Family Tree Maker: Come visit us at the Southern California Jamboree

I would like to know why
I have to pay $155.00 for a 14 day free trial? Shouldn’t the free trial be free! After all the information is rightfully mine! I will not pay for a 14 free trial. I would rather have a free trial!Free!

I would like to upgrade my current FTM-Version 10 to FTM-Version 16. What is the best way for me to do this?

I live in Van Nuys (Southern CA), & am wondering if a Jamboree day pass to obtain this upgrade is worth my time & $$.

Thanx for your reply.
A

Aaron,

Be very careful, once you find your relatives and “lost relatives” in the 1000′s of census & military records, you won’t stop. It could help if you can find a friend that can show the system.

Regards,

Michelle;

Following is a suggestion for improving the efficiency of investigating and correcting errors in Family Tree Maker 2009. Please pass this suggestion along to the programmers

I think the best way to understand this suggestion is to use two examples

The First Example is one where I believe the efficiency of making changes/correcting errors is good

The Second Example which (occurs in many many places in FTM 2009) is very inefficient and the process can be significantly improved

The First Example can be readily seen and appreciated through the use of the “Places” Screen.

The “Places” screen has three panes. If the user, for example, sees an error/potential error on the right hand pane [whether they have chosen to list the information by “Person” or by “Place”] they just have to highlight [by clicking] the information they think is in error and then click on the “Go To” box at the top of the pane.

After clicking on the “Go To” box they are IMMEDIATELY taken to the EXACT Person or Place of “Interest” on the “People” screen of FTM 2009. Note that when they get to the “People” screen they can access either the “Family Tab” or the “Person Tab.” [Having IMMEDIATE access to the Family Tab and being taken to the EXACT person or place of “Interest” is the KEY in making this process efficient and this lack of immediate access to the “Family Tab” is what makes the process shown in the Second Example very inefficient and frustrating.] Once the user has fixed the errors [by using the “Family Tab” or the “Person Tab.”] they can easily get back to the EXACT place where they started by clicking on the back arrow at the top left of the “People” Screen. They may have to click this back arrow a few times, depending on how many changes they made while using the “People” screen, but normally just a few clicks brings the user back to the EXACT spot they came from in the “Places” screen.

The second [very inefficient] example is shown through the use of the “Data Errors Report” [shown as a Publication Types > Charts and Reports > Person Reports > Data Errors Report] in the “Publish Places” Screen

The “Data Errors Report” screen has two panes, the left pane shows the report and the right pane shows options, settings, etc. that can be made on the report. For this example, click on the green arrow at the top of the right hand pane and then click on “Exclude All” errors and then click on the box “Children out of order.” Or in other words, run the Error Report showing only the places in the data base where the children sort order may be incorrect.

As can be seen the report gives a list of Names, Birth Dates and the Potential Error.

If the user clicks on, say, the first name in the report they will see that name turns gray, indicating that if the user desires to fix/check out the potential error described in the “Potential Error” column they should click on the grayed out name and the system will send them to a place where they can determine if the “Children Sort Order’ is incorrect and if it is the user can then make the necessary corrections to the Data Base.

UNFORTUNATELY, when the user clicks on the grayed out name, the screen that the user is taken to is the “Edit Person” screen. This screen provides no information or knowledge as to whether the Children Sort Order is incorrect and provides no way of fixing the Sort Order if it is incorrect. So sending the user to the “Edit Person” screen is a waste of time and the user must back out of that screen and go back to the “Data Error Report” and find other means for checking/fixing the potential error.

ONE WAY OF DOING THIS (AND THIS IS WHERE THE INEFFICIENCY BEGINS) is to click on the “People Icon” at the top of the screen, then scroll down the names in the “Index Pane” until the user finds the EXACT name that was grayed out in the “Data Errors Report’, then click on that name and they will be taken to the EXACT person that appeared with the grayed out name in the “Data Errors Report.” At this point the user can check out the potential error [by using the “Family Tab Screen” and NOT THE “Person Tab Screen”(the Person Tab Screen” is equivalent to the “Edit Person Screen” they were originally incorrectly sent to fix the error)]

Once the user has checked out the information in the “People Space” by using the “Family Tab” and made the necessary corrections they then can go back to the “Data Errors Report” by clicking the back arrow at the top left portion of the screen as done in the First Example.

SO THE SUGGESTION IS THIS: Rather than sending the user to the “Edit Person” Screen just send them directly to the EXACT “Person of Interest“ on the “People Places” Screen as is done in the First Example. This will speed up the process and eliminate some of the frustration of being sent somewhere to fix something that cannot be fixed once the user gets get there.

As stated above, the Second Example shown here is only one case of being sent somewhere to fix/edit something and when you get there you can’t fix it. There are many many many places where this occurs in FTM 2009. (Just imagine all the errors that can/will be found by use of the Date Errors Report, and in the majority of cases, being sent to the wrong screen to check out/fix the error.) Also, this type of problem/inefficiency exits for other Charts/Reports

The programmers need to look at ALL the places in FTM 2009 where this occurs and make the necessary software changes.

A SECOND SUGGESTION and previously reported is as follows:

Once the error/potential error is investigated and resolved there appears to be no
mechanism to point out to the system that that particular item is ok and don’t tell the user about it in future runs of the report. My suggestion is that such a mechanism needs to be provided ——- If there is a mechanism, but I just can’t find it, sorry for reporting it.

There should also a mechanism provided, which says something to the effect that “globally” remove all individual mechanisms that I have previously reported as “ok” and on the next generation of the report let me start all over from “scratch.”

I have just upgraded to FTM 2009. I’m extremely disappointed that the Books feature has yet to be implemented, even though this was touted as an ‘enhancement’ over a year ago.

This was a feature I used extensively in the previous version and find it frustrating that it does not yet exist in the latest version.