I would like to make a request to the makers of Family Tree Maker and Ancestry.com to please add support for syncronizing data between Family Tree Maker and Ancestry.com member trees. This is being asked for, directly and indirectly, by many people including subscribers, and those who would be subscribers but aren't, simply due to the lack of ease associated with the online trees.
In Family Tree Maker, users have all the abilities of the online trees, with more. There is error control above and beyond the online trees. User actually have the ability to MERGE data. Other programs can work in conjunction with, and complement the offline program, and FTM also allows users the control to access the searching and merging of data, just as the online tree, connection dependant.
For those with slower connections, slower computers, or massive trees, the online trees can be PAINFUL to work with.
I, and MANY others like me, would GREATLY appreciate the ability to sync FTM with Ancestry.com member trees. The few who actually like and enjoy the online trees would still have the ability to do so, and it would keep the ability to browse for ancesters in your favorite browser, but with syncing, it would greating reduce the problems that arise from the online trees.
Here's a QUICK sampling of the forums, and requests for features, or questions on how to do things that would be fixed or fulfilled by simply adding syncing capabilities to FTM.
Date and Place Checking...
http://boards.ancestry.com/topics.ancestry.ancimprovements/1...Merging Data...
http://boards.ancestry.com/topics.ancestry.ancimprovements/1...http://boards.ancestry.com/topics.ancestry.ancimprovements/1...Looking to Sync...
http://boards.ancestry.com/topics.ancestry.ancimprovements/1...http://boards.ancestry.com/topics.ancestry.ancimprovements/1...Merging and Syncing
http://boards.ancestry.com/topics.ancestry.ancimprovements/1...Accidental errors introduced by slow connections with online forms...
http://boards.ancestry.com/topics.ancestry.ancimprovements/1...Errors introduced simply by loading everything in web pages...
http://boards.ancestry.com/topics.ancestry.ancimprovements/1...Reporting that can be done offline but not online without problems...
http://boards.ancestry.com/topics.ancestry.ancimprovements/1...Hints taking longer due to increased load on servers...
http://boards.ancestry.com/topics.ancestry.ancimprovements/1...http://boards.ancestry.com/topics.ancestry.ancimprovements/1...Fields stock in FTM that aren't there online...
http://boards.ancestry.com/topics.ancestry.ancimprovements/1...In terms of benefits to MyFamily.com, Inc. (Registrar of Ancestry), and The Generations Network, Inc (Copyright Holder of FTM 08)...
1. It would increase sales of the Family Tree Maker program
2. Syncing data either instantly, or on a timed interval, would consume FAR less bandwidth than loading every person on every page
3. Users with a slow, or intermittant connection, would have the service opened up to them, for the same reasons as 2
4. Increase of user base would increase viability of the FTM addon market (good for other publishers too)
5. More people would use the online service, as syncing to show off work is much less painful (again see 2)
6. Less trees would go 'missing' by deletion and replacement (which many of us do), resulting in less broken links to trees
7. Updating via downloadable patches to a local program would allow for easier updating of the service as a whole
8. More fields, providing more details, would begin increasing the overall accuracy of the network
9. With ease of access, there will be more people inclined to participate, increasing revenues
10. Users would have features 'added' simply by using the existing features in the program, including reporting and printing, merging, etc
If others would like to see this too, please, SPEAK UP!
-Post here
-Use the web form to contact support and request this
-Call their tech support 800 number and ask tech support to put the request in
If we all sit back and simply say to ourselves 'yeah, that'd be a good idea', the people who makes the decisions on where to spend research and development money won't hear you talking to yourself. Believe it or not, those people depend on us to give them direction. They come up with some things on their own, but they are very user driven. I've worked with software development for a few years, and if enough people want it, they'll get it. But only if the producers know its really wanted. Otherwise we, as users, are more or less stuck with 'I think they might like this'.
I doubt they have many moderators that respond to ideas, but if you contact them and TALK TO THEM, and TELL THEM we want it, then you will be heard. If enough respond to this here, then someone MIGHT notice, but please, contact them on the 'live chat' or tech support and request it directly.