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Review: Family Tree MakerŪ 2006 (software) Article posted: September 01, 2005; Updated September 02, 2005 By Rick Roberts Global Genealogy & History Shoppe
The reason that we carry the top four programs is that there is no genealogy software that is ideal for everyone. They each have different strengths. Our job is to help match the specific needs of a user with the software that can satisfy them. Family Tree MakerŪ became the most widely used commercial genealogical software program in the world by being first to market an easy-to-use product in the late 1980's. They dominated the market through wide retail distribution and strong marketing efforts at national genealogical conventions. FTM's competitors of the day were private individuals and small companies that did not have access to major retail distribution networks, nor deep enough pockets to fund national advertising. Competing programs oftentimes provided better tools for recording information and source citations, however most of FTM's competitors' products had long learning curves and eventually fell by the wayside. A few competitors responded to the challenge of ease-of-use and have succeeded to grow and prosper. Early on, Family Tree MakerŪ was little more than a useful tool for producing an attractive genealogy chart or family group sheet. The original designer of FTM was the fellow who founded a popular organizational chart software. He had the knowledge and existing programing to produce a superior graphical product. He also had adequate cash flow from his business oriented software products to successfully market FTM. Over the years Family Tree MakerŪ has developed into a robust genealogical software by constantly adding new features. They have upgraded the program to a professional level while keeping it easy to use. At the same time FTM enhanced their market advantage by adding new charts and reports, as well as regularly adding new options so users could customize their charts and reports to suit their needs. In the mid to late 1990's FTM began marketing genealogical information both on CD Rom and online. The sale of online genealogical and historical information became their primary marketing focus, especially since the acquisition of Family Tree MakerŪ by MyFamily.com, the parent company of What's new in Family Tree MakerŪ 2006? My first observation when installing the newest version of Family Tree MakerŪ was that the installation process has been improved. It's hard to imagine improvement insofar as it was dead-easy before. However FTM now provides a process that is still easy and well explained. There is even a short video you can watch that introduces you to some of the features within Family Tree MakerŪ. During the installation you'll notice an option to install a separate free software called Charting Companion. It can be installed later by putting the installation CD back in your CD drawer and waiting for the installation screen to reappear. Charting Companion provides a number of additional charts and reports that you can make using your existing Family Tree MakerŪ information. I thought it odd that FTM would add Charting Companion considering that they are already acknowledged as the charting leader. I did install the Charting Companion and tested all of the additional charts that it provides and was pleasantly surprised to find that there is good value in this "freebie". Once Charting Companion is installed you just link it to you Family Tree MakerŪ file (.FTW) and the software does the rest. You cannot change your FTM information from within Charting Companion. However, when you make changes to your FTM file from within FTM, those changes are automatically updated to Charting Companion. Charting Companion reads Family Tree MakerŪ files only. There is no need to make a GEDCOM or move file information by any other means. Charting Companion includes two charts that I especially like. The first one is called a Bow-tie Chart and the other is their Descendant Chart. The Bow-tie Chart is a ancestor/pedigree style chart however it puts the primary person in the middle, where the knot of a bow-tie might be and then extends the maternal ancestors to the left on one side of the knot, and the paternal side of the family on the other side. I thought it a practical and attractive alternative to the traditional pedigree style. I really like Charting Companion's approach to the Descendant Chart. It begins with the person who's descendants you are interested in, placed on the left-hand side of the page. Then the descendants cascade from them to the right. I was able to get a lot more people on fewer pages than when using the traditional chart style in FTM. Descendant charts in FTM begin at the top of the page, and cascade down the page. Descendant Charts produced in FTM provide more options for what you want to include about each person than the Charting Companion does. The Descendant chart in Charting Companion will run over multiple pages (wall chart format) if required. The charts provide clear markings to help you fit your pages together. Charting Companion is not essential to use with FTM however it is a nice add-on... and there is no additional charge for it. That appeals to my Scottish heritage :) The Family Tree MakerŪ 2006 installation program will either update and earlier version of Family Tree MakerŪ that is already on your computer, or as a completely new installation on a computer that has never had FTM installed on it. If you have an earlier version of Family Tree MakerŪ (any version) on your PC , the installation program will search your computer, find the earlier version and ask you if you want to replace it with Family Tree MakerŪ 2006. When you click the OK button, the program automatically removes the earlier version and then imports your family into FTm 2006. The next time that you click on your FTM2006 icon on your desktop, Family Tree MakerŪ opens with you family file appearing on the screen at the exact place where you left off the last time that you used it. I've never had a problem with an installation however I always recommend backing up your family file prior to upgrading. If this is a new installation on a computer that you have never used FTM on before, the installation program will check for an earlier version of FTM. When it doesn't find one, it will ask you if you want to install the program. Just click OK and follow the on screen prompts. Family Tree MakerŪ 2006 continues the progress made in the 2005 version. The 2005 version was a complete rewrite intended to make the software much easier to use. The engineers were highly successful in achieving this goal. FTM 2006 just gets better. Using Family Tree MakerŪ 2006 we can now more easily integrate the activities of searching for online information and adding that information to your personal family history database. At the same time the developers of FTM have invested in many new features and options to respond in response to user suggestions. Some of those features include:
It makes more sense than ever to consider to online databases now that the genealogy and vital records databases of Genealogy.com and Ancestry. com merging at the Family Tree MakerŪ 2006 has been further developed to allow users to change web-search criteria in various ways without ever changing your data in Family Tree MakerŪ. That means that you can be very specific in the type of online search that you want to make, restricting the data in such a way as to pull relevant results from massive databases. The new tools help you merge Ancestry.com records and images with any individual in your records and edit citation information before merging. It is an extraordinary advantage to be able to edit those citations prior to merging because you will want to clearly identify the source of the material, especially if that material is a transcribed record. Another helpful addition is that all records stored in Family Tree MakerŪ 2006 can now be linked directly to the related source records on Ancestry.com. New Source screen Earlier versions of Family Tree Maker did not provide an easy way to see the list of sources that proved a single fact or event. In fact, very early version didn't provide an opportunity to add multiple sources to prove a single event or fact. Versions that did support multiple sources were awkward to use because you had to flip through several pages to see all of the sources. The Source screen has been enlarged to include a section that lists all of the sources that you have recorded to prove any piece of information. Source Usage Report Easily connect a single citation to multiple facts with the new Copy and Paste feature. You can also quickly identify and replace duplicate master sources without losing any information. Hurrah! This is especially helpful when working with a source that involves many people and many events or fact for those people. A good example is recording census information. Now you can enter the census information once and easily apply it to all of the people and events mentioned in the census. Streamlined data entry Version 2005 added the new pedigree view for adding/editing information about family members. Version 2006 has a new and improved Edit Individual box that simplifies the process of entering basic information about a person from the Pedigree view. It also makes it easier for you to see related sources for that person. Expanded Notes for individuals and marriages A constant complaint about Family Tree MAker has been the small amount of space that is allowed for Notes for both people and marriages. FTM 2006 solves this by increasing the notes storage capacity up to 1MB per note. [That means that you can enter many times as many notes in the Notes field than in any earlier version of Family Tree Maker. Earlier versions provided individual note space for about 8 pages of notes. FTM 2006 provides space for about 250 pages of notes per person/marriage]. Family Facts and Research Tips Family Facts and Research Tips have been added to the software to help users find interesting and helpful research information about your family surname see where your ancestors are likely to have originated using surname density technology, the meaning of their names, where they lived, their most likely occupations and more. The research tips section will also provide with you tips on which records to search for more information. This is a great first step toward fully integrating the research how-to element, with existing information research, recording and sharing capabilities of Family Tree Maker. The how-to content is quite relevant today and is a great candidate for expansion in the coming years. The development of Family Tree Maker 2006 has reinforced my impression that purchase of Family Tree Maker by Ancestry.com has been a good thing for the users of FTM insofar as they are putting real investment into the program. They started with version 2005 and are continuing with version 2006. We were concerned about how slowly the software was being developed under a couple of its earlier owners. Overall, Family Tree Maker has added some very useful new features to FTM 2006, not to mention a number of new options to existing features. In addition to the new features that help users record information and cite sources, version 2006 has integrated itself seamless with online family history databases providing state-of-the-art search capabilities that can be customized, and easy merging of that information into your personal family file. 
The FTM 2006 upgrades are inexpensive for those who wish to upgrade from any earlier version of Family Tree Maker. Another option is one of the three different boxed retail packages that include FTM 2006, access to online data from The upgrades and Basic (software only) are in our store now (not in any regular retail outlets) and ready to ship or be picked up at our store. The boxed packages can be ordered now but will not be shipped for another week or so. Which family tree software is best for you?
Shopping Cart & Order Desk Global Genealogy & History Shoppe 1-800-361-5168 ( 9-5 Monday to Friday )
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