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How To Use The Family Connections Visual Tree Builder
How To Use The Family Connections Visual Tree Builder

Quick information on how to build and manage trees (including drawing lines and grouping people) in Family Connections

Travis Collins avatar
Written by Travis Collins
Updated over a week ago

Family Connections is a powerful tool for building family trees/support maps, locating contact information for relatives/connections, logging outreach efforts, and more! Below is an introductory video, a list of the features, and instructions on how to perform each action.

Overview

Trees are built by adding people, grouping those people, and drawing lines between them. 

Each person in a tree can be edited to include their name, contact information, social media accounts, and much more. Each person can also be labeled with a color indicating their status in your process. You can move people around in the workspace to achieve your desired layout. 

You can draw lines between people to indicate a relationship. Each line can be styled (solid, dotted, dashed) and can be given a label to better clarify the relationship. 

You can use groups of people to indicate non-familial relationships. Each group can be moved, resized, and labeled.

Managing Workspaces

A single case can have multiple "Workspaces". Think of workspaces like blank scratch pads. You can have one workspace for the paternal side of the family, and another for the maternal side. There are no limits to the number of workspaces, and you can name the workspaces as you see fit. You can edit workspace names, delete workspaces, and copy content between work spaces. 

Create a New Workspace

  • When in the "Connections" tab:

  • Click the dropdown arrow in the white box in the upper left

  • Select "Add Workspace"

  • You can then choose from any of the templates, remember you can continue to edit/remove things from the templates. You can also choose a blank workspace if you would rather build out your workspace. Finally, you can choose an existing workspace to copy (these are at the bottom of the templates list under "Existing Workspaces.")

  • The workspace name defaults to the name of the template, but you can change this to anything you like.

  • Click "Create New Workspace" in the bottom right of the window.

  • You may now edit your new workspace

View a Different Workspace

  • When in the "Connections" tab:

  • Click the drop down in the Workspaces list, upper left of your screen

  • Choose the workspace you'd like to view

Edit a Workspace Name

  • When in the "Connections" tab:

  • Chose the workspace name you'd like to edit from the drop down in the Workspaces list, upper left

  • Click the word "edit" next to the Workspace name

  • Provide a new name

  • Click Save

Delete a Workspace

  • Caution: Deleting a workspace is a permanent, and can not be recovered

  • When in the "Connections" tab:

  • Chose the workspace name you'd like to edit from the drop down in the Workspaces list, upper left

  • Click the word "edit" next to the Workspace name

  • Click the delete button

  • Confirm the deletion in the popup window

Managing People And Placeholders

The Family Connections tree builder allows you to add both people and placeholders to the tree, move them, edit them, and remove them. 

Adding People and Placeholders

There are several methods to add a person to a workspace. 

While in a workspace of a case:

Create a Placeholder Person

Option 1: Shortcut

  • Position your mouse anywhere in the grey unused area of the workspace

  • Double click the left mouse button

  • This creates a "Placeholder" person that can be used when the person is not identified

Option 2: Use the builder button:

  • Click the "Add Placeholder" button (as shown below)

  • A Placeholder will appear just to the right of top center of your workspace

  • Drag the newly added Placeholder to the desired location

Add An Identified Person

  • Open a case and choose a workspace

  • Click the "Add Person" button (single person circle) --second-from-the-top button at the top right of your workspace

  • Enter a new name, or select from the existing case persons list

  • Click the blue checkbox

  • Drag the newly added person to a new location

Change a Placeholder Person To An Identified Person

  • Position your mouse over the Placeholder icon 

  • Double click the left mouse button

  • In the popup, enter the name of a new or existing case person

  • Click the blue "Create New Person" button

Selecting Multiple People To View, Move, or Delete

  • Position your mouse anywhere in the unused grey area, right click-and-drag your mouse across multiple people to select

  • OR, select the first person or item, then hold down the control (ctrl) button, and select additional people or items

Moving People

You can move a single individual person, or multiple people at once

Moving a single person

  • Position your mouse over the person to be moved

  • Left-click-and-drag your mouse to move the person


Moving multiple people

  • Select multiple people (see above for multi-select instructions)

  • Position your mouse over any one of the selected people

  • Left-click-and-drag your mouse to move the person

View a Person's Details

  • Left click a single person in the workspace

  • A right side panel will slide out

Editing a Person's Details

  • Left click a single person in the workspace

  • In the right slide out panel, click the "details" tab

  • Click the "Edit Details" button

Assign a Status To a Person

Use the statuses to define your current understanding of each person in the tree. The statuses appear as colors on each person in a tree. 

  • Left click a single person in the workspace to select

  • Click a status color in the "Person Status" bar at the top of the workspace

Search For a Person By Name

  • Click the "search" icon (magnifying glass) in the upper left of the workspace

  • Enter the person's name you wish to find

Find People By Status

  • Click one of the colored circles on the left side of the workspace

Deleting People, Lines, or Groups From A Workspace

Note that removing a person from a workspace does not delete the person from the case. To view all people in a case, click the word "People" in the grey menu bar across the top of your workspace.

  • Select one or more people, lines, or groups to be deleted

  • Press the "Delete" or "Backspace" key on your keyboard

Managing Groups Of People

Family Connections visual tree builder allows you to group people to indicate non-familial relationships, or other considerations. 

Create A Group Of People

  • Select multiple people by right clicking in the grey area of the workspace, then drag your mouse around the group of people, or by selecting first one person, then holding down the control (ctrl) button and selecting additional, adjacent people.

  • Click the "Add Group" button (3rd button from the top at the right of your workspace)

  • Enter a name for the group

  • Click the blue checkmark

Moving a Group Of People

  • Left click the darker gray of the group box space (not on a person or placeholder within the group)

  • Left-click-and-drag the group to move the position

Renaming a Group

  • Double click the name of the group

  • Type the new name

  • Press enter complete the edit

Deleting a Group

  • Left click to select the group

  • Press the delete or backspace button on your keyboard

Managing Relationship Lines

Lines in the tree represent relationships of any kind between people. 

Create a New Relationship Line

  • Position your mouse over the name of a person or placeholder in the tree

  • Right click on the person or placeholder 

  • Drag your mouse toward your destination

  • To create a bend, position your mouse and right-click 

  • If you create an unwanted bend, left-click one time to remove the last bend

  • If you do not want to complete the line, press the escape key

  • To complete the line, position your mouse over another person, line, or placeholder, then right click

  • OR use the line drawing widget by clicking the Line Drawing button (4th from the top on the right side of your workspace)

Edit a Line Bend

  • Left click once to select the line

  • Left click once on the bend in the selected line to view the small black bend circle

  • Left click and drag to move the bend 

Delete a Bend

  • Left click once to the select the line

  • Left click again on the bend in the selected line to view the small black bend circle

  • Press the delete key on your keyboard

Change a Line Style

  • Select one or more lines to edit

  • Click the desired style in the "Line Style" tool at the top of the workspace

Add a Line Label

  • Double left click the target line

  • Type the name

  • Press the enter key to complete the edit

Move a Line Label

  • Left click the line label to select it

  • Left click and drag the line label to the desired position

Delete a Line

  • Select one or more lines to delete

  • Press the delete or backspace button on your keyboard

Support

If you have questions or suggestions, please email [email protected]

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