Legacy software - Family History & Genealogy Message Board

Re: Lost deluxe number

helena11a — 2013-02-26 18:17:10Z

They finally replied today and didn't have a record but have given me a replacement number

Re: Lost deluxe number

BrianJones133 — 2013-02-26 13:56:50Z

I'm not sure that anyone can help you here. You would either need access to your old computer or the sticker/receipt that you received from legacy after your purchase.

I know this does not help you now, but I put the number in my hard copy manual, since I knew I would have that around.

You might also try calling them on the telephone, if there is an urgent need for the number.

Lost deluxe number

helena11a — 2013-02-26 09:15:19Z

I have come to this in desperation. Due to a house move and new lap top, I have lost my deluxe number for my Legacy software. I purchased the copy here in England in May 2008 (thats what the CD states) and I also have the manual. I E mailed Legacy customer services (it states they have copies of the numbera) back on 25th JANUARY and as yet I have heard nothing, despite E mailing again and via their face book page. Can anyone help? I have software which I can't use as I need the extra feature and no way of contacting them.

Re: Ancestry.com to Legacy7 software how do you transfer tree

AGHatchett3rd — 2013-02-09 17:32:59Z

1.Go to your Ancestry tree and pick any person's profile.

2.Next to the Tree Name at the top will be a link that says "Tree pages" - click that.

3). On the page that comes up in the right hand sidebar click the button that says "Export Tree". This will create a GEDCOM. When itis finished it will say "Download Gedcom".

Click the Orage Download Button and then open Legacy and import the GEDCOM file you just downloaded into it.

Note that Photos, etc. attached to your Ancestry Tree will *NOT* be included in teh GEDCOM.

Ancestry.com to Legacy7 software how do you transfer tree

lorriroughton — 2013-02-09 15:48:43Z

I have decided I need to use a family tree software program and have decided to use Legacy7 and have downloaded the free version.

How do I get my Ancestry.com tree into the Legacy7 software program. I'm not really sure how to do it because I think I'm doing it backwards.

Re: Question about transferring to Legacy from enthusiastic dummy

wendyh651 — 2013-01-23 03:08:32Z

Hi Neil,

I have good news for you - Legacy will do everything you're asking about.

The free Standard edition is a perfectly adequate program, and many people are happily using it. I suggest you download it and import your GEDCOM file, and see if you like it. The current version is 7.5.0.208

When you decide it's just what you need, and you want to unlock the extra features, go and buy the Deluxe edition - it is the same program, just with extra "bits" made available to you. You'll be sent a key (a code) that you copy into the program to unlock the Deluxe features.

If you never feel the need for the Deluxe features, carry on using the Standard edition. There's no limit on how long you can use it, or how many people you can have in your file (only limited by your hard-disk space).

Hope this helps. :-)

Kind Regards,
Wendy

Question about transferring to Legacy from enthusiastic dummy

neilr127 — 2013-01-22 20:01:27Z

I have all genelaogical material and documentation in Paf files. I would like to up date to Legacy on a recommendation.

2 questions:

Is the standard free download of Legacy 67.5 adequate?

Will it receive my Gedcom made from the PAF file so I can just import it into Legacy?

Neil
(truly a dummy with lots of valuable info)

Re: Publishing Center falls short

drfritze — 2013-01-03 14:18:29Z

I followed up some more with screen shots showing the step-by-step of the problem I see. When words fail, say it with pictures. The tech understood and the problem has been referred to the programmers but there are no promises on when it will be addressed. If you care to and can query the status, it's issue 4268.

Re: Publishing Center falls short

drfritze — 2012-12-26 18:31:59Z

The response when I submitted a bug report for the insertion problem is that Legacy does not support FGRs for unmarried individuals. This was determined notwithstanding the fact those reports can be generated either as part of or not part of a book in the Publishing Center and they function perfectly well. If you wish to insert a FGR for an unmaried individual, it may work. If not, the following workarounds seem to work when a simple insert will not.

1. Position the "Family" tab to the unmarried individual you want to include.
2. Click the "Reports" icon.
3. Click the "Publishing Center" button.
4. Notice the "Current Person" is the individual chosen in the Family tab and the "Current Couple" says "None".
5. In the "Chapters of Book" window on the right, navigate to and click the chapter BEFORE which you want the new chapter inserted.
6. In the "Available Items" window, click the Individual Report selection.
7. Click the "Insert" button.
8. Leave the new chapter selected, and click Family Group Report in the "Available Selections" window.
9. Click the "Insert" button.
10. Select the unwanted Individual Report chapter in the "Chapters of Book" window
11. Click the "Remove" button.

You can also perform the following workaround which has never failed me.

Follow steps 1-4 and then
5. Click Family Group Report in the "Available Items" window.
6. Click the "Add" button.
7. Click the new chapter added at the bottom of the list in the "Chapters of Book" window.
8. Use the up and down arrows to position the new chapter to the proper place in the book.

Re: Publishing Center falls short

drfritze — 2012-12-26 18:05:08Z

I received notification today that Millenia accepted my suggestion to add the fact that there is a limit on the number of chapters in the publishing center to the help files and manuals. More importantly they appear ready to add an error message if you try to add the 201st chapter and take appropriate actions so as to avoid making the book unusable if that occurs.

Re: Publishing Center falls short

drfritze — 2012-12-21 13:12:57Z

Yes I have submitted a bug report for the insertion problem so that might get fixed (1BD-186368A3-0317). Some time ago, I submitted a bug report for double entries in the Table of Contents which was resolved. When I ran into the deletion problem, my frustration overflowed. This facility appears to be something that's not very well debugged, kind of thrown together maybe.

A PDF manipulator is a possibility if I can figure out how to merge the indexes.

My word processor is Windows Wordpad which has been adequate until now.

I guess I'm curious; is there anyone besides me who's trying to use this out of the box without doing a lot of manipulation of results? Maybe that's not the publisher's intent.

Can you please put a note about the 200 chapter limit in the manual? I'm looking at both "Legacy Family Tree 7.0" that came with the original CD and the online help file and I couldn't find any reference to it.

Should I submit a bug report for the deletion problem too?

Thank you for listening.

Re: Publishing Center falls short

wendyh651 — 2012-12-21 02:38:55Z

Have you been in contact with Legacy Support to try and solve your problems?

Have you submitted a bug report for things that are not working properly, or suggestions to improve those features that are working as they're intended but could be better?

There are programs that will edit a PDF file for you - I can't name any right at this moment, but I'm sure you'll find something with a Google search if you want to persue that.

What word processor are you using? Have you looked in its Help to see if it can index for you?

Are there any specific questions we can try to answer for you?

Kind Regards,
Wendy

Publishing Center falls short

drfritze — 2012-12-20 20:13:18Z

I've beed trying to prepare a collection of Family Group Sheets for my siblings by Christmas. That's not going to happen. I realize this facility is not high on the vendor's priority list but it's frustrating when things don't function as hoped. Here are a few things I've run into, good, bad, and bugs.

Designating which FGRs to include in what order is not difficult. There are facilities to build a real book with a title page, copyright, dedication, preface, etc. It can produce narrative but I chose to use family group sheets so I could better control which generations are included.

A PDF was really my only option. FGRs and charts are not available in rich text format. There is a wonderful optional indexing feature which builds a name index for you with proper page references. This feature is not available in plain text and HTML formats.

There is a limit of 200 items (decendancy chart, pedigree chart, individual report, family group sheet, etc.) which is not well documented so, of course, I ran into it. Deleting is buggy. When I tried to insert after deleting, I discovered the subscripts for the FGRs were not reordered so instead of inserting, I brought back deleted FGRs and others close to the insertion point disappeared.

I was producing FGRS even for unmarried individuals so I had a consistent format throughout the book. Inserting these FGRs when close to the 200 limit is buggy. Invariably, an existing FGR was duplicated and the desired FGR was omitted.

I believe my only options now are to rebuild my book or produce rich text format do a lot of editting with my word processor. With the second option, I don't know what I'd do about an index.

Re: How to add children's notes

dannybou — 2012-11-28 18:32:28Z

Hi Wendy

Thanks for this informtion. I will review it.

Danny

Re: How to add children's notes

wendyh651 — 2012-11-28 05:00:27Z

Hi Danny,

Your ancestor's brother is not your ancestor, so he will not appear in any ancestor report of your ancestors.

You may find a descendants' report more useful to include the information you want to show.

If a report from your current database will pick up more people than you want to include, consider making a copy of your file and unlinking the unwanted from the wanted, or exporting a focus group, or using tags to export the wanted people.

I don't want to flood you with a whole lot of instructions here, so do take some time to look up some of the terms I've used in the Help file in Legacy, and come back here and ask more questions if you need to.

I've "talked" before about the unlinking bit, along with deleting them, too - see the Legacy User Group archives at legacyusergroup@legacyusers.com/msg19210.html" target="_blank">http://www.mail-archive.com/legacyusergroup@legacyusers.com/... for a post where I've described my use of it.

If that link doesn't work (I've had problems posting links to this archive in these boards before), go to http://www.legacyfamilytree.com/LegacyLists.asp and scroll down to find the link to the archives. Then once there, search for a thread with the subject line "Gedcom file for a specific family surname only - I don't understand how to do it" and that will find it for you.

Hope this helps. :-)

Kind Regards,
Wendy

Re: How to add children's notes

dannybou — 2012-11-27 13:26:10Z

Hi Wendy

Maybe I am not at the right place in the report then. One ancestor's brother I have included research notes on him. When I preview the ancestors report (book), I don't see those notes. It is those notes I am trying to get the report to include. Thanks

Danny

Re: How to add children's notes

wendyh651 — 2012-11-27 03:10:36Z

It appears that printing the children's notes is not an option for the Ancestor Book report (is that the report you're looking at?). The Options screen is the same for all reports, so it's a catch-all rather than what's possible for any particular report.

I have to wonder, though, why you would want to print the notes for the children in the section for their parents? You can select the notes to be printed in the next generation where the children are listed.

I'm not the last word in all things Legacy, I'm just the admin of this board who's had a little practice with the program and tries to help where I can. You may have good reasons for wanting to include these notes with the parents, and I'd be interested in hearing your arguments here on the board if you care to share.

In any case, if you would like to make a suggestion to the programmers, see the link "Suggest a new feature" on the Home tab in Legacy to do so.

Kind Regards,
Wendy

How to add children's notes

dannybou — 2012-11-26 22:20:06Z

I am trying to add research notes in an ancestors report but in the options, the children's notes is greyed out. How do I get it to allow me to check that oprion?

Danny

Re: Legacy and Dropbox - CANCEL my request for help

jomello36 — 2012-11-25 23:54:07Z

I just spent time solving how to get Families onto my Notebook. Didn't need Dropbox, it seems.

Sorry to take up space for such a stupid request for help.

Legacy and Dropbox

jomello36 — 2012-11-25 22:44:39Z

I have Galaxy Notebook (Android) recently purchased. I have a Dropbox account. I exported my Legacy backup to Dropbox. When I try to access the backup info from Dropbox on my Notebook, I get the message that I need an APP to open the file. I paid for and downloaded the app that Legacy supports called Families which I assume is compatible w/Android. When I use the Families App all I get is the Kennedy family. I have no clue how to use the Families App to open my Legacy file in Dropbox.

Man, am I ever confused! Can anyone advise on this. Thanks in advance.

Re: exporting my Ancestry.com Tree back into Legacy software

sagrelto1 — 2012-11-24 16:01:24Z

I have just finished reading the thread from origin thru MSG 12 sent in Apr or Aug I think.

The only thing I did not see was any mention of the personal computer program Family Tree Maker which is a relatively inexpensive product now available from ancestry.com. (I have been purchasing versions for at least 10 years -- just never had time to really use it.). For the last 6 months, I have been using it in combination with ancestry.com. Family Tree Maker has features like merging duplicates not available in online ancestry.com and there are features in ancestry.com not available in Family TreeMaker so I use both and keep them synced.

But for one of the major concerns I saw in the thread -- a safe backup on the PC (and I'm pretty sure a Mac version), it is there and very easy to use. However the only export I have seen so far from Family Tree Maker is to export to an online tree at ancestry.com.

For the record, I have been working with ancestry.com and Family Tree Maker for the last 6 months and have about 7800 people in the tree so far, plus even more images & stories, with about 13800 untraced hints.

I have just seen info re Legacy and purchased my first complete version. Ergo, I have the same problem -- figuring out how to sync info -- in reverse from the main topic of the thread.

It appear to me that I need to keep working in ancestry.com until I exhaust the info, exporting via GEDCOM into Legacy from time to time to explore the reporting facilities which may be better.

Re: Legacy For Ipad

naryathgr8 — 2012-11-21 15:58:24Z

I also have Families. I have had the program for about 5 months. It is easy to use. Syncing is simple. It is convenient when traveling. Plus, it provides me with the comfort of knowing that I have an independent back-up of my entire Legacy files, including media.

Re: Legacy For Ipad

tubby1904 — 2012-10-25 19:01:19Z

I know this is a little late after your question. I use this and have had no faults with it.
Easy to use and then just sync it back to your PC

Re: Brothers Keeper to Legacy

DrDuke2000 — 2012-08-31 23:27:20Z

On the import dialog, there is an option to change baptism to CHR

Re: Brothers Keeper to Legacy

DrDuke2000 — 2012-08-31 23:25:34Z

There are some gedcom tags that Legacy does not recognize. Those are made into notes. I could not get my photos transferred because Brother's Keeper did not include the links in the gedcom.

Re: exporting my Ancestry.com Tree back into Legacy software

mintliving — 2012-08-16 15:21:04Z

Hope this is useful to you, I found this in the Help Index of Legacy:

Compare Two Files for Duplicates

This feature compares the individuals in the current family file with the individuals in another family file. This way you can see if there are some possible duplicates in another file. No combining of information is done…possible duplicates are only displayed for you to see. As you find duplicates, you can tag them to make it easier to import the parts of the file you might want to combine with your family file.

To use this feature, click Compare Two Files for Duplicates on the Tools menu.

This, of course, would be useful after you have downloaded your file from Ancestry and then compared it to the other Legacy file that you already have. I love the idea about using the tags to flag changes. I will have to try that myself.

Re: Where do you enter Census's at in Legacy

wendyh651 — 2012-07-24 02:02:55Z

That's what I do, too. Notice that the events in Legacy are called Events/Facts - a flexible area for all sorts of things.

I have customised the sentence definition for the census event, so that if all the fields are filled it reads:

[HeShe] appeared on the census [onDate] [inPlace] as a [Desc]. [Notes][Sources]

For one of my great-great-grandfathers, one census entry appears like this:

He appeared on the census in 1871 in Rosedale West Side, Lastingham, Yorkshire, England as a 22-year-old Ironstone Miner. (6)

In the source information I put a transcription of the household in the Text/Comments section and tick the box to have that print in reports. For the entry above, it looks like this:

Thomas DENNY, Head, Mar, 28, Joiner & Wheelright, Yorkshire (?)
Jane DENNY, Wife, Mar, 36, , Yorkshire (?)
Maria DENNY, Dau, , 5, , Yorkshire (?)
Jane Ann DENNY, Dau, , 3, , Yorkshire (?)
Hannah M DENNY, Dau, 1, , Yorkshire Rosedale
William B IRELAND, Lodger, , 22, Ironstone Miner, Yorkshire Langtoft
Eliza IRELAND, Lodger, , 20, , Yorkshire Market Weighton
Harriet E IRELAND, Lodger, , 3 mo, , Yorkshire Burdale Tunnel

I include the whole household, even when there are (apparently) non-family members, because you never know when a new bit of information it going to come to light connecting the unknown people to the known in some way. They might be distant cousins, they might be friends of the family who turn up elsewhere in another record.

Hope this helps. :-)

Kind Regards,
Wendy

Re: Where do you enter Census's at in Legacy

blrrcn1 — 2012-07-24 01:24:35Z

I created an event called Census and enter all the details in the event note, then attach the connected source to the facts it proves.

Re: Where do you enter Census's at in Legacy

AGHatchett3rd — 2012-07-23 22:31:51Z

Hmmm... You could create a custom tag/fact/whatever they call it named "Enumeration" and list them that way.

Re: Where do you enter Census's at in Legacy

Etyndall1117 — 2012-07-23 19:29:03Z

That makes sense but I'm wanting to find somewhere I can put them in Chronological order preferably under source so I can follow them every 10 years. I didn't see anywhere specfic to put them but I plan on attaching them as sources to everyone I add, but am not seeing a specific place to put them.

Re: Where do you enter Census's at in Legacy

AGHatchett3rd — 2012-07-23 19:17:56Z

I don't put them anywhere. I consider them sources rather than as events or facts and use them to document any 'facts' obtained and used from the census (age, address, occupation, etc.).

Where do you enter Census's at in Legacy

Etyndall1117 — 2012-07-23 13:42:44Z

Where do you enter Census's at in Legacy? I've put them under Birth's put that doesn't seem like correct place to enter them.

Re: Double Dating

margaretjanew — 2012-07-13 19:56:51Z

You have asked Legacy to 'apply' double dating, so it does.

But as far as I can see, Legacy always takes a year off, rather than adding one on! It is something that has puzzled me for a while.

Like you, I don't always notice a date should be double dated, but Legacy always does, so it would seem we have 2 choices - enter the later year when we do realise, or rewrite it when we don't!!

Margaret

Re: Leaning towards legacy...question (training video CDs)

texasnightowl — 2012-07-03 18:05:59Z

Thanks everyone for the responses. Sorry for my delay in responding. We actually took off on a genealogy based trip to Ohio and Indiana and internet was spotty.

That said, I have actually gone for RootsMagic for now. I still like some aspects of Legacy (I did download the free version) but I have gone for RM5. That's not to say I might now pick up Legacy in the future too!

Re: Leaning towards legacy...question (training video CDs)

Rosenlof — 2012-07-03 14:13:57Z

Select 'Customize' from the import dialog. You can re-map you FTM fields with the Legacy fields that are not readable by Legacy.

Tim Rosenlof
Beta Tester

Re: Leaning towards legacy...question (training video CDs)

geisten — 2012-07-02 18:24:19Z

There is a "free" edition of Legacy you can download "take for a test drive".

If you decide to purchase the deluxe, I would suggest you purchase the training CD's...also join the very active Legacy Users Group...the CD's are worth the purchase price..but there are many "tips and tricks" I have learned thru the LUG(Legacy Users Group).

Good Luck!!!

Re: Leaning towards legacy...question (training video CDs)

LGG50 — 2012-06-18 15:58:43Z

I've used FTM since it's inception for windows. They've ruined it with the new 2012 version.
I've also used Legacy for many years.

Hands down - I'd go with Legacy 7.5 - it is sooooo superior to FTM 2012, particularly when it comes to producing family reports, and handling media files. You can still upload your trees to Ancestry.com - although you can't sync the tree with your software program the way you can with FTM.

In addition - when you important a Legacy file into FTM, which FTM claims to be able to do, your database will be so butchered, with children re-assigned to parents who aren't even connected with the family line. There is no way to go through the entire database and fix all the errors FTM made when importing a Legacy file. Importing old FTW files seems to work ok.

At any rate - I strongly advise Legacy 7.5 . Legacy also does NOT make you buy a new software every year either. (FTM is notorious for this - they fix the bugs from the older version, then charge you for purchasing new software that often seems worse than the prior version.)

Re: Leaning towards legacy...question (training video CDs)

BrianJones133 — 2012-06-16 16:44:09Z

It's hard to answer this question. It is heavily dependent on how you like to learn the product. Some people do not read the manual cover to cover and only refer to sections as a reference or use the .PDF version to perform quick searches for specific phrases.

Even if you like to read the manual cover to cover, then the .PDF is available for that. I have had Legacy for some time and have purchase two of the printed manuals during version upgrades. Honestly, I have not really used them that much (they both still look brand new).

As far as the training CD's ... I have no experience with them to have an opinion. I can only say that I've had good luck with the product even without the training videos. There are many freely available Webinars (online videos) from the website.

How you use the program can be a personal decision. The biggest problem that I've had is entering a type of data one way and later deciding to add it in a different way ... but, that comes from entering many records of the same type and deciding I like to capture details differently.

The Legacy program is freely available with a lot of it's functionality. I would suggest you download it and play with it for a little while. This will tell you if you like the product and it will also give you an idea if you need the additional training CD.

Brian

Leaning towards legacy...question (training video CDs)

texasnightowl — 2012-06-11 19:40:10Z

So, my father had been using FTM 2005. But we are ready to move on. We have both looked at FTM2012, but several things about it we do not like.

The 2 primary contenders are Roots Magic 5 and Legacy 7.5. (I did not like TMG.) Of the two, I prefer the look/layout of Legacy. Though I have to say, I like that RM folks have all their webinars/training videos freely available on their website...whereas Legacy wants you to pay @$32 for a cd containing just 4 or 5 videos.

Which leads me to my primary question - Are Legacy's training CD's worth it? I'm trying to decide between just purchasing the download Deluxe bundle (with PDF guide) for $35 or the $60 bundle with printed user guide and the training CD 1. And like I said, when I think about RM just having their training videos out there free, I start to second guess myself I think about if I can live with the layout of RM.

Re: Did Legacy include a sample project/GEDCOM file when originally installed?

AGHatchett3rd — 2012-05-27 05:25:52Z

Thanks Wendy!

Re: Did Legacy include a sample project/GEDCOM file when originally installed?

wendyh651 — 2012-05-27 01:31:50Z

Hi Andy,

Did you delete the sample file? If you haven't, you'll probably find it in C:\Legacy\Data

Brian at Legacy's Support team posted to the Legacy User Group in June 2011 that the only way to recover the sample file if you've deleted it is to re-install Legacy again.

Hope this helps. :-)

Kind Regards,
Wendy

Did Legacy include a sample project/GEDCOM file when originally installed?

AGHatchett3rd — 2012-05-26 23:31:24Z

Did Legacy include a sample project/GEDCOM file when originally installed?

If so, where can I get a copy of that file?

Any help appreciated

Andy Hatchett
www.fhiso.org

Re: Ways to show twins

lostyankee261 — 2012-05-15 18:23:47Z

If you go into the "Child View" at the bottom of the screen it has a place to put "twin/adopted/step" etc and it shows up on reports.

Re: How to turn off automatic filler? It's called "fastfields" in FTM

wendyh651 — 2012-05-05 06:03:29Z

(rude words!)

I forgot that links to the Legacy User Group's mailing list archive don't reproduce well in these message boards. (sigh)

I'll try again, in a different way...

http://www.mail-archive.com/ legacyusergroup@legacyusers.com /msg21295.html

I've inserted two spaces into the line, either side of what appears to be an email address in the middle. Copy the whole line, paste into your browser, and remove the two spaces. With luck that will get you there. :-)

Wendy

Re: How to turn off automatic filler? It's called "fastfields" in FTM

wendyh651 — 2012-05-05 05:59:38Z

For the record, in case others are following this thread, the question was also posed on the Legacy User Group mailing list. (legacyusergroup@legacyusers.com/msg21295.html" target="_blank">http://www.mail-archive.com/legacyusergroup@legacyusers.com/...)

Brian from Legacy's support team has responded "The auto complete you are seeing is part of the MS Access database system. It is not something that we can control. That is why it cannot be turned off."

Regards,
Wendy

Re: How to turn off automatic filler? It's called "fastfields" in FTM

wendyh651 — 2012-05-03 06:12:06Z

You could go to the "source" and ask Legacy about it - support@legacyfamilytree.com They may know something I don't, and be able to help you.

Kind Regards,
Wendy

Re: How to turn off automatic filler? It's called "fastfields" in FTM

akspy — 2012-05-02 16:54:05Z

I do hope this isn't so because it really is a PAIN. I always have to fight with it to make the proper correction or to add a new but similar name. If it can't be turned off, this one situation will send me back to FTM, asap. Seriously.

Thanks for responding.

Re: How to turn off automatic filler? It's called "fastfields" in FTM

wendyh651 — 2012-05-02 05:59:47Z

I don't think the auto-fill can be turned off.

In the help (Master Location List) it says:

"When you enter a location in a Place field, Legacy checks to see if the name is already in the Master Location List. If it is not found, it is added to the list."

You do need to take care when entering names, but it does get easier with practice. Some places you have to type in more to get to the one you want, than others.

Sorry I can't be of more help at this stage.

Kind Regards,
Wendy

How to turn off automatic filler? It's called "fastfields" in FTM

akspy — 2012-05-01 10:14:00Z

When I enter data, (names, locations), the program (7.5) automatically begins filling in the section. How can I make it stop doing that? I want to be able to enter the data myself, making sure I've entered the correct one. More than once, the program entered the wrong location and I missed it at the time, putting someone in New Mexico instead of New York, for instance.

My other genealogy software (FTM, RootsMagic) allows me to turn off that feature but I can't figure out how in Legacy. Can anyone help, please?

Thanks in advance.

Re: Installing on external hard drive

akspy — 2012-05-01 04:47:17Z

Yes, that's how I do it. My files are stored on my external hard drive and the program knows how to find them once it's told where to the find your files. I only had to tell it once when I saved the first family file. From then on, it's automatically gone to the correct location.