Family Tree Maker 2017 How Can I Felect Location of Input Files and Output Files

Family Tree Maker has long been the standard-bearer for desktop genealogy software programs. Indeed, our very commencement issue—Jan 2000—included an article on using Family Tree Maker vi.0. Only when Ancestry.com appear it was discontinuing the software in 2015, some genealogists left it for dead.

Simply the program has experienced a renaissance since beingness bought by Software MacKiev. Family Tree Maker 2017 was the first to allow for syncing between it and a family tree on Ancestry.com. And subsequent updates have incorporated even more functionality while maintaining the same features that attracted genealogists in the showtime place.

To assistance y'all make the most of the program, we've put together these tips for using Family Tree Maker.

The tips and screenshots in this article reverberate Family Tree Maker 2019 (the most recent version at time of writing), but much of the advice will likewise apply to earlier iterations of the software.

Note: Despite the somewhat similar names, Family Tree Magazine is not affiliated with Family Tree Maker. The software program is created by a separate visitor.

i. Import your family tree.

If you've already congenital a digital family tree, you lot can save valuable research time by importing it into Family Tree Maker. You can either upload a GEDCOM file (under Plan>New Tree, click Import an Existing Tree) or download a tree from Ancestry.com or FamilySearch. (But make sure the data imports correctly!) Don't worry if you're new to family-tree-edifice or want to beginning fresh—yous can too create a new tree manually, adding one person at a fourth dimension.

2. Change your date preferences.

Family unit Tree Maker formats dates consistently across your tree, making it easier for you lot to review them at a glance. To modify how dates are formatted, select Tools from the dropdown menu, so choose Options. From this window, select Names/Dates/Places and a format (such as "Twenty-four hours Month Year") for both brandish and input formats. (Mac users: Select Preferences, then Dates/Names/Places.)

3. Add together life events.

You lot can select preformatted key life events ("facts") to add together to a person in your family tree. While in the Tree window, select a person and click Customize View. From at that place, y'all can add individual facts (baptism, birth, burying, etc.) as well as shared facts (marriage license, divorce, etc.) You can likewise add a custom fact and specify what fields y'all want associated with its entry (such equally date or place).

4. Accept advantage of descriptions.

Each fact has a description field where you can add together more than information, perfect for including details that don't fit neatly elsewhere. If you don't meet the Description field, go to the Person view, then select a fact. Under Options, select Fact Properties. Then make sure Description is included under Fact Elements.

5. Sort through conflicting information.

If your ancestor has multiple details associated with a fact (such equally alien dates of birth), select which volition be "preferred." Preferred facts will by and large be displayed in reports and other exported versions of your tree, but Family Tree Maker will still maintain this alternating information (useful if yous're still determining which data is correct).

6. Make clean upward your names and places.

You can change how your ancestors' names are formatted in bulk under Tools>Convert Names, handy if they've been capitalized inconsistently. Besides, Family Tree Maker can help standardize your identify names. Under Tools>Resolve All Place Names, you'll see all locations that Family unit Tree Maker doesn't recognize. The tool provides a suggested standardized identify proper noun, and y'all can either accept the suggested alternative or ignore it altogether. Click Other to search for another spelling of the place proper name.

seven. Document censuses.

Employ the Census fact to point if your antecedent appeared in an enumeration. In the Engagement field, use the full date—including the official day and month the census was taken that year. (Encounter our list.) Too, type the full address in the Place field. You lot can too upload and adhere an image of the census return (or whatsoever record paradigm, for that matter).

8. Copy facts from one person to another.

Calculation events that affected multiple people—such as residence data from censuses—tin can be tedious. Save time by copying such facts to others' profiles. Go to the People window, and so the Person tab. Make sure Facts is selected in the menu, then right-click the target fact and select Copy. Click abroad, then correct-click the fact once again and select Paste. Then click the checkmark next to the contour(s) you want to add the fact to.

9. Record addresses.

Family unit Tree Maker has three split place-related fact types: Address (the contemporary place someone lived or worked, more often than not used for postal purposes), Property (related to real manor) and Residence (where someone mentioned in a record lived). Select which fact all-time applies to the event you want to record, and be consistent in how y'all utilise that fact type. You tin also consider indicating some of the address in the Place field of other facts, and then including the rest in the Description or Notation fields.

x. Don't confuse will and probate.

Some genealogists think these two "events" are the aforementioned, but Family unit Tree Maker has split fact types for a reason. Wills are written documents prepared earlier a person'south death, while "probate" refers to legal proceedings subsequently a person'due south expiry. Then the Date and Place fields of probate facts should refer to when and where the court ruled on the deceased's example, while those fields in the wills fact should point when and where that document was prepared.

11. Create reports.

Family Tree Maker offers several options for reports that you tin can generate and export. These are great to share with family, friends and other researchers. In add-on, reports can help you look at your piece of work with fresh eyes. Admission reports nether the Publish window.

12. Back up your data.

In some ways, desktop software is a safer repository for your family tree than an online service like Beginnings.com. You can access your tree in Family Tree Maker without internet, and your tree isn't tied to an online subscription that could theoretically disappear. (And, unlike the FamilySearch Family unit Tree, no one can edit your tree in Family unit Tree Maker without your permission.) Still, be certain to export your family tree as a GEDCOM and store on an external hard drive or in deject-based storage. You never know when your difficult drive could crash, wiping away years of hard work.

xiii. Follow these steps to export your tree from Family Tree Maker.

One of the most important advantages of using genealogy software is that once you've entered data on your family unit into a plan, it's easy to share your family unit file. Yous might desire to electronic mail a branch of your family unit tree to a cousin. Fifty-fifty if she uses different genealogy software, she tin still open your file and view your tree. Or maybe y'all'd like to submit your family tree file to GEDmatch along with your Deoxyribonucleic acid test results, so your matches on the site can figure out how you're related. If you lot want to switch to a different genealogy program, you can make a copy of your family file to upload to the other program.

Users of the popular Family unit Tree Maker genealogy software were left wondering what to practice with their family unit files in Dec 2015, when Ancestry.com announced plans to discontinue the program. Although the visitor later reversed its decision and instead sold Family unit Tree Maker to Software MacKiev, researchers were reminded of the potential for obsolescence when using any third-political party data-storage tool.

Whether you need to transfer your family tree to new software or you just want to share it with relatives, you'll need to know how to consign a family file. Here'southward how to do this in Family unit Tree Maker.

one. If you maintain a Member Tree on Ancestry.com, first synchronize information technology with your Family Tree Maker software.

This is and so your exported file volition incorporate the nearly upward-to-engagement information. To do this, open the linked tree in Family Tree Maker and click on the green leaf with the up and down arrows, located in the upper right corner of your screen. Then click on Sync Now.

two.You lot might desire your exported family file to incorporate only part of your tree.

Perhaps you desire to transport just your shared branch to a cousin, for case. We'll suggest two ways to do this:

• 1 method is to create a chart to select people to include in the file. This is the merely way that lets you specify how many generations of a relative's descendants you desire to share. First, in Family unit Tree Maker, click the People tab and select the person whose descendants you want in the file. Then click the Publish tab, select a nautical chart (such as the Descendant Chart) nether the Collection tab, and click on Create Nautical chart. Specify how many generations of descendants to include. If you don't want to include all the descendants, select simply the ones you want. Right-click on the chart, click on Export and choose either Selected Persons or Entire Chart.
• Some other fashion to select whom to include in your new file is to select Consign from the File menu (shown). Highlight a proper noun and click Include to select but that person. Click Ancestors and you can specify the number of generations to include. Click Descendants to include all of a selected person'south descendants. Y'all can make multiple selections, such as someone's ancestors and so that person's descendants. To start once more, click the Exclude All push button.

iii. Choose an output file format.

The Family Tree Maker output option generates a backup file (.FTMB) that works only with the version you used to create it. Commonly, you'll select another option, either another version of Family Tree Maker (2008/2009, 2010, 2011 or 2012) or a GEDCOM v.5 file. The erstwhile type of file has the extension .FTM; a GEDCOM file ends in .GED.

In general, if you'll share the file with someone who uses Family unit Tree Maker, select the version that person has. Otherwise, choose a GEDCOM v.5 file, a format compatible with most genealogy software and websites, such as GEDmatch. But if you're sharing with someone who uses RootsMagic software version 7.1.0.1 or college, information technology's better to share a Family Tree Maker file. RootsMagic can at present import all versions of Family unit Tree Maker for Windows and Mac, and it does a better job importing a Family Tree Maker file than a Family Tree Maker-generated GEDCOM file.

iv. Specify what data to include in the file.

If you opt to privatize living people, only their names will be office of the file. You can optionally include private facts and notes, every bit well equally a inquiry to-do list. If you include media files, such equally photographs and document images, Family Tree Maker files volition include them, but GEDCOM files will have only links to them. (Note that GEDCOM files created with Family unit Tree Maker 2011 and earlier versions won't have links to media files, either.) If yous're sharing your tree as a GEDCOM file, you'll need to send epitome files and other media separately.

five. Select the folder on your computer where you want to salve the file.

Give the folder a name such equally "jones-genealogy" and click OK. When the export is finished, click OK once more.

Rick Crume

Information in this article appeared in the July/August 2016 (Crume) and July/August 2020 issues of Family Tree Magazine. An before version of this article (by Melanie Rigney) appeared in the January 2000 event of Family Tree, and covered tips for Family Tree Maker 6.0.

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