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March 9, 2005 Preserving Your Roots (update)
New versions of family tree programs make it easy to preserve family information and use it in a variety of appealing ways. These programs help you document family information you have and also provide help in doing genealogy research to find other members of your family. Here are two programs we think are excellent:
Family Tree Maker Deluxe 2005 (Encore, Windows 98/Me/XP, $59.95) has sold more than 5 million copies, and for good reasons. The program is easy use and has options for producing many types of wonderful family trees, reports and more. Start your tree by using the Data Entry Wizard, or just fill in the provided blanks on your own. An auto-entry feature fills in frequently-used information, and dates entered in just about any format are automatically converted to standard genealogy format. You can display the information you’ve entered at any time in a family view or in an ancestor, descendant, hourglass, all-in-one, outline, fan or the new standard pedigree tree format. You can also choose which type of information to display, such as birth, marriage and death dates and the like, and also select the number of generations to display. View the information in a variety of report formats too, and switch between different tree and report formats at any time. An index listing each person (which can be sorted in alpha or birth date order) makes it especially easy to find any person. Each person also has a fact card, where you can enter address, phone, email, medical information and notes and then use the information to print mailing labels, name tags, post cards and more. Use the Publishing Center to create family books that can include text, photos, Table of Contents, index and more. You can also create scrapbooks and personal family home pages to publish on the Web. It’s easy to enhance your family tree, book, or scrapbook by including photos and images. There’s also an option for using an image as a background for your family tree. Print the information or save it in a pdf, rtf or other format to share with others, even if they don’t have the program, and you can use bookmarks to find any family members or groups. There are screen icons to take you quickly to the many features available, and there’s also an on screen help option and a comprehensive printed manual. Internet users can also find help and user group information on the Web site. New to this version is access to Ancestry.com to search data collections of more than 1.3 billion names.
Legacy Family Tree 5.0‘s(Millennia Corporation, Windows, standard edition download is free, Deluxe version download is $19.95, www.legacyfamilytree.com) strength is in the ease of entering and finding information in your family tree. Help on actually researching your tree is thin, but sourcing your info is emphasized throughout. The program supports unlimited file sizes, record numbers and multimedia elements. Multiple printed family tree and report formats are available, including a family book complete with pictures. Mailing label creation helps in organizing family reunions and such. Export your family tree in gedcom, pdf and lds formats. Legacy 5.0 displays information in two basic views: the "Family" view, which shows three generations centered on a selected family, with grandparents displayed above and children displayed below. Birth and marriage places and dates and thumbnail photos of the selected family are also displayed, along with special events such as awards, retirements or trips. Alternate name spelling and nicknames can be added and searched as well. Grandparents’ and children’s information in the Family View display are limited to birth and death dates, but clicking on any of their names places that person in the center, with complete info and their parents displayed above and their children below. All information is entered in the Family view, using a fill-in-the-box style. The program creates several lists that make entering information easier, including auto-complete for dates and locations. Extensive search parameters, bookmark and history lists make it easy to find individuals, even in very large files. Up to eight windows can be opened in a Family File; this option is very useful for large files, and two different Family Files can be opened simultaneously to compare or copy info. A Picture Gallery can be filled with photos, graphics, scanned documents, audio and video clips. From this Picture Gallery you can choose photos and such to attach to individuals to display on-screen or to print in reports. The "Pedigree" view centers on a selected individual and displays his/her parents, grandparents, great grandparents and so on. This display format has two additional windows: one showing spouses and children, and the other showing siblings of the selected person. Double clicking on any displayed individual moves him/her to the primary position. To-Do task lists help to organize your genealogy work. A Privacy feature allows you to exclude selected individuals from any view or report. Entries for multiple spouses as well as unmarried partners are supported. Extensive help and useful explanations are available within the program, and bubble tips provide context help. Included is step-by-step instructions for LDS (Latter Day Saints) Temple submissions for genealogy searches. An optional printed manual and several optional CD-ROM based training disks help you get the most from this program, and a free introductory tutorial is available on the Web site. Creating a family tree is a very rewarding project, and either of these programs give you the help you need for the task. |
