Friday, April 24, 2009

Genealogy Software Review Summary

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Randy Seaver presented a two-hour Genealogy Software Review on Wednesday, 22 April at the Chula Vista Civic Center Branch Library with 11 in attendance. The Review consisted of:

* A brief PowerPoint presentation of the features, costs, mapping capability and Web Search capability of Family Tree Maker 2009, Legacy Family Tree 7, and RootsMagic 4. The mapping and web search features were included here because there is no Internet access from the library Conference Room.

* A 30 minute review of Family Tree Maker 2009 screen views, navigation, editing data, menus, indexes, sources, reports, charts and media.

* * A 30 minute review of Legacy Family Tree 7 screen views, navigation, editing data, menus, indexes, sources, reports, charts and media.

* * A 30 minute review of RootsMagic 4 screen views, navigation, editing data, menus, indexes, sources, reports, charts and media.

Most of the attendees already have Family Tree Maker (either 2009 or earlier versions before 2006) and wondered if they should migrate to one or the other programs. He told the attendees that:

* Unless there were specific features in one of these programs that they absolutely had to have, they should stay with the program they have if it suits their wishes.

* One major reason to stick with Family Tree Maker, whether an earlier version or to upgrade to 2009, is if the user has many media files already linked to their FTM software database. In many cases, these media files will not migrate to the other programs automatically. For instance, Legacy Family Tree 7 will not import Family Tree Maker family files or media files. RootsMagic 4 will import FTM 16 and earlier family and media files but not from FTM 2009.

* Family Tree Maker 2009 screens seem very busy in the Family View (with an index, a pedigree chart and a family summary) and the Person View (with a small pedigree chart, an edit area, a notes/media area and an area with a choice of Facts, Timeline or Relationships). Navigation is easy in the Family View using the Pedigree Chart or Index, but not so intuitive in the Person View without some practice.

* Family Tree Maker 2009 takes a relatively long time to load my 23,000 person database. It takes over 60 seconds on my Windows XP computer. The family file size is over 48 megabytes.

* Legacy Family Tree 7 has fairly simple View screens labelled Family, Pedigree, Descendant and Index. The Family View shows the parents of each parent, the two parents, and the children of those parents. The user has to click on the target person to get a menu in order to edit or add information about Facts, Notes, sources or Media for the target person. There is a bit of a learning curve to use the icons on the Individual's Information menu.

* Legacy Family Tree 7 seems to be able to create more types of reports and charts, with more editing and formatting features, than the other two programs. Wall charts are made with a separate Legacy Charting program that opens in a separate window.

* Legacy Family Tree 7 took only 4 seconds to load my 23,000 person database, with a file size was 48 megabytes.

* RootsMagic 4 has fairly simple View screens labelled Pedigree, Family, Descendant and People (an index list). The Family View shows a person index, the parents of each parent, the two parents, and the children of those parents. The Pedigree View shows a person index and 5 or 6 generations of ancestors of the current person. In either view, the user has to click on the target person to get the Edit Person menu in order to edit or add information about Facts, Notes, sources or Media for the target person. There are buttons in the Edit Person menu for Notes, Media, and Sources.

* RootsMagic 4 seems to be able to create many reports and charts, but has limited editing and formatting features at the present time. Wall charts are made with a separate RootsMagic Chart program that opens in a separate window.

* RootsMagic 4 took only 5 seconds to load my 23,000 person database, with a file size of 16 megabytes.

There are many more features for each program and it is difficult to generalize my comments about them.

Randy likes Legacy and RootsMagic better than Family Tree Maker 2009 at this time because they load much faster, the navigation seems easier and more intuitive, and the reports and charts seem to be more easily generated and formatted. For what it's worth, he has kept Family Tree Maker 16 as his primary program until he can rectify most of the place names and source errors in his databases.

Any one of these three programs, and the expected upgrades to them over the years, will satisfy almost any genealogy researcher, whether novice or experienced.

2 comments:

Eileen said...

I use FTM 2009 and have been trying out Legacy 7, Roots Magic 4 and TMG 7. TMG 7 is currently the only software that will import FTM 2009 with all the linked media. I found that I really like FTM 2009's method of access sources from facts. I go to my individual view and there is the source right next to it; I can then click on the source media tab, open my source and view it while displaying the fact that is sources. I checked out the other software and found I had to drill down several layers to get to the source. But FTM2009 appears to lack the ability to enter GPS locations for places.

Randy said...

Hi Eileen,

Thanks for the info about TMG 7 and importing all FTM 2009 data. I didn't know that. I tested TMG last year and didn't really like it, but I didn't really try it for very long.

When I put sources in FTM, LFT and RM, I thoguht that FTM 2009 had the most complicated system and RM4 had the simplest. I thought all three provided about the same result quality. Those are only first impressions of ocurse, since I'm still testing and evaluating the software.

Cheers -- Randy