The first person created on a chart becomes the default Ego, i.e. the focal point of the family tree. Ego is always colored red, and the name (and serial number) of Ego is displayed in a drop-down menu in the upper right corner of the Detail Display. You may select a different Ego at any time using this drop-down menu. If you Alt-Click (on some Macs Option-Click) on any person in the chart, they become Ego. When you change Ego, the new Ego's detailed information will appear in the Detail Display (so you can be sure you got the right one). Clicking on your intended Alter will restore the display to Alter's information.
When you click on anyone else on the chart, they are displayed in blue and their information appears in the Detail Display. They are called Alter. The kin term boxes on the Detail display show what Ego calls Alter and vice versa. Each Alter, of course, may have many sets of kin terms: one set for each possible Ego.
All persons who are part of the chain of relations between Ego and Alter (Linking Kinsmen) are displayed in yellow/orange. For example, if Alter is married to Ego's granddaughter, Ego will be red, Alter will be blue, Alter's wife (the granddaughter) will be yellow, and one of the granddaughter's parents will be yellow. If there are multiple paths between Ego and Alter, SILKin will choose the shortest one.
For more information about the terms Ego, Alter and other basic terminology of kinship analysis, see the SIL Anthropology page. (To return to the Help System, use the "Back Button".)
All dates in SILKin are expressed in a 'universal format' like 2011-07-21 for July 21, 2011. If you are entering an approximate date, you can enter just the Year-Month or just the Year. If you accidentally enter a date in your native format, SILKin will try to interpret it; if it cannot you will get an error message. You should form the habit of entering dates in Year-Month-Day numeric format.
If you have entered names for people these names can be used to label the symbols. In the 'Labels' menu you may choose the labelling style: Initials, First Name, Last Name or Whole Name. You can change the style at any time. The labelling style does not affect the way you enter names, only the display on the chart. If you do not enter names, SILKin will display a person's serial number in angle brackets (e.g. <15>) under each person's symbol.
The 'Labels' menu also allows you to display the kin term used by the current Ego for the current Alter. You may choose terms of address or terms of reference. You also may choose to place a letter (A, B, ...) under each person's symbol that represents their kin term. That should make it easier to see patterns of kin terms.
The Context menu has a 'Context is Editable' item. When it is checked, the diagram can be changed. If it is unchecked, the diagram is immutable. The normal (default) setting allows editing. But if, for example, you are examining someone else's data you can uncheck this box to assure that you do not accidentally change their data.
If you want to tidy up your chart, you can drag any person or union to a new location with the mouse. If you run out of room on the screen, simply scroll up, down, or sideways to get more room. Scroll bars will appear once your chart is larger than the viewing area. Whenever you place a person or union right on the edge of the chart, it will automatically add an empty space to allow room for one more. To force the chart to grow, keep placing objects right on the edge. If you later move a person or union away from the edge, the chart will NOT get smaller.
You can make charts as large as you like. The bigger they are, the more scrolling you must do to locate someone.
Click on and drag a person or union symbol to move it. The links will be redrawn. If you hold down the Shift key and move a union, you will also move the immediate nuclear family associated with that union. If you hold down the Alt key (also a Mac's Command key) while moving a union you will move the entire lineage descended from that union.
Drag a person to either the top (if they are a parent/spouse) or bottom (if they are a child/sibling) of a union. If there was a relationship, it will be deleted. Dropping a person on a union 'toggles' a relationship; when you initially drop someone on the bottom of a union symbol, you add them as a child of the union. If you drop them on the bottom again, you delete them as a child of the union.
The next time you Save (or Save As) your data, all the relationships you deleted will be erased from the SILK file, and any kin terms you entered for those relationships (dyads) are erased. This action cannot be undone. If you immediately re-connect the person to their family, all their relationships (links) will be restored, but the kin terms will not be restored.
Of course, if the relationship in question was erroneous, deleting it is exactly the right thing to do. However, in view of the serious, irreversible consequences of deleting a relationship, you should be cautious about it. Here are some things you might consider before deleting:
If you hold down the Control key and click on a person's symbol, they will be deleted if they are not Ego and are not linked to any union. This is a safety precaution because deleting a person has side-effects:
Likewise, if you attempt to delete a union that still has persons linked to it, SILKin may reject your deletion attempt. BE CAREFUL. Do not delete the person if you only need to delete a relationship (see above).
The next time you Save (or Save As) your data, all the people and unions you deleted will be erased from the SILK file. This action cannot be undone.
The Clear All entry under the File menu blanks all people, unions and relationships from your screen. It does not erase them from the SILK file; it disconnects your chart from the SILK file. It gives you a blank slate upon which to create a new chart (with a new project name and new SILK file), or to load a new SILK file.
There are several reasons why you might want to create multiple family tree charts:
When you first launch SILKin, the label over the chart area says 'Draw Family Tree Charts Below.' When you create a new context (by beginning a family tree chart) SILKin automatically creates an initial chart (with description 'Default Chart') containing your initial people and families. SILKin assigns the name 'A' to your first chart, and will name subsequent charts 'B' 'C' etc. The name and description of the current chart is displayed in the drop-down menu at the top of the chart area.
You may edit the description of the current chart to be anything you want. Choose Edit > Edit Chart Description, then type in your new description.
To create an additional chart, click on the drop-down menu at the top of the chart area and choose 'Create New Chart'. You will be prompted for a description (that can be edited later) and your new blank chart will then be displayed. You may begin creating people and unions. If your new chart was named (by SILKin) 'Chart B' then all persons and families you create on this chart will have a home chart of 'B'. The Detail Display for Alter always shows his/her home chart just to the right of the birth date. If one or more links to Alter (see below) appear on other charts, then to the right of the Home Chart will appear a drop-down menu of the charts where Alter's links are displayed.
Frequently, you will want to create links between people on different charts. If, for example, you put each family on a different chart, every marriage of a child on one Chart will likely be to someone on another chart. When you click on a blank area of any chart to create a person or union, you also have the choice 'Link to Person'. Choosing 'Link to Person' brings up a menu of all persons in your context. Choosing an existing person creates a male/female symbol drawn in green. Links will always be green unless the link represents Ego (red), Alter (blue), or a linking kinsman (orange). When you click on a link to make her/him Alter, the Detail Display will show the information for that person.
For example: a son of the Martin family marries a daughter of the Smith family. The girl, Mary Smith, was first drawn (i.e. created) on Chart B with her family of origin. The son, James Martin, was first drawn on Chart D with his parents and siblings. When they marry, we might want to create a new Chart E for their marriage and eventual offspring. To put James and Mary on Chart E, we draw (or create) on Chart E a link to James and a link to Mary. We are not making new people; we are just letting the one and only Mary Smith appear on multiple charts; likewise for James. Whenever we click on someone or a link to them, they become Alter and their information appears in the Detail Display, where we can edit it.
The key point is this: there is only one Mary Smith, even though she is visible on more than one chart. If on any chart we click on Mary (either her black symbol or a green link symbol) and edit her birthday to 1965-02-23, that change is made to the one and only Mary Smith in our population. If you examine her detailed data on any chart, the revised birthday will appear.
A related point: Ego and Alter do not need to be on the same chart. In the 'James and Mary' example, you can choose James as Ego by alt-clicking on him in Chart D, or pick him from the drop-down menu in the upper right corner of the Detail Display. If you then go to Chart B and click on Mary's mother as Alter, you may enter the kin term that James uses for Mary's mother (e.g. mother_in_law) and the reciprocal kin term. There is no need to create a link to Mary's mother on James' Chart.
If you should ever need to delete a chart, it might get complicated; you need to know the rules.
If you want to print a chart, you can select Portrait or Landscape mode by clicking 'File > Page Setup'. Landscape mode (wider than it is long) is the default. Your computer's page setup dialog may have a 'Scale' setting (expressed as a percentage). Unfortunately, changing the scale will not affect SILKin's printing. The 'Edit Prefs' menu allows you to change the font for the onscreen charts and prints.
Under 'File > Print' you have three options. You can print just the portion of your chart that is visible now, or the entire current chart, or all charts. Printing a large chart may require several sheets of paper, and printing all charts will require at least one sheet for each chart.