Family Tree Maker 2008 has come under scrutiny, generating mixed feelings - the gains made by the information-packed home screen, the timeline and the potential of the gazetteer and map were offset by the loss of useful chart and report features. This month we turn to the new Who Do You Think You Are? (WDYTYA?) software package, now in version 2.
 This is where it gets complicated. This new version of the software is made by Family Tree Maker, and is actually the old 2006 version of the program repackaged under a new name. The previous WDYTYA? was version 2005 of FTM. So while the new FTM version for 2008 has just been released, they have also re-released their older version under a different name - very cunning indeed.
This may seem like a wheeze - and certainly if you already have FTM 2006 it would be inadvisable to buy this version as well - but there are some bonuses to picking up this package rather than FTM 2008, for example.
FTM 2006 (and therefore also this package) is the last FTM version that included both a UK spell checker and a full range of charts and reports and FTM books. Reports include family groups, descendant, kinship and genealogy, the last of which is a detailed listing os family information presented in a narrative format. It includes the basic facts about eah family member as well as the information you've entered in your notes. There are two slightly different descendant-ordered formats and one ancestor-ordered. Unlike some of FTM's competitors, however, it doesn't compile the facts into proper sentences; nor does it allow for photographs.
You can also generate individual or family books complete with table of contents, index, charts, photographs, maps, timelines, and - FTM's unique speciality - paginated cross-referenced, drop-line descendant charts. The book compilation screen has a button to preview the finished product, and you can then export your book to a PDF file.
The charts available include fan, all-in-one, hourglass, ancestor, and descendant some of which can include photos and other images, colours, fancy fonts, and borders. You can add any kind of media file to a family album or scrapbook which you can then print.
The default 'Family Screen' shows husband and wife with their children and parents, plus buttons to summon the editing screen, extra spouses, media scrapbook (graphics, sound, video and text files) and allows a web search of Ancestry.co.uk for your ancestors. Almost every field lets you assign the source of its data. There's no provision for photographs in this view, which leaves FTM trailing some of its competitors.
If you have a copy of WDYTYA? version 1 already, you'll find that WDYTYA? 2 posesses all the features of its predecessors, plus the capacity to enter up to 1MB of text into the 'Notes' field - about 250 pages, instead of eight. Improvements to source management let you associate a source citation with more than one person or fact, quickly view all sources associated with a single fact or individual, and identify and replace duplicate master sources without losing references. There's an improved 'Web Merge', which can link any records stored in WDYTYA? 2 directly to the related source records on Ancestry.co.uk.
The Ancestry subscription (free for 90 days, but requires online registration and your credit card details) lets you search Ancestry's online databases. You can add your family tree to the thousands online by uploading it to Ancestry's server. But be warned that if you do, you'll be signing away control - and ownership - of that tree, leaving Ancestry free to distribute or sell it as it thinks fit, with no recompense to you.
WDYTYA? 2 comes with excerts from series 1, 2, and 3 of the eponymous TV programme, printed user manual, a training DVD, and a 90-day trial subscription to Ancestry. |
