Horizontal hierarchy tree in tikz-qtree: bad layout for longer node-names

Question

I'm trying to set a number of hierarchy trees directly in LaTeX and found tikz-qtree quite helpful for this task.

Since the descriptions for the nodes and children are rather long words, the layout doesn't seem optimal in a vertical tree.

Additionally, I'll merge those trees in a bigger tree and then things start getting crowded.

So, I thought of a horizontal tree. They're nice, too. But I just cannot get them to work properly.

The tikz-qtree-manual is pretty short and the containing example-nodes consist of a small number of letters only.

What I'm trying to achieve is something like the first tree, but "rotated" by 90°. The titles of nodes and children will be long (sometimes several words) and it will be a total of three levels in the end.

Simply growing the first tree to the right does not suffice. :) Where can I find documentation about the properties of the "edge from parent path"-parameter? I didn't find them in the tikz-manual either.

I looked into the regular tikz-package, too, but ran into similar issues there. tikz-qtree has a prettier syntax, so I stuck with it.. Maybe something like dirtree would be suited better?

Anyway, here's a minimal working example:

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{tikz}
\usepackage{tikz-qtree}

\begin{document}

Nice vertical tree. Bad for lots of subcategories.
\begin{figure}[h!]
\centering
\begin{tikzpicture}
\tikzset{edge from parent/.style= 
            {thick, draw,
                edge from parent path={(\tikzparentnode.south)
                                        -- +(0,-8pt)
                                        -| (\tikzchildnode)}}}
\Tree 
    [. parent 
        [. {nice child0} ]
        [. child1 ] 
        [. child2 ]
        [. child3 ]
    ]
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{figure}

Vertical tree with different growth direction. Doesn't look quite right. o\_O
\begin{figure}[h!]
\centering
\begin{tikzpicture}
\tikzset{grow'=right, edge from parent/.style= 
            {thick, draw,
                edge from parent path={(\tikzparentnode.east)
                                        -- +(0,-8pt)
                                        -| (\tikzchildnode)}}}
\tikzset{every tree node/.style={anchor=base west}} 
\Tree 
    [. parent 
        [. {nice child0} ]
        [. child1 ] 
        [. child2 ]
        [. child3 ]
    ]
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{figure}

Nice horizontal tree. Good for lots of subcategories, but `wrong' edges.
\begin{figure}[h!]
\centering
\begin{tikzpicture}
\tikzset{grow'=right,level distance=32pt} 
\tikzset{execute at begin node=\strut} 
\tikzset{every tree node/.style={anchor=base west}} 
\Tree   
    [.p
        [.c0 ]
        [.c1 ]
        [.c2 ]
        [.c3 ]
    ]
\end{tikzpicture} 
\end{figure}

Almost identical horizontal tree as above, but messed up layout for longer node-names. 
\begin{figure}[h!]
\centering
\begin{tikzpicture}
\tikzset{grow'=right,level distance=32pt} 
\tikzset{execute at begin node=\strut} 
\tikzset{every tree node/.style={anchor=base west}} 
\Tree   
    [.parent
        [.c1 ]
        [.c2 ]
    ]
\end{tikzpicture} 
\end{figure}

\end{document}

Thank you guys for any pointers and your help!

Answer 1

Here's a solution using tikz-qtree plus the TikZ trees library, which offers a pre-made edge from parent fork right path for such trees.

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{tikz}
\usepackage{tikz-qtree}
\usetikzlibrary{trees} % this is to allow the fork right path

\begin{document}

\begin{tikzpicture}[grow'=right,level distance=1.25in,sibling distance=.25in]
\tikzset{edge from parent/.style= 
            {thick, draw, edge from parent fork right},
         every tree node/.style=
            {draw,minimum width=1in,text width=1in,align=center}}
\Tree 
    [. parent 
        [.{nice child0}
                [.{grandchild0-0 } ]
            [.{grandchild0-1 } ]
            [.{grandchild0-2 } ]
            [.{grandchild0-3 } ]
        ]
        [.child1
                [.{grandchild1-0 } ]
            [.{grandchild1-1 } ]
            [.{grandchild1-2 } ]
        ] 
        [.child2 ]
        [.child3 ]
    ]
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}