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Hi all
I'm working on putting together a lineage chart of the Myoan Kaiden Kei Fu. I was wondering if anyone has any suggestions on which program is best for such a thing. I'm not to computer savy, but i'm sure it's some where on my computer.I have Windows xp prof. Any ideas?
Thanks in advance!!
Last edited by jeff jones (2007-01-19 14:42:16)
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Id suggest Excel for layout or probably simpler to use Word
use text boxes in Word this may simplify postioning.
Alternatively hand draw, scan it turn it into a pix send to me and Ill pdf it if you cant.
or if you cant scan photo copy and send me snail but make it about A4/letter size.
contact me first direct:
ranftg at iinet dot net dot au [ replace at and dots but usual symbols]
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Microsoft Visio or SmartDraw are probably your best choices for a project of that nature. They are both used to help with design of everything from the flow of computer code to drawing blueprints. They are good at handling anything resembling a flowchart.
A Trial version of SmartDraw can be downloaded here but the full version is nearly $200. eBay or www.froogle.com probably have some deals on it.
I didn't see any trail versions of Microsoft Visio. It's normally around $100.00 I believe but, once again, you can pick up a copy from eBay or www.froogle.com for probably $20.00 or less.
Hope that helps!
~travis~
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I second Travis' suggestion of Visio. It's excellent for such tasks. I've used it to create multi-page charts similar to what a lineage chart might look like.
Once you've got your people entered in Visio and the student-teacher lines connecting them, you can just drag the boxes of names around freely (or have them snap-align to a grid if you want) and all the connecting lines stay attached like rubber bands. Very intuitive, minimal learning curve.
Outputting to PDF would be a logical way to publish/distribute a chart. On Windows this isn't as easy as it is on a Mac or Linux but if you do end up creating a Visio document and need it exported to PDF, I can help as can many on the forum I'm sure.
Good luck!
-Darren.
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Thanks everybody for the tips, I'll check out Visio (groovy name) it sounds user friendly enough.
Thanks again
Last edited by jeff jones (2007-01-22 20:58:51)
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The drawing program that comes with OpenOffice is pretty good for this sort of thing. I've done lots of diagrams of boxes connected by arrows, drag the boxes around, and the arrows follow. (software design, component relationships, but it sounds like what you want to do is not that different) It's pretty easy. Free download (but big 100MB+) from www.openoffice.org.
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I had forgotten about OpenOffice Draw. Mrosenlof is right that it may do the job well for you. It is not as expansive as Visio but is definately a lot cheaper.
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