1. What is the largest poster that I can make out of FTM and export to PDF, and what settings do I use to create it?

2. Came from FTM V16 that has a data error report where you can “ignore” an error and it then doesn’t show up again (unless you reset them). Is this feature available in FTM 2011? If not, it should be as otherwise you are rechecking all the “potential” errors again and again.

3. I have a really large file (from ancestry) that would augment my data. However, I have been reluctant to add it because of its immense size (goes back to Adam and Eve). How many generations back, and how many records will FTM 2011 safely handle?

Overall I like the upgrade. Lots and lots of new features that are going to take some getting used to, but that I think will be of great benefit. Thanks, Lauri

(1) Yes, the report is a register report. The file originated in FTM v16 > 2008 > 2009 > 2010 > 2011.

(2) The four facts that you mention: “Name, Birth, Marriage, and Death” cannot be deleted from the report. You can add any avaiable fact or delete other facts, the Blue “+” or Red “X” appears for adding or subtracting facts from a report.

(3) I have a file that started as a gedcom, translated into FTM 2011 and reports work well but when I run the report for the main person’s parents, the report will show nothing even with several generations below the selected person. Sometimes the report shows page 3 of 0, etc..

Sorry to keep asking, but i’m between the two programs and 2011 Smart Stories looks really cool…

IS there something similiar on 2010 with less bells and whistles?…..

or do i have to do “word documents somewhere else with 2010?”

My husband bought me 2010, and a week later 2011 came out, so we may return it

Just looking for the easiest of the two do put all my information on the computer (and i have alot of stories)
Thank you,

Erin J

Please consider and advise.

The place authority leaves a lot to be desired in the UK with many towns and even major cities missing. This has not yet been fixed and is NOT to do with Bing Maps, despite reporting each year nothing has been done to correct this, and I will take some convincing to part with my cash this time.

I agree completely with the internet upgrade as either a “update” or download, this is really a must in this day and age. I also agree that any ancestry subscriber (paid) should get it for free. We pay a lot to ancestry and also contribute to the value for other members by uploading trees etc, this is not an unreasonable expectation, especially since the price hikes last year.

Synchronization between desktop FTM for PC or MAC, Internet and the iphone or any other platform is a must. Currently it is impossible to keep all up to date and we all stand the risk of loosing data or failing to keep updated on all platforms. The iphone app is a great step forward with portability but with this advantage there is a responsibility on the developers part to actually make it practical to utilize effectively.

Many thanks.

Outside of IE and other dependent code my experience that for FTM8 and above is each release gets worse in it’s memory usage (both in file size and process size). This unfortunately implies the folks are not putting enough effort into this which is either laziness or not high enough priority (most likely cause) since there are tools to help developers track and resolve these things and its simple to take the same db and open in each release do a set of task and then compare results. Maybe they could improve on this in a hotfix?

Thank you for your help

It appears the problem I have has to do with me and not the software. Looks like it might be a corrupted data base, but I don’t know for sure.

If you don’t mind, just two more questions.

1 – I just want to make sure the data you sent me in #104 came from FTM 2011 and came from either a Register or an Ahnentafel Report

2 – See my Full Caps Note at the bottom of #102, where I say that the Name, Birth, Marriage and Death facts in the “Items to Include” window are unchangeable (at least for me). That is, they are already included in the list of facts when I open the window and I can neither change them nor delete them. My question is twofold: Are these four facts also listed there when you open this window and if they are can you change them or delete them? If all or some of the four facts are not there when you open the window can you add the ones that are not there and can you change or delete the ones that are there?

Tana, I thank you very much for posting FTM’s official statement regarding data sync. That kind of candor is rare and it speaks well for you and whomever gave permission to publish that comment.

I am presently using FTM 2010 and I am not certain that I will update this time around; might be a better use of my limited funds to wait another cycle when hopefully more real improvements will be added to FTM. Too many software developers push out a new version yearly just to generate revenue whether or not any significant changes have been made to their products. I believe this is the case with FTM, at least with this version, FTM 2011. I have not yet seen any changes that will have more than a very minor impact on my FTM usage. So until next year I’ll continue using FTM 2010 and making my own “integration” as I go!

I do appreciate Tana’s work here on the blog and also her manuals – they certainly help me with using FTM as productively as I can!

Thank you.

Jim McGowan