I'm fed up with FTM freezing and closing and am looking for a new prograsm. I've used FTM almost since it came out. I think most of the features I need are common now - adequate sourcing, room for extensive notes, Id like the ability to print 5 generation (rather than 4) pedigree charts. I really preferred the old, old FTM where the whole family was visible at a glance. For years I have been asking FTM to allow more date qualifiers (like bapt, bur, prob, m int) rather than just bef, aft, cir bet. I have a normal laptop, a netbook and will be purchasing a tablet this week and work with all three, two on a daily basis. Any suggestions based upon your experiences? All reolies will be appreciated. Thanks!

Katie Kirby, kmkirby@live.com

The Master Genealogist... hands down, the most flexible and customizable program available. They offer a 30 day free trail and their customer support is lightyears ahead of most other software.

... and no, I'm not affiliated with them in any way- other than ass a very satisfied user for the past 10+ year.

Handsdown: RootsMagic!!!

Thanks for your imput. I downloaded their free version yesterday and am fairly impressed, but need to work with it a little more. I wish they had a 7-10day trial on the full version so I could get a better idea. Thanks for responding.

Katie Kirby

I've worked with three programs over the last few years. I've given up on FTM so I only work with two now.

I use Personal Ancestral File (PAF) and Roots Magic. Both have their pros and cons. PAF is good at entering information fast, you can do it without using the mouse for the most part. PAF is a bit old now, sourcing is not the best, and printing reports is not the greatest.

Roots Magic is great for reports, has a lot of reports and gets regular updates. However, for putting in a lot of information quickly I don't like having to use the mouse.

Here's how I use them. I have two one name studies going on now, I love using PAF for that since I only add birth, death, marriage and burial dates and places. I can add all of that really quickly in PAF. Since Roots Magic can convert PAF files, I open Roots Magic to create reports and such.

For my own personal family tree I use Roots Magic only. Since I don't do so much information entering and I do a lot more sourcing then I find it better to not have to convert between programs.

Roots Magic also has the to go option where you can put the program onto a flash drive and take it with you for when you don't have your computer, which I don't use much, but is nice to have.

Thanks for the imput. I've been playing with the free version of RootsMagic the last few days. I have one question: the index of names does not have a "search" feature. If this feature part of the paid version? I have more than 15000 names in my database and scrolling is too tiresome to go from one person to another, especially if they are alphabetically separate! Because I switch back and forth from my laptop to me netbook, I like the flash drive feature.

Katie Kirby

I don't know about how the free version is, but you can search in the list. If you select a name in the list, then start typing by last name it will search for you. I only learned about this feature when I asked the same question a couple of months ago.

So you can go to Katie Kirby by typing in 'Kirby, Katie'.

You can also have Roots Magic installed on two or three machines if you'd like. The flash drive is more for people not having a notebook. It's still nice as I take it to other people's home and such.

Katie, the "index" on the left side of the screen is not searchable. However, CTRL-F opens the RootsMagic Explorer window. Clicking the Find button at the top (or Alt-F) will open a pop-up that allows you to search by any criteria. For a quick search by name, click the NameFind button (or Alt-M).

Actually, it is searchable. Someone responded telling me to ckick on any name in the index and typing over the name. I tried it and it works!

That wasn't the type of searchable I meant, but yes, it does work (Hadn't had enough coffee yesterday).