The Main Screen

RootsMagic has three main views: the Pedigree View, the Family View, and the Descendants View.  You switch between the three views by simply clicking on the tab for the desired view.  All three views are fully navigatible using either the mouse or arrow keys. Double clicking on a person's name brings up the data entry screen for that person.  You can even open multiple databases side by side. 

The Edit Screen

The RootsMagic edit screen lets you add an unlimited number of facts for every person (i.e. birth, death, marriage, occupation, religion, description, etc). If you want to add a fact type that isn't in RootsMagic' predefined list, you can simply create your own fact types. RootsMagic also allows notes and unlimited source citations for every fact.

Tabs on the top of the edit screen allow you to enter notes, sources, photos, addresses, and to-do list items for each person.

The RootsMagic Explorer

The RootsMagic Explorer is the heart of RootsMagic' search system.  The Explorer makes it easy to find and edit anyone in your file.  Quickly search by surname or given names, or perform sophisticated searches easily.  Even find women by their married names.

And you can easily edit any person in the search list with the click of a single button.
 

Sources - Documenting Your Family History

RootsMagic provides a powerful source list which lets you add, edit, delete, and print the sources of your information. Simply add the source once, then when you add a fact to a person and want to document where that information came from, you simply point to the source in the source list.

And best of all, the RootsMagic SourceWizard will help you write properly formatted sources regardless of your expertise.
 

Printing Reports

RootsMagic offers a large selection of printouts, all available from a single report dialog.  Pedigree charts, family group sheets, wall charts, 7 styles of narrative reports (where RootsMagic writes the sentences for you), numerous lists, mailing labels, calendars, relationship charts, individual summaries, photo tree, and blank charts.  And if that isn't enough, RootsMagic even provides a custom report generator, so you can create your own specialized lists. 
 

Publish Your Family History

Publishing your family history has never been easier.  The RootsMagic Publisher lets you combine multiple reports and charts into a single document, and will automatically create a table of contents and full index for the book.  You can include photos, notes, sources and other text in your book.  You can even add cover and title pages, copyright page, dedication, and more.  

Send your book directly to your printer, or save it to a PDF file to burn on a CD or email to family members. 

Create Spectacular Wall Charts

RootsMagic lets you create beautiful full color ancestor, descendant, and hourglass wall charts.  You have full control over the positioning, size, colors, fonts, and other aspects of every object in the chart.  With simple mouse control you can resize an individual’s box, or drag it to another location on the canvas without breaking the family links.  You can change colors of individual boxes, or change the font or color of the text in the boxes.  You can even customize your chart by adding additional text, pictures, or shapes to the chart, and you can change the background image or color.

Make Shareable CDs

You've worked hard to collect and organize your family history, and now RootsMagic makes it easy to share that history with your family and friends. Your shareable CD will feature a custom home page with your own title, photo, description, and contact information, and will include a read-only version of RootsMagic to show off your data and multimedia items.

Merging Duplicate Records

RootsMagic provides the most powerful and easy to use merge capabilities available.  RootsMagic will automatically look for duplicate individuals and display them in a list with the most likely matches listed first.  Simply click a button to merge the duplicate pair, or mark them as "not a match" so that they won't show up in any future merge sessions.  Plus, RootsMagic features SmartMerge technology to let you quickly merge all those "for certain" duplicates.
 

Website Generator

RootsMagic can generate professional looking web sites automatically from your data, in narrative format, pedigree chart format, family group sheet format, or a combination pedigree / family group sheet format.  If you want to see some websites created by RootsMagic, click here to bring up a google search of some websites created by RootsMagic users (remember that users can choose their own colors and layouts and may have modified these websites somewhat).

• Runs under Windows 95, 98, ME, NT, 2000, and XP Switch between pedigree, family, or descendant views
• View 5 or 6 generations at once on the pedigree view
• View 2 through 7 generations at once on the descendant view
• Easily track multiple relationships, such as adoptions, foster parents, etc
• Integrated backup and restore help safeguard your data
• Back up directly to CD

• Family members are automatically linked as you add them
• Automatically checks for duplicates as you add people
• Just double click on a person's name to edit that person
• RootsMagic Explorer lets you easily find and edit anyone in your family tree
• Resize edit and search dialogs to see as much information as you want
• Customize the tool bar to include the functions you use most
• Select toolbar button style
• Easy to use Explorer-like help system
• Video tutorial included on CD

• Open multiple databases on screen at the same time
• Drag and drop people between databases
• Automatically link dragged people into the other database
• Open multiple copies (and views) of the same database
• Add unlimited people, facts/events, notes, sources, and more
• 60 predefined fact types (birth, marriage, death, occupation, religion, etc)
• Create your own user defined fact types
• See a person's age at every event on their edit page
• Add private events that you can suppress from printing or exporting
• Add private notes that you can suppress from printing or exporting
• Display relationships to root person on status bar

• Make shareable CDs to give to others, with custom menu and a read-only version of RootsMagic
• RootsMagic Publisher lets you create complete books with narrative, notes, charts, photos, source bibliography, index, and more.
• Include cover and title pages, copyright, dedication, acknowledgement, preface pages
• Include table of contents
• Include free form text pages
• Customize your index format and number of columns
• Print to printer, Adobe Acrobat (PDF), or export to your word processor (RTF)
• Customize headers, footers, margins, fonts for any printout

• Ancestor Wall Charts in any orientation (left to right, bottom to top, etc)
• Descendant Wall Charts in any orientation (top to bottom, left to right, etc)
• Hourglass Charts (combined ancestors and descendants) in any orientation (top to bottom, left to right, etc)
• Timeline Charts
• Drag and drop to resize and move individual boxes
• Add a background image or color
• Print charts up to 57 feet wide
• Print charts on regular size paper and tape together, or print on large format printer
• Export charts to JPG, EMF, and other graphic formats
• Add freeform text, photos, and shapes to your charts

• Pedigree Charts (standard and cascading)
• Family Group Sheets
• Narrative reports (modified register, register (NEHGS), indented descendancy, Henry descendancy, D'Aboville descendancy, and ancestor)
• Select the size of pictures in narrative reports (books)
• Include pictures in narrative reports printed to rich text (RTF) files
• Ancestor and descendant box charts
• Print color coding in pedigree charts, group sheets, box charts, narrative reports, wall charts, ahnentafel, descendant list, and timelines
• Individual summary prints everything you know about a person
• Calendars with birthdays and anniversaries
• Custom report designer
• Relationship chart shows exactly how two people are related
• Scrapbook of pictures for people, families, sources, and places
• Blank pedigree charts, family group sheets, research logs, correspondence logs, and cemetery records forms
• Address labels for mailings
• Dozens of lists

• Attach photographs, sound clips, video clips and documents to any person, family, place, source, or event
• Scan photos directly into RootsMagic
• Photo editor lets you adjust sharpness, brightness, contrast, and crop, rotate, and zoom images
• Include photos in your books, group sheets, and other printouts
• Copy photos from your scrapbook directly to the clipboard

• SourceWizard automatically writes proper sources for you
• Add notes and stories/notes to any fact or person
• Easy to use source list tracks all your documentation (certificates, census, books, etc)
• Easily merge duplicate sources from the master source list
• Add a source to multiple people at once
• Easily make a copy of a source
• Enter each source only once, then reuse it elsewhere
• Add a global source to each person when importing a GEDCOM file.
• Track repositories where the sources are found
• Print your documentation (notes and sources) in your reports, summaries, and forms

• Automatically create a website including photos, notes, sources, index, surname list, GEDCOM file, email, etc
• Six types of websites: pedigree charts, group sheets, combo pedigree chart / group sheet, descendant narrative, ancestor narrative, alphabetical narrative
• Add your own links to your home page
• "Privatize" living persons in your website
• Automatically check for updates to your software
• Family Reunion Planner

• GenSmarts integration to get research suggestions from inside RootsMagic
• Add GenSmarts suggestions to your RootsMagic to-do list with one click
• "To do" list lets you keep track of research you still need to do for any person or family
• Correspondence Log keeps track of all your incoming and outgoing correspondence

• Bookmark any individuals in your database
• History list lets you backtrack through last 200 people visited
• Back button moves back to previously visited people
• Spell Checker checks the current notes, or all notes.
• Global search and replace for notes, sources, names, places, etc.
• Color code groups of individuals in your database
• Counts the number of separate trees in your database.
• Date calculator
• Pop up calendar when entering dates
• Relationship calculator shows you the relationship between any two people
• Soundex calculator (including alternate methods)
• Powerful merge capabilities, including SmartMerge and ShareMerge
• Prioritized merge list
• Mark possible duplicates as "not a match"
• Interactive problem list (edit problem person or family directly from problem list)
• Mark possible problems as "not a problem"
• Search by name, record number, dates, places, notes, and many other types of data
• Place list lets you enter place history, latitude and longitude for each place

• Direct PAF import (versions 2.x and later)
• Direct Family Origins import (versions 4 and later)
• Direct Family Origins backup import (versions 5 and later)
• Full GEDCOM 5.5 support so you can exchange data with other programs
• GEDCOM import option to combine into current database or create a new database
• Full LDS support, including full TempleReady support, automatic ordinance updating, selection of qualified ordinances, and the ability to view and edit all ordinance information from a single screen.  LDS support can be turned on or off.

Quotes and Reviews