Personal Ancestral File (PAF)
Personal Ancestral File (PAF) is a genealogy program which can be downloaded free of charge from the LDS (Latter Day Saints) website:
The current version is PAF5.
The program is fairly simple to use, but here are some instructions which should help to answer some of the most frequent questions.
I. How to change the "Home Person"
II. How to create charts
I. How to change the "Home Person".
The "home person" is the person that the tree should start with (normally you). Sometimes, when you import your tree from other programs, the home person gets changed to the wrong one. Then, when you export your tree to some sites (such as Genes Reunited), you'll find that it starts with the wrong person. Here's how to change it.
Go to the Tools menu and click on Preferences. Then click on the File tab. Where it says "RIN of home person on file open" click on Search, then click on Individual List. This lists all the people in your tree. Click on the name of the person you want your tree to start with, and hit OK.
To check that you've done it right, click on the big red arrow in the row of icons at the top of the page. This takes you immediately to the Home Person you've chosen.
II. How to create charts
Click on File - Print Report.
A. To create a pedigree chart (showing somebody's ancestors)
1. Click on the Pedigree tab.
2. Where it says Starting person click on Search, then Individual List, and choose the person you want to start with.
3a. If you want to print the chart without saving it, click on Print.
3b. If you want to create a file containing the chart, tick Print to File, then click on Print.
B. To create a descendant chart (showing somebody's descendants)
1. Click on the Descendant tab.
Follow steps 2 and 3 above.
The Reports and Charts screen contains a number of options that you can experiment with.
The Charts produced by the free PAF program aren't very pretty, and the program offers very few chart printing options compared with other family tree programs. However, the familysearch site offers a free basic PAF companion for printing charts, and a more complete Companion is available on payment:
