Cyrillic is a program designed to display important information and structure in a clear way about a pedigree for human geneticists, clinical geneticists, genetic counselors and human molecular geneticists. We found it easy to learn and use. It is straightforward to draw a new pedigree since the editing of drawings is clear with simple selections of symbols. Importing files from other formats is somewhat cumbersome but manageable.
Compared with Cyrillic 1.1, the new version, Cyrillic 2, has improved a lot. Accessibility of tool-bar buttons and floating menus make it unnecessary to have the manual on hand all the time. Some of the impressive new features are listed below:
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1
Text annotations with choices of colors may be added anywhere on the drawing. This new feature improves the appearance and clarity of the drawing.
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2
The control of pedigree layout as well as the handling of imported files is better. For example, individuals are better spaced after importing moderate-size families.
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3
The option of reducing the whole drawing from 90% to 10% makes it a lot easier to view large pedigrees.
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4
Information about selected members of the family or all family members can be placed on the clipboard in a special format. Word for Windows or WordPerfect for Windows will accept such a format and convert it into a table.
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5
Regions containing pedigrees can be copied and pasted into Microsoft Word. It is handy to edit pictures by double clicking.
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6
Instead of adding one individual at a time, it allows adding a nuclear family.
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7
In printing, an option to fit a moderate-size drawing on a single page allows for a quick check. For larger pedigrees, the option of circular drawing is helpful for the purpose of presentation.
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8
Recombinations in haplotype bars are automatically generated by different colors and pattern.
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9
Cyrillic 2 handles consanguinity loops better than the previous version. We tested it using a file with ten loops, the drawing is clear after minor manipulations.
