Functions in Treeviews

General information about mouse functions:

If the mouse cursor is located over a box or a Free Text, Image or Geo Object, you can select the item with both mouse buttons. This is required for a number of functions. Selecting a box causes the color to change; selecting an object creates a dashed rectangle that surrounds the defined object area.

The mouse cursor affects the object in the uppermost layer or the object that is selected. Selection has priority over layering. This means that a Free Object in a lower layer that is selected will be recognized by the mouse, even if it is covered by another object in a higher layer.

If a Free Object is completely covered by another element in a higher layer, it will not be possible to affect or select it with the mouse. In such cases, take the following steps: Open the Edit Free Text Objects..., Edit Free Image Objects..., or Edit Free Geo Objects... dialog and select the hidden object in the list. Close the dialog by clicking OK. When you click OK to leave the dialog, the last object selected in the list before closing the dialog will be selected in the treeview. You will be able to see the dashed rectangle and move the object into the open with the left mouse button.

If the mouse cursor is pointing at a person box and the zoom scale is so small that the text in the box is unreadable, an information window will appear after a short delay. This window contains some personal data that allow the person to be identified.

If the mouse points to a person box and if the output of the color scheme in the hint window of person boxes is switched on in the Program Option, Miscellaneous tab, an information window will appear after a short delay indicating the color scheme. This indication of the color scheme is, different from that one of the personal data, carried out independently of the font size.

The mouse cursor changes shape based on its position. Over boxes, it has its normal arrow shape. Over the right and bottom edges of boxes, it shows the form for adjusting horizontal or vertical lines if the Automatic Width/Height function is switched off in the Treeview Options, Automatic Width/Height tab. Over Free Text Objects, it shows a square with the letter A next to the arrow (as on the button on the toolbar). Over Free Image Objects, it shows a square with a tiny landscape image next to the arrow (as on the button on the toolbar). Over Free Geo Objects, it shows a square with a pencil image next to the arrow (as on the button on the toolbar). The cursor takes on the form for adjusting horizontal or vertical lines when held over the borders of selected Free Objects. Over points of Free Geo Objects it shows special forms for moving points, depending on the types of the points. The cursor for adjusting horizontal or vertical lines is shown only if the edges to be adjusted have a certain minimum size; perhaps the zoom should be enlarged.

When drawing a rectangle for new Free Objects (only when the Ctrl key is held) or to create a new zoom view (only when the Ctrl and Alt keys are held), the mouse cursor will take on the form of a rectangle with a crosshairs at the top left. For rectangles with Free Objects, an additional information window will appear with information about the width, height and width/height ratio of the drawn rectangle.

If the mouse cursor is not located over a box or Free Object and the graphic does not fit in the window, the cursor will take on the form of crossed arrows or horizontal or vertical double arrows. You can then move the visible section of the graphic with the left mouse button, just as you can with the scroll bar. While the graphic is being scrolled, line graphics and text are displayed while images and shadows are hidden. This allows you to scroll more quickly and smoothly. Images and shadows are not redrawn until the graphic is stopped.

The mouse functions are described in detail in the sections Left Mouse Button, Right Mouse Button and Mouse Wheel.

The mouse functions in the zoom overview are described in the section Functions of the Zoom Overview.

Note:

Over Free Image Objects, the mouse recognizes the entire object area and not just the area of the image output inside the object. Due to different width/height ratios, these areas may be substantially different:

Over Free Geo Objects, the mouse only recognizes the object area and not any lines that protrude outside the object area. The object area surrounds the points of the Geo Objects. For large line widths, parts of the lines will be outside the object area:

Selection history:

FamilyTreeFactory remembers the visible section of the treeview (zoom factor and position of the scroll bars) when a person box or a Free Object is selected with the left mouse button or by a search function. Selections made with the right mouse button are not remembered. Up to 16 of these selections are saved. Just as in browsers, you can navigate within the selection history with the functions Back/Forward in the Selection History in the Treeview menu, with the Toolbar buttons (back) and (forward) or using the shortcuts Alt + Left and Alt + Right.

The saved selection history is cleared when the following actions are performed: Opening a family file, importing a Gedcom file, closing a family file, creating a tree, loading treeview data from a file, changing program options, changing the size of the program window or closing the program.

Status bar:

The status bar shows the record number when the mouse is over boxes or the layer number over Free Objects. The column and row numbers of the box grid are also displayed. In the last section of the status bar, tree structure numbers such as number of boxes, columns and rows as well as width, height, area and width/height ratio are displayed. If the information is cut off on the right side, hold the mouse cursor over the right part of the status bar to see the cut-off information in an information window.