Does any one have any suggestions of how I can do this within scrivener, or if there is any simple tool I can use? Thanks in advance!
Family trees are entirely too messy to do in Scrivener. You could try it in Scapple, but it won’t look like a traditional family tree diagram (styling the lines linking notes isn’t something the developer is interested in, for instance), though you can now label the lines linking notes.
Quite frankly, I think you’re better off with either websites or specialized applications devoted to this sort of thing, as they’ve already figured out most of the oddities of familial relations. I even just googled how Omnigraffle might handle family trees, and it looks like even that rather sophisticated chart-making software doesn’t work well for this purpose.
Now, once you have your tree diagrammed out, you could import a graphic of it (and zoomed in sections of it), as you write more detailed histories about your family history. Scrivener is a great choice for organizing all the extra information that might go into a self-pubbed book to share with your family.
thanks! the problem is it’s literally impossible to find one that doesn’t have either a super complicated arrangement of boxes or a photo of a bloody tree in the background… Literally after the simplest of diagrams.
How do I even download scapple? can I use it on Mac?
really appreciate your help…
for context- I’m trying to do a really simple one that lists the characters in my book and their relation to each other…
actually… have just bought scapple and that does the trick. THANK YOU.
After I replied, it occured to me that you might be doing something with a fictional family. Scapple is great if all you want is to organize your thoughts, just don’t expect to be able to make it look a certain way.
One nice thing with Scrivener is that if you import the scapple document into your research folder, you’ll see a preview of it in the editor, and can then “edit in external editor” to modify it.