Family Tree Maker: Creating a Calendar


The 2009 Software Update includes a monthly calendar that can display all the birthdays and wedding anniversaries in your tree. To make your own calendar:

  1. Go to the Collection tab in the Publish workspace.
  2. In Publication Types, click Other.
  3. Double-click Calendar Report, or select its icon and then click the Detail tab.
  4. To customize the calendar, click the Calendar Options button in the report toolbar.
  5. Change the options as necessary and click OK.
  6. In Individuals to include, choose which people in your tree you want to include in the calendar.
  7. Click Generate Report. The calendar is displayed.

For more information on the calendar options you can change, download a PDF here.

About Tana L. Pedersen

Tana has been writing for the technology industry for more than ten years. She is author of The Official Guide to Family Tree Maker 2009, The Family Tree Maker 2009 Little Book of Answers, and co-author of The Official Guide to RootsWeb.com.

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February 17th, 2009
18 Responses
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Reader Comments

Comment Number:
1
Written by:
David
Posted on:
February 18, 2009 at 2:12 pm

What is the advantage, or is there one to maintaining both Ancestry and Family Tree Maker? It seems I spend a great deal of time inputing the same data twice: once in Ancestry and once in FTM. Is there any chance in the future that these two programs will speak to one another better? Sounds like I should just let FTM go?

Comment Number:
2
Written by:
Vivianne
Posted on:
February 18, 2009 at 9:38 pm

I agree with David, I split the screen and go from one to the other, seems to be a waste of time. There is an update on FTM but I don’t know where that updates too.

Comment Number:
3
Written by:
John Donaldson
Posted on:
February 18, 2009 at 9:44 pm

# 2 Vivianne

SP1 Update FTM 2009 from the FTM 2009 knowledge base

Question
What items were addressed and/or included in the Family Tree Maker 2009 Software Update?

Answer
In addition to numerous defect and performance fixes, the FTM 2009 software update includes the following new features and enhancements:

Book Building
You can once again create books compiled from charts, reports, and text documents. The “Genealogy Book” option can be found under “Books” in the “Publish Collection” view. If you had a book in a previous version of Family Tree Maker, a template of that book will be imported with your tree and appear as a saved book.

Data Entry Flow
You can now easily flow through the entry of a family in the “People, Family” view using the keyboard. Simply press Ctrl+Enter to navigate to, and add or edit, the next person in the family.

Source Templates
When entering a source, users can continue to use our traditional source functionality or they can use a template that follows one of the “QuickCheck” models in the book Evidence Explained by Elizabeth Shown Mills.

To use the traditional model simply ignore the new “Source template” field at the top of the “Add Source” dialog and leave it blank.
Enter the source type or a keyword into the “Source template” field (such as “US Census”, or “Birth Certificate”) and select a template from the list that appears.
OR
Click the More… button next to the “Source template” field and then select the source group, category, and template.

Calendar Report
The “Calendar Report” is back! You can find it in the “Other” type in the “Publish, Collection” view. It includes options for setting colors and including birthdays and/or anniversaries.

Custom Report Export
The custom report will now allow you to export the report to a “columned” format when exported to CSV so that it can be brought into a spreadsheet program for sorting.

Extended Family Chart
The new “Extended Family Chart” shows the people in your tree aligned horizontally by generation. You can specify how many ancestor and descendant generations to include. This chart is not a replacement for the “All-in-one” chart although it can display everyone in your tree. We plan to add the “All-in-one” chart in a future release.

Chart/Report Label Options
From most chart & reports, select any fact in the “Items to Include” dialog and click the fact options button (below the list of facts). It now includes options for how you want that fact’s label to appear in your chart or report.

John D

Comment Number:
4
Written by:
alice
Posted on:
February 19, 2009 at 2:33 pm

This is not about this subject but I would like to know if this has happened to anyone else. About 40-45 pages of my project went missing a while back. Much of it work that I did not have stored anywhere else. I know that I did not delete it as I have never deleted anything. I did not find ancestry.com very helpful as they basically said it had never happened before and I must have done it. Has this happened to anyone else?

Comment Number:
5
Written by:
enos ray jr.
Posted on:
February 20, 2009 at 5:09 am

if you are referring o the word ”mullatta ” when turning to the past it is imporant to use terms of those days or take probable chance of getting nowhere.and i’m not so sure that term is distastfull to some as in naacp

Comment Number:
6
Written by:
Megan in Sydney
Posted on:
February 20, 2009 at 9:33 pm

Hi,

After updating recently to FTM v18.0.0.305, I was very happy to see the reintroduction of the Calendar option, which allows me to see Birthdays and Anniversaries of living, selected and all (depending on the selected options)individuals in a tree.

My problem is that I, as HOME person, do not show up in the calendar!

I have tried to select:
1. ME as an individual;
2. ME as part of a family group (limited number of individuals selected); and
3. ME as part of all the database!

I have also tried to select different options:
a. both selected/deselected “print only if living”
b. both selected/deselected “use AKA”
c. etc.

Any help would be gratefully accepted!

Megan in Sydney, Australia
2009-02-21 1527hrs

Comment Number:
7
Written by:
John Donaldson
Posted on:
February 22, 2009 at 3:21 am

Megan # 6

This can be a bit confusing the three categories refer to the focus person not the home person.

So select yourself as the focus person.

Now you will find it should work OK

John D

Comment Number:
8
Written by:
Bob Freeman
Posted on:
February 22, 2009 at 2:44 pm

How do I get the FTM2009 update. I never got notification of its issuance

Comment Number:
9
Written by:
John Donaldson
Posted on:
February 22, 2009 at 3:45 pm

# 8 Bob

If you are talking about the SP1 patch (update) for FTM either

Go to
http://www.familytreemaker.com/Support/Patch_2009.aspx

or

Alternatively you can in FTM 2009 go to Help>Check for Updates

John D

Comment Number:
10
Written by:
David Davenport
Posted on:
February 23, 2009 at 8:38 am

I have Family Tree Maker but it does not appear that I have the latest update. I cannot check for updates as the program tells me I am not the administrator for my computer but I am the administratot and am logged in as the administrator. How do I get these updates.

Dave Davenport

Comment Number:
11
Written by:
John Donaldson
Posted on:
February 23, 2009 at 1:35 pm

David # 10

See the link on # 9

John D

Comment Number:
12
Written by:
Bob Freeman
Posted on:
February 24, 2009 at 8:54 am

Thank you John Donalson, your answer was dead on.

Bob #8

Comment Number:
13
Written by:
Jim McKinney
Posted on:
March 3, 2009 at 4:02 pm

It is great to have the calendar back. I have two requests regarding the calendar.

First, I have two family members with leap day issues. One chose leap day for a wedding, the second was born on leap day. I would guess that the testing of the calendar took place in 2008, a leap year, and the problem was probably not seen, but in 2009, which is not a leap year, including these two persons and their special dates causes the calendar to freeze. When I change the dates to February 28 or March 1, the calendar works. It would be great to see the program fix these and default to February 28 or March 1 in non-leap years rather than freeze and require a workaround which must be undone in the leap year.

The second issue is I cannot find a way to eliminate wedding anniversaries of divorced couples. Even excluding the non-blood related divorcee does not exclude the anniversary. Please consider adding an option to exclude these anniversaries which some folks may not want to remember. My workaround is to exclude both people, but that excludes the divorced family member’s birthday.

Thanks for putting the calendar back in and thanks for considering these updates.

Jim

Comment Number:
14
Written by:
Alberto Santana
Posted on:
March 7, 2009 at 9:16 am

Hi!!

(Sorry for my english)

I have FTM2009, version 18.0.0.95, and I can’t see the calendar report. I go to publish section, and into collection i have charts&reports and saved publications.

Inside Charts&Reports, i only have “charts, genealogy reports, person reports, relationship reports, place reports, media reports, source reports, books”

Where is the calendar report?

Thank you in advance

Alberto from Canary Islands (Spain)

Comment Number:
15
Written by:
Alberto Santana
Posted on:
March 7, 2009 at 5:36 pm

Hi again!!

Edit: I updated to version 18.0.0.305, and I found calendar report.

I love FTM!!

Comment Number:
16
Written by:
Jacques Pouliot
Posted on:
March 14, 2009 at 7:48 am

I can generate the calendar, but it
wont take all individuals in my tree,
only the immediate family, any solutions.

Thanks
Jacques Pouliot

Comment Number:
17
Written by:
Tana L. Pedersen, Ancestry.com
Posted on:
March 16, 2009 at 1:19 pm

Leap Year Issues
Jim (comment #13) brought up an interesting problem. The calendar doesn’t work correctly if you have individuals in your file who have birthdays or anniversaries on February 29th. In Jim’s case, the calendar would freeze. In my case, I try to display “All individuals” in my calendar and the calendar simply won’t appear.

Fortunately, a fix is on its way. Although I can’t give a specific time frame, I can tell you that Family Tree Maker is aware of the issue and is working on it.

#13
Jim, I have been able to keep anniversaries of divorced couples from displaying in the calendar. You need to make sure that the relationship status of each couple is “divorced.” To do this, go to the Person tab for the individual and click the Relationships button. Highlight the spouse’s name and in the editing panel, choose “Divorced” from the Status drop-down list.

#16
Jacques, we seem to be having the same problem with our calendars. Being unable to include your entire family seems to be tied to the leap year issue. (Read my first comment for more information.)

Comment Number:
18
Written by:
Andy D Anderson
Posted on:
March 27, 2009 at 7:00 pm

I have FTM 2009. I can generate a calendar report but I have NO preview. I do have a preview if I select “immediate family only” If I use the other 2 options, “selected individuals and others” NO preview is shown. How do I get a preview? All other reports and charts work fine, but NOT the calendar report.

Thanks,

AA