I had this question at lunch today: Which genealogy software program should I use?
That's actually a difficult question to answer, as a lot of it is based on personal preference. Many factors are involved whether you are beginning in genealogy or and experienced user thinking of switching to a different program. All genealogy software programs record names, dates, places and allow you to source them. Most have analyzing and planning features. Sourcing is important, but often overlooked when starting out (all that enthusiasm of finding your ancestor!) I've gone back many times wondering where I found something only to find out I didn't source or forgot to do it! It's also helpful in contacting cousins and analyzing your data to be able to tell them where you found the info, especially when there is a question about a particular ancestor. If you are beginning, you are lucky. Get a program NOW, so you aren't redoing all the work you did before. I still have quite a bit of my info still in notebooks :( It is so much easier to organize and keep track of your genealogy with a program. Other features that many programs do: Reports, charts, books, multimedia, Internet, DNA, and more. An OUTDATED (2005) genealogy software report card that compares the features of genealogy programs without extra commentary, can be found here: http://www.mumford.ca/reportcard/ Many of the programs mentioned no longer exist and some new software is out there that is not reflected on the above URL. I don't believe any Internet-type software (e.g. you do your family tree on Ancestry.com) is on there. If you are narrowing down a software program and are now considering just a couple of them, it would be best to read a review about them in a genealogy magazine (or Google it; you can find many reviews online) and download the demo/horse and pony show to see how you like it. Another more updated genealogy software review, with editor commentary can be found here: http://genealogy-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ NOTE: No free software programs are evaluated, nor are any Internet based genealogy software programs (e.g. Ancestry.com) I also noticed that they didn't evaluate the current version of my genealogy program, but a version that's about 2 years old and therefore my program didn't score as high. A year ago I did a speech on Gedcoms. I did the 4 most popular genealogy software programs out there are: Family Tree Maker (FTM), Legacy, Personal Ancestral File (PAF), and The Master Genealogist (TMG). (That's in alphabetical order, although FTM came out at number 1 in the user surveys that I looked at). Lately, it seems that RootsMagic is starting to gain steam. OK, so which one to use? Well, what's most important to you? Some people say that they want a free program. I'm aware of Family Tree Legends, Legacy (standard edition - the deluxe you pay for and unlocks about 100 more bells and whistles), and PAF (I think there latest update was around 2000/2001). Some people want easy to use. That used to be FTM, but I think with the more recent versions, users state that it is harder to use. PAF is also easy to use, but is no longer supported (in doing my Gedcom speech, I called SLC and they said that they have something else under development but were not at liberty to say). Also "easy" depends on what you mean by easy. What is easy to a person who got into computers fairly early in life versus someone who didn't get into computers until after the age of 65, may be two different things. You'd need to download the demo versions and talk to users of that program to decide if it's for you. Some people want a powerful program. That would be Legacy (deluxe) or TMG. TMG is probably the hardest to use, although in their newer versions, they have really tried to overcome this critisism. I had a what would now be considered a dumb reason to pick a genealogy program. And a good reason too. I bought my genealogy program in the early 1990s. Programs had limitations then. I wanted something that I would not outgrow, and have to migrate to a different program. That was my good reason. The other reason? I needed a program that would take diacritics (accented letters) and that would take 19 and 20 + character names such as Vila Franca do Campo. Programs in the early 90s couldn't take a city with that long of a name, or any diacritics. Almost all genealogy programs can take diacritics and long place names. NOTE: Because there are more PCs out there than Macs, it seems that all software reviews are written for PCs. If you use a Mac, you can run a program called Parallels and run your PC software on that. There are probably a few Mac genealogy programs out there. I hear Mac users talk about Reunion quite a bit, so I would guess that would be one of the most popular genealogy software programs for Macs. I don't use a Mac however, so I'm not as up on the software as a Mac user would be. -- Cheri Mello Listowner, Azores-Gen Researching: Vila Franca, Ponta Garca, Ribeira Quente, R. das Tainhas, Achada --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. Follow the confirmation directions when they arrive. For more options, such as changing to List, Digest, Abridged, or No Mail (vacation) mode, log into your Google account and visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/Azores. Click in the blue area on the right that says "Join this group" and it will take you to "Edit my membership." -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
