Gedchart version 1.42                    	Sept 17, 1993
Copyright (C) 1993 Thomas P. Blumer  All Rights Reserved.

This is a beta test version of Gedchart.
A future commercial version will have many additional features.  Please
contact me at one of the addresses given below for more information.

I am not labeling this "shareware" because I plan to turn this into a
commercial product soon.  But if you like Gedchart and want to support
the development, then send me $20 and I will send you the first commercial
version for free, when it is complete.

Or if you would like to help in another way, please distribute this
release, or upload to your favorite bulletin board or network.

In any event, I am learning a lot from your comments and suggestions,
please keep them coming.

Thanks, Tom

I would like to hear what you think about this program,
please mail any comments or suggestions to:

Internet address:   blumer@ptltd.com
Compuserve address: 70740,3403
US mail:	    Tom Blumer, 63 Sacramento St, Cambridge, MA  02138
Phone:		    617-864-6799 or 617-864-6268


Table of Contents
	
 1. Overview
 2. Getting Started with Gedchart
 3. Printers supported by Gedchart
 4. Printing on an HP LaserJet Printer
 5. Printing on a PostScript Printer
 6. Running Gedchart with command line options (batch mode)
 7. International Character Sets
 8. Uncompressing the Gedchart.zip file
 9. Printing Gedchart PostScript Files on a Macintosh
10. Printing a Title Box on the Chart
11. History of Changes and Bug Fixes for each Version


1. Overview

Gedchart is a program to prepare family tree charts on your laser
printer.  It will produce an elegantly formatted chart of the
ancestors of a given individual, with an option to print either
just the direct ancestors or the direct ancestors with all of
their siblings.

Using Gedchart you can easily produce up to 10 generation charts
that will fit on letter size paper and still be quite readable.


2. Getting Started with Gedchart

To start the program, type:

	gedchart file.ged

and a menu of choices will appear.  Enter the surname and given name
of an individual, the number of generations, the style of chart, the
type of printer, and the name of the printer port (LPT1, COM1, etc)
and gedchart will prepare an ancestor chart for that individual.


3. Printers Supported by Gedchart

It will run on any IBM PC (or compatible), and will read in a GED
file and produce several styles of family chart on any of the
following laser printers:

HP LaserJet III family or LaserJet 4 family
Any other printer that supports the PCL5 language
Apple LaserWriter NT or NTX or IIf or IIg
HP LaserJet II or IIP or IID with PostScript cartridge
Any other PostScript printer


4. Printing on an HP LaserJet Printer

All of the LaserJet III and LaserJet 4 printers have 2 modes,
Page Protect=Off and Page Protect=On.  The default is page protect off,
which is used when the printer does not have enough memory to store the
entire page, and therefore simply tries to output the job in "bands" or
horizontal strips.  If page is too complex to print, then the front
panel will say something like "print overrun" or "complex page" and only
a portion of the page will print.  In the case of gedchart the output
will be some part of the paternal line at the top of the page.

The solution is to set Page Protect on for letter size paper via the front
panel.  You will need at least 2 MB of RAM in the printer to do this,
otherwise the option to turn on page protect will not be available in
the menus.

To determine the amount of memory in the printer, print a test page.
Usually there is a "test page" key on the front panel.  You may have to
hold down the button for about 5 secs until the test page message appears
and then let go.

If you don't have enough memory, consult the manual about the amount of
RAM that is needed for Page Protect mode, then buy and install according
to the instructions in your printer manual.

If the printer already has enough memory, you just need to go to the
appropriate menu on the front panel, and change the setting:

	Press Online (light goes out to indicate offline)
	Hold Menu key down for about 5 secs to get a new message
	Press Menu enough times to see Page Prot=Off*
	  (the * indicates the current setting)
	Press + to change to Page Prot=Ltr  (letter size)
	Press Enter to change to Page Prot=Ltr*
	Press Online

and then try the page again.
These instructions happen to be for a IIID, they may be slightly different keys
on other LaserJets, but the basic idea is the same.


5. Printing on a PostScript Printer

When using a PostScript language printer, the chart will be scaled to fit
the current paper size.

If you generated a PostScript output file for the chart, the ability to scale
to the current paper size is built in to the PostScript commands in the file,
so you can print the same file on several different printers with different
paper sizes.


6. Running Gedchart with command line options (batch mode)

You can run Gedchart from a DOS command line or from a batch file by
typing a command such as:

	gedchart -g6 -j -NBlumer -nThomas blumer.ged >lpt1

The command line options on this example request a 6 generation chart,
for the LaserJet 3 or 4, for the individual with last name Blumer and
first name Thomas, from the GED file blumer.ged.  Output is directed to
port "lpt1".

When there are no command line options, gedchart defaults to using the menu
interface.

There are several reasons to use this command line interface.  If you are
running the same type of chart repeatedly you can give the command in a
batch file and thus print the chart with no operator intervention.
The same is true for multiple copies sent to a printer, or creating multiple
PostScript files to be sent to another computer, etc.

All of the options are also available from the menu interface except the
"-m" option.  This option will scan the GED file and print a list of
the individuals that have the greatest number of generations of ancestors
in the GED file.

Type the command line:

	gedchart -h

to see the list of command line options as follows.

Gedchart 1.4   Copyright (C) 1993 Thomas P. Blumer  All Rights Reserved.
Usage: gedchart [options] file.ged
-a	Abbreviate names by removing middle names (default off)
-b	Birth and death dates on same line (default off)
-c	Color (PostScript only)
-Ffont	Font selection for text
-f	Fan chart (default style is org chart)
-gn	Print n generations (default 6)
-i	Turn off interactive query on each name
-j	HP LaserJet III/HP LaserJet 4 (HPGL)
-m	Map of root individuals
-N	Surname of root individual in chart
-n	Given name of root individual in chart
-p	PostScript language (default is HPGL)
-rn	RIN # of root individual in chart
-s	Print siblings of root individual (default off)
-w	Give stricter warning messages
-L	Line color for direct ancestors
-l	Line color for indirect ancestors
-T	Text color for direct ancestors
-t	Text color for indirect ancestors
	Colors: r=red g=green b=blue c=cyan m=magenta y=yellow k=black
	gedchart -F  gives a list of PostScript fonts
Example: gedchart -g6 -j -NBlumer -nThomas blumer.ged >lpt1


7. International Character Sets

A GEDCOM (.GED) file often has a CHAR command to specify the character
set in the file to be either ANSEL or IBMPC.  Gedchart supports either
option.  Files that are produced on a Macintosh may say CHAR MACINTOSH;
the international characters in these files are not supported by Gedchart
in this version.

Gedchart supports the international character set (code page) features in
MSDOS 5.0 to allow different character sets to be entered at the keyboard
or displayed on the screen.  Current supported code pages are:

	code page 437	English
	code page 850	Multilingual
	code page 863	French Canadian
	code page 865	Danish-Norwegian

In order for the international (accented) characters to work properly,
you must set the same code page when using Gedchart as when you used
another program to create the GED file.


8. Uncompressing the Gedchart.zip File

If you received a uuencoded zip file:

	Delete the lines of the message above
		begin gedchart.zip ...
	and save the result in a file.

	Run the command: "uudecode filename" to produce gedchart.zip.

If you have a .zip file:

	Run(on a PC): pkunzip gedchart.zip

Please let me know if you have any problems or
if you need me to send the file via some other method.

There are several versions of the pkunzip utility:
Many internet sites have these files, I downloaded mine from
	ux1.cso.uiuc.edu
in the directory
	/pc/exec-pc

pkz193a.exe	version 1.93a
pkz204c.exe	version 2.04c


9. Printing Gedchart PostScript Files on a Macintosh

If you ask Gedchart for PostScript, and output to a file, then you
have 2 options.

Carry the PostScript file to a PC, and connect the PC to a PS printer via
serial or parallel cable, then copy the file to the printer:

	copy/b file.ps lpt1     (for parallel)
	copy/b file.ps com1     (for serial)

Or carry the file to a Mac, start up Apple File Exchange, put in the DOS
diskette, and transfer the file to the Mac.  Once the file is on the Mac, use
a modem program or font downloader to download the file to the printer
over a serial (modem) port.


10. Printing a Title Box on the Chart

Gedchart will print a customized title box on your family tree chart.
If there is a file "label.txt" in the current directory then the text lines
in that file will be enclosed in a small box and automatically positioned
in one of the four corners of the chart, using the corner that has the most
space.  Just edit the file "label.txt" with any text editor.

If you want the current date as part of the title box, use
%d for the day, %m for the name of the month, and %y for the year, and
the current day, month, and year will be filled in for you.

Similarly, %f will be replaced by the name of the input GED file.

This version of Gedchart does not support title boxes for PostScript
printers.


11. History of Changes and Bug Fixes for each Version

Version 1.42  Fixed a bug that sometimes caused printing of the wrong
birth and death dates.

Version 1.41  Fixed a bug in the "Remove middle names" feature.  The bug
would only occur when "Remove middle names" was on, and some name was
seen more than once in the chart (intermarriage).

--------
PostScript is a registered trademark of Adobe Systems Inc.
PCL is a registered trademark of Hewlett Packard Company.
