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From: "Phyllis Miller Fleming" <phyllis(a)shelbycountyindiana.org>
I need to make a decision about my database program. I have narrowed
it down to
remaining with Family Tree Maker or switching to The Master Genealogist.
Any experience-based opinions out there?
First off, let me say I have no opinion of TMG because I've never seen it.
However I am an FTM user... version 16 right now. It does work great.
It however has data management issues.
* all "notes" are lumped togehter... there is no destinction about kind of
note items like obituaries, comments, stories, research reminders etc.
* There is no way to obtain reports which will show you which of your ancestors you
still need to obtain obituaries for.
* Place locations can be pretty random and are not checked for typo... you can type
anything in here.
* Info items like Death, Burial etc are limited in what kind of information they can
contain.
* You can't attach a "media" directly to the marriage info as a
marriage certificate, or a death certificate directly to the death info. It goes in a
generic image gallery for the person whom the image belongs.
All of the above issues were fixed with FTM 2008/9. You can now add notes specifically
for an obituary (the transcription) or media (the scanned obituary from the paper). And,
you can report/query to find those for which you do or don't have info in these facts.
Locations now check against a database so now there is less chance of misspelling. There
were tons of changes for the better in how data is managed and what you can add and
customize. As someone who is very concerned about the data accuracy and the ability to
review and interpret it, the changes to FTM in my opinion are major in managing huge
amounts of research.
The cool thing right now is that they are offering FTM free for download.
I think most of the complaints of the new FTM were the layout changes to the screen and
the loss of the book building features. Some people just like to complain and others
don't like change.
The changes to the layout are easy to overcome with use. If you've never really used
FTM's older versions you won't have a problem at all.
The loss of the book features isn't a big deal because in my experience, the overhead
required in mandatory formatting and extra pages made the books too big and cumbersome
anyway. Word can be used just as well to contain info exported from FTM and if you use
the Word Index and Glossary features it isn't an issue that FTM itself won't do
books any more. Using Word, your book format and layout will be more in your control and
will look more professional when done.
We are taking advantage of the free software offer and are in the process of converting
our FTM v16 files over to FTM 2009. It is exciting the new possibilities we have in data
organization and management. If you use a past version of FTM, I strongly suggest you
download it and give it an honest look.
-Paula Trefun