Ben

About Ben+

Father and husband. Family historian. Founder, Things to Teach, Inc. Creator, GenealogyTools.com, FreeObituariesFound.org, and Lineascope.com.

Posts by Ben

Adding and Changing a Portrait in Family Tree Maker for Mac 2

17 Feb 2012 by Ben 1 Comment

Adding and changing a portrait in Family Tree Maker for Mac 2 (2012) is one of the activities that isn’t very Mac-like. Mac users expect intuitive control of an app. The intuitive action here is to drag and drop the image onto the portrait in the pedigree view or editing panel. Alas, it doesn’t work that way yet.

Having pictures of my ancestors in my pedigree view helps me connect to my main purpose while doing family history research: to revive and keep their stories alive. Like you, I do this by discovering and crafting stories about them that my family members are eager to hear and share. Their faces help create a sense of familiarity.
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Migrating Family Tree Maker 2012 and ‘for Mac 2 Tree Files

14 Feb 2012 by Ben 3 Comments

The Family Tree Maker for Mac 2 (FTMM2) CD includes a Windows program for converting family tree files between Family Tree Maker (including 2012) and FTMM2.

This is a must-have utility if you want to:

share FTM files
move between a PC version of FTM and a Mac version
keep your FTM 2012 and FTMM2 synchronized (e.g. link FTMM2 with an Ancestry member tree and use FTM 2012 on the same tree, albeit unlinked)

No matter your reason, using the migration utility is better than exporting and importing using GEDCOM. That’s not giving it enough credit! It’s far better than GEDCOM for this purpose. That’s because it doesn’t have to handle all the scenarios GEDCOM does.

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Site Re-Designed

13 Feb 2012 by Ben 4 Comments

Unless you’re new here, you’ll notice I’ve changed the design of the site. I did this for two reasons:

1. Make it easier for you to find what you’re looking for

2. Enable you to view the site on mobile devices without loss of functions

3. Prepare for additional membership benefits

This change, like the tutorial directory pages for Family Tree Maker (PC and Mac) and Reunion, are part of my current focus on organizing the site for you.

Let me know what you think in a comment.

Adding Names in Family Tree Maker

10 Feb 2012 by Ben 3 Comments

Storing names in genealogy software seems simple enough at first glance, right? While Family Tree Maker makes it comparatively simple, it’s still a bit tricky when adding name variations, AKAs, suffixes, titles, and multi-word surnames.

Learning how to enter names will speed your evidence capture so you can focus on the fun family history activities: research, analysis, and storytelling. Those fun bits will be easier too! All the information and evidence will be organized.

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Adding Death Dates to the Reunion 9 Index

8 Feb 2012 by Ben 4 Comments

The index feature in Reunion 9 for Mac software presents a list of person records in your family file. It is useful for navigating your genealogy tree, linking people, marking people for operations like reporting and deletion, and is an initial step for creating an index of individuals report.

All of these functions are enhanced by the ability to modify the columns displayed in the index. In particular, finding an intended individual is easier when sufficient information is present to differentiate similar records.

Reunion enables you to add, remove, and change the order of columns. You can add a column then tell the software what to display in it.

By default the index displays names, birth date, and birth place. These are usually sufficient to distinguish one individual from another. It’s also helpful to see the death date as well.
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MacFamilyTree 6.2.4 Update

24 Jan 2012 by Ben Leave a Comment

Synium released version 6.2.4 of its Mac genealogy software, MacFamilyTree last Friday. It is said to contain some GEDCOM multimedia import fixes and stability improvements.

The Secret to Standardized Source Citation Ratings in Family Tree Maker 2012 and Mac 2

22 Jan 2012 by Ben 2 Comments

Using standardized source citation ratings in Family Tree Maker can help you make solid conclusions about facts. You’ve probably heard of original versus derivative sources, primary versus secondary information, and direct versus indirect evidence. That’s what FTM calls standardized source citation ratings. They also add a rating for clarity of the information–clear versus marginal. And both the Mac and 2012 versions support standardized ratings.

Unfortunately, the feature’s isn’t used by default. The source rating stars are there for you to set. The standard ratings are a bit hidden in the source rating window. The bonus is that by using the standard ratings, the number of stars is set automagically!
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Family Tree Maker for Mac 2 and 2012 Feature Comparison

20 Jan 2012 by Ben 1 Comment

Wondering what’s in Family Tree Maker 2012 and not in Family Tree Maker for Mac 2? I’ve got the answer for you.

I took the Family Tree Maker columns from the Mac Genealogy Software Feature Comparison and PC Genealogy Software Feature Comparison tables. I think this will answer your question about what’s missing from Family Tree Maker for Mac 2.

The Family Tree Maker for Mac 2 and 2012 Feature Comparison is on the Mac Genealogy Software Feature Comparison page.

I would have cut to the chase by putting a short list of the differences here, but I don’t want to keep it updated in more than one place. Click the link above. It will take you directly to the start of the section on the page. You won’t have to search for it.

Source Citation Find and Replace in Reunion for Mac

15 Jan 2012 by Ben Leave a Comment

Finding and replacing text in your family file is irregularly needed, but can save you time when you can use it. Turning over this tedious task to Reunion makes more family history research time available to you. That is, provided you carefully define your search criteria and backup your Reunion family file first!

Reunion has search and replace well covered everywhere except source citation details. The fields within the source record are all available to the Find -> Replace feature on the menu-bar–no problem there.

The trouble is that source detail isn’t a field in the source record and it isn’t a field in the event or fact. It’s a link between a source record and an event or fact. This is as it should be; it allows you to cite a single source for multiple events and facts and on different person records.
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January 2012 Update to Family Tree Maker for Mac 2

12 Jan 2012 by Ben 2 Comments

The Ancestry blog has news today of a set of fixes available now for Family Tree Maker for Mac 2. Here’s what the post says is fixed:

Performance and stability improvements

Improvements to resolve sync errors

Improvements for handling downloaded media in synced trees

Syncing of accepted and rejected hints

Option to include/exclude Ancestry media in synced trees

I haven’t received my copy yet, so I haven’t tried it out. Let me know in a comment if it fixes any problems you’ve experienced or not.