Genealogy Software Tutorials for Mac & PC
Jack Minksy, president of Software MacKiev, the developer and publisher of Family Tree Maker, posted the following announcement on Facebook on 23 Sep 2019:
[Read more…] about Family Tree Maker 2019 To Be Released SoonI recently received an email from Software Mackiev announcing a sale for the upcoming Family Tree Maker 2019 upgrade. That offer has since expired, with the upgrade price now $39.95, $40 less than the regular price and $20 less than the normal upgrade price. There are some interesting new features that might make it worthwhile. These are the top 10 reasons to upgrade, as presented in the email:
[Read more…] about Family Tree Maker 2019 Pre-Order SaleThis is the landing page for The Family Tree Software Alternatives series, which reviews 14 major Mac and Windows applications for recording family trees. The focus is on compliance with the GEDCOM standard, both for importing and exporting files, but other aspects, including usability and major features, are addressed as well. Some of the information is now out of date, since some of the applications have released newer versions, but most of the points still hold true.
Genealogy apps should always follow the GEDCOM standard, right? You’d be justified in thinking that if you’ve read many of my articles, and generally speaking, apps should follow the standard, especially 5.5.1, since GEDCOM 5.5 is obsolete. However, what should apps do when there are mistakes in the standard? Should they import, export, and/or validate GEDCOM files strictly according to the standard, or according to how the standard should have been? This is a letter versus spirit of the law question, and the answer depends on the mistake in question and the purpose of the app. [Read more…] about The Event Structure in GEDCOM Files
Updated on 7 Feb 2018
Now that Family Tree Maker 2017* has been out for 6 months, I’d like to follow up on my initial review. While the consensus is that it’s faster, and FamilySync, the TreeSync replacement works for most people, a small but significant portion of users are still having major problems, judging by the comments on my review and in various user groups. In this follow-up I’ll focus mainly on the problems our readers and I have experienced in the areas of functionality, along with a few cosmetic issues. I’ll also offer a few suggestions for improvement. [Read more…] about Family Tree Maker 2017 Review Follow-Up