Family Tree

Family Tree

Create Christmas Video/DVD Family Tree with PowerPoint

Christmas is right at the corner. Are you ready to create a warm memory of family joy on the special holiday? You can make a PowerPoint family tree and convert it to video/DVD to present your family history and ancestry with younger generations.

Let's see how to create a Christmas Video/DVD Family Tree with PowerPoint. It must make big sense to have one on Christmas, the grand occasion for family reunion, and you can drill your PowerPoint skills to make a compelling family tree using charts.

Create Christmas Family Tree Video/DVD with PowerPoint

* The following steps are made on a PowerPoint 2010 beta program.

1. Choose Organizational Charts

a. Open your PowerPoint. By default, the first slide is the title slide where you can type in a name and sub title for the Christmas Family tree.

b. In the upper left corner of Home Ribbon, click New Slide. Choose a slide theme that allows you to add in SmartArt, e.g. Title and Content, Two Content, Comparison, etc.

c. Click the Insert SmartArt Graphic icon.

d. In the pop-up Choose a SmartArt Graphic interface, point to Hierarchy from the left column, and select a hierarchy organizational chart that fits your family tree. You can also choose a chart layout from other SmartArt categories like List, Process, Cycle, Relationship, Matrix, Pyramid and Picture.

2. Add info for Christmas Family Tree

In the chart you've selected, type in the exact family info of yours. As usual, enter the names of the oldest living relative and his companion into the first text box. Then add the next generation of the couple to the boxes in the second level box(s). Enter the names of their children in the subordinate boxes.

Manage shapes in your Christmas Family Tree

To add a box for another offspring, right-click on the existing box where you want to add it around, choose Add Shape and select the exact place for it.

To delete a box in the Family Tree, click on the border of the box, and press Delete key to remove it.

To change existing shape of a box, right click on the box. In the pop-up shortcut menu, select Change Shape and re-pick one that you like.

To adjust the size of a box, do the same right-click practice. Choose the Size and Position… option. The Format Shape interface will be displayed. Adjust the size to your satisfaction.

3. Choose Another Chart for Extended Family

If you are going to make a big family tree with stem chart and subordinate charts, you can create new slides for every sibling's family. Perform the previous steps to extend the family line.

4. Color Christmas Family Tree with Pictures and Backgrounds

To illustrate each family member, you can accompany an avatar or photo to every name. Click Insert -> Picture -> Insert Picture from File to choose a picture that best suits that family member. You can drag the border of the image and the text to make it a perfect fit.

Also, don't forget to add a beautiful background for your PowerPoint Family Tree. You can choose one template from the Design tab. To put the family tree with a typical Christmas style, download some free ones at Free Christmas PowerPoint Templates and Backgrounds, http://www.dvd-ppt-slideshow.com/powerpoint-knowledge/powerpoint-templates.html

5. Vivify Christmas Family Tree by Animations, Music and Movie Clips

To please the ears of your family, get most of these dynamic subtleties - animations, transitions, sound tracks and movie clips. Add animation for shapes in a family tree chart, insert a Christmas carol or song to play across the whole slideshow, and, bring in an old video montage of the family to give a unique touch. See in the article how to play a sound across all slides in your Christmas PowerPoint Family Tree?http://www.dvd-ppt-slideshow.com/powerpoint-knowledge/sound-across-slides.html

6. Convert Christmas PowerPoint Family Tree to DVD/Video

Finally, convert the Christmas Family Tree in PowerPoint to a more universal media format.
To watch the Christmas Family Tree slideshow on a home TV with all, burn it to high resolution DVD and hook the disk to a DVD player. The tool you need is a PowerPoint to DVD burning program like Moyea PPT to DVD Burner

To share the PowerPoint Family Tree with more friends via Internet at Christmas, convert it to smaller video and upload to YouTube, FaceBook, MySpace and etc. For that conversion, you can take the professional Moyea PPT to Video Converter

About the Author

Paula Cheung, technical writer and blogger for PowerPoint E-learning Center

Is there a program to put your family tree in book form, by generation?

I have my family tree in Gedcom format to share with the computer literate in my family, but I would like to put it in book form. Starting with me and working back or starting with as far back as I can go on each branch and working back to me. Are there any free/cheap programs out there? I've just started my research about 5 months ago and have 1,000 people to try and organize in an easier format than the visual family tree.

Family Tree Maker ($40 or so) and Roots Magic ($29 or so) will both do it. You pick "Descendants of" your earliest ancestor or "Ancestors of" yourself. (Or make four books, one for each set of cousins, by choosing your grandparents for "Ancestors of".)

RM has two neat features. You can "Print" to an RTF document, open it in word, and tweak it. You can also copy all of your data AND a read-only version of RM onto a CD, one for each cousin. That way of a second cousin once removed by marriage was Abraham Lincoln, and he doesn't show up on the "Ancestors of" report, you can still show people how you are related. Saves trees, too.

They should both ask you if they should print notes. (I know RM does, so I suspect FTM will.) Notes are up to 32,000 characters that you enter for biographies, obits, census entries - anything narrative, that won't fit in a neat little factoid.

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