WINTREE v2.6, for Windows 95/98                          1st December, 2000.

Copyright 1997-2000,  D. J. Cooke.
All rights reserved.


INTRODUCTION

        Wintree is a simple utility to produce graphical display of data 
from GEDCOM files.  This version is a 32 bit program for Windows 95/98, 
and requires a pentium processor or above.
        This program is distributed as shareware.  It is a fully functioning 
program, in respect of the birth brief and selective tree charts. The 
unregistered program will not, however, allow you to print from the full 
charts:  printing is enabled by means of a registration key.  If you wish to 
keep the program for continued use, you are requested to pay just six pounds 
sterling for the privilege. 
        The latest version of the program will be available at the Wintree 
web page:
        http://website.lineone.net/~d.j.cooke/wintree.htm

A functionally identical version of the program for Windows 3.1 is also 
available at this site.  If you are already a registered user of the version
for Windows 3.1, please note that the version for Windows 95/98 requires a 
completely new installation and a separate registration key.


LEGAL TERMS AND CONDITIONS

        This package is provided under the following conditions:

1.  The wintree zip package may be freely copied and distributed provided
  that the package is complete and unmodified, and subject to acceptance
  of these conditions.
    The package comprises the following files:

      wintree.exe  409,600 bytes
      wt2x1.dll     74,240 bytes
      wintree.hlp   47,707 bytes
      readme.txt    19,322 bytes  (this file)
      file_id.diz      270 bytes
      bbchart.wta    5,722 bytes  (sample birth brief)
      tree1.wtb      3,047 bytes  (sample selective tree)
      tree2.wtb      1,860 bytes  (sample selective tree)
      samplegd.zip  24,256 bytes  (zipped sample GEDCOM file)

2.  The package may not be sold.  Any charge made for distributing the
  package on diskette, CD-ROM or other media must be in respect of 
  materials/handling only.

3.  Use of the program for commercial purposes, or its distribution with
  commercial software, is prohibited.

4.  The program may be used without charge for a 30-day evaluation period 
  only.  The user accepts the obligation to register the product, and pay a
  fee of six pounds sterling, if he or she wishes to continue using it after 
  this period.  Registration is via the internet.  The author may be
  contacted by e-mail at:   d.j.cooke@lineone.net

  Registration and payment grants the individual a limited license to use the
  software on a single computer.

5.  The user accepts sole responsibility for determining the fitness for
  use of the program.  The author accepts no liability for any failure of
  the program to perform as expected, or for any loss or damages of any kind 
  which might result from its use.
  

REGISTRATION

        These instructions are available also from the online help, under 
"How to register".

        You must install the program on the computer on which it is to be
used, before registering.
        To register, you need first make a careful note of the
32 character registration string, which is displayed when you select
'Registration' from the 'Help' menu.  You will need internet access, and an
e-mail address to which your registration key may be sent.
        Register online at www.uksharereg.com/wintree.html.  Enter your
registration string in four parts in the four fields provided, excluding the
backslashes:  the first 8 characters in "Reg String 1", the second 8 in
"Reg String 2", the third 8 in "Reg String 3", the last 8 in "Reg String 4".
You should receive your registration key at the specified e-mail address
within 48 hours.

        Registration will entitle you to the use on a single computer of this 
program or any minor update of it, numbered Wintree 2.x.  Any communications
regarding the program, whether queries, problems or reports of bugs, should
be made by e-mail to: d.j.cooke@lineone.net


OVERVIEW

        The program produces (almost) instant birth brief and dropline 
selective ancestor charts from GEDCOM data, and two styles of 'full chart',  
showing all ancestors, all descendants, and all descendants of all ancestors.
It is designed to provide an easy and rapid means of displaying data 
graphically, and in a compact format.

        Once a GEDCOM file has been loaded, by choosing 'Source' from the
'Data' menu, selecting a chart from the 'Charts' menu will prompt the user to
choose the base individual from a listbox.  For each chart, there is a 
limited range of options available by making the appropriate choice from the 
'Options' menu.  Margins may be set by choosing 'Margins' from the 'Options'
menu, media and page orientation by choosing 'Printer' from the same menu:
these must be set before a chart is produced, and cannot be changed when
printing.
        All media sizes are supported, including long-axis plots currently 
available up to approximately 3 x 9 feet on certain plotters.  The default 
printer is used, as specified under Windows 3.1 in Control Panel.


INSTALLATION

        The executable file, wintree.exe, its companion dll, wt2x1.dll, and
the help file wintree.hlp, are the only essential files.  

        To install the program, open Windows Explorer and create a new folder,
then unzip the package in this folder, or simply copy the 3 essential files to
it.  To add a shortcut icon to the desktop, select the file "wintree.exe" in 
Explorer, then right click and choose "Create Shortcut", and drag the shortcut
to the desktop.

        To uninstall the program, open Windows Explorer, select the folder
containing the program in the left hand pane, and delete the folder.  The
program makes no changes to the Windows registry, or to other system files.


GETTING STARTED

        The rest of the information in this file is also available in the
online help.

        Several sample charts are included to provide quick examples of the 
birth brief and selective tree charts.
        From the Wintree program menu, first choose "Data", then "Source",
and enter the source filename and path, and specify whether GEDCOM or special
format.
        To display a chart from the supplied file BBCHART.WTA, enter this as 
the source filename (with path), choose "Special format: Birth Brief", then
choose "Birth Brief" from the "Charts" menu, and press "Run".  When the
print preview button is enabled, press to display the chart on the screen.
A new menu appears, with zoom facilities;  choosing "Cancel" from this menu
restores the main menu.
        To display a chart from the supplied files TREE1.WTB or TREE2.WTB, 
follow a similar procedure, choosing "Special format: Tree", then "Tree" 
from the "Charts" menu.

        If a GEDCOM file is specified as the source, clicking on the 'OK'
button will cause the program to read from the file, and a message will
appear specifying how many individuals have been listed from the file:  the  
maximum is currently 7000.  When a choice is made from the "Charts" menu, a 
listbox will be displayed, from which to select the individual who is to 
appear at the base of the chart.  The listbox displays a selection of
individuals, with year of birth or baptism, and the selection may be changed 
by typing a search string in the appropriate field.  

Birth Brief

        The program displays a seven or eight generation birth brief chart
on a single page.  The chart is formatted for the chosen page size, and the 
font cannot be changed, but you may wish to set suitable 'page left' and
'page top' margins to centre the chart on the page.  Data is truncated to fit 
the allocated space.  The facility is included to extract data from a GEDCOM 
file to a compact special format file, and edit using notepad, before 
printing.  

Selective Tree

        This is a single page chart which will trace descent in a drop-line 
style from a number of ancestors to a single base individual, allowing up to
6 lines of descent through each generation.  An A4 page will accommodate
up to 13 generations through 3-5 parallel lines of descent, if all children 
are shown.  Note however that including too many lines of descent will result 
in a cluttered page.
        The tree will show up to 2 marriages for each ancestor, male and 
female, with all children, and permits 2 lines of descent in the case of 
cousin marriages.  It will not, however, accommodate all possible 
complexities of cousin marriages, and in particular will not show the links 
in respect of cousin marriages across generations.
        A number of options are included, affecting the format of the charts
and the data displayed. 

        Once "Selective Tree" has been chosen from the "Charts" menu, and the 
base individual selected, pressing "Show Ancestors" will cause a selection of 
ancestors to be displayed in the "Ancestors" dialog box, with year of birth 
or baptism.  The selection may be changed by typing a search character or 
string in the appropriate field.  Select ancestors, from whom descent is to 
be traced, by means of the "Add" button, close the dialog box, and press "Run" 
in the "Tree" dialog box. The chart may be displayed when the print preview 
button is enabled.  
        A message will appear if a chart cannot be produced:  this will 
commonly be because the data cannot be fitted on a single page.  The maximum 
number of ancestors displayable is currently 1000.  Ancestors will be shown up 
to a maximum of 30 generations.

        For each individual selected to show descent, his or her family group 
will be shown, and all descendants in a single line to the base individual,
with their family groups, subject to the options in force.  If any of these
descendants and spouses are separately selected to show descent, it should 
have no effect on the resulting chart.  Where there is more than one line of 
descent, owing to cousin marriages, the individual will appear twice in the 
ancestors list, with differing Ahnentafel numbers displayed at the base of 
the dialog box.  In this case, a separate selection is necessary for each
line of descent.  However, only two lines of descent are permitted from any
single family group.  Note that descent from an individual can only be shown
where that person appears in a family group within the GEDCOM file.

        Control over vertical formatting is available through the options to 
compress vertical spacing, and to set the top and bottom margins.  This also 
allows space to be kept for the addition of headers.  There are no inbuilt
facilities for printing headings, or importing embellishments of any kind.  
Valid settings for the graphics line width are 1 to 4.  This option does not 
affect the screen display.

Full Chart

        The 'full' charts show all people in the GEDCOM file related by blood
to the base individual, with the exception that only two marriages are
normally shown for each individual;  so that if any individual has children 
from more than two marriages, children from third and subsequent marriages,
and their descendants, may be excluded from the chart.
        Two styles of chart are available, of which the boxchart will
usually be the more compact.  The program will produce large charts, of 1000
or more families, 40 feet long or more, but it is designed primarily for
charts smaller than this.  Print preview displays the whole chart, not
individual pages, and in the case of very large charts, the text may not be
legible, because of constraints within Windows on the allowable display size.
        Best results will be obtained where the data is evenly distributed, 
with a balance of ancestor and descendant families.  If, for instance, within 
the context of large chart, there occurs a family with 10 children, all of 
whom married and had children, all of whom are to be shown on the chart, it 
is doubtful whether there is any tidy way of accommodating such a localised 
'explosion' of data, whilst keeping the chart compact.
        Since all links are shown, ancestor and descendant links will
necessarily cross, and the option is provided to use differently coloured
links to improve clarity.  If, however, you have a monochrome screen, some 
colours may not be visible.
        The base individual need not actually be at the base of the chart,
but the program must find at least one ancestor in order to produce a chart.
The chart is formatted so that family groups do not cross page boundaries,
which has the consequence that charts will be slightly more compact if a 
larger media size is chosen:  a long-axis plot 9 feet long might yield a 
20% reduction in width compared with using A4.  The layout of the chart may   
also be improved when printing on large media, and especially long axis plots,
because the need to observe page breaks imposes constraints on the formatting
mechanisms.  A chart will not be produced if a family is wider than a page:  
this can usually be avoided by choosing landscape mode, and is unlikely to 
occur in the case of the boxchart.
        The routine to produce the chart normally takes a few seconds;  but 
in the case of very large charts and a slow processor, it could take some
minutes:  the time taken increases non-linearly in relation to the size of  
the chart.  The number of pages is specified, and this is the number of pages 
containing data:  blank pages are excluded, and are not sent to the printer.  
Pages are numbered from the left in rows, starting at the top of the chart, 
and excluding blank pages.  The size of the chart is also reported, and this
is the actual size of the printed output, plus margins.
        By default, the program prints over the full printable area of the 
page.  By choosing 'Margins' from the 'Options' menu, page margins may be
set, which have effect on every page, and chart margins, which have effect
only at the edges of the chart.  Of the latter, only the bottom and left
margins will normally have any effect.  Setting a top margin will cause the
program to spread the chart across extra pages if necessary.

Editing

        In order to extract data for editing, proceed as though to produce
a chart, entering the appropriate information in the "Selective Tree" or 
"Birth Brief" dialog boxes, then close the dialog box and select "Extract" 
from the "Data" popup menu.  
        
        When displaying data directly from a GEDCOM file, whilst personal 
names can usually be truncated satisfactorily where necessary, as is the case 
for the birth brief chart, places of birth, marriage etc cannot be reliably
truncated without editing.  When extraction to file is chosen, the data is
extracted at greater length, but only a limited number of characters will 
actually be printed.  Strings to be printed are shown separated by backslash 
('/') characters (except that the first string on each line follows an initial 
space).  Only those strings containing recognizable data should be edited:
the format of the file must be preserved exactly.  For the birth brief chart,        
the first 19 characters in each string will print; for the selective tree,
marriage data is restricted to 23 characters, except for multiple marriages,
where only the year is shown, and names of spouses are truncated to 40
characters.
        The special format file for the tree chart also allows manual
formatting data to be preserved.  If automatic formatting does not produce
a satisfactory result, choosing the 'no straightening' option will cause the
family groups to be distributed more evenly.  Alternatively, choosing the 
options for manual format, and to display family group numbers, allows each 
individual group to be moved horizontally as required.  This is done by 
specifying a leftward or rightward shift from the original position.  In order 
for this data to be saved, the data for the specific chart must first be 
extracted to special format file, and this file used as the source.  Manual 
formatting is restricted to the bottom 15 generations.

Problems

        The following are some error messages which might be encountered
in the normal course of program operation:
                
Cannot open file                        [check path and filename are correct]
Is this a GEDCOM file?  -               [file does not have a .ged extension]
File too long: cannot process                [for GEDCOM file, maximum 3Mb]
Family not found for base individual                      [check source data]
Too many lines of descent...          [maximum 6, through any one generation]
Error in data file: base ID                           [file format corrupted]
Reference number not found:           [family or individual reference number]
Too many children in one family         [maximum 24, for each set of parents]
Too many families                               [maximum 100, selective tree]
Too many generations:            [data extends beyond vertical printing area]
Too many lines of descent / too many children in 1 generation
              [data extends beyond width of page, subject to margin settings]
Links mismatch: extra line of descent needed to accommodate cousin marriage?
    [if 2 descents from one family, both must be shown; if 3, a selective
      chart cannot be produced  - unless the family appears in 2 generations]
Manual editing required, name cannot be truncated automatically:
         [names are truncated in listing ancestors, and in birthbrief charts]
Too many family groups: cannot list them all
                         [only 30 groups can be listed for manual formatting]
Paper/printing area too small
  [before a chart is produced, the page size and orientation must be
specified:  they cannot be changed after the chart is produced, when printing]
        There are many other error messages, and their occurrence may indicate 
problems with the data.  If the source file is a GEDCOM file, the integrity 
and completeness of the data should be checked.  Problems could be caused by 
missing data, or by incomplete, inconsistent or otherwise unusual data.  The
author has experience of one GEDCOM file in which an individual makes an 
appearance as her own great grandmother, causing the program to enter a loop.
        Note also that it may not be possible to produce a selective tree 
where there is a complex conjunction of cousin marriages.

        The program makes the following particular assumptions regarding the 
data in the GEDCOM file:
1.  For every individual record commencing 0 @I...... INDI, there is a 
  subsequent NAME tag, before any birth or other relevant data.
2.  Dates precede places.
3.  Within family logical records, children are shown in chronological order.
4.  Within logical records of individuals, FAMS tags appear in chronological
  order [if this is not the case, numbering of multiple marriages will not be
  correct on the resulting chart].


    



