Reports to Pages script problem

[SparkMan]

I just tried to print a report using a previously modified script (add
burial info to output) but the script does not show in the "Reports to
Pages" menu though it is contained in the folder. Since I have not
used this script since last February, I have no idea when the
disassociation occurred. Was the basic script changed in such a way
that the modified one is no longer recognized as a script? Is there a
fix for this?

Sparkgapper

[wg...@elp.rr.com]

Further to the above:  If I open the script in Script Editor and Run, it works just as I it had before.  The only thing wrong is that it does not show as a Menu Choice in Reports to Pages.

What is going on??????

Sparkgapper

[tom kunesh]

got a relatively small (25k, 864x1861 Adobe PDF document v1.3) family tree - descendants from last year (Mac OS X 10.6.8) that prints out in large 1-page format (Xerox 721P) just fine.
but got two large (102k, 2326x15559 & PDF v1.3 /&/ 164k, 2114x35988 PDF v1.4) family tree - descendants from GEDitCOM II this year (for the past month, Mac OS X 10.7.4) that i can see on the screen just fine, export just as fine as pdf's, but when i open them up as pdf's, nothing's there -- the document is blank - empty. i put 'em on a flash drive, take 'em to a printer -- space (ie, the pdf is there, it opens, but nothing's visible in the document itself). curiously, the document has dimensions, and "Select All" shows highlighted blue areas as if something's actually there, but nothing … like it's printed white on white. i can select areas, but they're just highlight light blue - space. but nothing.

- anybody else experience this problem?
- anybody got a solution?

;>

[William G. Bates]

Yes! I seem to remember something like that myself only mine was considerably larger, like 28 feet on a 24" wide carriage printer or plotter. Basically what we have here is physical size being scaled to fit a particular space. What happens is when it is reduced in physical size it gets to a point where you can no longer visually see the printing even though the information for it is there. Try to scale it up, I think Adobe Reader will go to 800%, to see if anything becomes visible.

Sparkgapper

[John Nairn]

It sounds like your tree is too big to be on a single page in a PDF file. The topic is mentioned in the GEDitCOM II help as a footnote to printing trees:

"Note that you can save any size chart to a PDF file, but some other software may be limited in the sizes it can handle. For example, Adobe Acrobat and Reader are limited to 200 in X 200 in charts (16 ft 8 in X 16 ft 8 in)"

Thus, for example, if the printing service you use to print the tree is using Adobe Acrobat or Adobe Reader, the page size will be limited to 14400X14400 pixels and the two you mentioned were larger than that in at least on direction. Some suggestions are:

1. Check what software the printing service is using and/or find out the largest page they can print, regardless of what the software can do. For example if their largest printer is 8 ft by 8 ft, it won't matter if software can open something larger, because they could not print it all at once anyway. If then can printing something that large, try to see if they can use software that can handle large PDF. As I recall, I think the large PDFs open fine in Apple's Preview, even though Adobe Acrobat and Reader fail to open them correctly. One would think Adobe would be better since they invented PDF, but it seems not.

2. Once you know #1, you use GEDitCOM II to limit the trees to that size. Here there are two approaches:

a. Break the tree up to smaller pieces where each one is smaller than the maximum size your printing options can handle

b. In GEDitCOM II, "Print" the chart to PDF (using MacOS print to PDF methods) rather then "Export" to PDF. Before printing, you can use page setup to create a custom page size that is smaller than the largest possible printing at your printing service. The tree will come out on multiple pages in the PDF (if it is larger than that large page), but you can print those multiple pages at your printing service and then cut and paste to one huge sheet (if you really want something about 30 ft high).

3. Another option in GEDitCOM II is to make the chart smaller by customizing all the tree settings in the preferences window. By using smaller fonts, smaller cells, less space between cells, and les information in each cell, you can make it much smaller. It looks like you need about a factor of two smaller in height to fit the entier tree into contraints ot Adobe PDF software.

In summary, there is no limit to size of tree in GEDitCOM II and any tree can be printed to multiple pages on any printer. The only limits occur when you export to a single PDF file and then try to open that file in PDF software that is not as capable and cannot display large PDF files.

------------
John Nairn
http://www.geditcom.com
Genealogy Software for the Mac

[William G. Bates]

Some years ago when I was using Apple Works I always used its graphics capability to set up the graphics style tree and they worked perfectly except for location of page breaks. However, my genealogical software was also different such that the charts were saved in a graphics format, not PDF. With GEDitCOM, I have been unable to figure out how to save the file in graphs format, including an old copy of AW, which would the ideal methodology for printing these charts. I just wonder if I have a copy of that old program just to see if I can get it to work. Will also do some further investigation into the Save As capability just to see if it is able to use JPG format capability.

In this same vane, I have yet to discover any methodology by which to "Break" a chart into small sizes that can be then put back together to form an all incompassing chart. I have already adjust my graphics chart's to about as small as you can get and still be readable (with magnifying glass at 4 pt [Apple is capable of 3 pt but it is not scalable]), along with boxes that fit to the data rather than using fixed sizes.

Sparkgapper

[John Nairn]

You can easily convert PDF to jpg (e.g., open in PDF in Preview and Save As to jpg or other formats). But jpg, as a bit map format, is very bad for very large trees. It is much better to have something like a PDF which uses graphics objects rather than just a bit map.

Another solution is to use an application that can edit PDF files directly such as Adobe Illustrator. Or perhaps some other object-oriented graphics applications can open PDF and retain its structure (i.e., not just convert to a bit map), but I don't have any. I used to like Apple Works, but Apple abandoned it when they went to OS X and never replaced it with anything similar.

[wg...@elp.rr.com]

This problem just became compounded.  I made the appropriate changes to the "Descendants Generations", compiled it, then saved it.  I opened GEDitCOM II with my family file, selected the individual I wanted to start from, and tried to run the script but it still does not appear in the "Reports to Pages" Menu.  Undoubtedly I have done something wrong but do not know what at this point.

What else do I need to do to get these scripts to show up?

Sparkgapper