Work with a large group chart

An imported group of a listed client or a fund can run to a hundred entities or more. On one slide, the box you need is somewhere off screen, the lines are hard to follow, and the whole chart is too small to read when you present it. A few tools keep a chart that size workable: search to find an entity, the minimap to move around, stacks to fold away the parts no one needs to see, and separate slides for the detail.

Ask yourself which part of the group this matter is about, and who will look at the chart: the team working in it, or a client who needs the overview.

Find an entity

1. Click Search in the toolbar and type part of a name, such as "Beta" or "ApS". The results list the elements whose name or type matches, text boxes and sticky notes containing the words, and relationships whose label matches.

   

2. Click a result. The canvas moves and zooms to it; for a relationship, it shows both entities at either end of the line.

Search looks through the slide you have open. To find a structure or an element across all your matters, press Ctrl+K (⌘K on a Mac); see find a matter or document fast.

Move around the chart

1. Click Show minimap in the controls at the bottom of the canvas. A small map of the whole slide appears.

2. Click a spot on the minimap to move the canvas there. Click Fit to view to see the whole slide again.

   

Fold away the parts no one needs to see

A row of thirty dormant subsidiaries, or the property companies under one holding, can be folded into a single stack that reads as one pile on the slide.

1. Select the elements to fold together. They must all be of the same element type, for example all companies.

2. Right-click the selection and choose Convert to Element stack. The elements are replaced by one stacked box.

   

3. To work on the elements inside, select the stack and click Expand Element stack in its toolbar. A notice shows which stack is open: click it to go to the elements, Restack to fold them up again, or Disband to undo the stack and keep the elements on the slide.

See one company's owners and holdings

1. Open Settings in the toolbar and turn on Exploration mode.

   

2. Click a company. The lines connected to it light up, to its owners and to the companies it holds, so you can pick them out of a crowded chart. Click another company to move the highlight, and turn the mode off when you are done.

Give the detail its own slide

Select the part of the group the matter is about, right-click and choose New slide from selection. Juristic makes a new slide with those elements and opens it. Keep the full group on the first slide as the overview, and the detail on the slides after it, so a reader sees where the target sits before they see what happens to it.

Tips from practice

• Turn off handles on a dense chart. In Settings, switch off Show handles (Alt+J) and the connection dots on each box are hidden, so the lines underneath can be clicked. Hold Ctrl to bring the dots back while you draw a new line.
• Stack what does not matter for this matter. Dormant companies and long rows of identical subsidiaries are the first candidates. The reader sees that they exist without having to read them.
• Present from the detail slides. A hundred boxes on one slide is unreadable on a projector. Show the overview briefly, then the slide for each part.

To see who ultimately owns what across the group, see trace ownership through the group. Before the chart goes to the client, tidy up the chart before it goes out.