Genealogy Chat

Hi All
I was wondering how many of you had this and is it worth buying? The latest version I have is 2005 so was thinking its time for an upgrade but is it much different and worth buying? I noticed on ancestry its £26 on a discount rate, is that a good price? Any opinions greatly appreciated. Claire

lol Sheila,
Good luck with ebay. I must admit I havnt thought about there as a few people I know have had bad experiences with the site.

Claire just be carefull the 2008 version does not do all the things the 2006 version does ,,,you cannot beck up to internet storage and you carnt do your own online homepage to display on the internet ,,,I have the 2008 which I use for some things but still use 2006 as main one ,,,you can buy it for about £10 and sometimes for fiver from Morrisons etc the Who do you think you are version

Babs

see this page for cheap 2008

http://www.genealogysupplies.com/index800.htm

Babs

Or this page for cheaper 2006

http://www.twrcomputing.co.uk/ftm.htm#2006W

Babs

I think the idea of taking away some of the facilities we have on 2006 was to encourage people to upload their trees to ancestry rather than to their own internet home page.

I have my 2008 still bunged in a drawer after it drove me bananas when I first got it. I know its had a number of patches/updates since then but I am still wary of it. I keep my old 2006 going now.

Hi All

Thank you for those comments, will certainly look into both versions.

Regards, Claire

Interesting thread to me. I am working with FTM 2005, but have considered upgrading. I have seen many adverse comments about 2008.

If I buy 2006, what advantages, i.e. extra facilities, would I have? (In simple terms please, for a numpty!)

Elisabeth

Sheila, there is a patch for 2006 to run on Vista, I am using it now. The patch can be found here:-
http://past.familytreemaker.com/vistaupdate/

You do not need 2008.

For FTM 2008 features see here.

http://www.my-history.co.uk/acatalog/Family_Tree_Maker_2008_Detail.html

For 2006 features see here.

http://www.my-history.co.uk/acatalog/Family_Tree_Maker_2006_Detail.html

Ron
www.genealogyprinters.com

Sheila - I have VISTA with 2006 - you just have to download a patch for it.

Oops, sorry Keith, didnt spot you had said same.

Liz, not sure what the advantages over 2005 are - cant remember that far back :) Certainly the internet back up storage is a real boon. Ive had to use it twice when my puter crashed and it was wonderful to see all my information just pouring back into the program. I think 2005 has the internet home page facility doesnt it? 2006 can search ancestry from your program (though I always prefer to mooch directly through ancestry)

Thanks Ron and Heather.

Sorry for the late reply, I have been doing battle with rampant periwinkle!

I will look into the information provided. I generally don't use the home page facility to search, I just use Ancestry direct - when it doesn't refuse to download during a long search through several years.

Thanks for taking time to reply.

Elisabeth

2005 vs 2006

In addition to the features found in 2005 the main addition to 2006 was the internet backup option and the tweaks to the websearches.

Full breakdown of extra features introduced in the 2006 version;

Introduced in Version 2006
Family Facts — online feature that helps you learn more about the meaning and origin of a family name, take a look at migration and immigration patterns, and gain insight into a variety of other interesting facts about a particular family name.

Research Tips — learn even more about your ancestors by having Family Tree Maker point you to a variety of sources and information you might not have known was available.

Contact Other Researchers — get in touch with distant cousins and others who have already done considerable research on your ancestors and compare notes. You may be able to go back several generations based on research that's already done.

Data Entry Enhancements — a more logical, intuitive layout for the Edit Individual dialog box. A new Facts tab lets you add and edit a broad range of items.

Expanded Notes — to make room for the family stories that you want to share and preserve, the capacity of the Notes feature has been increased by a factor of thirty. Notes can now contain the equivalent of approximately 250 typewritten pages of text.

Printing Notes — print directly from the Notes window using the new Print button.

Backup Enhancements — make and restore backups of your valuable data from a wide variety of storage devices using the redesigned Backups dialog box. The new Internet backup feature offers even greater protection by letting you make backups to a remote server.

Source Enhancements — save time by entering Master Source information only once, then creating a new citation each time you refer to a different area or page in that source.

Glen

Glen,

As always, comprehensive help. A star as usual.

Thank you.

Elisabeth

I cheated really, the FTM helpsite has a list of enhancements for each version of FTM.

The first three in the list above are primarily internet features linked to Ancestry although the websearch for records was introduced in the 2005 version.

In normal everyday use the difference between 2005 and 2006 is so minimal you would be hard pressed to tell which version you were using.

Elisabeth M PLEASE dont.

Heather,

I think I have decided to stay as I am just now. I am not brilliant on the computer, and have got used to 2005 now, so I'll stick with it.

Elisabeth

Elisabeth, I wasnt referring to you changing your program, LOL, but not to encourage my mate Glen!

Im sure the 2005 is adequate. I like the internet storage with the 2006.

Heather,

I understand now!!

I do save my tree to disc regularly, and email it to myself, so it is out in cyberspace, just incase of computer crash, or disaster in the disc storage.

I still think 'your mate' is a star though!

Elisabeth