Family Tree Maker 2019 To Be Released Soon

Jack Minksy, president of Software MacKiev, the developer and publisher of Family Tree Maker, posted the following announcement on Facebook on 23 Sep 2019:

END OF SUMMER IS HERE … AND SO IS FTM 2019 It was sunny and mid-eighties here in Boston this weekend — hardly what you’d expect for the last days of summer. But all good things come to an end and that includes the development of the most ambitious new edition of this grand old brand yet. It’s the fastest, safest, most complete Family Tree Maker ever built, and includes our first mobile app for FREE, and a year of free cloud services for all those who pre-ordered a copy.
LETS GET THIS PARTY ROLLING Our engineers and 75 core beta testers agree that its time to let the rest of you have at it. To start we’ll have two hundred volunteer testers take the new edition and cloud services for a spin this week and report back what they find. If you’d like to help, go to familytreemaker.com and select Beta Test to sign up. Assuming that goes well we’ll roll out email notifications — ten thousand at a time — in the order in which you purchased your copies.
THANKS TO YOU For those of you who’ve always had our backs, we thank you for your confidence in us. For those who cheered us on, we’ve heard you and it made a difference. For those who let us know that “when it’s ready” is exactly when you wanted the new edition, thanks for getting it. And for those of you who just left us alone to get our work done, we thank you for understanding and the space to breathe.
Can’t wait to hear what you think of our two and a half year labor of love — and to share with you a map of the road ahead. Stay tuned!
JACK
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FAQ – FTM 2019 LAUNCH. 1. BETA TEST SIGN UP Q: Do I need to be an experienced beta tester to sign up? A: No, but there is a place on the application for experience with both testing and using FTM 2017 so let us know!
Q: Do I need to have pre-ordered FTM 2019 to be a tester. A: Yes.
2. GETTING FTM 2019 Q: Is it too late to pre-order? A: No, but the pre-order discounts are pretty much over now. FTM 2017 users still will save $10 ($49.95 vs $59.95*) until the first 10,000 rollout copies are released but all others who are upgrading will pay the regular upgrade price.*US prices. (Equivalent prices available in local currency in Canadian dollars, UK pounds and Australian dollars.)
Q: Is the pre-order offer of a year of free TreeVault cloud services still on? A: Yes. But we are not sure if/when that offer will be discontinued.
Q: How do I pre-order FTM 2019? A: See links at the end of this FAQ.
3. PICKING UP YOUR COPY Q: How will I get my pre-ordered copy? A: We will notify you by email when your copy is ready to be picked up. Those will be sent out in the order that they were purchased — so those who have been waiting the longest get their copies first.
Q: When will notifications start to go out and how long will it take to send them all? A: We will start the rollout as soon as beta testers successfully complete stress testing of the new cloud services, possibly as soon as next weekend. We will send the notification emails in batches of at least 10,000 and go as quickly as the system can handle. That could be anywhere from a couple of days to a week or so.
4. GETTING READY FOR THE LAUNCH Q: Should I ask here in this [Facebook] group if anyone else has gotten their copy yet? A: NO. John will be very unhappy if you do that, and you don’t want John to be unhappy do you?
Q: What should I do to get ready? A: Make a backup of your trees and be patient as you can.
Q: How can I learn to use the new features of FTM 2019? A: There will be a new Companion Guide in PDF form in the product. We’ve added a special symbol to identify new features and enhancements in this edition so you can spot them right away. We will also post more information here and on our support site, support.familytreemaker.com.
Q: Will there be a printed book version of the new Companion Guide and will it be available in a spiral version? A: Yes and yes. Sometime before the end of the year. You will be able to pre-order at half price when you pick up your FTM 2019 at the upgrade center.
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PRE-ORDER LINKS – UPGRADE TO FTM 2019Here are links all owners of Family Tree Maker can use.

*** USA ONLY ***

USA – FTM 2017 USERS
https://www.mackiev.com/offers/ftm2019/upgrade_promo_us.html

USA – ALL OTHER EDITIONS
https://www.mackiev.com/offers/ftm2017/upgrade_promo_us.html

*** INTERNATIONAL – ALL OTHER COUNTRIES ***

INTERNATIONAL – FTM 2017 USERS
https://www.mackiev.com/offers/ftm2019/upgrade_promo_int.html

INTERNATIONAL – ALL OTHER EDITIONS
https://www.mackiev.com/offers/ftm2017/upgrade_promo_int.html