RootsChat.Com
General => Technical Help => Family History Programs, Tree Organisation, Presentation => Topic started by: taggg on Wednesday 11 October 17 13:30 BST (UK)
-
Hi,
Any suggestions on the best family tree program i was using Family tree maker 2014 but now i have to buy the new version if i want to access the internet.
-
This gets asked quite a lot and most will reply with the program that they are using.
If you want to see the differences between programs, try this link
http://www.toptenreviews.com/software/home/best-genealogy-software/
It compares what is available from each, and rates them. There is not a lot of difference between the top three to be honest.
Simon
-
Thanks
-
The burning question I want to ask about every program is, "Is this a stand-alone program that does not store my data online?" I am absolutely not interested in any form of online storage, for several reasons.
First, I often go to archives and search facilities which are out of range of the internet, and it would be a huge nuisance if I can't access my database because there's no wi-fi available and it's stored somewhere in a cloud.
Second, my experience of working with online trees (GenesReunited, MyHeritage, Geni etc) is that they are so d-e-a-d .... S--L--O--W compared with working offline that they drive me nuts.
Third, I am not about to make a free gift of my years of work to some web site that is then going to use it to make money, or to bombard me with spurious 'matches' and 'offers'. (Though the 'matches' can sometimes be quite fun - my favourite was a supposed match with my 2nd great-uncle, who was born, married, brought up 10 of a family, was given a retirement award for 40 years' work and eventually died, all in Banffshire, but according to the 'match' was born in England, allegedly had a second family, with birth dates overlapping those of the genuine family, and died in Australia. I am sure his wife (who also spent her entire life in Banffshire, and survived her husband), never mind his employers, would have been astonished to learn of his double life several months' travel away on the other side of the world.)
Another question is, "can I export just *part* of my tree as a GEDCOM?" I tried Family Tree Maker some years ago, and it would only export the complete tree. There was no way to select one branch and export that only, or if there was, I couldn't find it. Quite apart from not wanting make free gifts of my work to all and sundry, I am sure that others would find it just as annoying as I do when a tree with hundreds of individuals arrives, of whom only about 50 are actually relevant. I expect FTM has fixed that by now, to be fair.
-
As Simon says, everybody has their own favourite. Mine is RootsMagic which I settled on many years ago after trying most of the others and have upgraded several times since. I believe it meets all the requirements you listed. It stores everything on your computer, although I keep a backup on a 'cloud' server as a precaution.
Many programs, including RootsMagic, have a free version available to download and try for yourself.
Mike.
-
taggg, have a look also through these posts here 'Family History Programs, Tree Organisation, Presentation' www.rootschat.com/forum/technical-help/
I think there might be other main threads here on RC. Will have a look later too.
Monica :)
-
Thanks, Mike.
I have the free evaluation versions of Legacy v8, RootsMagic and Ancestral Quest, and at least two versions of FTM and one of The Master Genealogist, and am trying to make up my mind which one to get the full version of. What I am actually using is PAF v5.5.
-
The first computer I used to compile my family tree was an Amiga using A-Gene, a couple of years later I bought my first IBM computer and transferred the data to it using a serial cable and gedcom.
I used the DOS software version of Brothers Keeper.
As DOS gave way to Windows I upgraded (free) to the Windows version of Brothers Keeper.
Since then I have tried all the many Windows Family Tree programs but still use Brothers Keeper as no other program is a versatile or suits by style of working.
One of the great strentgh of Brothers Keeper is the user can use programs such as Photoshop within Brothers Keeper for photos and images and programs such as Word for text files rather than be restricted to the basic image display or text programs that are embedded in most similar genealogy programs.
Due to the size of my complete family tree I export my data to the program Treedraw (by SpanSoft) which allows me to manipulate the placing of individuals on the tree (to avoid page edges) or to import addition lineages.
Cheers
Guy
-
Another question is, "can I export just *part* of my tree as a GEDCOM?" I tried Family Tree Maker some years ago, and it would only export the complete tree.
I'm still using FTM V6 (old Broderbund version) and it will export just parts of trees, although I must admit that how to do so isn't all that obvious. The trick is to generate a tree (as in descendant, all in one, hourglass etc) and tweak the generations etc to display just the individuals you want to export, then while the tree is displayed select file, copy/export individuals in tree.
Should you ever want to go back to FTM I imagine the functionality is still there.
Jane :-)
-
Another question is, "can I export just *part* of my tree as a GEDCOM?" I tried Family Tree Maker some years ago, and it would only export the complete tree.
I'm still using FTM V6 (old Broderbund version) and it will export just parts of trees, although I must admit that how to do so isn't all that obvious. The trick is to generate a tree (as in descendant, all in one, hourglass etc) and tweak the generations etc to display just the individuals you want to export, then while the tree is displayed select file, copy/export individuals in tree.
Should you ever want to go back to FTM I imagine the functionality is still there.
Good gracious, that sounds like a horrendous faff. I don't think I'm tempted to go back to FTM :)
-
Although I have newer (and older) versions of FTM, my favourite is 2008.
Not difficult on there, when you export it asks whether you want to export all or "partial/some".,
You can also
Export all as gedcom then use gedxlate (onwards)
Export all as csv then use Excel and re-import
Edit all as gedcom then use Word/Wordpad/Notepad/ etc and re-import
Other products are available.
Do not forget to take at least 1x backup/copy of your file(s) before doing anything.
AND
work on the copy NOT the original.
-
Take a look at Family Historian. I moved to I've been using it now for this after hitting the buffers on a few other programs. It's 100% GEDCOM compliant, although that wasn't why I chose it - it was more for it's multimedia management and it's source management. It has a lot of functionality, so it does take time to get to grips with, but it's a worthwhile exercise. There's a good support forum, although it can get very technical at ties. It also has quite a few addons and companion programs, Ancestral Sources (free) and Charting Companion (reduced price) are two.
-
I've been using PAF 5 for yonks now....2 things that really annoy me is trying to delete an incorrect date,,,and trying to put a child in with an unknown father....the first id why I am looking to give PAF 5 the old heave-ho....
-
Oh? I have never had any bother doing either of those things.
PAF does have some irritating features - like flagging up when you add a child whose DoB is before that of the child previously entered instead of just rearranging them by date, and not remembering when you reject suggested duplicates so that every time you run a match/merge search it offers up every possible match, including ones you've already rejected umpteen times before.