Family Tree Maker 2017 Software Where to Buy

Family Tree Maker has long been the standard-bearer for desktop genealogy software programs. Indeed, our very starting time issue—January 2000—included an article on using Family Tree Maker 6.0. Simply when Ancestry.com announced it was discontinuing the software in 2015, some genealogists left it for expressionless.

But the programme has experienced a renaissance since being bought by Software MacKiev. Family Tree Maker 2017 was the showtime to let for syncing between it and a family tree on Ancestry.com. And subsequent updates have incorporated even more functionality while maintaining the same features that attracted genealogists in the first identify.

To help you brand the nigh of the plan, nosotros've put together these tips for using Family Tree Maker.

The tips and screenshots in this article reflect Family Tree Maker 2019 (the virtually contempo version at time of writing), but much of the advice will also apply to earlier iterations of the software.

Note: Despite the somewhat similar names, Family Tree Magazine is not affiliated with Family Tree Maker. The software plan is created past a separate company.

1. Import your family tree.

If y'all've already congenital a digital family unit tree, you can relieve valuable research time by importing it into Family Tree Maker. Yous tin can either upload a GEDCOM file (nether Plan>New Tree, click Import an Existing Tree) or download a tree from Ancestry.com or FamilySearch. (Just brand sure the data imports correctly!) Don't worry if yous're new to family-tree-building or want to commencement fresh—you tin also create a new tree manually, calculation one person at a time.

2. Change your appointment preferences.

Family Tree Maker formats dates consistently across your tree, making it easier for you lot to review them at a glance. To modify how dates are formatted, select Tools from the dropdown menu, then choose Options. From this window, select Names/Dates/Places and a format (such every bit "Twenty-four hours Month Twelvemonth") for both display and input formats. (Mac users: Select Preferences, then Dates/Names/Places.)

3. Add life events.

You lot can select preformatted fundamental life events ("facts") to add to a person in your family unit tree. While in the Tree window, select a person and click Customize View. From at that place, you can add individual facts (baptism, birth, burial, etc.) as well as shared facts (marriage license, divorce, etc.) You can also add a custom fact and specify what fields y'all want associated with its entry (such every bit appointment or identify).

4. Accept advantage of descriptions.

Each fact has a description field where you lot tin can add more than information, perfect for including details that don't fit neatly elsewhere. If you don't see the Clarification field, go to the Person view, then select a fact. Under Options, select Fact Backdrop. And so brand sure Description is included under Fact Elements.

five. Sort through conflicting data.

If your ancestor has multiple details associated with a fact (such as alien dates of birth), select which will be "preferred." Preferred facts will generally be displayed in reports and other exported versions of your tree, but Family unit Tree Maker will yet maintain this alternating information (useful if you're still determining which data is correct).

6. Clean upwards your names and places.

You can change how your ancestors' names are formatted in bulk under Tools>Catechumen Names, handy if they've been capitalized inconsistently. Besides, Family Tree Maker can help standardize your identify names. Nether Tools>Resolve All Place Names, you'll see all locations that Family Tree Maker doesn't recognize. The tool provides a suggested standardized place name, and you lot can either accept the suggested alternative or ignore it altogether. Click Other to search for another spelling of the place proper name.

7. Document censuses.

Use the Census fact to indicate if your ancestor appeared in an enumeration. In the Date field, utilise the full appointment—including the official day and calendar month the census was taken that yr. (See our list.) Too, type the full address in the Place field. You tin likewise upload and attach an image of the demography render (or whatsoever record image, for that affair).

8. Copy facts from one person to some other.

Adding events that affected multiple people—such every bit residence data from censuses—can be wearisome. Save time by copying such facts to others' profiles. Get to the People window, then the Person tab. Brand sure Facts is selected in the menu, and so right-click the target fact and select Copy. Click away, then right-click the fact again and select Paste. So click the checkmark adjacent to the profile(southward) you lot want to add the fact to.

9. Record addresses.

Family unit Tree Maker has three split up identify-related fact types: Address (the contemporary place someone lived or worked, generally used for postal purposes), Holding (related to real estate) and Residence (where someone mentioned in a tape lived). Select which fact best applies to the upshot y'all want to record, and be consistent in how yous employ that fact type. Y'all can likewise consider indicating some of the accost in the Place field of other facts, then including the rest in the Description or Note fields.

10. Don't confuse will and probate.

Some genealogists remember these ii "events" are the aforementioned, but Family Tree Maker has split fact types for a reason. Wills are written documents prepared before a person'due south death, while "probate" refers to legal proceedings after a person's expiry. So the Date and Place fields of probate facts should refer to when and where the courtroom ruled on the deceased's case, while those fields in the wills fact should signal when and where that certificate was prepared.

11. Create reports.

Family Tree Maker offers several options for reports that you can generate and export. These are bang-up to share with family, friends and other researchers. In improver, reports can help you await at your piece of work with fresh optics. Admission reports under the Publish window.

12. Back up your data.

In some means, desktop software is a safer repository for your family tree than an online service similar Ancestry.com. You can access your tree in Family Tree Maker without internet, and your tree isn't tied to an online subscription that could theoretically disappear. (And, unlike the FamilySearch Family Tree, no one can edit your tree in Family Tree Maker without your permission.) Still, exist sure to export your family tree equally a GEDCOM and store on an external difficult drive or in cloud-based storage. Yous never know when your hard drive could crash, wiping away years of hard work.

xiii. Follow these steps to export your tree from Family unit Tree Maker.

One of the most important advantages of using genealogy software is that once you've entered information on your family unit into a programme, it'due south easy to share your family file. You might want to email a branch of your family tree to a cousin. Even if she uses unlike genealogy software, she can still open your file and view your tree. Or maybe y'all'd similar to submit your family tree file to GEDmatch forth with your Deoxyribonucleic acid test results, so your matches on the site can figure out how yous're related. If you want to switch to a different genealogy programme, yous can make a copy of your family file to upload to the other programme.

Users of the popular Family Tree Maker genealogy software were left wondering what to exercise with their family files in December 2015, when Beginnings.com announced plans to discontinue the program. Although the company later reversed its decision and instead sold Family Tree Maker to Software MacKiev, researchers were reminded of the potential for obsolescence when using whatsoever third-party data-storage tool.

Whether yous demand to transfer your family tree to new software or you only want to share it with relatives, y'all'll need to know how to export a family file. Hither's how to do this in Family Tree Maker.

1. If yous maintain a Member Tree on Beginnings.com, commencement synchronize it with your Family Tree Maker software.

This is so your exported file will comprise the most upward-to-appointment information. To do this, open the linked tree in Family Tree Maker and click on the green leaf with the up and down arrows, located in the upper correct corner of your screen. Then click on Sync At present.

2.Yous might desire your exported family file to contain only function of your tree.

Maybe you lot desire to send only your shared branch to a cousin, for example. We'll suggest two ways to do this:

• One method is to create a chart to select people to include in the file. This is the only way that lets you lot specify how many generations of a relative's descendants you want to share. First, in Family Tree Maker, click the People tab and select the person whose descendants y'all desire in the file. Then click the Publish tab, select a chart (such equally the Descendant Nautical chart) under the Collection tab, and click on Create Chart. Specify how many generations of descendants to include. If you don't want to include all the descendants, select just the ones you want. Right-click on the chart, click on Consign and choose either Selected Persons or Entire Chart.
• Another fashion to select whom to include in your new file is to select Consign from the File carte (shown). Highlight a proper name and click Include to select just that person. Click Ancestors and you can specify the number of generations to include. Click Descendants to include all of a selected person's descendants. You can make multiple selections, such every bit someone'south ancestors and then that person'southward descendants. To start over once more, click the Exclude All button.

3. Cull an output file format.

The Family Tree Maker output option generates a fill-in file (.FTMB) that works only with the version you used to create it. Usually, you'll select another option, either some other version of Family Tree Maker (2008/2009, 2010, 2011 or 2012) or a GEDCOM v.5 file. The sometime blazon of file has the extension .FTM; a GEDCOM file ends in .GED.

In general, if you'll share the file with someone who uses Family unit Tree Maker, select the version that person has. Otherwise, cull a GEDCOM 5.5 file, a format uniform with most genealogy software and websites, such as GEDmatch. Merely if you're sharing with someone who uses RootsMagic software version seven.ane.0.1 or higher, it's improve to share a Family Tree Maker file. RootsMagic can at present import all versions of Family Tree Maker for Windows and Mac, and information technology does a better job importing a Family Tree Maker file than a Family Tree Maker-generated GEDCOM file.

4. Specify what data to include in the file.

If you opt to privatize living people, but their names volition be part of the file. You lot can optionally include private facts and notes, as well equally a research to-do list. If y'all include media files, such as photographs and document images, Family Tree Maker files will include them, merely GEDCOM files will have simply links to them. (Notation that GEDCOM files created with Family Tree Maker 2011 and before versions won't have links to media files, either.) If yous're sharing your tree as a GEDCOM file, you'll need to send image files and other media separately.

five. Select the folder on your computer where you desire to save the file.

Give the folder a name such as "jones-genealogy" and click OK. When the export is finished, click OK again.

Rick Crume

Data in this article appeared in the July/August 2016 (Crume) and July/August 2020 issues of Family Tree Magazine. An earlier version of this article (by Melanie Rigney) appeared in the January 2000 effect of Family Tree, and covered tips for Family Tree Maker 6.0.

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Source: https://www.familytreemagazine.com/resources/software/family-tree-maker-tips/

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