thanks for that further detailed insight. Sounds worse than I thought, but in time most things will become obsolete, hence my comments for future looking programs. A further problem with many genealogy databases is portability, with my TMG database, I have always been very careful to ensure I did not use functions I could not export intact via GEDCOM, not only for future change of program, but also to share and on sites like Rootsweb trees. (I hate to say this but Ancestry.com trees are a waste of time regarding keeping your data intact, they have never accepted text/notes from event fields, even from their own syncable FTM), but that is another story. My top suggestion was Family Historian, and one of the reasons was its claimed 100% GEDCOM compatibility, so that at any point I should be able to move easily.