Juiced On Writing

Previously, I wrote a post about using a free Family Tree maker called Family Tree Builder for creating fictional family trees for your characters. I have now taken the gen file export from Family Tree Builder into a free trial copy of GenoPro to show you what is possible within this program.

Installing and Setup

GenoPro provides a free 14 day trail of the program. Install requires a trial registration key to be sent out to you before you are able to open the program up. Once you’ve input this key, you are presented with the following screen.

As I didn’t want to start from scratch, I used a pre-worked file from a free program. My previous efforts in Family Tree Builder resulted in the creation of a double-twin persona to show an adoption. I deleted this character for the sake of the gedcom file (the standard file format for genealogical data), and the file imported into GenoPro had the main character with two parental groups associated. The import went quickly, and I found myself presented with a genogram or diagram of my families.

However, there were a few minor problems. My main character was showing the incorrect name (her birth name rather than her adoptive name, and a middle name had been brought in as a surname also in the import). So I had to go into GenoPro to change the details on this character. From here, I could also browse to find the photographs (the export to a gencom file had put these photos into a handy folder).

Note: although there are copious tabs available for data input against people in GenPro, there is only one alternative name section (and one nickname section).

The relationships in GenPro can also be labelled. I first labelled the link between my main character and her boyfriend. And on clicking the line between her adoptive parents and herself, I found another error. I then changed this relationship to one of adoption, and was given the ability to input the adoption date. The program calculated my character’s age at her adoption for me.

The adoptive link has changed to a dashed blue line. My basic relationships are now set.

Additional Features of GenoPro

GenoPro is sold not only to genealogists but with it’s genomapping features, the program is sold to people like social workers and even as a structural diagram maker. I decided to take a look at some of the many functions available.

1. First, Adding a New Person

Adding a person is a matter of drag and drop. Interestingly, you have an option for gender of male, female, pet or unknown. I added a male who may (or may not) become the boss of my main character, and later decided my protagonist should have a pet too.

You can obviously add very old people (from several centuries) and without a death date. You can also add future births, including well into the 30th centuries. But inputting dates with non-numeric calendars within it are not allowed. Hence my SciFi Alien is dateless (but still an entity).

Relationships between entities are again, a matter of drag and drop, after selecting the relationship. This is similar to using charting / flow diagram software. Relationships like this can be labelled and annotated.

2. Adding Other Functions

Adding a social grouping or organisation is a breeze. The default is a pink colour background, but I thought the police force should be an off-blue.

If I were to build a bigger character set for this Metropolitan Police department, I would probably take the organisation out to a separate genomap.

You can also add emotional relationships between entities on the genograms. Here I’ve selected a controlling relationship between one man and the main character. He is her boss, after all.

And here I added some more emotional relationship links to some of the characters.

3. Reporting

GenoPro doesn’t allow you to export this genomap as a PDF file. But it does generate an XML report saved to your hard-drive, which opens into a browser. The following are some of the reports available.

Reports can show timelines, relationship data, location data, the photograph galleries, ancestral family trees, and any other data you could wish for.

Summary

GenoPro is available as a single license for US$49, and provides some comprehensive mapping features for the writer interested in creating a family or organisational tree for their characters. The application is reasonably easy to use out of the box, and provides a lot of functionality behind the scenes. It’s well worth a look if you think you will be using it often enough to support the cost of the license.

LinkMe: Download the trial version of GenoPro

No related posts.