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Options for completing your charts

Once you have completed your chart frames in QuickFrame you have several choices for completing them. The article below describes several options as well as links to helpful templates.

 Hand Charting

Of course the tried and true method of charting is by hand. If you print your charts right from the browser you may still do them with colored pens or pencils in the normal way.

Computer charting

If you choose to complete your charts on computer there are several options available to you. Which one is “best” is really a matter of personal preference and budget. I will attempt to describe the most popular methods below:

OpenOffice

This program is really my favorite for several reasons. To begin with it is FREE in every sense of the word. So if you are shopping for Office software, before you spend a bunch of money or (God forbid) download illegal copies of MicroSoft products consider your needs carefully.

1. OpenOffice reads and writes to MS Office formats if neccessary. While conversion is not always perfect it improves with each version released. And since the price is FREE upgrading to a new version can be done at your convenience.
2. It is very easy to use
3. It has a drawing program. This feature is by far my favorite when it comes to charting. It is hands down the best program I have used for this purpose.
4. It has a number of large corporations contributing to its upkeep and development as well as a massive amount of private support and developement. It is not going to disappear suddenly in other words. And development is moving quickly.

If this site looks a bit like it is sponsored by OpenOffice that is why. Missionaries have enough financial problems. I feel that using free software can help at least a bit in that regard. The free software links I have included on this site are the ones I use daily. They are all excellent in my opinion.

Using Templates

I have included some basic templates for three different computer programs. Two of them are word processors and the third is the Drawing program I mentioned above. Using the templates is basically the same no matter which program you use so I am giving some generic instruction here that should get you through the basics with any of these programs.

1. In your browser right click on the image of your chart produced by QuickFrame.
2. Select “Save link as” from the menu and it will save an image of your chart.
3. Open up you word processor or drawing program and open the vertical chart template.
4. From the insert menu choose to insert a graphic. Find the image you just saved and insert it.
5. The image will undoubtedly be in the wrong place and probably slightly the wrong size. That’s OK.
6. Stretch the image to fit the location marked for the image on the template. You can stretch the image a fair amount before the legibility of the titles are effected.
7. Once the frame is properly in place on your new chart. You are ready to add text boxes to your insides. It is a good idea to have a blank text box saved in the clipboard ready for pasting since you will probably have to add many to a typical vertical chart. I would also recommend learning the hot keys for copying and pasting since you will be doing this often and mouse clicking gets tedious after awhile.
8. When you have completed your insides you can begin on your outsides by typing in the templates outer columns.
9. OpenOffice Draw has many handy features for charting I recommend it. It gives you better control over the objects you add than a word proccessor like MS Word or OOo Writer.

Horizontal charts

Horizontal charts can be done in the same way only do not use the templates. Just paste them into a blank document or drawing and use the normal editing features of the program to add key verse or other refinements to your chart.

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