Menu "File" - "Open", "Save", "Save as...", "Open recent" work as in any Windows program. The "Relatives" program has its own file format with ".rel" extension.

A file can be downloaded not only from a local computer but from a remote server on the Internet. The address should be fully specified, i.e.: http://genealogysoft.com/en/examples/sample-en-1.rel (this is the real address - you can try it).

When downloading via ftp protocol the file address should contain login and password like this:
ftp://login:password@ftp.sample.com/dir/subdir/treefile.rel

Menu item "Save selected as..." differs from typical Windows usage in that it saves only the selected part of the tree. It is similar to creation of a new file and copying a part of the tree in it, except that in this case the file header will remain the same, whereas if you copy/paste it into a new file it will have the "Relatives" own header.

Large files usually have a big space in the top left corner of the tree free from person's frames. In order to not show this empty space immediately after opening, the program sets the scale of the image so that a part of the tree is visible in the bottom right corner of the screen.