[or-roots] (no subject) Bob Goodman - software

[Bill & Chris Strickland]

dgoodma02 at comcast.net wrote:
> 
> Well, ya convinced me!  I think I will go for the RootsMagic.

May I humbly suggest giving several programs a 'look' before you commit
to one. 

Both Legacy and the LDS PAF have full featured versions you can download
for free, install, and look at. 

Reunion is perhaps the best of the lot, but is Mac only.

Family Tree Maker (aka FTM, FTW) is (imo) over promoted, and purchased
by the gullible - there are few 'quick results' to be found on
collections of information that are bundled onto CD's -- most of it can
be found for free in your local library or on the internet, anyway. And,
I don't like their user interface. FTW is part of the MyFamily.com
conglomerate.

My fav is Ancestral Quest (fantastic customer support), a free
downloadable demo is available at http://www.ancquest.com/ . Actually,
it is the full program (AQ 11 Basic, Build 4), but you need to purchase
the 'registration key' to give you access to the full capability. It
does have an unique online collaboration feature if you have other
family members working on your genealogy and y'all want to share in it
together.

I find AQ to be very intuitive to use, and although it is full of
features that might daunt a beginner, they are mostly hiding in
background menus and you don't need to worry about them.

There are several different styles of user interfaces in the various
products and you want to choose one that you find to be comfortable to
your way of thinking. All these programs have extensive outputs &
reports available, as well as GEDCOM availability and website creation,
etc

I am not familiar with RootsMagic. Ancestry.com also has a free program
to download, it is an older version of AQ, but I am a bit leery of
Ancestry.com. They do have some census records online that are nice, but
all they are after is your money -- another part of the MyFamily.com
conglomerate.

These programs have many benefits for sorting and viewing you data, as
well as sharing it with other family members -- say, create the website
files, burn 'em onto a CD, and your family can view them with their
browser -- all without going anywhere near the internet. 

Most programs will even print it all out into a book format file that
you can transport into a word processor for some final editing, if you
wish. Nearly all of them can import pictures and include them in the
output files.

There are some product "Reviews from the NGS Newsmagazine and its
Predecessors" available at:   
http://www.mumford.ca/reportcard/reviewfrm.htm

Godspeed,

Bill Strickland