Print a Family Book

Ideas
1

Hello! I was an enthusiastic user of Gramps. I wanted to prepare my family tree for printing and export it to PDF or Word. Unfortunately, there was no good option available in Gramps, so I moved my data to FTM and FBC. Did I overlook something in Gramps, or is there perhaps a third-party product or some other alternative? I would like to go back to open source and Linux. Best regards, Max

2

Max,
This topic has come up several times in the past in these forums, so searching will get you started. Beyond that, if you share more detail about what you want to achieve, what you tried, and what didn’t work, expert users here will be able to contribute meaningfully.

3

mcmax, As a long time user of FTM, I had a number of books for printing and produced in PDF.

I recently have imported my FTM database through GEDCOM with good results. Unfortunately, the book feature is minimal. Currently, I am exploring two approaches.

  1. Use LibreOffice Master document feature and create subdocuments though GRAMPS. This is still a work in progress for me. The controls found in FTM over boxes and backgrounds do not seem present in GRAMPS.

  2. I have been successful in making changes in GRAMPS (love the responsiveness). Export GEDCOM and merge with existing FTM database. This gives good results after some minimal verification and cleanup. Obviously not a preferred long term solution.

Regards, Rick

4

Hello Rick!

I had my data in Gramps and was very satisfied with its handling and functionality.
Only the printing functions were insufficient, so I switched to FTM/FBC.
However, I much prefer to use open-source software. My hope is that developers will take up the issue and expand the existing basic functionality. I would be happy to contribute to this. Unfortunately, my development skills are not good enough. However, I could contribute to the design or testing.
Best regards, Max

5

The Gramps Books report allows the user to combine different reports into a single report option. The advantages allow the user to save different book report configurations and options. Report options specific to Books allows the creation of a Table of Contents and an index across all reports added to the book.

That said, I do recommend that users use the OpenDocument Text output option. This allows for editing the report results in your word processer to add pictures and to fine tune the report while maintaining the TOC and index embedded coding. You will need to add page numbering to the report and things like taking the index from a single column to two or more columns.

6

Max, did some work in creating a Family Book. Try procedure below and tell me how you made out. I chose the Master Document function as I have a few static text documents that I add to my family books. Rick

Create a Family Book using Gramps and LibreOffice Master Document

Gramps 6.06
LibreOffice 26.2.1.2
Windows 11

Suggested procedure

  • Outline your content in terms of Subdocuments. Planning is very important

  • Create a folder to contain your Subdocuments, example Book_Smith_Family.
    This folder holds items for inclusion into Master Document. Individual documents can be edited/updated without impact to the overall book.

Sample Content (not all subdocuments need to be Open Office, RTF, DOC, TXT all work)

Title Page
Intro
Background / Foreword
Table of Contents (TOC generated by Master)
Pedigree Chart
Ancestor Report
[Repeat Pedigree / Ancestors reports as required]
Descendant Chart
Descendant Report
Kinship report
Index (added and generated by Master)

  • Create the individual Gramps Reports and place in your book Subdocument folder. Having a separate folder minimizes chance of accidently overwriting finished material.

  • Add any other supporting documents to subdocument folder (example “Introduction To Family History”).

  • Create the Master Document and begin adding items in navigator (see LibreOffice Help for details)

Actions specific to your Master Document Gramps Books process

  • Insert TOC and Alphabetic Index using Master Document navigator and uncheck ‘Protect from manual changes’. This will allow you to insert page break for those two items only. Again by using Master Document, insert Manual Break (Page).

  • Graphic Text Reports and Text Reports may overlap. You must edit the subdocument. Open the subsequent subdocument in LibreOffice and Insert Manual Break (Page level) to achieve separation.

  • After Master Document refresh, Alphabetic Index will need to have page break re-done.

  • Reports having many combined images (e.g. Detailed Descendant Report with All Images) did not align well in Master even though the subdocument was correct. Detailed Descendant Report with one image per person merged correctly.

  • Order your subdocuments using the Master Document navigator window.

  • If any necessary edits or updates in Gramp are required, update report in folder then refresh the subdocument by Using Master Document navigator, refresh all.

Notes:

TOC uses Heading Styles, if using a non-Gramps document (e.g. background history or introduction). Assign the Document Heading as H1 in Styles to appear in Table of Contents.

Master Document does an excellent job of merging indexes.

Expect some cleanup for TOC.

Document backgrounds are possible through use of custom styles.