Robins's Visual Chart Form Tips

TMG's Box Chart Tool

This page created 24 Oct 2014

Hosted by Terry's TMG Tips

Visual Chart Form, commonly called just VCF, is a separate program included with TMG. It is the program that actually creates the Box Charts and Fan Charts when a user specifies them from the Reports menu in TMG. That is, TMG hands off the required data to VCF, which then creates the chart. But VCF is also a very capable editor as well, allowing the user to modify and combine charts in a miriad of ways.

There is a modest section in Terry's TMG Tips that discusses creating, editing and hanging charts. See Creating Charts. However, the real expert in use of VCF is Robin Lamacraft. Robin is a long-time user of TMG and from 2000 to 2013 operated a commercial charting service in Adelaide, Australia, using VCF as his primary tool. Terry's TMG Tips is pleased to host Robin's articles.

Robin's Visual Chart Form Tips is a series of articles addressing various issues and techniques that can help the user make the most effective use of the VCF's considerable capabilities. The articles are listed below:

General Information
Understanding and using VCF
Purpose of a Chart - a chart to suit the needs or audience
Creating Box Charts - specifying a chart in TMG
Data Entry for Charting - consistency and avoiding nuisances
Saving, Exporting, & Printing - handling chart files
Drawing Lines and Shapes - adding lines to your chart
Refining Your Charts
Adding content, and using available features to achieve the results you want
Selecting, Grouping, Editing - basic chart editing techniques
Re-sizing - resizing the charting canvas
Text Limitations - limitations on the text in charts
Line Limitations - limitations on the lines in charts
Person Box - editing the person box content and look
Person Images - using images within boxes on your chart
Adding Images - adding extra images to a chart
Annotating Charts - adding annotations to enhance your chart
Accents and Color Coding - use of accents and other colour-coding
Advanced Techniques
Some advanced techniques I've found useful
Editing Lines & Connectors - editing elastic connecting lines and way points
Multiple Chart Views - overview and detail at the same time
Combining Charts - combining multiple charts on one page
Reshaping Charts - modfying the overall size of charts
Elastic Line Tricks - multi-colored lines
TMG to VCF - how a chart is created

Gallery of Charts
Click the thumbnails to view full-sized charts

 

You can also use the Search function to locate topics of interest.

If you need help in finding the best way to apply the program to your application and preferences, I would suggest subscribing to TMG list on RootsWeb, where Robin and other users are always ready to provide help.


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Copyright 2014- by Robin Lamacraft