OVERVIEW
Altogether I found the program really easy to use with an impressive range of facilities, suitable for all users. |
TO DO LIST
As your family file gets larger, it gets more difficult to remember what tasks need to be done. However, RootsMagic contains a very usable To Do section and the information can be presented in various formats, including by repository, so that next time you visit a particular record office you can print the list of task you have set yourself since your last visit.
PRINTOUTS: REPORTS, CHARTS AND LISTS
RootsMagic offers a large selection of printouts: pedigree charts, family group sheets, narrative reports (where the program writes the sentences for you), lists (which you can specify yourself) and individual summaries. There are also ancestor, descendant and hourglass charts - which can be resized and have their colour customized. Charts can be printed up to 57 feet wide. RootsMagic also has a publisher program, which allows you to create a single document comprised of multiple reports and charts.
A FAMILY WEBSITE
Professional looking websites can be automatically generated from your data in narrative format, pedigree chart format, family group sheet format or a combination pedigree and family group sheet format. Importantly, the details of living people can be kept private.
ADD-ON CDS
The UK edition of RootsMagic from S&N comes with the Bartholomew's UK Atlas 1898. The maps from Bartholomew's (supplied in Adobe Acrobat Reader format) were printed at a scale of four miles to the inch and include many town and city maps, together with a place name index of over 35,000 locations. RootsMagic also comes with a UK record search, which is an index to 6 million individuals from the census and other S&N major genealogical resources.
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RootsMagic v2 UK Edition
is available from S&N Genealogy and works on Windows 95 and later versions. It comes from a very good pedigree and the author Bruce Buzbee wrote the popular Family Origins package.
The program was easy to install and quickly imported a GEDCOM of 800 individuals.
VIEW CUSTOMIZATION
The opening screen can be customized to suit your preferences and the three main navigation views are Pedigree, Family and Descendants - just select the relevant tab. Double clicking on a person's name brings up their data entry screen, which allows you to add an unlimited number of facts, in addition to the 60 predefined fact types - from adoption to will. As one would expect the program also allows notes and unlimited source citations for each fact.
MULTIPLE DATABASES
You are able to open multiple databases simultaneously. If more than one database is open on screen, you can drag and drop people from one database to another, because the program displays them along side each other.
FEATURES
The program has all the features you'd expect from a professional genealogy program including a powerful search tool and the ability to create bookmarks (to jump between different branches easily). Multiple relationships (such as adoptions) are easily tracked and it also automatically checks for duplicates.
The comprehensive sourcing tool specifies the repository and you can add multimedia files in any form. For example, long passages could be dictated into a voice recorder and attached to the source. In addition you can scan photos directly into RootsMagic and adjust them with the photo editor supplied. |
