger widths increase the chart's overall size.

•Layout - Enter the layout of the chart.

oBest size - Turn on Fit to Chart to automatically size the page to fit the chart. If you turn off this option, you will be asked to enter:

▪Paper size

▪Width

▪Height

▪Orientation (portrait or landscape)

oMargins - Enter the top, bottom, left, and right margins around the chart elements

oBackground - You can select a color (or no color) for the background, or select an image file which will be used as the background

 

There are other settings (colors and styles) which are described here.

Balance uneven branches

Open Publish > All reports and charts and select Fan Chart (Descendant). Choose the starting person and a small generation count, then generate a preview. Descendant generations can contain many more than two children per family, so crowding grows quickly.

Compare the preview with Size Wedges by Descendants on and off. Use Show Spouses when you need to distinguish children from different spouses, and inspect the added spouse bands. Increase widths or reduce generations if the names remain difficult to read.