Generation Maps becomes Family ChartMasters

For Immediate Release:

Easy to use genealogy chart printing service becomes even more accessible

Cedar Hills, Utah. — June 1st, 2011 — Generation Maps, the leading genealogy chart printing service, announces today that it is changing its name to Family ChartMasters.

“We’ve decided to rename in order to simplify and focus our message on exactly what we do the best, “ said Kim Hovorka, CEO, Family ChartMasters. “We’re proud of the excellent customer service we provide and the way we can customize any family’s information to any design a genealogist is looking for. Future users will be able to easily find us now, and future generations will benefit from the family history we are able to display for your family.”

The name Family ChartMasters also comes with a new concentrated tagline, Share•Honor•Inspire, expressing how a genealogist can use a genealogy chart to further their research. Users are encouraged to Share their research, Honor their ancestors, and Inspire their family members with their family’s heritage. Family ChartMasters continues to be an inexpensive, beautiful way to make your genealogy chart ideas a reality.

About Family ChartMasters
Family ChartMasters was established in 2004 to help families express their heritage in a beautiful and attractive way. Family ChartMasters charts provide a visual reminder of your family’s history and help establish feelings of love and confidence that come from knowing who you are and that you are part of a family. Family ChartMasters charts can awaken individual potential embedded in one’s inherited traits and nurture emotional healing through understanding a family’s history.

Family ChartMasters is the premier printing service for any kind of genealogy chart imaginable. In addition to the design-it-yourself online Family ChArtist program, Family ChartMasters continues to offer a multitude of custom chart printing services, including both decorative and working genealogy charts. Custom decorative designs come with an online preview system that gives you personalized attention and feedback until the chart is exactly the way you envision it. Working charts are oversized, inexpensive, family reunion-type charts that display your entire file in one place to write on and add more information. Family ChartMasters has printed working charts up to 800 feet long with information for over 30,000 people. Free consultations are always available at http://www.familychartmasters.com/consult.

For more information:
info@familychartmasters.com
www.familychartmasters.com
www.thechartchick.com
www.facebook.com/familychartmasters
www.twitter.com/familychartmstr

Extended Deadlines

We've been working hard to keep up with the demand for meaningful family gifts this season. We're enjoying the holiday season so much, we've decided to extend things a little for domestic orders.

• Custom chart orders are due by Monday December 13th.
• We've extended the deadline for Family ChArtist and Pre-created charts to December 17th.
• All rush orders must be submitted by December 20th.

Go to www.generationmaps.com, give us a call at (801)87CHART or drop us a line at info@generationmaps.com if we can help you share and inspire your family this year. We really delight in helping you show off your family history.

What we did over summer vacation: Conferences (read: Parties :-)

So one of the last things that I wrote, that has been nagging at me all summer, was that I would keep you posted on what happened at the Southern California Genealogy Society Conference. Well, that conference has come and gone, along with many others. Oh what a blast we have had. It is so fun to get out and go to conferences and meet with you. It always energizes us.

SCGS is always such a blast. The bloggers that we get to hang out with there are a party. And you can never have too much bling in Burbank so we have way too much fun. Apparently I need to be looking for a tiara for next year--let me know if you have a good source. It is good to see all the bloggers, and enjoy the beautiful weather.

Kim and our son Adam went to Colorado without me this time. Adam is now taller than me, and smarter than me on the computer, and I'm sure he's cuter than me too--so that sounded like a good idea. I missed seeing everyone there, but the younger kids had an opportunity to be in a parade here at home and we couldn't pass that up. (Sometimes it is hard to balance doing family history with making family history :-) We have been showing off Family ChArtist and the feedback has been good. People are always amazed at how quick and easy it is to put together a chart and that the 8.5x11s are free. We've done alot of tweaking over the course of the summer and still have more to do. We'd love to hear any suggestions you have.

Last year conferences were all about running into new online friends. They are now all great old friends. But one of the greatest things about conferences this summer was running into old friends from real life. This is a picture of Lorna Rice and I from SCGS. She was my Primary School teacher when I was only 5 years old. Apparently I look enough the same that she recognized me ?!? No, her daughter had been reading my blog and they recognized some of my writings about my family. It was so fun to see her and even more fun to see that she was a genealogist.

And then there were all the people I accosted for help with the Utah Genealogical Association. Gena Ortega has been a great help, and A.C. Ivory (both below) has been such an energy with the Salt Lake Chapter and the Publicity Committee. If you are interested and I haven't gotten a hold of you yet, let me know. UGA is doing some fantastic things--but I'll save that for another blog post.

The BYU conference a couple of weeks ago was great as well. There were several wonderful new presentations on the future of FamilySearch and how to deal with this new database. We had planned to split up with BYU and the Kansas City Expo both being the same week, but orders were coming in so thick that we had to make sure we could take care of customers. So we decided to stick with the conference closer to home. We were sorry to miss out on the event (and the barbeque) in KC, but I am happy to report that we did get every order out this summer by the time the person needed it. Thanks to all the extra help we've had--Erin has been a lifesaver. She has taken to reading my mind now and I don't know where we got so lucky to find someone like her.

And so on to the next conference (ahem, party). We set up this Thursday for the Salt Lake Family History Expo. Holly says, "Kids are going back to school. Now's the time to think about what you can do to improve your genealogy skills. One way to do that is by attending an Expo where you can hear genealogical experts present on techniques to help you break down your brick walls. You can meet with vendors and learn about new products and websites. You can ask a professional genealogist for help on your toughest research question at the Ask-the-Pros booth. You can network with other researchers and maybe even meet a new cousin." And of course come see us at the Generation Maps booth and say Hi.

And then if you are in Ogden Utah on September 11th, or Pleasanton California on October 8th and 9th, or at the ICAPGEN conference in Salt Lake on October 22nd and 23rd, come say hi there too.

What we did over summer vacation: work work work :-)

I'm officially a binge blogger now. Orders got so thick this summer that the blogging had to take a rest. It was a fantastic summer for us though and we helped tons of people display their family history. I'll catch you up on what we've been doing in the next couple of posts.

Here are a few of the comments we have enjoyed:

• I wish you could have seen and heard my wife's expression when she saw the chart with her family.
• Thank you so much for your efforts, especially over such a busy weekend. The chart is beautiful and will be very well received at the Iowa reunion on July 10. I’m hoping that many of the younger ones will look at it, study it, and leave with a better understanding of relationships. I will soon be 72 years of age and wish that something like this would have been available in the 1940s when I was a youngster. You are performing a wonderful service. The results of your work will live on for decades and decades.
• Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! I have been holding my breath since I ordered the 11’ X 3’ wall chart for our family reunion. It arrived earlier than I expected and it is beautiful. The quality is so much better than we had thought it would be. This was worth every penny. All of our work is now ready for the family to enjoy.
• The charts arrived. We love them and I can't wait to show my mother in law. Thanks sooo much for a wonderful job.

It's been funny. With the launch of Family ChArtist, we weren't sure how our company would change, but there has been even more requests for custom charts and descendant charts than ever before. Probably because we are the one place where you can have a genealogy chart designed just the way you want it--every time. And family reunion season is always great for us. We love doing those huge inexpensive charts that help you gather more information at the big family get together or the beautiful family representations that help everyone envision their history with lots of pictures.

I so enjoy helping people bring their family closer together. As busy as we've been this summer, I can't imagine working on anything more fulfilling. We love being able to help you show off your family.

Come see us in sunny CA

Life is a highway, I wanna ride it all night long.
If you're goin my way, I wanna ride it all night long.
--Rascal Flatts

Crank up the tunes. It's conference season again.
--Janet

We're on the road again. Life is sweet. While not as inventive as the RootsMagic Guys, I do still have a couple of pictures for you for as hint about where we are going. I have sweet family history there--so it's like I'm going home. I've talked about this before. I don't have to go quite as far as Lisa Alzo (she's in Slovakia and slept in her great-grandfather's house last night. I'm so excited for her. I'm sure she'll be blogging about it when she gets back.)

7878 Naylor Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90045. That's where my mother grew up. And that's where I spent the best part of my summers as a child. We'd leave poor Dad working and take off for long stretches of the summer to my Maternal Grandparent's house. I learned to rollerskate on the bumpy sidewalk out in front. We watched Winnie the Pooh videos in the back bedroom, and there is not a sound I would love more to hear today than my grandfather singing "yo ho yo ho a pirate's life for me" again.

Mom was the ultimate beach babe. She went to summer school so that she and her friends could walk to the beach afterward. My best claim to fame has always been that Mom went to high school with the Turtles and sang in accapella choir with them. Beach Boys music is our family soundtrack but when I told Mom I was going to write about her Gidget days she said "whatever." Yeah. She's still got some Gidget in her.
My grandparents moved from there in 1989, but I can still smell the jasmine outside the kitchen window, wonder what the can of hominy was in the pantry, taste the bottled water that was delivered once a week, and feel Grandpa's favorite coconut cookies that stayed soft in the humidity. I even remember the zip code though I often can't remember my phone number.

One of the four generations who've ridden the Santa Monica Pier Carousel.

Today though, we have new great memories of LA. It is the site of the Southern California Genealogy Society Conference every June which has become a mecca for the blogger community. I get to see all the wonderful friends that I talk to on facebook, twitter, genealogywise and the blogs. It is alot like a family reunion, catching up with people you don't get to see enough.

I am doing 3 classes. If you are around the So. Cal area I'd love to see you at the Burbank Marriott. I'm teaching How to Interest Your Family In Their Family History from 3-4pm on Friday. Digital Archiving from 8:30-9:30 Saturday morning, and Easy Online Genealogy Chart Creation with Family ChArtist from 2-3 on Sunday. And of course Kim and I will be at the booth too. Come say Hi.

Lisa Louise Cooke sent me this too:
Hi Janet,

Hope you're doing great. I just wanted to send you a quick note and see if you would be wiling to let your readers know about the free live Genealogy Gems Podcast <www.genealogygems.com> we'll be presenting at Jamboree on Sat. June 12 at 1:00 in the Pavilion. I've got some great guests lined up:

• Maureen Taylor, the Photo Detective
• Suzanne Russo Adams, Ancestry talking about her research on Who Do You Think You Are?
• Chris Haley

I put together a 2 minute video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlZM_Xjcrwk

We're going to be giving away lots of very cool prizes throughout the show too!

And Daniel Horowitz is back on his West Coast Genealogy Tour II. You can
learn the latest technology developments going on at My Heritage and receive a FREE copy of the software "Family Tree Builder" at his lectures.

It's going to be a blast. I'll keep you posted with pictures and such.

Another FamilySearch award for Generation Maps

While I was too exhausted to write much after BYU and NGS (5 lectures in two days and 2 booths and 3 conferences in the overlapping 5 days) there is one thing I MUST tell you about. We are one of the very few companies now to hold TWO (count 'em TWO) FamilySearch software awards. Press release follows.

For Immediate Release

19 May 2010

2010 FamilySearch Software Award Recipients Announced

SALT LAKE CITY—Recipients of the 2010 FamilySearch Software Awards were announced at the FamilySearch Developers Conference in Salt Lake City, Utah. The 14 recipients were recognized for their outstanding and innovative work in advancing products and technologies that integrate with FamilySearch’s emerging suite of products and services.

The annual FamilySearch Software Awards has been established to encourage and recognize software development that benefits the growing demands and needs of family history consumers. “The awards formally recognize the software achievements of those developers and companies that are making important contributions to the family history and genealogy industry,” said Gordon Clarke, FamilySearch developer services product manager.

The Best New Product awards were given to applicants in different platform categories. Products with specific features deemed important to the growth of the industry received the Best New Feature award. Community Player awards recognized individuals who have made exceptional contributions to the software developer community.

The following recipients were announced and awards presented at the FamilySearch Developers Conference:

Best New Product Awards

· The MagiKey for the “Best New Windows” product

· Arcalife for the “Best New Web site”

· MobileTree for “Best New Mobile” product

· FamilyInsight for “Best New Macintosh” product

Best New Feature Awards

· OurFamilogy for “Best Research” feature

· SharingTime for “Best Collaboration” feature

· Genetree for “Best DNA” feature

· Ancestral Hunt for the “Best Geo-Mapping” feature

· FamilyPursuit for the “Best Groups” feature

· Photoloom for the “Best Media” feature

· FamilyChArtist for the “Best Print” feature

· AppleTree for the “Best Celebrity Tree” feature

Community Player Awards

· Gaylon Finlay, Incline Software, “Bug Hunter” award

· Michael Booth and Bruce Buzbee, Roots Magic, “Trailblazer” award

FamilySearch International is the largest genealogy organization in the world. Millions of people use FamilySearch records, resources, and services to learn more about their family history. To help in this great pursuit, FamilySearch has been actively gathering, preserving, and sharing genealogical records worldwide for over 100 years. FamilySearch is a nonprofit organization sponsored by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Patrons can access FamilySearch services and resources free online at FamilySearch.org or through over 4,600 family history centers in 132 countries, including the main Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Janet's Guide to Salt Lake City--You're invited to the Family ChArtist Debut Party

Come and participate in the grand premiere of a most exciting new genealogy chart tool — Family ChArtist by Generation Maps (www.generationmaps.com/familychartist). A celebration and premiere party will be held at the Generation Maps booth in the National Genealogy Society Conference vendor’s hall on Wednesday, April 28th from 2:00 - 5:00 p.m. The NGS conference (www.ngsgenealogy.org) is being held at the Salt Palace Convention Center in Salt Lake City April 28^th through May 1^st. Admisssion to the vendor’s hall is free to the public.

In addition to refreshments, there will be continual demonstrations of this easy-to-use, new program. Training computers will be available so that you can also try it out yourself. Create an 8.5 x 11 color print free of charge, or try your hand at a larger, frameable archival print which can be printed for a nominal fee. There will be drawings for two $50 gift cards as well as free consultations on printing large genealogy charts. Representatives will be available to answer questions about printing any kind of genealogy chart you need or want.

As you know if you've been reading this blog, Family ChArtist is a new, user-friendly web based program that will assist you in creating beautiful, personalized genealogy charts based on information either from your own genealogy computer files or from the New FamilySearch database. The website offers beautiful high quality graphics in modern, classic and colorful patterns, as well the ability to add as many of your own pictures as you would like. First time users can create beautiful charts in just a few minutes without the purchase, installation or advanced training of other design software programs, online databases and file formats. As with all Generation Maps charts, extra copies are always HALF PRICE. Order copies of your chart as meaningful gifts for your children and other family members.

Be sure to bring your genealogy computer file, genealogy information and/or your New FamilySearch ID with you to the NGS Vendors area so you can try out this new, easy-to-use program yourself. You'll be amazed at how easily you can create, share and display beautiful expressions of your family history. And if you can’t make it for the party, you’re welcome to take it for a spin online at www.generationmaps.com/familychartist. Hope to see you there.

Family ChArtist reviews and interviews.

It's been a funny month. We've launched Family ChArtist and while the reception has been great, we've been really surprised to see our custom chart sales spike. That has left us quite a bit busier in unexpected ways and all the plans we had for further information and marketing have gone out the window temporarily. You can watch here for announcements about new graphics (hopefully soon) and then once we get through the BYU and NGS conferences this month we are planning a series of webinars that will help people get their creative juices flowing with this new tool too. We'll keep you informed.

In the meantime though, we've been thrilled with all the attention it has gotten and the wonderful response we've seen from you. Thank you so much. Here are some of the great reviews and attention we've received.

Lisa Louise Cooke released her interview with me yesterday about Family ChArtist. You can hear it here. It is always great to talk to Lisa. And she is a great interviewer. If you've never listened to her, you'll find a great new friend with tons of genealogy knowledge to share. And there is a coupon there for Family ChArtist too.

We were also given the massive honor to be the first advertisement in Shades the magazine. Again, If you aren't already a fan, you should be. Each Shades issue comes with regular articles by, Denise Levenick, Sheri Fenley, George Geder and Craig Manson, as well as many other talented writers. Best wishes for quick recovery to dear Footnote Maven. She writes the most interesting/most beautiful genealogy information on the internet.

And, we've had some wonderful reviews that I've been slow to post. We're so thankful for all the attention the program has gotten, all of the great ideas people have shared for it and for all of the patience as we've worked the bugs out. We had a few opening day glitches that are fixed now and we know things are working smoothly, but there are still features we want to add. There probably always will be.

We were excited to be reviewed by the illustrious Tamura Jones. We were pleased to be one of his Mega reviews. Pages and pages :-) As always, Tamura was exceedingly meticulous. My favorite comment of his was made as he was bemoaning the lack of several detailed design options that some other programs have. He said "Less options provide less chance to make tasteless choices, but how is my good taste going to stand out if others aren’t given sufficient opportunity to foul up? That everyone can access this app, make a few random choices and still end up with a chart that looks good just ain’t right." I'm so glad he liked our sense of what is tasteful and what isn't. He sent it through his "torture tests," he called it right on our "dialogue drama," (we're going to work on that), he loves our graphics and it appears he survived having to use a flash program. He also said "Family ChArtist app sure is so simple and easy to use that the lack of a manual isn’t an issue." That's exactly what we were shooting for. As we communicated back and forth over email about various questions he had, I sure enjoyed talking to him.

And of course we are always thrilled to have input from one of our favorite bloggers, Randy Seaver. He reviewed Family ChArtist and said "For a new product, Family ChArtist is off to an auspicious start. I look forward to experimenting with it in future weeks. I do think I will like it!"
He caught us early on with a few glitches, but those have all been worked out now and things are running smoothly.

Carolyn Murphy reviewed it for the Phoenix Genealogy Examiner. I loved that she caught the bigger picture--the whole point. She said, "Framing and hanging a Family Tree Chart in a home has been found to have a lingering and stabilizing influence." So completely right.

James Tanner said it is an "easy to use interface with lots of choices for charts from your own files." and Renee Zamora said "They do a wonderful job of making order out of the chaos in our genealogy databases. The hardest part about using Family ChArtist is trying to choose amongst the gazillion gorgeous graphics available. You really need to take a look at them to appreciate what they have done." They both caught what most every reviewer has appreciated the most--the ease of use, and the beautiful graphics.

And we so appreciate everyone just helping us get the word out. They all seemed really excited about it. Diane Hadad, Dick Eastman (twice), Renee Husky, Paula Hinkle, Cheryl Palmer, Lynn Palermo, and I'm sure others that I'm missing (If so I'm sorry.) It is so gratifying to see other people so excited about what we've been doing.

So we're off and running. And we couldn't be more pleased. If you haven't played around with it yet, please do. We know you are going to like it too.

Family ChArtist's first week/Monday's winners

It's been quite a week. And we are already on to version 1.1 of Family ChArtist. (Can you see the version notation in the new graphic?)

The bad news is we ran into a couple of glitches. Such is to be expected I guess. You work and work to get everything perfect, but computers can sometimes have a mind of their own. The good news is we were able to fix things quickly and version 1.1 is already out. And we sent out a couple of 20% off codes for people who had alerted us to the glitches. So if you see any more--let us know.

The other good news is that the response has been great. We are so appreciative of all the excitement everyone has had. It is so gratifying to hear the stories about how you are using this new tool to share what you have done with your families and to see the exciting styles you have submitted for printing. Thank you so much for allowing us to participate in your family this way.

We are still having some issues with certain types of GEDCOM import but hope to get those fixed very soon. If your GEDCOM isn't importing this weekend, try exporting your GEDCOM from your genealogy program as an ANSI file. We know that one is working well. And we should have the other types fixed shortly.

And, in all of the excitement, I didn't ever announce the winners of our drawings on Monday. Congratulations to P.S. Eagleson (Facebook winner), B. Feldstein (Twitter Winner) and B. Renick (GenealogyWise winner.) We'll be sending out $25 gift certificates that are good for Family ChArtist, or any of our other options--Working Charts, Custom Charts, Photo Giclees, Blank Charts, and everything else. Gift Cards are also available for purchase. And don't forget our free consult too. We'd love to print the perfect chart for you.

Family ChArtist--And We're Live

I feel like I've been on Iron Chef. If you ever watch that show on the food network, you'll know that two gourmet chefs have one hour to cook as many gourmet dishes as they can to impress a panel of judges. When the buzzer sounds at the end of the hour, they have to "walk away" no matter how much has been accomplished.

I finally understand why it takes so long for companies to get a new piece of software out. There are so many other features that we wanted to incorporate, so many other graphics that are just about ready to go. But we could have held on to it forever. At some point, you just have to release it and then go from there.

Two weeks ago (or three--it all blurs together) when we decided to set a roll out date, we thought we were within days of being ready for release, and the roll out was probably too far out in advance. Now after far too little sleep, the 12 noon release time has come and gone, and it is live. I'm so glad we did set that date. Otherwise it might never have been released. Hopefully you won't miss the things we wanted to add too much, and then we'll have exciting new things to work on in the future. And lots of new graphics to add soon--just as soon as I take a nap.

In the meantime I know how the chefs on Iron Chef feel watching the judges taste their food now too. We hope you like it. We hope it will help you creatively proclaim your heritage, show off your identity, thank those who came before, and inspire those who are growing up now. Let us know what you think.

Family ChArtist--Screenshots, keeping it simple

When we designed Family ChArtist we wanted to make it easy enough that you wouldn't need instructions and everything was intuitive. Hopefully we've gotten really close to that goal. Let me show you the screen shots for each section so that you can see how easy we've kept things. Keep your eye on the tabs below the chart.Choose the layout.Adding and entering information.Adding a title or controlling font. And then the next 4 deal with graphics. We'll still be refining things in our future development. We'd love to hear what you think.

We're down to counting hours. It's getting close.

Family ChArtist--coming with an all new website.

So there is an all new website coming on Monday too with the advent of Family ChArtist. For those of you who have never used our service or seen us at a conference, we're hoping that you'll be better able to see all the fabulous things we do. Here's a sneak peak at the front page.





Thanks to Amy Slade for all the great photographs.
We're off to the South Davis Family History Fair today. Wish us luck on this final beta/preview. We're down into the hours on the countdown now. It's almost here.

Family ChArtist--Adding Pictures

So today I'm going to give you some ideas on how to add pictures. Thanks to Erin, for helping me out with some samples today. You get to see another person's family for a while. And Erin always comes up with great ideas that I never would have thought of.
On this first one she has the baby pictures of the couple who started it all, and then a modern picture of their family
On this one she offset the focus person, and then put the family on the bottom again. Sweet and simple with that beautiful font.
On these she's added pictures of the main person in the center of a left to right chart.
With the hints I gave you the other day about sizing and shaping the layout of the genealogy chart, there are lots of things you can do Besides adding pictures of embellishments, you can add pictures as backgrounds. Like we talked about earlier, you can set the transparency to focus more on the picture, or more on the genealogy information. And then of course you can do a genealogy chart with no genealogy at all. This one has a timeline of the husband and wife on the top, the wedding picture and then pictures of the family and children below.
And combining pictures with the backgrounds you can come up with beautiful things too.
I've so enjoyed seeing what the testers have come up with. They've come up with beautiful designs I never would have thought of. I can't wait to see what you come up with too.

Family ChArtist--Shields and Monograms

One of my favorite sets of graphics is the 22 shields we have for your genealogy charts. Now I know these aren't really family crests. If you have a family crest you would like to add to your chart you are welcome to upload it like you would a picture. But if you don't have copies of a family crest you need, these add a pretty decorative element. Take a look:

Some of them have decoration in the middle and some of them are blank in the middle.If you use the title feature to place an initial over the shield, it becomes a monogram, like this:Or this:

You can even use a picture in the blank shields like this:And then you could even use the title feature just to put in a monogram without the shield. Anyway you slice it, there's lots of options in Family ChArtist

Family ChArtist--Genealogy chart display options

Get ready for a long blog post--I've got lots of pictures for you today to illustrate some options we've put in Family ChArtist.

To start with you come across the first two tabs: "Choose Layout" and "Add Genealogy Info." We debated for a while which needed to come first, so you may do some flipping back and forth between these two tabs when you are first starting your chart. "Choose Layout" won out on being first, because when you go to manually create your chart, we needed to know which way to lay out the blank chart.
So the first thing you will want to choose is which style you want to create. We're releasing Family ChArtist version 1 with our two most popular styles. A regular right to left pedigree and a bowtie. You just click on the one you want.Then when you add your genealogy information on the next tab, you'll come up with something like this to start with:
At this point you may want to go back to the "Choose Layout" tab to check out some more of the options and tweak your chart a little. First you'll want to choose a paper and size (discussed in a previous blog post) And then you'll want to choose a box style (also discussed in a previous blog post.) All of these choices are available in the editing panel on the "Choose Layout" tab.
Now, you sharp readers out there will notice something in the editing panel that we haven't talked about previously. The "Arrange chart information using:" section. This section of the editing panel gives you control over how the chart is laid out. The first two slide rules are about the space between the boxes. And the last slide rule is about the size of the box.
Let me show you some examples. First, with horizontal spacing, you can control the space between the generations like this:
wide:
or tight:
Then with the vertical spacing, you control the spaces within a generation like the wide ones above, or this tight one here: (remember, keep your eyes on the spaces between the boxes. Between those two controls, you can shrink the chart size down to be able to use more of the space around it for decoration (below) or spread it out to take up all of the space on the chart.
Then there is box width. On this same chart, when I widen the boxes, it actually also shrinks the height of the chart because there aren't as many lines of text wrapping down to the next line. Like this:
Or I can shorten the width of the box and create a chart that is taller, but has more room on the sides for pictures or decorations, like this:
So you can see there is lots to play around with, even just on one style of chart. As you begin to decorate your chart, you can flip back and forth to be able to adjust the chart the way you want it. All sorts of options for your creativity.