Comments on: Family Tree Maker: Custom Reports

By: Samantha

Samantha — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 22:58:59 +0000

The directions are confusing – - can’t find the tabs that they’re talking about on the Ancestry.com site.

By: Helen

Helen — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 19:45:48 +0000

Doesn’t work with V 16?
I will not upgrade,satisfied with what I have, so I may not be able to use this new tool idea.

By: garland

garland — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 15:23:49 +0000

I to think version 16 is the best that FTM has ever put out and would like to have a copy lost mine long time ago when my machine went up in smoke….

For all you complainers here is a phrase to remember
You can please some of the people some of the time but you cant please all the people all the time.

By: Charie Barker

Charie Barker — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 02:11:30 +0000

I have 2010,And I just love it,I find when it seems to be messed up, it is something that I did myself.and if I can’t fix ,they can help fix my mess, just wanted to put my two cents in.Thank You

By: Mary Beth Marchant

Mary Beth Marchant — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 23:40:45 +0000

The reason I am not and will not use the new versions of FTM is the lack of the book building feature. If it is there, it is very weak and lacking in the very things I need. In the past number of years, I have created and printed well over 100 books and have made many people happy. Because I have a subscription to Genealogy.com, I receive the new versions of FTM when they come out but I am sticking to my old faithful version 16.

By: Tana L. Pedersen

Tana L. Pedersen — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 19:44:51 +0000

I’m so glad that many of you who hadn’t worked with the custom report before decided to try it out and had success. As you work with it more and more I’m sure you’ll find a variety of ways it can help you analyze your tree and discover research avenues.

For those of you who had problems, I’ll try to address your questions.

#19 Garland
I’m sorry you weren’t able to follow the steps. You mentioned that you had version 2010. This will still work for you except for the ability to sort. Let’s make sure we get you to the right report. First, click the Publish tab at the top of the window to open the Publish workspace. On the left side of the window you’ll see a list of report types. Click “Person Reports.” The thumbnails in the middle of the screen will change. You should now see a Custom Report icon. Double-click it to open the report. Now you should be able to continue with changing the report.

#28 Jacquelyn
If you’ll look at #31, Richard gives an explanation of how to fix the issue you’re having. Thanks Richard.

Also a clarification…there has been some confusion about which trees these custom reports work for. Family Tree Maker is a desktop software program offered by Ancestry.com and is used to create this report. Family Tree Maker is not the same as Ancestry Member Trees that you create online. Family Tree Maker is also purchased separately from an Ancestry.com subscription. If you have any concerns or questions, please call 1-800-Ancestry.

By: Debbie

Debbie — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 18:56:43 +0000

This worked like a charm! Thank you for this–I would not have thought about a report for this, and I am taking a cemetery trip soon to photo-document my ancestors, so this will come in very handy.

By: Barbara

Barbara — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 18:47:46 +0000

Tana,
Thank you so much for telling us about the custom report.Your example about the cemeteries was great. This morning I did several types of the custom reports and put them in a binder labeled ‘quick reference’.

Thanks again.

By: Laura

Laura — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 17:54:14 +0000

I’ve used Family Tree Maker software for almost 20 years now and love it.

I love this tip and I wouldn’t have thought to use it this way, although I do routinely record cemetery data in the burial field.

The post refers to the OFFLINE software that you can use to create your family trees. This software is significantly more powerful than the online tree that is offered on Ancestry.com (you can attach and detach people in the Family Tree Maker if you accidentally put the wrong person in the wrong spot, whereas you can’t do that on the ancestry site, you can also merge two individuals in the software which you can’t do on the online tree).

I DO use ancestry regularly and keep trees there also (and was grateful that I did because my backup drive corrupted last spring and I lost my most recent changes to my family tree when my hard drive crashed as well and was able to save months of work because I’d uploaded a lot to the ancestry site).

Most of these complaints sound like inexperience and not understanding what they are doing, why they are doing it and what the difference is between ancestry.com and Family Tree Maker.

The one thing I think ancestry.com excels at that I haven’t been able to figure out how to easily do in FTM is how to easily and quickly attach multiple people from a census to a tree if the census doesn’t link them. On ancestry, you can click on each name that appears and link to someone in your tree. In FTM, you have to do a separate search on each person and the census may or may not come up.

I’d love to see a blog with information on that!

By: Richard H.

Richard H. — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 04:24:26 +0000

#28 Jacqueylyn. Remember that in the above example, the name of the cemetery has been entered in the Description field of the Burial fact. Now to make the cemetery name show in the report like a heading, refer to step 3. In the Items to Include window, make the first sort field “Burial” + Description field instead of “Name” as shown incorrectly in the example. (Name can be the second sort field) This makes the difference. Also click the button for Burial Options and make sure that the burial fact’s Description field is checked to be shown otherwise the cemetery name will not show as part of the burial fact that prints.