When I tell people I don’t recommend Family Tree Maker for Mac 2, they often ask what I do recommend, which is understandable. But I really can’t recommend a genealogy program for other people without knowing what their requirements are. You must first decide what your priorities are. Then you can check on the web to see which programs meet your requirements. You can use Ben’s Feature Comparison Table or FindtheBest.com to find the features you need (but take the Smart Ratings on the latter with a grain of salt). GenSoftReviews.com lists lots of genealogy programs, although not all of them have reviews. But see Tamura Jones’ article, The Most Important Genealogy Software Feature. [Read more…] about What Genealogy Software Do We Recommend?
RootsMagic
New Index Page
I changed the family tree maker tutorial index page. Will you look at it for me and give me your feedback? Even if you’re not using that software, I want to know what you think so that I know whether to invest the time it will take to change the index pages for Reunion, RootsMagic, and Family Tree Maker for Mac.
I modeled the index pages after the index in a book. Does this make it easier to find what you’re looking for? Can you think of anything I could do to make it even easier? What else might you want to know on that page?
Please leave me your feedback in a comment on this post or in a quick email.
Comparison of PC Genealogy Software Features
When you’re choosing a new genealogy application it helps to compare the features. It’s also helpful to quickly see which ones support the features essential to your genealogy workflow and practice.
I just compiled a set of tables I hope you’ll find helpful in comparing features of PC genealogy software. I published it on the Family Tree Maker 2012 buyer’s guide page.
My plan is to update the version I have already created for Mac genealogy software and post it in the same way.
Duplicate Place Cleanup in RootsMagic 4
You may be surprised by the number of different ways you’ve entered the same place-name in your RootsMagic 4 software. This is especially true if you don’t routinely check for and correct duplicate place-names. I recommend putting this on your calendar to do periodically just like checking for “duplicate people.”
In this video you’ll learn how to quickly detect and clean up duplicate place-names.
[Read more…] about Duplicate Place Cleanup in RootsMagic 4
RootsMagic 4 on Your Mac
Last week there was a post on the RootsMagic blog about running RootsMagic 4 on a Mac. I’ve had this topic on my list of future videos for a while and this post pushed it to the top.
As the post says, there are a few options for running RootsMagic on your Mac. You can use a virtual PC program like Parallels Desktop or VMware Fusion, but those require you to buy and install a copy of Windows. Another option is to use the Windows emulator called Wine. I prefer a re-packaged version of Wine produced by CodeWeavers, called CrossOver Mac. It’s much easier to install! For only $39.95 you can run some Windows applications like RootsMagic on your Mac without the expense of Windows.
If you’ve wanted to run RootsMagic or are interested in checking out this fantastic genealogy software on your Mac, download the RootsMagic trial version and CrossOver Mac trial version, then follow along with this video which walks you through the fifteen minute installation of CrossOver Mac and RootsMagic 4.
[Read more…] about RootsMagic 4 on Your Mac